I Wanna Build Something

[John Hart]

As many of you know, I just bought my dream home and we're in the middle of making it a fantasy homestead. One of the things I got with this place is a 22 Horsepower diesel engine that is located in the woodshop. (The Amish gentleman who was the previous owner used it to power all his woodworking tools.)

Anyway, it's got a 2" shaft going out to the shop that spins at roughly 1800 Rpm and I can mount any kind of pulleys on to this shaft and drive whatever I want. So here's what I was thinkin':

I figger I can build a lathe from scratch and have about a 4 foot swing if I wanted. Only thing is....I don't have a clue about how to start or what dangers I might encounter as far as loads, structural integrity, etc.

Anyone got any ideas, plans, warnings, off-the-wall advice, it would be most appreciated. I'm going to do this, but we could make it a Creeker project.

Thank you oh so much in advance!!!

[Glenn Clabo]

I'd start from the beginning and work toward more complex.
Some guy named Leonardo had one idea.
http://www.stuartking.co.uk/articles/leonardo.htm

[Jeff Myers]

Wow, what a cool project to start.
Is your shop on a slab or a crawl space?
Either way, I've seen some pix of very large home built bowl lathes
where the whole unit was concrete(rebar reinforced to be sure).
If on a slab, that'd be easy to come up with a form and pour the
base ,,,but if on a floor on joists over a crawl space,,,,that'd take
some structural reinforcment under the joists to hold the load but
something that was doable.
The reason concrete sounds like a good base is you could build the form
to your shape, round it on the spindle side so as to have good access
to the backside of bowls. You could imbed screw posts into the top of
the concrete to hold a steel plate that had your pillow blocks/spindle.
Plus, concrete is supposed to be great at damping vibrations.
You could build the base just short of turning height and you'd have
about 90" swing capability!!!!! Then concoct a stout tool rest stand
that was set atop one of those tool mobile bases so you could move
it easily. I'd get some advice on the concrete mix to make sure
you made a strong mix. These are just my thoughts, but certainly
seems doable to me and not too much work involved really.
I'm not an engineer so i may be waaaay out of line with my idea,
hope you get some good advice from someone who's actually done this kind of thing. Keep us posted, i'd love to see what you do come up with.

[Charles E. Martin V]

The only thing that bothers me about this, is why did an Amish gentleman have a generator?

[Nancy Laird]

The only thing that bothers me about this, is why did an Amish gentleman have a generator?

The Amish have used generators for a long time, to keep refrigeration for the fresh dairy goods that they sell, and for their woodworking machines. They don't use the electricity generated for "frivolous" purposes, like radio, television, computers, etc., but for their livelihood.

Nancy

[Glenn Clabo]

Charles...It's a diesel engine that was/is used to spin a shaft...not make juice.

[Glenn Clabo]

Nancy...John's place was electric free...until of course he spent a week or so laying cable and getting it hooked up. (Inside joke...sorry John )

[Frank Fusco]

If you do make that giant lathe, gear that sucka way-way down to just a couple rpms.

[Charles E. Martin V]

They must have been progressive Amish. I'm right in Amish country and everything is still done by hand, and the ice house delivers ice for the ice boxes.

[John Hart]

Nancy...John's place was electric free...until of course he spent a week or so laying cable and getting it hooked up. (Inside joke...sorry John )

Ha ha ha ha hee hee Ho ho ho .....whew! Yeah...good one Glenn. For those of you who don't know....Glenn visited me before we had taken possession of the house, and I told him I would get the house wired in a DAY. He looked at me like my brain was made of oatmeal. The house took over a month and it's still not completely wired....The cable and trench to the house took a couple months....I just got power run to the north end and to the barn. The atrium STILL isn't wired. But I did get the shop first (of course ). We ran for two months on a generator I bought, but now we're on street power....boy, is that nice.

....Either way, I've seen some pix of very large home built bowl lathes
where the whole unit was concrete(rebar reinforced to be sure)....

