Bob, I mount the chanter in a jig mounted on the cross slide and mill out the slots with a milling bit held in the lathe chuck. That works fine. More recently, I've bought a small milling machine and intend to do the same operation with that.
I'd guess that your proposed method of using a flex drive system accurately and securely mounted on the cross slide could work very well, but will need extra care. If you're proposing to do this with the chanter mounted between centres, then I'd suggest the following: - Ensure that the chuck is completely locked and unable to revolve. Any play will spoil your work. - Devise some support for the chanter along its length since it will be fairly 'whippy' when turned to final diameters. - Because of the above, very light cuts! And of course . . . - Practise on a dummy workpiece first! You have a Myford 7 which is an ideal machine for the purpose. Worth remembering that early makers had nothing comparable. There were highly sophisticated lathes in use but mainly for ornamental turning and usually in the possession of wealthy amateurs. Robert Reid would have had nothing comparable and would probably have cut his key slots with a fine saw and chisel. I did the same with my first ever set using an X-ACTO saw blade.That was entirely successful. > ( and apologies if questions of this type are not allowed) I'm sure such questions are completely welcome here and I hope you receive other responses. Francis Wood On 30 Jan 2010, at 18:31, Bob Salter wrote: > Hi everyone, > Im Bob, an amateur pipemaker from Scotland. I wondered if I > was allowed to ask pipemaking questions on this list? I first tried to > make nsp about twenty years ago. The drones and reeds came out ok But I > have never managed to successfully make a chanter as cutting the key > slots is always disastrous. I recently bought a myford metal lathe for > reamer making for "other" pipes and was thinking about a flex drive > system mounted in the cross slide for slot cutting. How do you do yours > and is my idea workable? > > Thanks ( and apologies if questions of this type are not allowed) > > Bob Salter > > > -- > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
