NO Budget Franken-Lathe Project

[Tom LaRussa]

I've decided I need to start spinning stuff, because I'm making a lot of tools and they are going to need handles.

The problem is, I don't have the dough for even the most basic Harbor Freight lathe.

Solution: Cobble a lathe together out of whatever junk I can find in the shop, and use my drill press to power it.

Process:

I really don't know beans about lathes, except I know that one end has power and the other end is supposed to have a pointy thingie that sticks into the wood but spins freely. (Or something like that, right?)

So, I gather up my stuff:


Some roller blade bearings, a 7/8" nut, and a piece of 5/16" mild steel round rod make up the mechanical parts of the end that spins freely.

http://home.earthlink.net/~augieboo/lathe/01.jpg


I drill a hole in a big chunk of wood to "mount" the mechanical components:

http://home.earthlink.net/~augieboo/lathe/02.jpg


Next, I chuck the piece of 5/16" rod in the drill press:

http://home.earthlink.net/~augieboo/lathe/03.jpg


Using a file I cut a point on the end of the rod:
http://home.earthlink.net/~augieboo/lathe/04.jpg


It is no longer just a piece of rod -- it is officially "the pointy thing."
Nice and sharp!
http://home.earthlink.net/~augieboo/lathe/05.jpg



I sanded the black stuff off the pointy thing to make it look purty:
http://home.earthlink.net/~augieboo/lathe/06.jpg


To keep the pointy thing from bottoming out in the hole I held it against the sharp edge of the little "anvil" ledge on my bench vice and banged on it with a hammer until it was deformed enough so the bearings could not slide past that point:
http://home.earthlink.net/~augieboo/lathe/07.jpg


Next I "mounted" the mechanical parts in the block of wood, i.e., I dropped them down the hole:
http://home.earthlink.net/~augieboo/lathe/08.jpg


The finished, mounted, pointy thingie:
http://home.earthlink.net/~augieboo/lathe/09.jpg


(Off camera: I next used two clamps to hold the wooden block / pointy thingie assembly to the little table on the drill press.)


One more mechanical part is a counter-sinking bit that came with a set of drill & driver bits. It is used to transfer the power from the drill press motor to the first victim of this machine. A little piece of scrap maple.

With a little fudging around, I managed to get the wood more-or-less centered and away I went...

WHEE!

I'M DOING THAT SPINNY STUFF! :D
http://home.earthlink.net/~augieboo/lathe/10.jpg


The not-so-impressive results of the first minutes of my first effort.
http://home.earthlink.net/~augieboo/lathe/11.jpg


Post script:

The pointy thing is way too loose, so the wood wobbles terribly.

[Randy Meijer]

Guess I missed something. Don't quite see what the 7/8" nut is supposed to do??

If you are using a standard inline skate bearing, the "hole" is 8 mm ID.....a few thou larger than 5/16. You could remove some of the slack by using a threaded rod for your pointy thing and lock the rod into the bearing with a nut on either side of the bearing. Use two bearings on the rod spaced several inches apart to give added stability. There is a lot more wobble at the end of a long rod than there is at its base. Set up the bearings so that there is only 1/2" to 1" of point.....not the multiple inches as on your current version.

Another thing to try would be a fixed point.....piece of threaded rod fixed to a piece of wood sandwiched between fender washers and nuts. Or lock two nuts on the piece of pointed threaded rod and screw it into an appropriate sized hole with a wrench I seem to remember seeing old(pre-electricity) lathes that did not have a live center.....just a metal point. You would want to polish the point to a very smooth finish and use a low turning speed to prevent "friction burning" of the wood; but I think something like that would work.

And as a last alternative, maybe you can find a used live center for sale here or on eBay??

Good luck!!!

[Scott Parks]

Tom,

I bought an issue of Shop Notes back in about January that had an article on a shop-built mini lathe. I plan to build it sometime soon. I searched their website, but can't find the article. When I get home from this trip, I'll see what issue it was in... Anyway, it uses simple hardware for the tail stock that could easily be adapted to your drill press situation. Or, I think it said you could build the whole lathe for about $100, if I recall... really neat idea...

