Home made wood turning lathes

Henry Boucher - 10:29pm May 6, 1998
MIMForum Staff,Québec

Rather than contaminate other discussions , better start one devoted to one of my favorite subject : wood turning and home-made lathes.Since quite some time I wanted to try wood turning to make some wind instruments, but it looked difficult and the lathes I saw were expensives. By chance , I found a book about it:

"Lathes and turning techniques" -Taunton Press Inc. ( the "Fine Woodworking" people )The book is available in the " Bookstore" section and I have no stocks in the company <g> ( there is also " Spindle Turning" by the same editor: it contains an article on flute making, but no lathe plans ) There are two home made lathe ( made of wood )in the book, I built the smaller one ( called the "Beer Box " lathe , because it can be dismantled and stored in a ... beer box ). The componants are simply clamped on the work bench ( or as on the picture I showed to Deb, an old door ). I am now upgrading it by making permanent lathe ways , and a hollow tail stock bearing for holes boring.

Since I made this contraption, I have seen other home made lathes met a few wood turners,and learned a few facts.

Woodturning is an old craft, it used to be done with very simple tools, we now have acces to ball-bearings, HSS steel,electric motors etc. wich greatly simplifies the work. The current trend is bowl turning, where the wood is held only by its base, this requires a very stable ( heavy,expensive) lathe. Instrument making ( winds of course , but also tuning pegs, tool handles, etc) is done by spindle turning, where the wood is held by the two ends.The vibrations are much less severe .

The theory is simply to spin a piece of wood between two points, one ( on the right side)of wich is driven by a motor ( or a pedal or a few hamsters<g>)A gouge held in hands , supported by a movable rest, cuts the wood in a round shape.

I am not yet very exprienced, but I found the subject so interesting that I would like to share ideas with other people. Any comments?

I took a wood turning class a few years ago at the local community college. This course was taught by Mark Sfirri(?). He is known for his concentric turnings. I found the subject very interesting and quite a lot of fun. I have always wanted to build a treadle lathe or a sping pole lathe (what the heck, why not both). I do have a small (will handle up to 36" long) powercraft lathe, old Montgomery Ward modle. This was my grandfathers and when I acquired it from my cousin it had a few parts missing. I have gotten it a together but found it still needs some tweaking and tuning. Since I completed it I moved to another house and am building a garage to organize a work shop and until I have a shop to work in the lathe will remain in storage (I should have the garage completed by the end of the summer).

There are so many techniques in turning it is amazing to watch the experts at work. I once saw a man turn a wine goblet with a 12" stem that measured no more than 1/8" dia. all on the lathe and all in one piece. I've experimented with in-side out turning, this will give you very unique results and guaranteed conversation starters.

Dont forget "The WoodWrights Shop"

This book is by the guy who does "olde tme" woodworking on Public Television.(I will look up the author and publisher Deb). This book has easy plans for a Springbow lathe and a Treadle lathe.

The Springbow is basically a sawhorse with uprights(posts) and horizontal pins to hold the work,it has a heavy "Bow" above it. The bow is held at the handle by a rope and then tied to a branch on a tree. Another rope is tied to the middle of the bowstring. The rope from the bowstring wraps around the "Blank to be turned" 1 time and then is attached to a foot pedal.

When the foot pedal is depressed the "work" turns and the "bow" stores the energy to lift the pedal after the cutting stroke. This works in a "push-pull" fasion. I watched a "Turner" for hours at a Virginia historical village using one of these. Thomas

When visiting my wife's family ,in Belgium , I had the chance of watching Victor Neyrinx , professionnal woodturner now retired, and one of the pioneer of the Breughelian bagpipe revival in the '60. He was working on a threadle lathe mounted on a trailer and he was making those little bobbins that the Flemish lace-makers use.Mind you that he started turning at the age of 8 years old ( he is now over 70 ) but to see someone doing such precise work on such a rustic machine filled me with hope , now I just have to log 62 years of experience <g>

62 Years. Do that or get a CNC lathe <g>.

Actually, even the most modern equipment cannot replace all of those years of experience.

So, how long have you had your lathe. I just bought two and they are both my first's. One of them is a Montgomery Ward wood lathe using #1 Morse Tapers for $30, purchased at a local junk yard (Thank God for WD-40!).

And the other one is a Bradford machine lathe for working metal, built in the 1920's, it's coated with this preservative thick grease called cosmoline (sp?), weight 800 pounds, no. 4 morse taper and I need to start looking for a motor. It takes V-belts or belts for rotational power. (Far from Home made, but I'm going to have to do a lot of home made engineering to get it going.)

I have made my lathe a bit over a year ago , but as it clamps on the work bench,I have to take it out ot storage when I feel like using it so I am a bit late on lathe experience ( foreign language puns are such a joy !) just make it 97 or 108 years experience to log on .

