# Union Graduate (wood lathe) carriage/saddle setup?



## minilathe22 (22 Jul 2020)

Hello everyone

I have a Union Graduate wood lathe, which supposedly could be purchased with a fairly simple light duty metal turning carriage:







I have never seen one for sale specifically for the Union Graduate, only the smaller Union Jubilee. Also it appears this setup would not be able to cut at an angle.

My question is, has anyone done a conversion before from an existing metal lathe carriage? perhaps a Colchester Student or similarly sized lathe? Union graduate is 6" centre height.

I am debating how feasibly this is. I would need to work out how to secure the carriage to the bed, and also fit a compatible rack to the side of the bed.

I am not planning to fit a leadscrew/screwcutting arrangement, I think this would be too complicated. I have fitted a 900rpm 3 phase motor with a VFD, so hopefully torque at low speeds would be acceptable for metal turning.

Any other ideas? Would the Union Jubilee one fit my bed?


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## Trevanion (22 Jul 2020)

Put bluntly, I personally think it would be a huge waste of time, effort and ultimately money.

The first question is will you be able to find a spare carriage and traverse rack that isn’t ridiculous money? Most reasonable sized metal lathe carriages are designed for use on a half flat, half V design beds so you’ll have to come up with a way to make this mate properly with the Graduate bed somehow which will be a headache. 

I have seen a Graduate with the attachment before, it was being sold out of a pattern makers workshop and they used it for making accurate wooden cylinders fairly easily.


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## u38cg (23 Jul 2020)

From what I have seen, pattern-maker's lathes often go quite cheaply as they are neither fish nor fowl and not many people want that sort of thing. Might be worth saving a few eBay searches rather than spending as much on bits and pieces and associated head-scratching.


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## TFrench (23 Jul 2020)

I've got the pattern makers carriage for my wadkin RS. It's a very similar design but beefier. I've seen one for sale for a grad before but the guy wanted big money. I need to find the rack that goes on the bed or have one made for mine.

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk


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## minilathe22 (23 Jul 2020)

Yes I would like the Wadkin RS but its such an effort with the collection and delivery, and most of them for sale are the long bed which take up nearly 3 metres of space :shock: 

I guess I need to decide whether I would enjoy the (fairly involved) project of adapting a carriage to fit the graduate bed and get it working properly.


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## Retire2004 (3 Jan 2021)

Hi Minilathe22. just spotted your thread as I mostly view the woodturning section. The following (still) may be of some interest to you.
I acquired a machine such as you describe some years ago. It is something of a hybrid. (badged as a Jubilee but actually of Graduate proportions in that it is a 6" centre height with 1 1/2" spindle but with Timken taper roller bearings, the headstock is a scaled up version of the Jubilee (steel fabrication). The bed had the rack intact but the apron and pinion gear were missing. I overcame this problem by fitting a home made lever operation for the carriage. I also fitted a top slide from a scrapped Myford. The bed, carriage and tailstock were retro fitted to my existing Grad and I sold the surplus Grad parts. (except the headstock which I may convert to a bowl lathe). I find it handy for small metal/plastic parts although I also have a Harrison L5 Metal working lathe. 
Kind regards, Tudor Joseph


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## Inspector (3 Jan 2021)

I would get a copy lathe attachment. It would let you turn cylinders, tapers and of course shapes. An example. Wood Lathe Tools / Duplicator / Universal Duplicator- Viel Tools DU-2 | Elite Tools At one time they sold an angle grinder attachment and a carbide disc with diamond shaped inserts to do the cutting. 

Pete


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