Originally Posted by
Dave Bryan
Mark,
I really like your idea about a concrete lathe base. I built a wood lathe base and am pretty pleased with it. I wanted to build the most out of wood instead of metal, since I'm a woodworker. The three main metal parts are the headstock spindle, tailstock spindle and bed. See the attached picture.
I did learn several things the hard way. First, the alignment of the headstock parallel to the bed both vertically and horizontally is critical. Second, alignment of the tailstock to the headstock is just as critical. Without these, spindle turning or even using the tailstock to support a bown in the initial stages of turning will be a problem, and drilling using the tailstock almost impossible. I used a 16" long 2" dia round bar turned down to a 1 1/2" dia headstock spindle with 1 1/4X8 threads. It is supported by two deep groove bal bearings in spherical mounts, which I think is the critical part. This allows you to align the spindle regardless of how mis-aligned the vertical bearing supports are (within reason). Do you plan to have a hole down the center of the headstock spindle for a knockout bar or vacuum chucking? I found machinists not very interested in drilling this long of a hole.
There are a lot of other lessons learned that would be too long for this thread. If you are interested, please send me an e-mail through the forum and I'll be glad to share.
Good luck. It's not just the destination, but also the journey...
Dave, Very nice job on the wood lathe! It is very good looking and the construction looks perfect. Mak is having a blast building his monster and we all can't wait to see it completed!
Mark, Keep plugging along and you will win the battle soon!
Jeff
To turn or not to turn that is the question: ........Of course the answer is...........TURN ,TURN,TURN!!!!
Anyone "Fool" can know, The important thing is to Understand................Albert Einstein
To follow blindly, is to never become a leader............................................ .....Unknown