I never heard of a no4 morse taper befoe , this thing must be a Dragon of a machine.

( written with a very light touch on the keyboard , so it looks confidential :What does CNC means ?)

I was at my friends shops and there was this rusty old 3-jaw chuck that fit my big lathe. He said that if I could fix, I could keep it for my lathe and if not, it would become part of his machine shop sign.

Good news! After late hours at my workplace, sandblasting, filing at drilling. It works! The rust on the surface sealed up the innards of this chuck and preserved. We turned the exterior of it on a lathe at work and that took off all the rust. So now, I'll have 3 jaw chuck for my lathe.

Now I'm off to find a motor and speed controller. (Or build the speed controller)

CNC means Computer Numerical Control - A CNC lathe has big servo motors on the X and Y axis that move the tool and is follows computer instructions in CNC languages which is a ASCII text file that contain cryptic alpha-numeric codes like G90 or F10. These command give homing, positioning, feedrate speeds, circle and arc commands, straight line tapering, toolchanging, the works!

If you where cranking out many of the same thing (big time production), this would be machine to use. (Especially for Wind Instruments).

Henry, do you have a steady rest for your homemade lathe, a steady rest allows one end of the instrument to be free so that boring equipment can be inserted. It's much safer to have a simple steady rest than relying on the chuck to do all of the holding.

A simple version can be built using casters and some thread rods. I'll see if I can draw up a sketch on it.

I plan to make a hollow tail stock with a camshaft chain tensioner bearing. I will also make a steady rest some day, I collect old caster wheels for this project. The biggest problem now is that I spend most of the day transforming a backyard into a garden ( 8 tons of earth to move with a wheelbarrow)

Hi de ho Neibors

I came across some 1912 plans and diagrams for a Boys treadle lathe. The diagrams are not the best but the plans are O.K. you can find them Here

I also have a site to order better lathe plans by Roy Underhill in The Woodwrights Woorkbook. These plans are for a Spring Pole Lathe and a Treadle Lathe and are very good.These lathes are human powered and I will leave these sites in the Human Powered Machines area as well. Thomas.

Boys treadle lathe: "The following is a re-print of an article found by Trevor Robinson in a set of the Grolier Book of Knowelege that has been in his family since 1912."
I assume that's the same Trevor Robinson who wrote "The Amateur Wind Instrument Maker"

I built my lathe about 5 years ago. I used ball-bearings held in flange plates for the headstock, and built a huge gliding tool holder that follows patterns for whatever I want to turn. One can buy spur drives to fit a 5/8" shaft from Woodcraft--they're for the Shopsmith machines.

I had a 1/2" threaded rod going through coupler nuts in my tailstock, but I wasn't satisfied with this and so finally I had a morse taper hole machined in the end of a piece of 3/4" rod, which is held in 'bearings' made of Lignum Vitae--not to spin, but just for ease of movement in and out. This is an improvement.

I think the biggest challenge in building your own lathe is alignment, particularly if you want to do any copy-work. There are useful articles on home-built lathes in Fine Woodworking books, not just the "Making and Modifying Machines", but also I _think_ in the more recent lathe collection.

I use the same 5/8 spur drive ,to wich I have filed down 2 of the 4 prongs . There is a gizmo that has the same 5/8 female coupling with a 1/2 thead shaft. I shortened this shaft a bit, and use it sometimes to hold a buffing pad, but mainly with a Jacob chuck ( the thing at the end of a standard hand drill ) to hold small work.

In the way it is set right now , my lathe is as simple as this, I am actually working on a permanent installation

Deb Suran say's that your Lathe is a "Doorway" to another world Henry,is this true?

Is "Lathe work" also "Spin control"? (If it was,my life would be more tranquil) ;-)

I did use a door as a lathe " way " ( also called a lathe bed ? ) As for spin control, I decided to make a handle for every file I already have , I use scraps of wood , and take this opportunity to practice the difficult art of the " skew " chisel. Most of the time I end with the tell tale " spiral " . I am about to use it as a signature <g>.

I've got a Gilliom lathe, which was a "kit" with a headstock, tailstock and steadyrest. You add the 1-1/2" pipe for the bed. Of course, I scrounged 8' long pipes, and was going to try to make some 1-pc Renaissance flutes.

One of the features of the kit is that you could mount it on a hinged board at the end of a bench, and flip it upright to use as a drill press. That sounds like it might work well for the Newtonian chip-extraction method. The parts may still be available.

I have heard of the Gilliom tools in the past but never saw one, How much would the lathe kit cost ?

My headstock mandrel continues out the other side of the headstock, and there I mount usually an 8" iron sanding disk--as much for added mass as anything else. The 'flywheel' effect cuts down on unevenness. I built a sanding table onto that to take advantage of the disk.

