Has anyone built a woodlathe

[RJF]

I am interested in building a wood lathe mainly for turning bowls.
I want to be able to turn 30 inch diameter. Between centers will be expandable with the addition of bed extensions. I have the design done in my head and am currently drafting it on Auto Cad. My plan is to be able to construct the lathe without welding using Channel Iron. My current thinking is to use a 1 1/2 Hp motor. If anyone has information on homemade lathes I would like to hear from you and get any advice from your experience.

Richard

 

[Round]

Hmmm, 1.5hp sounds a bit low for a 30" bowl. I am currently building an outboard lathe but I dont plan on having a tailstock.

 

[mkart]

home made bowl lathe

I am using a 2hp motor and a VFD on my home built bowl lathe (would prefer a 3hp but don't have a large enough drive). I would not even try a tailstock. Without welding your frame it would never stay aligned. You can do almost anything without a tailstock and a little thought. I am currently looking for a calibrated crow-bar to straighten a bent spindle so I can get back to turning without chattering my teeth. I used pillow blocks and had the bearing too far back on the spindle.
mkart

 

[RJF]

Homemade Lathe

Thanks for the advice. I think you are right on the motor size. I'll change my plans for at least a 2 Hp it will depend on what I can get for a reasonable price, I would like to have a variable speed motor but don't expect to be able to afford that. You may be right about the welding but I will try bolting and doweling first if there is any movement I will have to weld. A Tailstock is not absolutely essential but I like to use it at the start for safety until the blank is balanced.
Not sure what a calibrated pry-bar is but I would use a dial indicator to true your bent spindle remember you have to over bend ie: go past the true point then come back to release the stresses. Don't over stress the bearings in the pillow blocks support the ends by some other means.

Richard...

 

[Kudzu]

I have designed several bowl lathes in my head and even sketched a couple out. (In a former life I was a mechanical designer) The hardest part of what your trying to build is the tailstock. I don't see much way to ever get a tailstock properly aligned without some machine work.

You might could make the tailstock height adjustable though. Had not consided that before.

I was going to build one when I found one on Ebay I bought. May still build a bigger one someday.

PS Check out www.surpluscenter.com for a motor. I just bought one from them and well pleased with the service and price. Also if you just going to turn large dia's on there you might want to look at a gear motor since your going to need only slow speeds.That would also cut down on the horse power requirements some.

 

[jwitnberg]

Home made big bowl lathe

Several years ago I built a faceplate lathe from mostly scrounged materials. The intent was to be able to turn pieces in the 30 to 36 inch range. So far the biggest piece was 14 x 28 diam pine turned wet. A lot of the design was based on what I could find or buy cheaply, and massive was the main design perameter. The lathe frame is 4 x 4 steel tube welded together and filled with concrete. The spindle is made from a piece of 2 1/2 bar with a 2" 8 tpi spindle thread (not a standard size it seems) mounted on pillow blocks. The working end has tapered roller bearings and the pully end has ball bearings. I have been using a 2 hp motor geared down with pulleys to give me between 200 and 500 rpm. I am looking into getting a VFD for a 2hp 3phase motor that I have. Pulleys are not a good speed change solution for this type of lathe since you need to change speed several times on a large bowl as you turn in toward the center. When I first built the lathe I used a stand type tool rest. This moved around a lot, especially in the roughing stages of turning. I have since jury rigged a bed from laminated baltic birch ply and welded up a banjo/tool post and toolrest from steel. This setup isn't perfect but works much better then the stand. Also worth considering is positioning your spindle so that you can get at the back side of your turnings. My frame is around 2 feet square with the spindle centered. I should have either made a base that tapered toward the top, or mounted the spindle as close to the left side as the pillow blocks would allow. I may change this when I change the motor and drive since it is a real inconvenience. Hope the short comings of my first try help you avoid some problems in your design. If you would like some pics let me know.
Jan

 

[RJF]

DIY Lathe

Thanks for the feedback. You may be right about the welding but I will try bolting and doweling first if there is any movement I will weld. A Tailstock is not absolutely essential but I like to use it at the start for safety until the blank is balanced.
I do have a plan on how to align the tailstock with the spindle but it will require welding.
I first got the idea of building my own lathe after seeing one of Ken Bullock's Videos. He used to turn in New Brunswick Canada before ill health stopped him. He and his wife had lathes that had been made by a local shop instructor. They looked simple and solid I didn't see a tailstock in his video.
Regards RJ
🙂

 

[mkart]

working again!

