Winner Homemade Lathe Build Log

[mygoggie]

Man, this is cool! Allow me (as an engineer) to say that I am proud of you even though we have never met!! Remember that the art of turning a design into a working product is to never allow your dreams to be stopped ...

 

[Andre]

Holy guacamole! I just found this thread. Way to go! As a near-daily user of a watchmaker's lathe, I'm following this thread with a lot of interest. Will you be making your own hardened & lapped headstock spindle too? In any case, keep us posted!
Thanks!
...Doug

What watchmakers lathe do you have? And do you use it for watchmaking or just for projects in general?

I didn't even know real watchmakers lathe spindles were lapped. The piece I used for the spindle was from a printer/copier/xerox machine thing. I's dead nuts round, probably within 1-3 tenths or so if any. I believe it is ground stock, but if not it's still very round. As for hardening, probably not. This steel is not hardenable and most likely leaded. This steel when turning is like cast iron, and it's chips are mostly dust. It machines better than 12l14 and is the best machining steel you will EVER find!

Thanks for your interest! Pics of your lathe would be greatly appreciated, too. I really like the concept of watchmakers lathes, small, extremely overbuilt, and made to last 5 lifetimes.

 

[Andre]

Man, this is cool! Allow me (as an engineer) to say that I am proud of you even though we have never met!! Remember that the art of turning a design into a working product is to never allow your dreams to be stopped ...

Thank you very much!

 

[Andre]

Got the collet system working today!

Made the drawbar, and tested out the collets. They work like a charm! Grip nice and tight, no wiggle, and run almost perfectly true. I do have to remake the wood drawbar knob though, I don't like the way it turned out.

Here is the drawbar and collet outside of the lathe.



And if anybody is wondering, this is how the wood knob is held on. I set my Craftsman 109 to the coarsest pitch with the gears I have for it and went to town.
(Hey Don, this is what I was asking about using locktite for)




And here it is in the lathe's spindle.



And another shot.

If your wondering, that's my Feinwekbau 700 in the background. I use my "gunsmithing" bench for taking pictures because there is real good lighting there and I didn't feel like moving it before taking the picture.


And here is a collet next to a SV .22lr cartridge for size comparison. (A .22lr (non stinger) is almost 1" exactly)




And here is gripping a piece of steel rod.



It's coming together! Slowly but surely.

 

[cazclocker]

Nicely done! What sort of collets are you using?
...Doug

 

[Don B]

(Hey Don, this is what I was asking about using locktite for)

View attachment 83948

If you used the red color permanent Loctite (I think it's number 262) and it was cleaned well it will never move, if it's the blue (I think it's number 242) then I would pin it as well.

Looking really good Andre, your homemade collets turned out great, it's hard to make small stuff like that accurately, well done......)

 

[Andre]

Nicely done! What sort of collets are you using?
...Doug

I made the collets, but they are very similar in size to a dremel collet. A little fatter at the top and steel instead of aluminum like a dremel collet.

 

[Andre]

If you used the red color permanent Loctite (I think it's number 262) and it was cleaned well it will never move, if it's the blue (I think it's number 242) then I would pin it as well.

Looking really good Andre, your homemade collets turned out great, it's hard to make small stuff like that accurately, well done......)

Thank you!

It's red locktite, the bottle (ancient from Xerox) is labeled with one number, and a sharpie mark with another number LOL so it's been refilled a few times. I doubt the stuff in it is what the sharpie mark says, but it's red and really strong. I think I will pin it just to be sure, I may have to take it apart again anyway to shorten it up a little so I'll do that last.

 

[kd4gij]

I always heard it took an Engineer to realy screw things up.:roflmao: I have seen some realy strange things on prints.

 

[John Hasler]

I always heard it took an Engineer to realy screw things up.

That's right. We take classes in it. Mere tradesmen can't properly bungle a job: they can't handle the math.

When it is really important to get things wrong, though, bring in a consultant with a PhD.