Long Bed Wood Lathe................Build?

[Olaf Vogel]

Ok, well I am making headway finding parts for the beast. I have an old washing machine motor that I believe is 1/3 HP which might be able to do the job slowly but I think it would be really underpowered for turning something more than 9 inches in diameter and 5 feet long.

For a 9" OD, you wont have to slow the motor down much. Since speed is a factor of the OD, not the weight.
IMO, 1/3 hp is not enough. Assuming you have a clutch mechanism (a simple loose belt will work), then you "might" be able to get this up to speed. But even small cuts are likely to stall that motor.

2 hp or more would be better. Treadmill motors are not really suitable. They offer 2 hp PEAK, and wont run long at that level.
You need big ole industrial motor, a cast off from a workshop. Look around industrial companies.

Your head and tailstock should be solid and heavily bolted down. IMO the Shopsmith is not strong enough for something list this.

If you take a lathe like this http://www.olafvogel.com/uploads/4/7...39145_orig.jpg
and break it down into its components, its really simple. Note: all these pieces are from ~1880. You might actually find such pieces around in Mexico.

The ways were originally wood beams, so easy to DIY. When I bought my lathe, I was told that it originally had wooden ways, 25 feet long. I have to assume they were laminated. Angle irons can be added to harden the ways. This was all standard practice....about 100 years ago.

For speed reduction, you can use traditional v-belts. A small pulley on the motor and a LARGE pulley on the headstock.
You will likely want a reduction to about 300 rpms or lower. So for a standard 1750 rpm motor, you need about a 5:1 reduction. Ex. a 3" pulley at the motor and a 15" pulley at the headstock. The 3" pulley is easy to source commercially. The 15" pulley is one you can turn yourself on your lathe (you can see mine in my pictures). That allows you to create any reduction ratio you want.

If you want even lower gearing, then a 2 step pulley system, called a jack-shaft.

Keep in mind that the speed reduction will create an increase on torque, effectively multiplying your power and allowing heavier cuts.
(But I would still use about 2 hp)

There are multiple options for tool rest and if you can find someone with welding experience, they can create it.

For a DIY headstock, something like this is as simple as it gets:
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...stock-Spindles

Here's a step by step: http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/showgallery.php?cat=1058

I'm partway down the road of creating something like this, using a concrete base. For a 200 lbs turning, it wont need to be that massive and a wood-only headstock solution (like above) is feasible. Here's another example: http://www.isobevel.com/woodlathe.htm.

Some food for thought....

[Jeffrey J Smith]

If you only need it for a particular project, why not try the Ellesworth approach. A while back the AAW Journal had a shot of David turning the legs of a canopy bed he was building at his summer place. Lathe wasn't long enough, so he attached a live center to the wall and moved the lathe as far away as he needed. Drill a hole in a 2x4. Nail it where you need it...just a thought. Sometimes, simple can be elegant.

[roger wiegand]

Here's just the ticket: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGUYY6KVZxE

I've seen this beast, but not in operation.

[Ian Lerner]

Olaf, thanks for the ideas......many of which I am already heading down those roads of thinking. I will keep my eye out for shop cast offs. There are a couple pump shops here I will check out for just that. I think something like a continuous duty swimming pool pump would suffice nicely.

Spindle setup - I plan on using flange block bearings mounted on the faces of the headstock with the spindle running through the verticals rather than across the top of them through pillow block bearings. I'm looking at finding a 1 inch shaft about 18 inches long for the headstock and I'll have it threaded 1"x8 tpi and a number 2 morse taper bored and reamed for aftermarket items like spur centers etc. The tailstock shaft will be done the same way for a #2 MT.

Frame - similar to this - https://i.ytimg.com/vi/39t4yE9_9YU/hqdefault.jpg but I'll make the tailstock a solid block rather than the "U" shaped design of this one.

