Lathe Building Questions

I appreciate the responses! I do understand that this isn't an ideal pathway, but I'm excited about it, and I'm glad to get these kind of responses. So the plans I've been referring to are here:
http://www.modelengineeringwebsite.com/lathe_build.html
I looked around at some different plans and paths, and this seems to be most in line of what I was looking for.
Ray, you think aluminum is sufficient then if I thicken up critical components? You suggested acme rod, so I'm guessing it's recommended to change the lead screw to an acme thread?
David, I'm not sure what you mean by linear bearing rods? Is that the "ball screw"? If so, how difficult is it to install something like that, seems like a hard thing to thread a nut on! Thanks for clarifying the silver steel too! I was under the impression it was a stainless steel, I thought that's what stainless was called when it was first invented, so I just assumed that's what was meant.
I do understand that having a lathe would make this easier, the author of the plans even points out it is needed for some parts. That kind of brings me to the motivation to build one, and also my question of whether it would be more practical to pay to get those parts turned, or just purchase those components and alter the design to fit?
George, thanks so much for sharing that lathe! By the way, I've been reading a lot of what you have to say on this forum, and I'd like to say thank you, as I'm learning so much! Regarding the lathe you pictured, would it be better to try and alter the design to have a similar bed to that one? It seems harder to make a lathe bed like that compared to the two bars, I imagine it would be better to just buy a bed at that point.
Anyway, thanks so far for the comments! Hopefully you guys can take a look at the plans, and let me know what you think!
 
Rails like this (Right now, they are bolted to some 80/20 extrusions.):

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Besides ebay, you can also pick them up from Glacern Machine Tools: http://www.glacern.com/sbr

The bearings would be a little light for a lathe. Bushings would be better for this type. They are rated for a higher dynamic load than the ball bearings.

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In this context, I would consider using aluminum for non-wear surfaces and would increase thickness by 50-100%. It's much easier to work.

For your purposes, ACME rod is probably fine. Most all lathes (that I know of) use precision ACME rod. -Make sure you purchase the correct orientation (left/right hand) for your application.

Haven't had time to look at your plans. What parts do you need to have turned?

Ray



evergreenblue said:
I appreciate the responses! I do understand that this isn't an ideal pathway, but I'm excited about it, and I'm glad to get these kind of responses. So the plans I've been referring to are here:
http://www.modelengineeringwebsite.com/lathe_build.html
I looked around at some different plans and paths, and this seems to be most in line of what I was looking for.
Ray, you think aluminum is sufficient then if I thicken up critical components? You suggested acme rod, so I'm guessing it's recommended to change the lead screw to an acme thread?
David, I'm not sure what you mean by linear bearing rods? Is that the "ball screw"? If so, how difficult is it to install something like that, seems like a hard thing to thread a nut on! Thanks for clarifying the silver steel too! I was under the impression it was a stainless steel, I thought that's what stainless was called when it was first invented, so I just assumed that's what was meant.
I do understand that having a lathe would make this easier, the author of the plans even points out it is needed for some parts. That kind of brings me to the motivation to build one, and also my question of whether it would be more practical to pay to get those parts turned, or just purchase those components and alter the design to fit?
George, thanks so much for sharing that lathe! By the way, I've been reading a lot of what you have to say on this forum, and I'd like to say thank you, as I'm learning so much! Regarding the lathe you pictured, would it be better to try and alter the design to have a similar bed to that one? It seems harder to make a lathe bed like that compared to the two bars, I imagine it would be better to just buy a bed at that point.
Anyway, thanks so far for the comments! Hopefully you guys can take a look at the plans, and let me know what you think!
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As an aside, it would be interesting to know how the two 18 year old brothers built their first South Bend lathe back in the 19th century. I mean a complete story on how they went about doing it, as they didn't have access to the modern day tools we now have. I believe the started it soon after coming over to the US from Ireland.
 
SE18:

Actually a good reference is the Holtzapffel books. They go back to the 1700's and go over many of the improvements of lathes over time as well starting with bow lathes. Goes into things like making screws without having a screw to start with.
 
