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Thread: Rising blocks

  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2020
    Location
    Willowbank QLD
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    517

    Default Rising blocks

    I recently thought about buying a Sheraton 9" lathe with 1" riser blocks, effectively giving it 11" of swing.
    It sold but my main concern was do these have and adverse effect on Lathe rigidity or other areas I am not aware of.

    In order to better educate myself in case another comes up for sale I thought I would ask the question.
    As you can probably guess I am looking to update my current lathe and realised I have a lot of research to do.

    Thanks all

    Steve

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    melbourne australia
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    3,228

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Reidy41 View Post
    It sold but my main concern was do these have and adverse effect on Lathe rigidity or other areas I am not aware of.
    It must effect rigidity. The other area of concern is will the cross-slide retract enough to allow you to turn an 11" diameter workpiece? The cross-slide would have been designed for turning 9" workpieces. It will need to come back another inch with an 11" workpiece. If I want to turn near the outer edge of my Hercus 260 face plate, I need to rotate the topslide parallel to the cross-slide, then wind the topslide out to give me the extra distance. That reduces rigidity too.
    Chris

  3. #3
    BobL is offline Member: Blue and white apron brigade
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    Feb 2006
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    Perth
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    7,182

    Default

    It also means you need a taller tool post and tailstock to reach centre. This then adds to rigidity issues as it adds leverage, especially to the compound/cross slides. This is why bigger lathes have wider slides.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Aug 2015
    Location
    Adelaide
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    239

    Default

    I had a Hercus with the 1" riser blocks on it and to be honest I wouldn't waste my time with them, the set up looks cool but they seem to make the machine a bit more unstable at that diameter and tend to have a bit of vibration, I spoke with another guy that set his lathe up with them and he said they really did not work for him and had issues trying to machine anything that diameter as well, you would be better off getting a 260 if you wanted a bit more swing without compromising the rigidity of the machine plus the 260 has a better bore size over the 9" machines. Also found the extended cross slide to really stiffen up the machine, theres is a lot more surface area on the dovetail and it just seems to do everything better.

    Steve
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