Speed control - I've thought of various ways to get the speed down to what I think would be appropriate for a chunk of wood that size ie under 200 rpm and of course multiple pulleys to obtain higher speeds once the roughing out is done and things fairly balanced. A jack shaft will be needed and possibly two of them depending on the size of pulleys I can find here. I've even been wondering about using the Shopsmith power head somehow as I then could start with a slow speed of about 700 rpm at it's slowest setting and then to the jack shaft from there but I think that will be a royal pain trying to set up the two to work together, I'd sooner have a separate motor and use two jack shafts if needed to get the speed down. I'm currently dreaming of a dual setup that could be swapped from on to the other quickly having one drive for the slow rough out phase and then a second drive with multiple step pulleys for higher speed......all using one motor and a sliding motor mount to go from one to another similar to the one in the lowest link of yours above to isobevel.com.

[Ian Lerner]

Couldn't agree more, but materials make the difference and down here only stone, brick and concrete are used for most construction along with steel for bearing loads. Makes pounding a nail into anything not so easy. No, I want to build this lathe if for no other reason than to say I did. I think I'll get great satisfaction out of using it for many years to come.

[Ian Lerner]

Here's just the ticket: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGUYY6KVZxE

I've seen this beast, but not in operation.

Haha yes, now ur cookin with steam!!!! I've dreamed of similar methods using non router cutting such as a table saw or radial arm saw and a few others. The lathe still seems the better ticket especially as I won't be making a lot of these dummies.......perhaps 3 a year?

[Brice Rogers]

Ian, you may want to check with Grizzly for buying things like the spindle. You can get the spindle for the G0766 for about $65 and about $46 for the G0733. It is a 1-1/4x8 thread w a #2 MT. If you look around the different models that Griz has perhaps they will have one with a 1" thread or one that fits better with your plans. But I bought an adapter from them that converts from 1-1/4 to 1". They sell two different ones that do the same thing. One costs under $20 and the other is around $40 IIRC.

The spindle for my G0766 is about 15-1/2 " long.

For $46 USD, I suspect that you would have a challenge finding a machine shop to make one from scratch or you may be disappointed in the quality of a one-off machining.

BTW, in WW1, the US needed metal lathes and a guy named Yeoman invented a "concrete lathe". I also recall reading an article (I thought that it was for ww2) where they were making a LARGE concrete lathe in an eight hour shift. The spindle bushings were cast or grouted into place. If you google it you'll find a variety of links. I bring this up because I know that you'll find concrete in Mexico.

[Brice Rogers]

Here is a link to a Youtube video on making a concrete lathe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxqxlexybqE
I give the guy an A for creativity but a D for all the voids in the concrete. Apparently he has never "rapped" a form or wiggled a piece of rebar in the concrete to get rid of the air bubbles. Some people will even use a big vibrating sander or a sawsall with a long rod in it to get out the air.

His mix seemed a little stiff (it needed a little more water) which is another reason he got voids. Voids can be filled with a trowel and mortar mix.

[Ian Lerner]

Ian, you may want to check with Grizzly for buying things like the spindle. You can get the spindle for the G0766 for about $65 and about $46 for the G0733. It is a 1-1/4x8 thread w a #2 MT. If you look around the different models that Griz has perhaps they will have one with a 1" thread or one that fits better with your plans. But I bought an adapter from them that converts from 1-1/4 to 1". They sell two different ones that do the same thing. One costs under $20 and the other is around $40 IIRC.

The spindle for my G0766 is about 15-1/2 " long.

For $46 USD, I suspect that you would have a challenge finding a machine shop to make one from scratch or you may be disappointed in the quality of a one-off machining.

BTW, in WW1, the US needed metal lathes and a guy named Yeoman invented a "concrete lathe". I also recall reading an article (I thought that it was for ww2) where they were making a LARGE concrete lathe in an eight hour shift. The spindle bushings were cast or grouted into place. If you google it you'll find a variety of links. I bring this up because I know that you'll find concrete in Mexico.

The spindle I need will have to be 18" long shaft. Because of the lesser thicknesses of a metal bodied wood lathe I doubt I'd find one 18 inches long. And actually you can have pretty much anything made down here for cheap because labour is so cheap. The problem arrises in finding ''where'' to have it made.