Archive for category: Lathe Projects

Playing dart games is much more fun if you have well-made darts, so accurately machined that they will give a consistently uniform performance.

Ever play the game of darts with your lathe? It's double-barreled fun, for after you have spent an enjoyable two or three hours making some darts, you can have the added pleasure of throwing them at a target.

Steps are illustrated in the machining of a dart body from a 7/16" aluminum aircraft bolt. If round bar stock is used, the opera tions are the same.

Clamp the stock in a chuck or collet with about 1 3/4" projecting. Face off the end if necessary. With a center drill in a tailstock chuck, spot a hole in the rod end; then drill it as shown in Fig. 1 to a depth of about 3/8" with a bit of the diameter required to receive the steel point in a drive fit.

Machine about 1 1/2" of the rod to a diameter of 3/8", and round the end for a distance of 3/8" as shown in Fig. 2 to a contour approximating that of the nose of a bomb or rocket. Knurl lightly as shown in Fig. 3 the next 3/8" to enable you to get a firm grip on the dart when throwing it.

Read more →