Homemade Lathe

[TheTrock121]

Most washing machines have a nice heavy duty 1/2 hp motor. I used one to power a 12" face grinder I built last year. I would like to try making a lathe also.

[guruwebideas]

What style of 3 jaw chuck did you use so you could attach it to something. Its hard to tell from the video what you did there.

[BTUvsCAL]

Very Nice!

[DrFrankensteam]

How did you align the tailstock with the head stock?

[Thetruthishere11]

nice.  i made a better one.

[2x4tube]

@Thetruthishere11

well... you clearly put a lot of thought into that comment.... if you made a better one where is the video?

[J1I9M7M4Y]

Wow, that is one of.. No, THE Best homebuilt lathe i have ever seen. Do you have some pictures or video from the build? im not gona lie to you. I will probably try to copy your design. The size is just perfect. And i cant afford to buy one. But i do have a lot of parts to build one from.

Best regards/ Jimmy

[MrJoseph1157]

This is one of the best machines ive seen so far really well done,is the headstock a trailer hub? I was thinking of using pillow blocks for a head stock. All in all this is a wonderful job,and a very servicable machine.

[1963forever]

Cool lathe....What did you use for the headstock bearings?

[t1d100]

@1963forever I don't know why he has never posted what he used for the hub and spindle/axle. I think this looks pretty close, if not dead on.

NorthernTools

Axle = Item# 5712451 @ $13

Hub = Item# 57204 @ $30

$ = As of January 2012

[nathanalaneller]

how much did it cost 2 make the lathe?

[MultiMe21]

that would suck to get your finger caught in

[play3393]

Yea, lathes are like that.

[happymark1805]

Nice homemade lathe.

[lavozdecba]

Hola amigo muy bueno tu mini-Lathe.

Lo único que vi que me pareció medio de vil "EL BRAZO " que sostiene el eje que a su vez sostiene la polea y el plato.

Tiene muchas vibraciones dicho "BRAZO",causando de este modo que las piezas a trabajar ,no salgan con sus medidas exactas.

Lo démas esta muy bien Felicitaciones .

Saludos cordiales desde la República ARGENTINA

[chasenbb]

very nice! how did you get it so balanced without any wobble?

[ynnebbenny]

How did you make the chuck?

[levogiro]

I've quite the same question that lenx82. How much did it cost? Any sugestions on how to learn machining at home?

thx! :)

[laurenandrewr]

About $200 plus a 1/3 horse motor that you can find anywhere (garage sale - maybe?).

[levogiro]

really cool!! :-| awesome!.... i tought (you write it like that?? sorry.. my english is almost all learned through internet... and i rarely had oportunity to test it :-S) that it would be a lot more expensive... the cool thing is... that with that lathe you could build a more complex one! or expand that same one!... i've been thinking in doing something like that (or a milling machine) for a long time... but i feel a little overwelmed by the fact that I have no experience in machining... :(

[ahz123]

Its easier quicker and better to just buy a machine.

[ColoradoHermit]

You can get a fairly nice minni wood lathe for less than that.

[mikestrohofer]

@laurenandrewr were did you find a chuck so cheap

[lenx82]

This is really great!! I would love to build smth like this.

How much did you roughly spend to construct this?

[Naddycat]

Wow, nice!

[roninoneone]

Very good ideea, nice finish! Can you adjust the speed of the lathe? From what is the table made of? I mean the table on what the cross-slide table is.

[laurenandrewr]

You would have to change pulleys to change speed. The pulley on the motor would be the easiest to change. I selected the pulley sizes to optimize turning speed. It is a compromise between a setting for heavy cuts and high finish speeds. Most cutting operations can be done with a two inch motor pulley and an eight inch spindle pulley. The lathe bed is a 30" piece of 8" X 3/16" steel channel.

[roninoneone]

Thnaks for the info!

[jangoslayer]

couldnt you just put a $3 dimmer switch on it instead of doing all of that pulley changin? i have made many racing mowers and i know the strugle of getting those pulleys off

[adisharr]

He would lose a lot of power using a dimmer. He would be better off using a 3 phase motor with a small inverter that accepts single phase in.

[ahz123]

No. You lose torque. The pulleys allow low speed with high torque.

[VeryTucker]

hi mr.rood

[pudidotdk]

That is very nice!

How expensive, and after which instructions?

I noticed the thing in the end looked offcenter, how did you achieve this?

[laurenandrewr]

To achieve the off-center or eccentric (the piece is basically a cam). The blank is centered in the four-jaw chuck using a dial indicator mounted in the tool holder(the tool holder was cut from a solid block of steel and can be seen mounted to the cross-slide vise). Then the blank is shifted over by loosening one jaw and tightening the opposite jaw until the blank slides over the desired amount as indicated on the dial indicator still mounted in the tool holder. The lathe is accurate to .001"

[laurenandrewr]

I had no instructions. I just experimented until I came up with this. If you want dimmesions, I can give you them.