Clock mini lathe manual#

I achieved an acceptable balance of slide/friction with the screws loosened by one turn to enable it to move when I push it with moderate force (you won't need to move it all that much). Do not give up immediately if it doesn't slide. Now you need to test the sliding ability of it. Screws through the alumnium into the UHMW hold it together. I enlarged the holes in the angle to 1/4' and tapped the UHMW with a 1/4-20 thread. To assemble, I simply clamped the four pieces to the base and drilled through the angle into the UHMW with a small bit.

But I figured that I had a pretty powerful motor sitting around, so I might as well make it big enough to handle large salt shakers and chair legs so in the future I could do large things. I decided to try to make a wood lathe for pieces up to 4 inches in diameter and about 30 inches long, although I will not be trying something that big until I get more practice with small items, like tops, chess pieces, other little toys. tree size logs on a wood lathe and 50 pound steel bars on a metal lathe are best left to professionals I think. I would highly recommend not going too overboard. For the first version of my lathe, I decided to just stick with wood and see if I could come up with something that actually worked. Also a wood lathe does not need the complicated tool rest that a metal lathe has. A wood lathe requires a less powerful motor and not as close tolerances. The first thing you have to decide is what kind of lathe you want. First, I would advise you to look at the diagram in the to learn the basic parts of a lathe. So, if you are reading this, you must be interested in building a homemade lathe. And wear safety glasses when using it because particles fly around. Don't try this unless you have at least a little bit of experience with tools. I take no responsibility for anything you do.

Warning: This is a powerful device designed to spin stuff quickly. I hope that I have documented my project here in an understandable way. I managed to build this lathe in about a week, with not much more than a cordless drill, a drill press, a jigsaw, and assorted hand tools.

Clock mini lathe manual#

Because your design choices will vary, this article is more of a record of how I built this one, rather than a manual for building yours. I ended up using almost all scrap materials from my basement, so there is no need to follow my materials choices. Being only a high school student, I wanted to experiment with a lathe without having to spend hundreds of dollars that I don't have. Although I know other people have built lathes themselves, after an enormous amount of looking on Google, I saw most homemade lathes involve casting and milling, as well as using off the shelf components like chucks and tapers.