There are all kinds of 5/8" attachments for the Shopsmith, one could easily build a multi-purpose machine for a small shop--there are saw blade holders, drill chucks, router bit holders--the latter I have one of to hold small pieces of stock for turning small pieces.

I spent the whole day Sunday take down my Bradford metalwork lathe. It's a good thing too, all the oiling holes where clogged but everything is in good condition. It's so bare looking right now that the lathe bed looks like a giant metal sawhorse. Those parts are heavy, but even with all the parts taken off, we still have to move it with a fork lift! When I'm finished with it, I'll know every part in it and what it does, so this is a good thing. Can't wait until I paint it and put everything back together. The good news, I just found out that it has bronze bearings and will handle higher speeds.

Andres is right about the flywheel, a good flywheel helps produce good quality work. Good ideal about the the sanding, I have a plate wheel that bolts on in place of the chuck and it has bolt holes in it and you can place anything in it.

This thing has some attachment called a "Taper attachment" it connects into the drive control and will move the tool inward as it cuts to make a taper. I won't know how it works until I get the machine running the guy I bought off of is going to show me how to use it. Keep posted.

Gilliom lathe- I'm not sure if they're available now, but they were very inexpensive 15 yrs. ago when I got mine. Maybe someone on rec.woodworking newsgroup would know.

I got a Gilliom catalogue about 5 years ago. They used to advertise in _Home_Shop_Machinist_, and occasionally FWW.

Their kits are fine, but you have to balance the cost of a used version of what you want, the time to build the kit, etc. It all boils down to whether you have more time than money, or more money than time. If you have a ton of time and no money, then (aside from being unemployed) you may be better off designing and building your own machine from scratch using the various ideas in magazine articles of the last 20 years.

I found this about a home-made METAL turning lathe.Amazing !

My lathe is not completely finished , but it is already usable . Presently, I turn fire wood into cylinders so that it dries faster and take less storage space .I am still working on the boring set-up .

I wonder if it would be possible to have some pictures of our lathes set-up on this discussion ? What do you think of it Deb ?

Hi. I am looking for a good quality, ie. it spins true, wood lathe that qualifies in the inexpensive catagory. any suggestions. joan D'Andrea

For spindle turning , almost anything on the market will do. If you want to do long hole boring, you will need one with a hollow tailstock and a morse cone insert , wich is not difficult to find ,

Delta and Grizzly have good products at reasonable prices . If you interest is in woodwind instruments , the next step is the big jump to the used industrial metal lathe.

But as you must have guessed, I have a strong bias toward home made tools :-)

Just finished the new set-up of my lathe,

Tested my boring set-up and my auger bit, it works.

Just fried the 1/4hp motor....

It seems that boring is harder on the motor than spindle turning.

Sorry to hear about the motor. While replacing, you should consider a bigger motor maybe 1 or 2 hp. What brand was the motor?

The motor is back ! It is a G.E. ( from a washing machine ) I guess there is some kind of heat sensor or breaker that switched back when it cooled .

I made a few tests with the 5/16" "lamp auger " , it went well, more or less 10 min to bore 20cm(8") in Cherry , with just a litle deflection .The auger gets very hot.

Next step , the conical reamer ...

To have an air source, I've heard that some people place an small air hose at the drilling point and use it to cool the bit.

Good to hear that it is still working. BTW - Where did you get the lamp auger?

Wood craft in Boston, they also have a catalog . Craft Supplies USA catalog (www.craftusa.com ) 29.95$ . It is in the Record tools catalog but they do not have one smaller than 5/16" . I think Delta once sold it .

I took one of those long drill bits used by electricians ( they are made by many companies, mine happened to be made by Greenlee) I grind the spiral screw-looking point off and modified the cutting edge so it now looks like the Record " lamp-auger". The electrician drill bit are easier to find than augers and the come in many sizes . Once modified, they work well in the lathe boring set-up. ( They do get a bit hot , be carefull ).

WARNING: Do not try the unmodified drill bit in the lathe , It will be pulled out of your hands .

Disclamer : this is still experimental, bla-bla- etc.

Latest news: I changed the angle on the cutting edge of my augers, now both the auger and the motor heat much less. There is a rythm to get for long hole boring : bore 1/2" to 3/4 " at the time , empty the shavings, cool the edge, dry and again . Bored a 9/16" diam hole 14" long in less than 10 min .

I have "Hummelchen " (small German bagpipe )all bored out, now I must build a " steady-rest" to shape the outside of the pipe stocks.

I recently acquired an old shop-made treadle lathe. It has a couple of broken boards and the leather belt needs to be shortened. I haven't yet dismantled it to get it into my basement shop for renovation, but the "before" pictures are available if anyone is interested in looking at them: http://www.charm.net/~laurent/lathe

-Hal

Hey , a lathe for left-handers, never saw such a thing. Do you plan to repair it ? Please do not add to many improvements, it looks great as it is .

