# Dan Gelbart Posts Video Of His Home Made Precision Lathe



## Shadowdog500

This is a neat video of Dan Gelbart's home made CNC late/grinder that is accurate to 1 micron.  





 Mr. gelbart is a tinkerer extraudinaire and made a fortune designing and building printer/optical devices and is called the father of computer to plate technology.  He sold his company for 1 billion a while ago and teaches a college prototype design class part time and tinkers now.  Check out his other videos which are a series from his prototype design course.  The workshop he is filming in is in his basement.

Chris


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## joshua43214

Shadowdog500 said:


> ...The workshop he is filming in is in his basement.
> 
> Chris



says it all right there...


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## george wilson

A very cool lathe! But,I think I'd stick with my HLVH. I hope the glued together granite parts are strong enough. Probably are. The man clearly knows what he is doing. But,he doesn't seem to be protecting his lathe from grinding dust for some reason.

What does it mean:"says it all right there?"


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## sgisler

Pretty slick. Love the tailstock, been toying with the idea of building a capstan tailstock for my 10k. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## joshua43214

george wilson said:


> A very cool lathe! But,I think I'd stick with my HLVH. I hope the glued together granite parts are strong enough. Probably are. The man clearly knows what he is doing. But,he doesn't seem to be protecting his lathe from grinding dust for some reason.
> 
> What does it mean:"says it all right there?"



The granite will break before the glue joint fails along the sheer joint. The White Knight and Spaceship II are held together with epoxy, that little lathe won't stress the glue joint in the least bit. My guess is that the compression bolts are to take up the stress that the air bearings apply rather than any stress from actual machining. 

With air bearings, there should be no need to protect anything since there is no contact between bearing surfaces, and the positive air flow will prevent debris from getting into the bearing areas. I am sure he checks everything occasionally, but it would take years of use before there was any wear.

"says it all right there" is just a comment on what you can do in a "basement" workshop given enough ingenuity. I will hazard that he spent less building that lathe than he would have on a new precision tool room lathe and has he the accuracy of a laboratory grade lathe.


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## Shadowdog500

george wilson said:


> A very cool lathe! But,I think I'd stick with my HLVH. I hope the glued together granite parts are strong enough. Probably are. The man clearly knows what he is doing. But,he doesn't seem to be protecting his lathe from grinding dust for some reason.
> 
> What does it mean:"says it all right there?"



He has an entire career designing and building extreme cutting edge precision devices for the optical/printing world, and has over 100 patents on building small precision stuff.  To do this he had to build his own cutting edge precision tools required to do the job.    I'd bet dollars to donuts that he thought through of all of these concerns before designing and building that lathe.

Chris


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## Shadowdog500

I knew he had at least one other lathe in his shop so I looked through his mill and lathe video.  He also has a store bought Weiler CNC lathe in his basement.


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## Franko

Some basements are different than others. Cubic money and smarts can do that. I was fascinated with that video. I switched to viewing it on u-Tube so I could subscribe. After his video was over several other completely fascinating videos presented, including a presentation of linear motors for industry and some old British videos about magnets from the 70s.. I highly recommend watching what comes up after.

Thanks for that, Shadowdog!!!


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## gt40

Amazing content- thanks for sharing!


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## calstar

_Franco:  "Some basements are different than others. Cubic money and smarts can do that."_

Yes indeed.

Brian


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## george wilson

I had bought a Weiler Matador years ago that was in excellent mechanical condition. I got it too cheap to turn it down,but at the time I just could not make enough room for it. So,I kept it at the shop at work for a few years and finally sold it to a friend. I had no idea that in a year or 2 I'd be moving into another house where I'd be building a large shop. I'm still kicking myself in the rear end for selling it,but hindsight is 20-20,as they say.

I'll admit,I wasn't crazy about that German nose either,where you have to unscrew bolts to get the chuck off,and couldn't find faceplates or chuck backing plates in any of my sources. Maybe if I looked in German supply places,for the price of a small car I could have found these items!

So,I now have to listen to my friend telling me what a wonderful lathe it is whenever I speak to him. He's in New Jersey. Knowing him,I'm sure he refinished the lathe to a beautiful state!! I'd love to see the lathe now.

They are using Weilers on the new aircraft carriers. They only cost as much as a plane!

And yes,no doubt the builder has thought about everything.


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## thomas s

Chris thanks for posting this thomas s


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## rgray

That's incredible. I like the spinning piston at the beginning...gonna have to build one of those...if it works I'll let you know...if you don't hear from me....well you get the idea...I sure I can do it.... when pigs fly.

The air bearing from semi conductor machines....I think that's what he says?  Cheap on Ebay...couple hundred bucks he says.....I can't find any....anyone know a search clue?


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## dickr

Makes me think of Mr. Ford and Edison. Both kinda started in a basement.  Figuratively speaking.
dickr


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## bosephus

a billionaire can have what ever toy his heart desires , not matter the cost


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