Home made lathe

[Dennis Ford]

I have been working with a young man building him a lathe. We finished yesterday and moved it to his shop. It is based on my home built machine (which is about 10 years old) with a couple of improvements. A friend donated most of the steel, another friend donated a spare Powermatic banjo. Other than banjo, motor, belt, bearings and inverter; we fabricated all the parts. 2 hp 3 ph motor, VFD, 22" swing, 35 inch max length, it weighs about 900 lbs. It is a major upgrade from the little machine that he learned on.

[Greg Parrish]

That is freaking awesome. What a nice thing to do and a seriously nice lathe. :)

[Frederick Skelly]

That is freaking awesome. What a nice thing to do and a seriously nice lathe. :)

+1. What a great thing to do!

[Jay Mullins]

WOW , say's it all.

[John K Jordan]

I have been working with a young man building him a lathe. We finished yesterday and moved it to his shop. It is based on my home built machine (which is about 10 years old) with a couple of improvements. A friend donated most of the steel, another friend donated a spare Powermatic banjo. Other than banjo, motor, belt, bearings and inverter; we fabricated all the parts. 2 hp 3 ph motor, VFD, 22" swing, 35 inch max length, it weighs about 900 lbs. It is a major upgrade from the little machine that he learned on.

Amazing! What a great welding/machining project and a great thing to do. I suspect you have changed one young man's life.

Do you have any intermediate pictures of the progress?

JKJ

[Jeramie Johnson]

Wow! Now that is impressive.

[David Delo]

WOW +3 Dennis

[Leo Van Der Loo]

That looks like a very nice lathe Dennis, it is maybe the third or fourth one I see a picture from that does look well made, bet it took quite a few hours to put together, like a labor of love, well done !!

[eric mah]

Wow, what a great piece of machinery. It looks like the next generation is ready to go. There is no greater gift than imparting your skills and knowledge to the next in line.

Eric

[Thom Sturgill]

wow! that should last a lifetime!

[Glenn C Roberts]

Dennis, how did you control warping when welding the bed supports? Did you weld them all then mill the support tops so the bed would be straight? Or use leveling screws?

Very impressive. Maybe the young Lad can post a turning or two.

[Mike Turner]

Awesome job Dennis!!!!!

[Dennis Peacock]

Wow +10..!!!! That's awesome!

[robert baccus]

Really super job and a nice thing to do. Gotta come see that one.

[Dennis Ford]

Dennis, how did you control warping when welding the bed supports? Did you weld them all then mill the support tops so the bed would be straight? Or use leveling screws?

Very impressive. Maybe the young Lad can post a turning or two.

I do not have a mill big enough to do the whole thing, so we had to grind the supports until they were level with each other. Warping can not be totally eliminated but with careful tacking, we were able to limit any distortion.

[Raymond Fries]

WOW. What a cool project.

Enjoy....