Thread: building a lathe for woodturning

Good Morning mate
Not a lot of responses thus far, so I thought I would have a crack
MY Perfect lathe
Must be big and heavy and high ( I am tall), with possibly a 3 ph motor, although 2 HP might suffice
Must have infinite speed control
Must have at least 50cm swing.
Never done outboard turning, but would like to have that as well.
A bracket fitted to the lathe to accomodate the dust extractor intake. The assembly must be able to allow the extractor to be quickly and easily moved to the best position
The tail stock must have at 150mm of movement.
All spindles to accept a No2 morse
The outboard shaft should came with a Chromed stop wheel
I am not sure where I want the controls, but not really happy where mine are now, maybe the the full knee bar like a Vicmarc
I want external feet with large holes to allow me to bolt the lathe down to the floor
A tool rack, fitted to the front of the lathe, at the far right.
A shelf with doors to keep the shavings out.

I will also need
- A big shed to accomodate my new large lathe
-Additional time for turning


When can you have it built for me?

I hope this elecits more responses
Sincerely
Willy
Jarrahland

this is what I would base my lathe on long bed, big swing. I used this lathe during my apprenticeship the bed is laminated tallowwood with 50 mm angle iron on the inside of the ways. it also had a pull cord on/off switch which could be used anywhere along the lathe, handy on long turning! and a 500mm swing

then when money was available I would build a bowl lathe it would be basically a headstock with a pedestal tool rest!

Here are some ideas:

https://www.google.com/search?num=10....1.l9Rh7eKs3EE

https://www.google.com/#hl=en&sugexp...iw=853&bih=484

Nice Bowl Lathe: Homemade Lathe

Look at all the lathes you can in show rooms. There are turning organizations that have demonstrations. The demonstrators are willing to answer questions, and you can see how the lathes work, and find things you like and dislike.

I have been accumulating stuff for THE BIG BOWL LATHE for years, around 36 inch swing. I have a 13 3/4 inch swing Hegner and a 20 inch swing Woodfast shortbed with DC variable speed drive. I do 95% bowls and platters.

I recently bought a 28 inch swing home made lathe. The spindle is only a 1 inch X 8 tpi. I do have a 2 3/8 shaft and two pillow blocks that will find its way on that. See photo below.

Variable speed via VFD & 3 phase motor is wonderful. You want the constant torque VFD that keeps the speed under variable load.

If you plan to use wood turning chucks, the most common is 1 X 8, large common is 1 1/4 X 8. My Hegner is 33mm X 3.5 mm thread pitch.

On this page are chuck adapters from Oneway. Chuck Adaptors

Vicmarc also has a good selection. Oneway and Vicmarc are very good chucks.

Do you want to turn spindles or bowls, pens or porch posts, bowls as big as wash tubs or the size of tea cups?

If you are going to make huge things, the South Bend Heavy 10 metal lathe uses a 2 1/4 X 8 spindle nose and those face plates are pretty common. That size is also used by Logan and several other lathe manufacturers. You might find a headstock from a metal lathe that the bed is worn or or the carriage has been crashed. That would save having to make a headstock, and one from a SB Heavy10 or a 11 to13 inch belt drive metal lathe would get you started. Those head stocks are quite stout but do not like to run over 1700 rpm.

oreos40

Welcome aboard.

If you do a search of this forum there are a couple of threads about building your own bowl lathe.

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f8/sho...lathes-152028/

I had a look at your image on Facebook not a lot to go on so I wont comment till you get a bit more up there.

Willy if you like it when I am done I can always build another. I am no stranger to big turnings. this one should finish out at 6 feet between centers and at least 2' diameter capable. It should have no trouble with smaller turnings either. hughie I have mor but I will wait till I get some done in steel. I have a bed designed but I am not totaly satisfied with it.

this is a photo of the long bed lathe I used as a apprentice, 10 metres long the bed was tallowood with 50 mm angle iron, dont know where the tail stock came from and wood fast camlocks for the toolrests. I only ever turned 8 m long boat staves for the navy. hope there is an idea there you can use?!

hey folks I had some time yesterday to work on the headstock. I got the fabed metal parts together and machined to fit other peices here are some pictures. not painted yet.
the outboard endP82A0027.jpg
the front of the headstock endP82A0029.jpg
the bottom of the motor mount plate and the jack shaft mount tubesP82A0030.jpg
The inboard or working end of the headstock.P82A0026.jpg

Interesting lathe design.

I never thought of turning vertically.

Might start a whole new trend in lathe design.

In jest of course.

Cheers

Tim

Oreos,

I rotated your photos in Picasa, available free from Google. Nice program for adjusting, emailing, uploading, and storing. Picasa

Your lathe looks wonderful!!! Any idea how heavy it will be?

If you are not going to bolt it down, and maybe if you are, it is good to have legs or feet front to back about 1/3 to 1/2 as wide as the lathe is tall so when you are swinging a 100 pound out of balance stump it does not flip the lathe over into your lap.

They can be in the shape of an A or as an upside down T. One gets in the way, the other you trip over.

A way to get around that is to make the front leg of the A shorter so it is more upright, likewise the front of the T can be shorter so it doesn't stick out so far. If you do that the lathe should be bolted down because if it flips over it will want to come toward you.

Again, what I see so far looks wonderful.

I envy your skill and availability of a machine shop. I have a South Bend Heavy 10 lathe and Miller 120 volt wire welder. Only good for small thin stuff.

thanks Paul! This is just the headstock section it will go on a bed. I started with this because it is the most costly section and I wanted to make it as versatile as possible. I have material for the bed but I think the next piece after getting the headstock painted and assembled will be the tail stock.

photo 2.JPGphoto 1.JPGphoto 3.JPGWell I have made a little progress! I still have to make the adapter for the 60 tooth roller chain sprocket on the spindle i want to be able to remove it when its not being used and I don't need it flying around when I am running higher RPM's. the spindle nose is 1 1/2" 8. I plan to use the exposed edge of the piloted bearing as an index for the fixed pulley of an oval turning set up. the first pic is where the belt is in back drive and the last is when it is in direct drive. you can just make out the 40 pitch sprocket behind the 60 tooth pulley on the jackshaft.

Originally Posted by Tim the Timber Turner

Interesting lathe design.

I never thought of turning vertically.

Might start a whole new trend in lathe design.

In jest of course.

Cheers

Tim

Nah, thats for the bedridden turners. They can wheel this over the top of them and keep working.

not so far off the mark. not this lathe but the next one is specifically designed for a fellow in a wheel chair! We hope to get together this spring for design criteria. he has actually used the sit down lathes of the other manufacturers but they have some pretty huge drawbacks.