David, I have seen those on a few websites that I was browsing. I figured something like that would have been hard to work with, although I understand the increased rigidity. You said bushings would be better though? I imagine that would make using something like this even harder to pull off, especially in my situation, or are those sold separately? I'll keep those in mind though, that would require a bit more modification to the design I'm looking at.
Ray, not only thank you for the suggestion of increasing the aluminum mass, but thanks for the tip on the threads! I would have never given the thread direction a thought if you hadn't mentioned something! It seems the main parts that need turned are the headstock and tailstock spindles, and the sleeve for the headstock spindle. The plans have you align everything after it is fully built, and it seems that it would complicate construction a bit, but I imagine that if I needed to, I could try to turn the tailstock spindle with a working headstock, but that seems out of my reach and skill level to alter the course that much. It seems that the faceplate needs some turning to fit a purchased chuck as well.
SE18, that's some of the sentiment that is helping motivate me, not only in this endeavor, but in my woodworking hobby as well. I've been learning to use hand tools only, to understand those fundamental skills that I never learned in a wood-shop with power tools. That's not really in keeping with this forum, so I digress.
Truebane, those are actually the plans I was going to use, until I came across the ones I want to use now.
 
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pebbleworm said:
I tripped over a home made lathe/mill called a multimachine using old engine blocks as the major castings. There is a yahoo group at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/multimachine/?yguid=253596666
LOTS of information in the files there. You have to join the group, but it is an instantaneous process. An interesting machine, and a lot of other improvised tools there too.
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I've ran across this site before and was intrigued. Been googling about it again just now, and like the concrete lathe, I can't find anybody whose actually built or attempted building one other than the person whose advertising it. Anybody ran across any evidence of one these things being built by a third party, successfully or unsuccessfully?
 
When you get to the point of knowing exactly what you need turned, let me know. I can (most likely) assist. You'll need to cover postage to/from. Small shop-drops are freebees but you'll otherwise need to supply materials.

Ray

evergreenblue said:
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Ray, not only thank you for the suggestion of increasing the aluminum mass, but thanks for the tip on the threads! I would have never given the thread direction a thought if you hadn't mentioned something! It seems the main parts that need turned are the headstock and tailstock spindles, and the sleeve for the headstock spindle. The plans have you align everything after it is fully built, and it seems that it would complicate construction a bit, but I imagine that if I needed to, I could try to turn the tailstock spindle with a working headstock, but that seems out of my reach and skill level to alter the course that much. It seems that the faceplate needs some turning to fit a purchased chuck as well.
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They sell bushings as well as the bearing blocks for those rods. The bushings are generally a little cheaper. Here are some at McMaster: http://www.mcmaster.com/#standard-linear-bearings/=m3bd7g but these are kind of expensive and my rods are metric. It does give you the idea though. The bushing type have a much higher load rating. Around 20X.

Don't go crazy with the build from scratch idea. You can pick up replacement spindles for the mini-lathe for about $40 and the tailstock quill is about $25. I have a set that I am going to use to make a 4th axis (CNC) eventually. I picked up some 30mm pillow block bearings from Surplus Center for like $8 each.

evergreenblue said:
David, I have seen those on a few websites that I was browsing. I figured something like that would have been hard to work with, although I understand the increased rigidity. You said bushings would be better though? I imagine that would make using something like this even harder to pull off, especially in my situation, or are those sold separately? I'll keep those in mind though, that would require a bit more modification to the design I'm looking at.
Ray, not only thank you for the suggestion of increasing the aluminum mass, but thanks for the tip on the threads! I would have never given the thread direction a thought if you hadn't mentioned something! It seems the main parts that need turned are the headstock and tailstock spindles, and the sleeve for the headstock spindle. The plans have you align everything after it is fully built, and it seems that it would complicate construction a bit, but I imagine that if I needed to, I could try to turn the tailstock spindle with a working headstock, but that seems out of my reach and skill level to alter the course that much. It seems that the faceplate needs some turning to fit a purchased chuck as well.
SE18, that's some of the sentiment that is helping motivate me, not only in this endeavor, but in my woodworking hobby as well. I've been learning to use hand tools only, to understand those fundamental skills that I never learned in a wood-shop with power tools. That's not really in keeping with this forum, so I digress.
Truebane, those are actually the plans I was going to use, until I came across the ones I want to use now.
Click to expand...
 
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