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]

179053This 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.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/images/misc/pencil.png

[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)

http://www.unclebill.us/new/clap.gif

[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?

[Dale Coons]

Nifty--I love stuff like this!

[Brian Kincaid]

Heh heh a metal wood lathe made of wood! I like it!
-Brian

[Jim Becker]

Neat project! Thanks for sharing it.

A few years ago I "fondled" Wood Magazine Editor Marlen Kemmet's wooden lathe that he built from an article that appeared in the magazine many years ago. Works like a champ.

[Ed Morgano]

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?

Terry,
I worked as a machinist so I made the drive shaft at work on a metal lathe. It has a pulley drive and could easily be hooked up to a Vari-drive system with either a belt or cog belt drive. If I didn't have a metal lathe to work with, I would have used two self aligning flange bearings with a straight through shaft. Of course I would have had some trouble with the chuck mounting end. Guess I still would have ended up at a machine shop for some of it.

[Donny Lawson]

I know this is an older thread but its well worth looking at again. I wish I had time to build something like this. This is a piece of art in itself. Extraordinary workmanship. I would give you 10 out of 10 stars for this. How is it working now???? Still running true???

[Ed Morgano]

Donny,
It's my best model yet and so far after about 6 months, it's working great. The other day I made an articulated arm for it (I've posted pictures of that in the turners forum) and needed to drill a 1/2" hole 3" deep in a 16" long piece of 3/4" steel. I chucked the bar up in the chuck, put a drill chuck in the tail stock, center drilled the bar and the center found it's way right to the center. No trouble drilling it out with a 1/2" drill either. Also, so far the lathe seems to be stable and everything is remaining straight and true. Two days ago, I turned a 12" diameter Walnut bowl and have turned several other pieces since building the lathe. All those threads are also in the Turners Forum. Thanks for the compliments.