sbwertz
Member
six of my visually impaired turners now have their own lathes. But Manny is the first completely blind turner to get his own home lathe. I took him to Rockler to pick up his Excelsior lathe Friday. He comes to the blind center almost every day, so he can just bring his tools down there for sharpening. He can touch them up with a diamond hone.
He can drill on the lathe. We are trying to come up with a good way for him to find the centers on a blank. If the blanks are perfectly square and true, the pen vise will center it pretty well. But for making handles and such, he will need to be able to find the center of the blanks. Right now, I mark the centers with a punch and he can find them by touch, but he wants to be able to do it himself.
You should have seen us getting it out of the car and into the house. It was too heavy for me to lift, so he picked it up. Then I had to guide him up the driveway, down a narrow porch and into the house. It would have made a great youtube video. I'm not a very good GPS. I sort of ran him off onto the lawn at one point. We both got to laughing and I thought he was going to drop it for sure.
He can drill on the lathe. We are trying to come up with a good way for him to find the centers on a blank. If the blanks are perfectly square and true, the pen vise will center it pretty well. But for making handles and such, he will need to be able to find the center of the blanks. Right now, I mark the centers with a punch and he can find them by touch, but he wants to be able to do it himself.
You should have seen us getting it out of the car and into the house. It was too heavy for me to lift, so he picked it up. Then I had to guide him up the driveway, down a narrow porch and into the house. It would have made a great youtube video. I'm not a very good GPS. I sort of ran him off onto the lawn at one point. We both got to laughing and I thought he was going to drop it for sure.
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