More Glass Lathe

[jkube]

https://youtu.be/7Q_s3WnDAUE

Some of you may have followed my previous thread on building this lathe. Here's a little teaser for January. Glass blowing lathes are pretty expensive, especially for those who might not have a full production need. I set out to build an inexpensive version for me to fool around on and it's worked very very well so far. I thought about making and selling videos but it's not really a money maker and I'd have to handle all that stuff, not to mention bootlegging etc. I'm going with a kickstarter campaign that will pay for my time to make the videos and then offer the whole thing online for free after I'm done. The lathe can be built with minimal fabrication and mostly bolts together.

[Jackass Glass]

one, this is great.

two. i would think that you could more easily monetize the idea by selling kits. you said "not a lot of fab"

i dont want to do any fab... i would buy the fab pieces and the instructions to purchase the rest / assemble for sure.


Just a thought, and good luck. would be a cool thing

[jkube]

Yeah, that's totally how I'm doing it. There will be the usual levels of Kickstarter rewards like $300 for the metal kit, $400 for the completed electronics enclosure, $700 - $800 for the parts that make it just a bolt together affair.. People who want to build the whole thing are welcome to donate any amount they see fit as well.

[snoopdog6502]

Are those the oversized Taig headstocks or the plain small ones?

[jkube]

Neither. They are 100mm 4th axis assemblies typically used for CNC routers.

[drew1492]

What size through bore do you have? I picked one up that only has a 21mm through bore.

[jkube]

Same. The spindle hole is actually quite a bit larger than the chuck. I'm going to try to bore the chuck out to 30mm.

[snoopdog6502]

Whats the bore on the spindle of the unit?Is it bored for a Morse taper, 5C or anything standard?

Im wanting to copy cat man. I might try and find a cheaper way if possible but a little headstock machined, bearings and a chuck I cant make it as cheap as we can buy it.
Id rather buy off the shelf parts and get on with it myself. I was looking at 55 and 65mm bearings hoping to make a spindle that will at least take a 44mm but its not going to be cheap at all.

I like the economics of the parts you are using as it is. Looks like a fun thing to play with.

[BORO]

http://www.talkglass.com/forum/showthread.php?64418-Lathe-Build&highlight=Jbuke+lathe

Original build thread...

[jkube]

The spindle has a 30mm bore but the chuck only has a 20mm bore. I'm going to try to bore out the chuck to match. It just bolts onto a faceplate on the spindle.

[BlairArtGlass]

Nice video, looks like you've got it running well. Maybe someday I"ll have the money to get/build one.

[drew1492]

I have a single sided I am playing around with.88676

[snoopdog6502]

Jkubes Glass lathe Kickstarter was a smashing success. $12,000+ in 4 days so its full funded an still going 26 more days.

Im impressed with what he is doing. He has made en economical hobby class machine most anyone can build.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1932619845/kube-openlathe-the-open-source-glass-blowing-lathe.

He talks about it here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNrhrPxvNho

I want to build one too.

[dustyg]

That's great. I'm really glad to see your project is already a success.

I've got my headstocks on my lathe like yours de-synchronized. I've got one pot that controls both motors, and then another pot that makes the left stepper go proportionally slower to the right one. It's using custom Arduino code that I wrote, and it's working pretty well for me. I'd be happy to share that, as well as the schematics for the controlling electronics.

I'd had the idea of automating dots and line-stacks like you mentioned in the video. I've actually put a lot of thought into it over the years and have taken it a little further, as you probably have. Would love to have your skills in the shop to explore the ideas.

I used to dream of open sourcing hardware and software like this, and I've invested thousands of hours to make it possible, but have been rethinking it ever since I had my first product ready to release.

My concern is your community project being rolled over by some heavy-handed litigation like the HVO situation with HVLP systems. They add and patent one little thing, a totally obvious next step, and then everybody's stuck just behind what they just made, or even getting sued over their old videos of those old steps. The community can't progress past or even even side-step it without getting sued, unless they pony up for the expensive lawyers and actually win the court battles.

Beyond that, I'm concerned that if we roll a bunch of robot tech, then the guys with the most money (most of them not even glassblowers, many of them using workers in low-wage countries) are going to be the ones profiting off of them, and a lot of styles are going to become a numbers game (moving 1000 units instead of 10 great ones). Glass will move into corporate factories instead of artist-owned workshops.

