Homebuilt Wood Lathe

 Well, not quite.

This winter I've gotten into machining and shop stuff. Metal lathe. Milling machine. Improvements to many shop tools. Learned to weld (I bought the machine several years ago but didn't get enough practice to get good at anything other than straight passes on 1/4-inch plate required for certain oil tank floor repairs).  Originally I was thinking about sailboat modifications/inventions/repairs, but the shop has taken on a life of its own.  

I rebuilt the wood lathe I was given in middle school. I was a piece of junk from the back of a 1974 Popular Mechanics (cheap American junk, don't blame the Chinese). Satisfied with it's performance, this winter I replaced the tool rests (made several new shapes and sizes), tool rest banjo (many times more rigid), tail stock quill (snapped--increased the quill size, improved the adjustment, and increased the center diameter from 3/8-inch to 1-inch), ways (lengthened to turn 55-inch spindles), built a steady rest (very rigid--based on in-line skate wheels), and most recently, built new ball bearing headstock (far more rigid, 20 times less runout, and much smoother), all in the quest for improved precision and rigidity.  All that remains of the original lathe is the tailstock casting and the ways tail foot casting. over 90% replaced, virtually all with home built parts. None of the original moving parts; they either worked poorly or broke. Between welding, metal lathe, and milling, it seems I can make most things. And retired folk have time (I'm still working part time, barely).

So, the question is, if you replace the head of an ax when it chips, and then replace the handle when it breaks ... is it the same ax? I painted the lathe a new color, in recognition of this rebirth.

 

 

In fact, I've spent very little money on tool and shop upgrades. I bought a cheap Chinese metal lathe with good bones, then adjusted and upgraded that. It can now turn steel t good precision. I added milling set-ups to both the lathe and drill press (they excel at different operations). I bought a really cheap welding machine and tuned that. Between that and a trove of WWII machine tools I inherited from my great uncle, I can make most things. He was a machinist at the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria and also family black sheep. I've learned more about him from the tools he used than from family conversation. I don't even know what he looked like, because his image was snipped out of picture albums, including pictures from the wedding of his daughter! After she was married, he went to the store and (figuratively) kept going.  Between me and my Dad, and our experiences with his wife, we know why. No one else talks about him: "We don't talk about Bruno ...".

 

The lathe gained so much weight I had to add a hoist to haul it off the bench into storage. Fortunately, any good sailor has a lot of old pulleys and much rope lying about.

 

Many of my creation contain an odd collection of weldments and machined bits. Some examples ...

• I inherited may dies, in 4 diameters, but only one holder. So I made three more, including guides, mostly from pipe. Rings were cut, bent to diameter, and welded. They were then turned to precise dimensions and then welded together. Tabs were welded on and threaded for handles.  A machinist would turn the rings from solid stock, a fabricator works with what he has.
• Lathe drive spur for soft woods and spaulted logs.  Normally they are milled. Mine was fabricated almost entirely by welding, then hardened and tempered. 
• The center, quill, and shaft for the wood lathe were metal lathe projects. Nothing complicated, simpler than the cannon, really.
• The bandsaw table is used on a daily basis. A lot of steel needed cut, some of it quite precisely. The Porta-Band has power, but the table gives you control. The belt guard was a fun sheet metal project. I learned those skills in middle school. It was bent from an old gas furnace access door, using a 6-inch machinists vice and some angle iron as a break. One piece, with the screws tapped into the headstock. I welded up the miter; one less thing to rattle or shake. I hate stick welding really thin metal. It's so easy to burn-through and so hard to hold an arc at very low amps. Welding up the 3/16-inch plate for the headstock, and the 3-inch channel for the tool rest banjo,on the other hand, were relaxing.
• The radius turning attachment for the metal lathe (for odd-sized pulleys) required turning and milling (on the drill press) of steel. But the square hole for the lathe tool was filed out using WW II square machinists file. It didn't take long and the fit is snug (secure by a machine screw, of course).  

I need a new project. I'll we installing a new solar panel on the boat soon, along with a LiFePO4 battery soon. That might yield something interesting. 

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Update 5-15-2025. Building a deep hollowing rig for vases. A metal lathe and welding required.

 

 

Need a Vice?

 Clamp-on vices are never satisfactory. They slip and twist and the surface is scared. They are not strong enough. My solution is a drill press vice mounted to a sheet of plywood. The underside of the sheet has cleats which prevent the vice from twisting or sliding. It also provides a work surface you are unafraid of scaring.

 I had the vice (it normally lives on my drill press at home--oddly enough, to hold metal bits that that are being drilled), but it would only be ~ $40 at Home Depot or on Amazon. Multiple holes allow mounting at 90 degree orientations.

The bolts grab T-nuts, saving time. The sheet can be slipped into the locker for storage.

 Sometimes you can jam a part between dock boards or hold it with Vice-Grips, but sometimes you need both hands plus the firm grip that only a solidly mounted vice can provide.