BTW, I think that the Alligator brand still exist ,they make convoyer belts .

From the crack in the top pully , I guess that it was made from a section of tree log ?

Don't worry Henry, I won't change its character much. :-) I plan on replacing both ways (the other one has a knot right where the first one cracked). As for the treadle, I'm leaning towards replacing all of its boards, as several of them don't seem to be in good shape.

I think you're right about the top pulley, although I hadn't noticed until you pointed it out. All of its cracks do seem to be radial.

I've done more research since I made the web page, and both Alligator and Clipper fasteners are still available. I'm planning on using rivets, though, since this is just a one-shot.

-Hal

Some work work involved, but looks like a good project. BTW - Who all here is left handed? I'm left handed.

I checked in a few books , and notice that in the days of the " pole lathe " , many illustrations( mostly woodcut prints) show the "driving rope" at the right side of the work ,( printing mistake ?) also an early "screw making" lathe ( 1740) , hand cranked and worked from the right hand side . In the case of a threadle lathe , the question could be " wich leg do you want to use ? " <g>

My motor stopped again, this time after only a few minutes of use ( no overheating ). I remembered that my son-in law once told me that many so-called motor faillures were really switch faillures. So I jumped the wires and the motor was on again.

By curiosity , I opened the switch ( a plain domestic wall switch) and not only the contact were pitted, but there was wood dust in the switch . Good reason to unplug the motor after use .

Safety tip for Henry Boucher. Go to an electrical supply house and buy a "motor rated" switch. they resemble the switch you fried but are able to stand up to the inrush currents that flow when motors are started. At the same time you can pick up a weatherproof box, switch cover and gasket and the sawdust may not be a problem.

Here's a link to plans for a home-made lathe.

I found and inexpensive metal working chuck ( 4 jaws ) that I want to install on my wood lathe . I hope that the weight will work as a flyweel , regulating the 1/4 hp motor . Has anyone used this kind of chuck in a wood-lathe ?

Henry, You might have to start it turning by hand it it's too heavy. If the jaws stick out I'd cover it with a brightly colored streach head band. You can't see the jaws once they start spinning & can get a nasty hit.

Ah,... did not think about this risk , I wonder if I could place a kind of " safety disk " held with velcro , to prevent the edge of the gouge of getting hit bit the chuck jaw ?

Henry, Making one part for the whole range of adjustment may be more trouble than it's worth. Maybe easier to have several. One sugestion if you heat a piece of 1/4" Plexiglas in the oven at 290 degrees for about 10 minutes & bend it around something a little smaller than the chuck it will have enough spring back to stay in place. It will cool in a minute or so. BTW it can be reheated as many times as you want<g>. The stuff's kind of fun to play with.

great , I just started to use plexy for templates, fun to glue and tap never tried to bend it yet.

I have one of those small 4-jaw chucks from Sears on my small lathe. It seems to work ok, 4-jaw chucks with independent jaws take a little time to align. It's a lot nice to have a 3-jaw chuck with all 3 jaws moving together. (BTW-There are 4-jaw chucks that will do this).

Has anyone tried making a thickness sander using a lathe as the drive unit? I'm making one with 4" PVC as the drum, but I'm not sure it's stiff enough and how much heat it can take. I'd have a steel drum made but I'm cheap!

Daniel, I just inherited the lathe so I'm not good enough with it yet to turn a 30" length true enough for a sander. I'll probably build a sanding machine with a 16" drum but I'm too busy to do it right now. This is something to use in the meantime.

I just realized that I could build a plywood frame around the lathe bed, make a long base for the router & cut a cylinder. I want to have a width as near 30" as I can get. Circe wants some new tables for the house & I'd rather let a machine do the sanding. After that's done I can use it for soundboards. :>)

Phil, I used a drum I found in a old xerox machine,about 15" wide and 4"indiameter, it even had usable bearings. I made friends with those guys from the electro recycling plant<g>. But this might be to small even for a coffee table...

The Shopsmith multi=purpose tool makes a dandy thickness sander. Simply replace the sawblade and its arbor with an appropriate drill press chuck; then insert a sanding drum with its axle held in the chuck and you're ready to go. Wood thickness is controlled by raising or lowering the saw table below the sanding drum. A dust collection system of some sort is a must. I've used this system for years with no problems.

I tried this system with my drill-press, but for some reason the result was very uneven .

I used to use my shopsmith for a thickness sander in a similar fashion except I had the shopsmith set up more like a wood lathe. An aluminum drum was attached to two faceplates one of which had been drilled out to ride on a live center. I used it until I got my Grizzly and it worked wonders.

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