Another thing that pushed me in that direction was giving up on my favorite open source software - Vim and Emacs - for proprietary alternatives - JetBrains' IDE's. If there's any project that's tailor-made for open source, it seems to me that it's got to be a code editor, as every user is ostensibly a programmer. Vim and Emacs had a 25 year head-start on Jetbrains and absolutely huge communities of users that are all capable of improving them, but they're still so inferior. I've started thinking that money just makes great things possible, and proprietary information makes money possible.

Glass is really great for being a grass-roots movement. A lot of the the people doing the work are also the people getting paid for it, and I'm afraid that the coming automation revolution is going to disrupt that. I spent a lot of effort getting to the door of that revolution, and then decided to leave it closed, hoping that the next guy wouldn't come to the door for some years or more. I had open source ideals from when I was a kid until I was at that door, and ideas like I've expressed above have consumed a lot of my thoughts since then.

Do you have any thoughts about that?

[highwater]

Just wanted to say how cool of an idea this is. Great job putting it all together and congratulations!

[Jackass Glass]

That's great. I'm really glad to see your project is already a success.

I've got my headstocks on my lathe like yours de-synchronized. I've got one pot that controls both motors, and then another pot that makes the left stepper go proportionally slower to the right one. It's using custom Arduino code that I wrote, and it's working pretty well for me. I'd be happy to share that, as well as the schematics for the controlling electronics.

I'd had the idea of automating dots and line-stacks like you mentioned in the video. I've actually put a lot of thought into it over the years and have taken it a little further, as you probably have. Would love to have your skills in the shop to explore the ideas.

I used to dream of open sourcing hardware and software like this, and I've invested thousands of hours to make it possible, but have been rethinking it ever since I had my first product ready to release.

My concern is your community project being rolled over by some heavy-handed litigation like the HVO situation with HVLP systems. Beyond that, I'm concerned that if we roll a bunch of robot tech, then the guys with the most money (most of them not even glassblowers) are going to be the ones profiting off of them, and a lot of styles are going to become a numbers game (moving 1000 units instead of 10 great ones). Glass will move into corporate factories instead of artist-owned workshops.

Another thing that pushed me in that direction was giving up on my favorite open source software - Vim and Emacs - for proprietary alternatives - JetBrains' IDE's. If there's any project that's tailor-made for open source, it seems to me that it's got to be a code editor. Vim and Emacs had a 25 year head-start on Jetbrains and absolutely huge communities of users that are all capable of improving them, but they're still so inferior. I've started thinking that money just makes great things possible, and proprietary information makes money possible.

Glass is really great for being a grass-roots movement. A lot of the the people doing the work are also the people getting paid for it, and I'm afraid that the coming automation revolution is going to disrupt that. I spent a lot of effort getting to the door of that revolution, and then decided to leave it closed, hoping that the next guy wouldn't come to the door for some years or more. I had open source ideals from when I was a kid until I was at that door, and ideas like I've expressed above have consumed a lot of my thoughts since then.

Do you have any thoughts about that?

the reason that open source doesnt work long term is that as soon as someone comes up with something truly innovative... instead of adding it to the source... they monetize it and create a new better product... assuming their idea was good.

anyway. this is awesome and i want one. hahaha. best of luck bro.

[jkube]

Hey Dustyg, thanks for posting. I hear what you're saying about the open source software stuff. I'd be stoked to see what you've been working on. Part of the idea of the project is to get other people to share perspectives and builds.

This will be put out there for non commercial use. I can make parts and stuff for people but I'm not really interested in doing tech support on full lathes. I would like to mind meld with you on the dot line stack machine, outside of this project. Where are you located?

Don't worry about the future. You can let it just happen to you or you can go out there and shape it.

[JLF]

jkube - what was the final runout on the head stock and tail stock of your lathe? After dialed in, does the runout change over time? Great idea!

[jkube]

I will have to check when I get back from A.G.E.

[JLF]

I will have to check when I get back from A.G.E.

Hey jkube,

Hope you had a good time at the show, any word on the above question?
Really like what you've done!

[jkube]

I haven't had a chance to get over to my studio and unload it yet. I'm out of town again. Hopefully next week.