A wooden wood lathe - my 4th or 5th model

[Ed Morgano]

About 15 years ago I built a wooden wood lathe with 12.00 worth of oak that I got from a local saw mill.
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It has served the purpose pretty well but I've been wanting something better for a while now. I have thought seriously for a couple of years about buying a new lathe but I finally decided to build one more. There were several things wrong with my last model. I used green oak (what did I know) or at least it wasn't completely dry. I had some warpage and shrinkage in places that caused problems. Some pieces developed cracks where I crossed the grain. Other places shrunk causing miss-allignment between the headstock and tailstock, etc.
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This time I decided I would try laminating pieces to minimize warpage. I started with the rails that would support everything.

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I wanted a precise way to move the tool rest up and down the ways so I decided to copy metal lathes and build in a "V" way as a guide for the carriage.

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More to follow............

[Ed Morgano]

DSCF8807.jpgThis is another shot of the "V" ways.


The next thing I started on was the tool rest.

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I wanted it to be gear driven so I could move it the lenght of the bed with a hand crank. I have the idea that I will be able to save some time later by mounting a stationary cutter or router to the tool holder for turning long pieces.

[Ed Morgano]

My next project was building the head. I started by laminating a lot of oak. I used 3/8" thick pieces and laminated 4 layers making it about 1 1/2" thick. I've had the idea that I could cross the grain by about 10 or 15 degrees keeping the expansion/contraction in basically the same direction but giving the wood extra strength because of the crossing of the grain patterns. I don't know if this will work over the long haul but I thought it was worth a try.
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[Ed Morgano]

After I had enough pieces to make the head, I built a box and mounted it to the lathe. I missed taking some pictures here.
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This is where I'm at now. I have the tool rest done and the head done. I build a guard for the motor/drive today. What's left is the tailstock which is what I'll start on next.
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More to follow when I get more done. Thanks for looking.

[Bill Edwards(2)]

Outstanding (there are no really good adjectives)

[Angie Orfanedes]

Thomas Edison and Henry Ford would have been proud of you. Great job.

Angie

[gary Zimmel]

Now that is some ingenuity... Really well done Ed.

[Ed Morgano]

I have a question. Maybe it's answwered in the TOS section but I'm still not sure so I'll ask. I'd like to post a video on Youtube when I get finished with this lathe. Is it OK to post a link to it here?

[Ed Morgano]

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I worked on the tailstock next. I decided that I would need to make it adjustable both up and down and in and out. Here are some pictures.

[Ed Morgano]

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This is a picture of moving the old lathe out and putting the new one in it's place. It got really crowed for a while.
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This is a picture of a metal cutting tool. I made a holder for it so I can turn several spindle ends and have them all the same size. It will hold within a few thousands.

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I finished up some details in the last few days and basically it's done. I've added a tool tray and a plaque...the MorganO Matic 20x43. I also got my dust collection hooked up and put a clear bottom on the ways to keep debris from falling on the floor. The shelf underneath will house about 500 lbs of stuff when I get done and that will add stability to the lathe. Thanks for looking.
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[Barry Richardson]

Man, that is really cool! Thanks for sharing the views and explainations!

[Bill Edwards(2)]

I have a question. Maybe it's answwered in the TOS section but I'm still not sure so I'll ask. I'd like to post a video on Youtube when I get finished with this lathe. Is it OK to post a link to it here?

I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong, but unless you made this to sell, I don't
see why you can't link to a youtube video. After all it would be educational
for most us.

[Ed Morgano]

Thanks Bill,
If I can get my son to help me make a video, I'll post it on Youtube and post a link here.

[Carl Miller]

That is really cool. I've been thinking about building a small wooden wood lathe for turning boxes and pens. You've given me inspiration to get started. Thanks!

[Terry Beadle]

Super ! Very well done and it must be totally satisfying !

One question: To make the drive shaft and the head...did you buy those comonets or did you make the drive shaft on a metal lathe or ? What I'm wondering is if you got a variable speed controlled motor and how you hooked it up to the drive shaft etc?