Building a Woodturning Lathe
by George F. Farrell, Dollmaker
Page 3
Having done this, set the tool rest aside in order to mark the position of and then bore the holes for the tailstock ram. This is done by running the tailstock up to meet the extended headstock spindle, marking around it with a pencil and boring a slightly oversized hole ( big enough to give plenty of clearance but too small to let a 3/4X10 NC nut through). Run the extended headstock spindle through this hole and mark and bore a hole in the other face of the tailstock. Now make two pads 3 inches square and 1 inch thick. Bore a 3/4D hole through each pad at its center. This 3/4D hole should have just enough clearance on the 3/4X10 threaded of the tailstock ram to support the ram without binding. On one of the pads mortise in a 3/4X10 NC nut. The mortise must be deep enough that the nut comes flush with the face of the pad. This pad does double duty. It is a keeper for the nut because the nut is captured between the pad and tailstock vertical face nearest the headstock. Both pads should have holes drilled in all four corners that are slightly oversize for the bolts that will be used to mount the pad. This allows for horizontal and vertical movement of the pad for further alignment.
For the tailstock ram I chose a one-foot length of 3/4x10 National Coarse threaded rod. It was taken to a local machine shop to be turned down for a 1-inch length of 1/2D which was then threaded to 1/2x24. This allows the working end to accept a standard Jacobs-type drill chuck. A ball bearing live center is available from AMT which will thread onto this 1/2x24 stub. Three 3/4x10 nuts are also required as shown above.
Tailstock alignment is done as follows. It assumes that you have a drill chuck that will thread onto the 1/2X24 stub on the tailstock ram. Crank the ram all the way in and center a very short drill to the center of the headstock spindle by moving the near pad. When good centering is arrived at, firmly bolt the pad in place. Now pull the tailstock back and crank the ram out as far as it will go. Mount a very long drill in the chuck and center it to the center of the headstock spindle by moving the pad at the crank. It too is then firmly bolted in place. The lathe is now ready to go.
George added the following notes to his original article, to go with the two photographs:
There are a few differences between what was written and what was built. The brace at the tailstock end in the photo on page 1 is a 2X2, because I ran out of the right kind of materials. Also shown in the photo is a something not mentioned in the directions. That is a piece of 2X10 running from the foot of one pedestal to the foot of the other on which there are 2 cement blocks. These are not absolutely necessary but provide a little more stability. This machine is easy to disassemble into its component parts and certainly a lot lighter to move than a cast iron commercial unit.The photo on this page shows the business part of the machine. Here again there is a discrepancy between what I built and what I described. The spacer block between the upright faces of the tailstock was detailed as a rectangular block with rectangular tenons on each end. What I built was a 3-1/4 inch diameter cylinder with 2 inch diameter cylindrical tenons on the ends.
And here's a brief bio from George:
Return to Page 1After college I took up the clarinet as an anti-stress therapy, in spite of having been told that a man of my age (at that time) could never learn it -- I was about 30. I also got interested in woodworking, also for stress relief. Some time during the 70's I bought Robinson's "The Amateur Wind Instrument Maker" -- this combined my two passions. In his Bibliography he mentioned articles written by Peter Tomlin in the magazine Woodworker (a British magazine). I attempted to make some of Tomlin's instruments but was frustrated by my lathe, which was very bad. At that time I did not have the money to "squander" (my wife's term) on non-essentials and so attempted to make my first woodworking lathe so that I could try making a clarinet (I actually did learn to play -- more enthusiasm than skill but I did it). Twenty years ago the internet was not available to search for the kinds of information that I needed, so I unfortunately spent a lot of time reinventing all sorts of things. I am now fully retired, and being exceptionally healthy, I can do whatever I want whenever I want -- within limits (mostly as established by my wife).
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