Motorized Center Marker
 

Some things around the shop I dont mine doing, marking blanks is one of them, most times I eyeball it and punch an awl in the "center" on lamintes and stock that is close to size, i use a center finder and pucnh the middle with an awl...

recently, Sudsy posted a center finder he had mad on another site.. at first i didnt think alot about it... mainly because his only fits one sized blank.... that night I stabbed my hand with the awl( not the first time either) so the wheels went into motion..

I came up with a motorized centerfinder that had a floating adjustable bed...

I had all the "parts" at work or in my home shop, it cost me nothing...

Teh motor is a 1/25th HP mixer motor that turns at 1725RPM's.. it is held in posistion by a pair of universal strap hangers.. the main body is 3" X 3/3 poplar .. the "bed" is made from two lengths of PVC angle that is drilled and tapped to allow them to be back to back... the bed rests on a pait of F&M plates, used to affix copper pipe to the wall, the center hole( which is normaly threaded) is drilled out so a 3/8 16 theaded rod can ve set flush on it.. the two side "mounting" holes are drilled and tapped 3/8-16 and a pair of 3" long sholder bolts threaded ( and loc tighted in place) the heads and excess is removed... in the bed, I mounted a pair of kep nuts ( on the reverse side for clearence) and epoxied them in place, these are the adjustments for the bed... I did the same in the back side... the angle on the back side is drilled 3/8 -16 and a pair of adjusting bolts threaded in, keep theses low or the bed wont sit flat ( see the empty holes above the ones with bolts) a paitr of studs atre threaded into the back side of the platform and the bed slotted for adjustment...

the marker I used was a 1/4; drill extension cut and sharpend ( 1/4 fit the shaft of the motor).. simply measure the bed to poit and set the bottom at 1/2 the depth of the blank, do the same for the back.. rear measurements are not critical, just be sure the bed doesnt rock.. the nuts on the threaded dowels and the threaded back work in conjunction to keep the bed from moving..... it works great on all types of blanks , even the round birch dowels that I use for darters... Disclaimer.. I typed this at lunch and had no time to check my spelling ...

More pics
 

the floating bed assy...

view of the bottom of the adjuster set up.. also measuring the bed,

marked and punched
 

ready for the lathe... in about 2 seconds..

nice Joe, but too complicated for me.:smash:
A 1/4" center drill mounted to your motor would have worked good too. I can't quite figure out what you are using to cut the center. Picture is blurry. That's using your noggin

I have GOT to make me one of those!

Nice work!

:btu: That is really COOL
thanks for showing that Joe

very slick.......

This post got the gears in my head cranking, made something similar this weekend, although it only works for 1.5" stock right now.

Paul, I used a 1/4" drill extension, cut off the extension and took it to the grinder, made a point, the ground a flat on it... there are a ton of options, I actualy could make make one to sit on the lathe bed.. maybe down the road, I just used something I had that required little work.. I'll bring it to plugfest... once you see how fast and easy it works you'll make one the next day...