With the Lathe Wizard assembled on your lathe you will need to adjust and tight en the
fittings to make it solid. The router base should be positioned as close as possible to the work so
that the router bit will reach the part. A small plunge router works best with the Lathe Wizard
but other too ls can be mount ed as well. We have an accessory adapt er for the Dr emel® to ol and
a drawing is included for constructing a holder for a Foredom® tool. These smaller devices work
well for pens and other small parts.
Using a scale, adjust all the vertical support rod nuts so that the Lathe Wizard is parallel to
the lathe bed. You can measure each rod from the bottom of its end bracket to the top of its bed
plate and thus make them equal. Of course if you desire you can raise or lower either end of the
Lathe Wizard to produce a taper but it is best to start with the unit parallel to the bed. Tighten
the rod nuts with a wrench and then make sure the socket head cap screws that hold the brackets
to t he long nuts are all tight. Next tighten t he set screws on top of the 4 end brackets. The
Lathe wiz ard should no w be q uite so lid. At t his po int t est the router base to see if it slid es easily
and smoothly. If it does not, you may need to tinker with all the adjustments to make sure they
are properly aligned.
You may take comfort from the fact that once the Lathe Wizard is set up on your lathe,
loosening the two bed bolts will allow the whole assembly to be removed and set aside, ready for
it’s next use.
Using the Lathe Wizard
Never turn on you router until you are sure of your set-up and where cutting will occur.
The basic Lathe Wizard can be used for making flutes, splines, reeds, and polygons of up
to 24 sides. With the ad dition o f the spir al at tachment, it can pr oduce right and left hand spirals in
six different pitches, straight or tapered. It will produce parts as small as pens, as well as posts
and legs with spiral sect ions more than 30 " long. The ro uter may be locked in the center of t he
base or moved in and out to produce wide flats.
With the part mounted between the lathe centers, the Lathe Wizard should be adjusted
low enough to just clear the part and the lathe. The nylon thumb screws at the back of the router
base should be set so that both are making contact with the rear shaft and the base is fairly level.
If one of these screws is extended further than the other, the base will rock. Be sure that this does
not o ccur. The ro uter can be placed on t he base wit h it’s ¾ t emplate guide thr ough o ne of the
slots in the base. If it is to be held centered, the brass adjusting screws should be used to
accomplish this.
With the router in place, the bit should be lowered to just clear the part and the router
moved left and right to determine the limits of it’s travel. The stop collars can then be set to
