Many of the full size professional lathes have a spindle start/stop and sometimes reverse lever on the right side of the carriage. This is really useful as the hands can stay on the carriage where they are needed. On a small lathe like my Mini Lathe this is not really needed but as the sewing machine motor and electronics came already with a lever type pedal switch and I tend to overengineer things, I had the idea of making a nice spindle start/stop lever like on big lathes on mine too.
In a last video I installed new bearing blocks and bearings for the leadscrew and also installed a hexagonal rod alongside the machine bed. This steel rod acts as the switching rod.
I built a lever mechanism which is safe against accidental start when something drops on the lever. The movement of the lever translates via the hex rod to a magnet and a hall sensor which is mounted to the left hex rod bearing. This modification works really well so far and is extremely convenient to use. It feels really great to have the heavy duty physical start stop lever in your right hand and don't have to reach over the machine for pressing a start button.
I had some concerns if the carriage is too small for such an upgrade and everything is too tiny but that's not the case. It feels just right.
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Video on installing the hex rod and bearing block for the lead screw:
• New Lead Screw Bearing...
00:00 Intro
00:25 Mounting Plate
04:32 Lever Stop Part
07:28 Lever Knob
10:47 Lever Rod
11:49 Hex Bushings and Bushing Sleeve
14:34 Bolt Screws and Spring
15:01 Test Assembly
15:32 Hardening The Stop Part
17:06 All Parts and Final Assembly
19:01 Bringing the Lever to Live (Electronics)