Concrete sure sounds like a great way to go Jeff. I woulda never thought of that. Now....My first fear would be longevity. Wouldn't the vibration eventually degrade the concrete? I don't know much about it.....But I sure would prefer it.

....They don't use the electricity generated for "frivolous" purposes, like radio, television, computers, etc., but for their livelihood.....

Yup...this is fairly true for many of the Amish. Although, there are staunch traditionalists that reject all forms of modern convenience. The folks I bought the property from, are somewhere in the middle. He didn't have a generator and relied on other people to charge his cordless drill batteries...but he did have an alternator to charge 12V batteries for other stuff. The woodworking tools were driven by a 20 ft shaft under the floor with a pulley system belted to the output clutch of the engine. Pretty cool.

If you do make that giant lathe, gear that sucka way-way down to just a couple rpms.

I agree Frank...I want to be able to take it down to a crawl. I was thinking that I could either make the drive pulley easily interchangeable and mount up a tensioner pulley....or come up with a Reeves drive system of some sort. dunno yet. I'm wide open.

They must have been progressive Amish. I'm right in Amish country and everything is still done by hand, and the ice house delivers ice for the ice boxes..

All the families around us use ice for their refrigeration. There's an ice house about a mile away from us...for for many of them, it's two or three miles.....and they just send the kids with a pull wagon to pick up a block every couple days. Long walk for ice... I don't know of anyone on our street who have a generator. Lots of pneumatic systems though.

[terry miller]

Charles not sure about in your area but were I grew up in Ohio the Amish have changed alot. When I was there last year going through the old stompin grounds most of them had electric which powered there workshops but not houses, had vehicles which they paid others to drive for them and some even had phones which would be set up as a community phone in sort of a phone booth. They sure have changed since the time of my youth in that area.

[Frank Chaffee]

John,
If you really want to undertake this project you are nuts!

…And since you are nuts I am really interested in this project.

I second Jeff Meyers’ suggestion to use concrete for the base(s). I’m not qualified to say whether vibration would degrade the concrete or not, but should some wise person say that it will, it is certainly possible to isolate vibration from such a base.

If you don’t want to pay an engineer a K-note to spec rebar and mix, just use a lot of #5 or 6 bar, 2 to 3 inches from all surfaces and 1 foot or less on center, wire your bolt cage to the bars 1 or 2 feet deep, and use a five or six bag mix. If you get free professional advice from an engineer, so much the better. Vaughn McMillan would be one to contact about this.

Another approach might be to use square steel tubing (say 4” x 4” x ¼” wall) in a trussed framework with lighter members. The larger vertical tubes could be grouted to several inches below the tops after bolting to the foundation, and top plates with head and tailstocks could be either bolted or welded to those. This would allow the two drive shafts on either side of the Reeves to be supported at each end in pillow block bearings.

How about a set of rails in the floor for that thingie to rest the turning tools on?

Sounds like fun…
Frank Chaffee

[Mark Pruitt]

....So here's what I was thinkin':

I figger I can build a lathe....

John,
Nice to know you have your priorities straight. Lathe first. Oh heck. Lathe only.

[John Hart]

...If you really want to undertake this project you are nuts!....

Yeah...I'm nuts....But man! how can I resist the temptation?? Funny thing is...I like the idea of concrete but I'm a creton when it comes to concrete. I don't even know what you mean by "5 or 6 bag mix"! Hopefully my neighbor knows. I also like the 4X4 truss arrangement you mentioned. Maybe I should consider a hybrid design. I've been working a little on CAD to come up with a concrete design today...no luck so far...but I'll keep at it. After all, Mark's right....I got my priorities straight so I better sieze the day.

[Kenneth Hertzog]

Hi John
Great to hear from you. Have been wondering how the project was going. I build a lathe for the neighbor which has a VS reeves drive attached to it.
If you want I will send pictures. the last time I tried to post pics to the site it took three days to figure out. SORRY will send to your email though.
Then if you can post it thats OK. It has about 40 inches from floor to center of shaft.
ken
slippery rock, pa