[Mathew Nedeljko]

Tom, the ShopNotes magazine Scott is referring to is issue Volume 13, Issue 73.
The tailstock they show is made from 5/8 threaded rod ground down to sharp point, similar to what you did. They also use 5/8 coupling nuts to provide additional stiffness and cut down on the wobble effect you are seeing.

[Tom LaRussa]

Guess I missed something. Don't quite see what the 7/8" nut is supposed to do??

Oops.

The hole in the 7/8" nut is just a hair wider than the inner race, (if that's the correct term), of the bearing. This arrangement allows the bearing to spin freely, rather than being stopped by friction against the bottom of the hole in the block of wood.



If you are using a standard inline skate bearing, the "hole" is 8 mm ID...

How'd you know that?! :eek: :confused:

You must be the first woodworking Sk8ter Boi (:p) I've ever encountered. (Most of us don't exactly seem to be into exercise.)




You could remove some of the slack by using a threaded rod for your pointy thing and lock the rod into the bearing with a nut on either side of the bearing. Use two bearings on the rod spaced several inches apart to give added stability. There is a lot more wobble at the end of a long rod than there is at its base. Set up the bearings so that there is only 1/2" to 1" of point.....not the multiple inches as on your current version.

Excellent ideas all. I shall put them into use on "NO Budget FrankenLathe II" -- which should begin production some time this week, if not today.






And as a last alternative, maybe you can find a used live center for sale here or on eBay??



I looked around last night, but I'm a bit handicapped by my almost total lack of knowledge about lathes. I have found some very inexpensive "live centers" at a local discount place, but they are all tapered on the non-pointy end, and I'm having trouble figuring out how to mount one into some sort of holder...

[Randy Meijer]

..... I have found some very inexpensive "live centers" at a local discount place, but they are all tapered on the non-pointy end, and I'm having trouble figuring out how to mount one into some sort of holder...

Tom:
There are probably numerous solutions to this problem and I feel confident that someone here will offer a good solution. One that comes to mind to me is the following:

1. Drill a blind hole in a piece of wood to a depth that is about 1/4" less than the length of the taper and a "hair" smaller than the diameter of the SMALL end of the taper.

2. Re drill the hole.....this time just a hair smaller than the diameter of the LARGE end of the taper and to a depth about 1/4" less than the previous hole.

3. You should now have a stepped hole the bottom of which should be a snug fit to the small end of the taper and the top of which should be a snug fit to the large diameter of the taper. If you drive the live center into the stepped hole, it should bottom out so that the rotating part of the live center clears the face of the wood by 1/4 inch and be snuggly embedded in the hole. You could even lightly coat the bearing surfaces of the hole with a little epoxy glue to make the attachment even more secure. You may have to play with the depth of the second boring to get a good fit; but I think this should work for you!!!

Putting ideas like this into words is tricky....hope I was clear enough for you the get the idea. Holler if you need more details.

[Tom LaRussa]

Putting ideas like this into words is tricky....hope I was clear enough for you the get the idea. Holler if you need more details.
Thanks Randy,

It was perfectly clear -- and a very good idea.

I'll let you know how it works as soon as I try it out.

:)

[Mac McAtee]

Well shoot Tom. The pointy thing doesn't need to spin. Clamp it in your drill press vice. Put some bees wax on the end of the wood that goes on the pointy thing and turn away. Ever so often you need to increase the pressure on the piece of wood so as it gets deformed by the pointy thing you take up the slack. At some point that issue stabilizes and you don't have to pay so much attention to it.

Way back before lathe turning got so fancy you didn't have live tailstock centers. They were dead centers, you waxed them or the wood, bees wax or paraffin and went at it. The longer the wood spun the hotter the end got. You just started holding the wax against the hot metal and it melted into the wood. It still will work today.

The normal dead center has a cup with a point in the middle so you don't split the wood, with your rig there is a danger of that happening.

You could also use the square end of your steel rod, no point. Just drill a shallow hole in the end of your wood that is the same diameter as the rod. Let the rod stick up inside the wood wax it up and go. Drawback there is that as the hole wears you cannot compensate for the wear as you can with the pointed end but it will work just fine for what you want to do.