Polelathe - fitting the wedges

I made progress on my next pole lathe in between other jobs today.

I managed to get the wedges fitted into the poppets. The wedges are made from offcuts of oak, left over from when I ripped the rails out of an oak beam.

Then the holes in the poppets were drilled using a 1 inch forstner bit (that's a big round wood drill to you and me) in a power drill and opened out to accept the wedges using hammer and chisel.




It's a lot sturdier than bolting one of my single bed lathes to the uprights, so it's a promising start.

With the poppets wedged into the rails I can mark up the position for the centres and cut out a platform for the workrest.

Time to hunt around for some studding and metal fittings to turn into the centres.