Thread: Homemade Wood Lathe

Why bother. There are so many lathes on the market at reasonable prices. What you are looking to do would be satisfied by a number of different already available machines. Unless you have access to some prety heavy machine shop stuff It will end up a dog.
Sorry

For that diameter I think there may be too much flexibility without welds.

As the others said, don't bother.....

Don't bother? Why turn a bowl/pen/whatever when you can buy 'em with less effort down the street? Don't bother? Ptui!

One home-made lathe I've seen, which was made to turn major diameters used an old engine block & crankshaft for the headstock & spindle. I recall the bloke saying he built the whole lathe for under $500-, from memory 'twas driven by a variable speed controlled 2.5HP/3ph motor which accounted for most of the $$$.

Of course, it does help if you have access to that sort of scrap in the first place, along with appropriate tools...

RJF, I built a machine out of an industrial dust extractor cyclone. The "bed" is welded 1/4" steel plate. The shaft is 2" diameter fitted on two large SKF plummer block bearings. I used this because it already there. The legs are 3" x 3" steel box section, bolted to the "bed". The motor is 1.5 hp and is conected to a "lay" shaft with stepped pulleys so that I can get down to 80rpm. This machine has turned about a dozen bowls up to 2' 6" in diameter. The biggest job was a air diffuser for an airconditioner in a restaurent diffuser. It was 5' 0" in diameter. If you pm me with your email address I can send you some photographs. The experience gained from this one suggests that bolts would be ok.

Jim

I have to admit guys that I am against home made lathes for anything larger than a pen - I just think that the risks involved are simply too great.

That said RJ, if you were going to build a lathe, you would want substantially larger than a 1.5hp motor for the size of the bowl you plan to turn and you would want a one peice bed - no matter how many bolts you use flex will be an issue.

If you are adamant about building your own lathe, I would suggest you check out this website and possibly contact these guys.
http://www.proserpinewoodturners.com/The_Big_Bowl.html

Cheers
Paul

Originally Posted by smidsy

I have to admit guys that I am against home made lathes for anything larger
than a pen - I just think that the risks involved are simply too great.

Dunno about that Smidsy. Been using my lathe that I built for about fifteen years.

Bed is two 200 x 75 channels welded face to face (with a gap).

Headstock is 150 x 200 x 6 RHS mounted verticle with 1 1/2" shaft.

Legs 75 x 75 RHS. Two horse motor that came out of the ark. (weighs a ton)

Stronger than any lathes I have seen in machinery shops.

Fair enough a lot of handyman types shouldn't attempt it but some are quite capable of building something pretty good.

Greolt

Hi,
I thought of building one, Mainly because I could do so with my background, [Toolmaker] and would make it primarily for turning bowls.
It can be done with very little welding and with great rigidity etc. But the thing that stopped me was the price..... I could not build one for the price. I bought one, It is Taiwanese copy of Vicmark or Teknatool swing head. Cast iron bed, reeves type variable speed drive, face plate, live and dead centres, 1 m between centres etc
With the swing head I can turn a bowl about 1m in dia. More than that it would be suicidal...maybe 1m is pushing it and I paid $400 as a demo from a woodshow.New they are around 450-500.
Unless your going to turn huge bowls you may well find it cheaper to buy a Taiwanese or Chinese copy. Failing that you can email me and I can send my free hand sketches of what I had contemplated.

regards Hughie

Hughie

Yeah if you had to buy the steel it would likely not be worth it.

When I built mine I had an amazing amount of scrap and various other steel to use.

Also had the motor, bearings and pulleys so it cost me little more than my time.

Still you would pay a lot of money for something with capacity to match it.

Silly thing is if I did it again I would make one much smaller.

Greolt

Greolt, Yep thats is what I had in mind, we were scrapping an old machine where I work and much of it would have been useful. Plus I have in the shed various motors and bits 'n pieces that could be used to make a substantial lathe. Not sure what Richrads circumstances are in Canada.
hughie

Originally Posted by Greolt

Hughie

Yeah if you had to buy the steel it would likely not be worth it.

When I built mine I had an amazing amount of scrap and various other steel to use.

Also had the motor, bearings and pulleys so it cost me little more than my time.

Still you would pay a lot of money for something with capacity to match it.

Silly thing is if I did it again I would make one much smaller.

Greolt

I started turning 53 years ago on a lathe that my late father made. The bed was made of two light railway lines ( as was used in the mines in South Africa in those years ) lying side by side. The stand was from the same material. The headstock was a heavy chunk of steel from some old machine. The tailstock was a part off another that was modified. The headstock spindle was hollow. Everything was drilled with a hand powered 'drill press' and bolted as he didn't have a welder.

Originally it was driven off a line shaft driving all sorts of home made machines, by a McCommick Deering Farmall H tractor power take off. The tractor operated on power paraffin. During the week it used to do normal tractor duties on the farm, come weekends it powered the machines. After a few years we acquired a Pfafner single cylinder water cooled ( water was in an open top about 20 gall ( 100l ) drum ) petrol engine with a crank start, to power the lathe so that I could turn during the week in school holidays.

After that I acquired a treadle lathe for doing small things. These were superseded by more home made lathes till I bought my first factory made lathe about 8 years ago.

Nothing wrong with well made home made gear....................most of which will leave the mass manufactured Asian stuff on the scrap heap while they are still going strong.

I have made a lathe ,please check it out you may like it


www.esarmiento.250x.com

go to shop and see

Eduardo

Eduardo,

Thanks for the post. I like your site and especially your lathe. Your motor setup gives you 9 different speeds choices if I understand it correctly. I will do something similar when I build mine. A variable speed motor may come later. I was very interested in the fact your lathe is bolted together and you are able to turn large pieces. You have made some beautiful pieces with some fantastic wood.

Richard...<O</O


Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." Dr. Seuss<O</O

Good stuff Ed.


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