Metal Lathe for wood turning...your advice please

[Paul Steiner]

A very generous person is donating a south bend metal lathe to my high school production shop. It is in like new condition and all the chucks, cutters, etc, etc, are included.
My classes primarily work with wood and I would have passed the machine to a colleague that teaches welding at another school. BUT I think this is to good to pass on and I have been told that metal lathes are good for turning wood.
I need some advice and about how to use it for wood, info on tool rests to use for lathe tools, can I use the metal cutters on wood? Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.

[Tim Thiebaut]

I am jealous, I have always wanted an old south bend, they dont make things like that any more, that last for ages. One thing that they are very good for is threading, are you familiar with JR Beall? Go check out his site...under that name, in his book on wood threading there are many projects in it, the last few pages of the book are some absolutly incredible pieces he made on an old south bend metal lathe. I believe the name of the book is "The Nuts & Bolts of wood working" if I remember right. JR uses his south bend for a good majority of his wood turnings. Oh here it is i found it...
http://www.bealltool.com/products/threading/book.php

Hope this helps you a little.

[David E Keller]

I don't know anything about turning wood on a metal lathe, but the possibilities for tool making are almost endless... I want one!

[Rick Markham]

I'm with David on this... I want one for it's obvious uses as a metal lathe. Hopefully someone will chime in with some first hand advice on converting it. Maybe you should make some tools first... they giving away any knee mills? :D

[Paul Steiner]

The machine is WWII era and it belonged to the current owner's father. Lots of history with this machine, which is exactly why I love old machines. Also it has been used for wood before. I am all for making tools, I made a pulley on a metal lathe in college. I am assuming the biggest issue is cutting oil v. Sawdust. I am thinking its either metal or wood then doing a complete clean out before switching between the two.

[John Hart]

Yeah, I would think that contamination would be a concern. However, I'm with the other guys....I want one. I would surely switch back and forth between metal and wood happily. There are so many things to make.

How to convert it? I ain't got a clue....but it sure would be an adventure to learn. :)

[Jerry Marcantel]

I used a Crown engine lathe the make some Ishi Stick handles once.... The only contamination was my wood shavings getting all over the lathe, which is a metal lathe. Unless you make a tool rest for a metal lathe, you won't be able to make too much more than very accurate spindles, or very flat plates. If you bore holes, you can bet that they will be centered also. hehehe.
My observations of people who have hobbies are this. It's doesn't matter what you are best at when you practice your hobby, when you encounter an obstacle, no matter what it is, with a little perserverence, you will overcome it if it's important to you. Necessity is the mother of all invention...... (Words of wisdom to live by) Yup.
With this lathe, all you need is to make a tool rest to fit the ways, and you're in business......Make some jaws that are more like the ones on wood chucks rather than the metal working jaws. Have fun with your lathe.
Personally, I'd rather keep it as a metal lathe and make tools with it......There are so many things to make and so little time....... Jerry (in Tucson)


Yeah, I would think that contamination would be a concern. However, I'm with the other guys....I want one. I would surely switch back and forth between metal and wood happily.

How to convert it? I ain't got a clue....but it sure would be an adventure to learn. :)

[Paulo Marin]

When I originally got my shop, It came in with two phenomenal metal lathes. An old Monarch and a very accurate Hardinge Tool Room (the most accurate lathe of the shop after the cnc's).

I was very excited thinking I would be able to just turn it on and whip a beautiful bowl...
Well... it did not turn out that way.... First of all, although I had all the collets and chucks for workholding, it was missing an important item... the tool rest...:confused:

Thinking I could overcome the problem, I created an attachment jig for the carriage and proceeded to try to turn a piece of wood...

Needless to say, it was the wrong thing to do... The shavings lodged under he carriage and mixed with the oil (which is being dispensed from a reservoir).

It cost me $780 to clean it up and I swore NEVER to do that again.

One should always check EBAY... I just purchased a Yates American wood lathe for $600199171
The picture is not from what I bought... it is here just so people can see what the yates look like. It was sitting in a warehouse from Los Angeles Unified School District.

So, I strongly suggest to KEEP the southbend for metal... Check into Metal Spinning http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYoSYI5W2uU&feature=related

Guarantee the Southbend will will be happier!

Paulo Marin
-----------------
Enjoy life... it's later than you think!

[Dave Ogren]

You could convert the outboard end to wood turning. I think that Leo Van Der Loo uses an engine lathe for his wood turning. Ask him.
Good Luck,
Dave

[ray hampton]

LittleMachineShop sell a rest for a metal lathe that enable you to use a wood turning tool

[ray hampton]

I also use the metal turning tools to turn round items of wood
you can say that the cut are very controlled

[Ed Morgano]

Paul,
I had a machine shop for years and I did use my metal lathe on occasion for wood turning. It's a bad combination to try to do both because of the oil. It not only makes a gummy mess of the lathe, it will also ruin the wood pieces when you get oil on them. So, if you want to convert it exclusively to a wood lathe, the oil has to go - anywhere where it could come in contact with wood dust or chips. All is not lost though. If you take the lathe and clean all of the oil and grease off the exposed parts (bed, ways, lead screws etc.), you can used Johnson's paste wax and throughly wax all of the exposed parts including the lead screws. After the wax dries, buff everything. The wax will make everything slide well and it won't stick to the wood. You will have to keep waxing on occasion as the metal parts will wear it off. Other than that, the other thing, as several people have mentioned, is making a tool rest to be used with gouges and skews etc. That is not a difficult task. You can look at some of the videos on youtube and get an idea of what you need for a tool rest. It needs to be adjustable up and down and the cross slide on the lathe will take care of the in and out adjustment. Good luck and enjoy.

