Homemade metal lathe.

MercuryMac · Nov 17, 2024

A month ago I got a really good deal on an old wood lathe that had been outside too long and was taken apart as far as you can take a lathe apart, if you only have a burnt fence post for tools. But, I got a good deal. Anyhow, the last few weeks I have been fixing this piece of work up. The first picture is just after I finally got the chuck mounted, [boy, could I have used a lathe to make parts]. The chunck of wood in there is going to be a handle for a weird tool to dip clay pots into a glaze mixture.
The second picture is the jack shaft mounted to slow the machine down.
The third picture is a four foot lathe taking shape.

smallfoot · Nov 18, 2024

Way to go Mac!

Old Iron · Nov 18, 2024

Very cool

MercuryMac · Nov 24, 2024

There have been some more improvements on the lathe. I've built a stand to hold the chisel against the rod and it can be adjusted with a turn handle. The third picture is my first metal lathing, it's a shaft to fit in the tail pedestal to hold the far end of the work piece rod. Today I made a tail chuck out of plastic but it isn't picture worthy, ---- in fact it might not be 'anything' worthy.

MercuryMac · Nov 26, 2024

Today I finished up the gizmos that I will use in the tail pedestal. The first picture is a big plastic shaft with a bearing in the back so it will spin with the rod I'll be working on, 'in this case a 3/4" shaft'. The shaft fits into a half inch deep, 3/4" hole in the plastic blob.
The second picture is a 1/4" shaft stuck into the blob but it has to go a way further in as I made the hole through the centre of the blob 'stepped', [3/4", 5/8", 9/16", 1/2", 7/16" and so on down to 1/4"].
The third picture is a drill chuck to hold a bit so you can spin a rod and press the stationary bit up against the shaft and bore a hole through the middle of the shaft.

MercuryMac · Dec 20, 2024

This is a stationary piece that has a notch in it to allow me to work on the end of a shaft, such as cutting a 'snap-ring groove'.
You'll see the second picture that I bushed the one inch ID female end down to a 3/4" bushing to fit the spinning shaft.