Thread: Lathe banjos

I first built my wood lathe 33 years ago. At that time up here (Near Tamworth) I couldn't even buy lathe tools because the hobby just wasn't too prevalent. Its a very simple design, using 2/ 150mm X 75mm heavy channels welded web to web. A 6mm cap welded on top and 2 plumbers bearing supporting a 25mm shaft. Step pulleys on one end a 1" X 8 TPI male thread on the other. The bed is made from 2 pieces of lift car tracks that are about 75mm X 75mm in a Tee shape. well that was enough and I was away. The first thing I turned was an Oregon bowl about 200mm dia and cut with a flat file ground into a scraper.

A couple of years later I did a day's work for a mate and he made up the tail stock with a #2 Morse socket. The hand wheel was rescued of a farm tip and was the hand wheel off an old sewing machine. It may be a little crude in some places but it works fairly well.

The tail stock and tool rest were just bolted down to the bed with a ¾" bolt and nut and tightened with a ring spanner. That worked well but as time went on it started to get a bit tedious to move the Ts & TR and I noticed that most new lathes had a banjo locking device. Well I finally got around to making my own version. I used eye bolts with a 20mm hole. It took me 2 days to do them but now I am "as modern as tomorrow" with my old homemade lathe

I did some turning with the new banjos and boy they make a big difference to moving the TR &TS. Why didn't I get around to it earlier. I am now making a banjo set up for my 100+ year old metal lathe. Its amasing the work you can do in your brain and have no mes to clean up