[Rick Markham]

Just a thought here, what are the RPM ranges for that southbend. Metal lathes are usually lower, I would seriously consider machining a set of pulleys to up the RPM's before you convert it entirely to wood.

Paulo, Turning wood on a Hardinge, now that's a dedicated turner there! Willing to muss up one of the most accurate manual lathe in existance, just to get a fix on spinning some wood. I applaud your dedication!! I hope you still have that hardinge, and I hope it is still running great, I want one!

[Paulo Marin]

Price of learning Rick :)
Honestly speaking I was after the quality but did not realize things were not the same!
Since it's cleanup is still an extremely accurate machine... (although not better than the HAAS lathe...;) )

[Jerry Lawrence]

Paul, all I have is a metal lathe and have been using it to turn wood. I use the hand cranks with the mounted tools and just learned how to manipulate the left/right and in/out cranks in unison to create the curves I'm looking for. No problems here, but that's all I know. So as they say, I don't know what I don't know! ;) Not sure it would be the way I'd suggest teaching new woodturners though. Good luck!
Here are the links to some items I've made on my metal lathe.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?166330-First-Bowl&highlight=
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?166287-Bug-Vase&highlight=
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?166128-quot-Vase-Base-quot&highlight=
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?166057-Wooden-stem&highlight=

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Paulo I turn wood on both a metal and a Delta 46-460, I will add a few pictures here to show the pieces I made to be able to turn wood on a metal lathe.

Unless you need to turn dough-rollers, the tool carriage is of no use in wood turning, smooth curves are much easier made with handheld wood turning tools than trying to manipulate the carriage and cross-feed at the same time.

On the inboard side I use a regular toolrest and banjo, it slides on top of the prism-ways, not touching the prisms where the lathe carriage slides on, but on the flat top of them.

On the outboard side I build everything to be able to turn very large and heavy pieces, 2 pictures to show the sizes I have turned on it.

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I did have to make a clamp-block to fit the lathe to be able to clamp the banjo down, I also use the Morse taper rather than the threaded end of the spindle to hold my Oneway Stronghold chuck, a metal chuck is not capable to hold wood securely as I learned better than 50 years ago when I started turning wood on a metal lathe.

Metal turning tools/bits are not the best for turning wood when held like in a regular metal lathe position, as metal doesn't cut like wood does, I also learned that halve a century ago, but bowl gouges weren't invented yet so I did use all kinds of grinds on scraper-like tools where I found that the tropical woods that were hard and dense would get the best surface and softer wood looked not very good right off of the tool and required a lot of sanding, and even then not a very nice surface.

I have turned on a Southbend lathe in one of the places were I worked as a millwright for some time, I would think a wood lathe would be the better way to go, but yes you could use the Southbend as a wood lathe, park the carriage on the end of the ways and move the tailstock in front so you can use it when turning bowls and platters etc.

As you won't need the carriage to go back and forth you can remove the oil from the ways so there's no problem with getting oil on your wood or wood dust on the lathe, and re-oil the ways anytime you want to do metal turning.

I have more than 50 years of experience with turning wood on a metal lathe, and there are advantages and disadvantages, if you are able to fabricate the needed accessories for the lathe you will be fine, if not, you'll have problems to find these things to fit your lathe and a lathe like a Delta 46-460 would be a better machine to turn wood on and keep the Southbend as a good all around metal lathe, just IMO :-))

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Hope this is some help to you

[Dan Hintz]

Leo,

We already knew you were insane... but that first pic just makes you go :eek:

[Paulo Marin]

The name Leo is of Latin origin, and the meaning of Leo is LION.
WOW Leo... Only a Lion would have the heart to deal with a piece of wood that size :eek:

Impressive. And the tool rest is certainly CLEVER!

I will keep that in mind... The Hardinge toolroom is out of bounds but the Supermax is becoming attractive now..:rolleyes:

Thanks for sharing these incredible pictures Leo...

-paulo Marin
Glaser Hitec Engineering

[Paul Williams]

I turned wood for several years on my 6 inch metal lathe so I know it can be done. However I think a better solution would be to sell the South Bend and buy 2 Delta 46-460's. In the market around here you could get enough to include a few tools in addition to 2 midi lathes.

[george wilson]

I use my metal lathes frequently for turning wood. I use them for cutting threads with a router mounted in the toolpost. Just keep a shop vac up against the cutting action,and clean the lathe off. I have been careful about this,and haven't had problems since 1974 cutting wood on my metal lathes. JUST KEEP IT CLEAN. Obviously,avoid getting oil on your wood.