Well I have straightened my bent spindle and replaced the front pillow block on my home made bowl lathe. I was able to easily finish turn a Cherry salad bowl previously roughed out and dried in the microwave. It was 17" in diameter and 4" deep. I also roughed out a salad bowl from green Red Oak that was 16" diameter and 8" deep. I would guess that the block weighed 50 pounds when I started and the lathe performed great. I am now looking for a tree between 22" and 26" so I can try to get a 20" bowl out of it. We had bad storms this week so good chance I be able to try it next week. I have attached a picture that shows the lathe with an oak bowl mounted. Also in the picture is remnants of a cherry bowl that blew up and hit me in the chin. I am not sure what happened but I believe I had the tool rest too low while using a scraper. It's crude but it works and when your just screwing around, thats all you need.
mkart

 

[RJF]

Looks Good

Well I have straightened my bent spindle and replaced the front pillow block on my home made bowl lathe. I was able to easily finish turn a Cherry salad bowl previously roughed out and dried in the microwave. It was 17" in diameter and 4" deep. I also roughed out a salad bowl from green Red Oak that was 16" diameter and 8" deep. I would guess that the block weighed 50 pounds when I started and the lathe performed great. I am now looking for a tree between 22" and 26" so I can try to get a 20" bowl out of it. We had bad storms this week so good chance I be able to try it next week. I have attached a picture that shows the lathe with an oak bowl mounted. Also in the picture is remnants of a cherry bowl that blew up and hit me in the chin. I am not sure what happened but I believe I had the tool rest too low while using a scraper. It's crude but it works and when your just screwing around, thats all you need.
mkart

Did you find that calibrated crowbar?
The lathe looks very sturdy thanks for posting the picture.
What kind of a setup do you have for your toolrest?
I had a 14" Maple bowl explode on me a month ago It was cracked and I made the mistake of cranking up the speed too high once it was balanced, one piece did hit my wrist and I had a nasty bruise for a while the other half hit and destroyed a ceiling light fixture above my lathe.
A very scary experience and it ruined the bowl.

Richard

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." Dr. Seuss.

 

[mkart]

tool rest

I use an old outboard floor stand I bought at an auction for $35. I goes with an Oliver 159. It weighs close to 100 pounds but is really not the way to go. If I ever come up with enough scrap metal I will weld something up for a more solid frame and incorporate a short bed for a solid tool rest. To straighten the spindle I just mounted it on a large metal lathe, found the high spot and used a 6 foot prybar to tweak it. It is now under 0.002 out. I also replaced the front bearing with a 1 11/16" bearing on a bushing closer to the load. Before I had used a 1 1/8" bearing behind the bushing on the shaft itself. I only did that since the bushing size was between 1 11/16" and 1 3/4". I have since turned it down to fit the 1 11/16" bearing in use now. If you ever get started on one post some pictures. I am curious to see others ideas and approaches.
thanks
Matt

 

[bonsaipeter]

Homemade Bowl Lathe

A few years ago I decided that I just had to have a bowl lathe that would swing up to 36" over the bed. I occasonally get these crazy notions. After much thought and many, many sketches in the trash I came up with a design that works quite well. Some of the main points are:

I used heavy duty steel channel for most of the construction which is entirely bolted together. Use Grade 5 or 8 bolts to avoid stretching over time. The alignment seems to be holding just fine. The only welding is to hold a piece of heavy steel channel iron to a baseplate which forms the headstock.

I pondered cosiderably over the bearing system to use until one day "the light came on." I was in the trailer parts section of a local store when it hit me, a TRAILER HUB and SPINDLE. Think about it, many others have already done the engineering and testing. A 24" diameter trailer tire going down the road at 60 mph rotates at 841 rpm (do the math) and is designed to carry a load of up to 3,000 lbs. Well within the parameters required for a bowl lathe. I had to remachine the spindle with a 1-1/2 dia. x 6 tpi thread for chucks and faceplates and a keyway for the pulley.

For the tailstock I modified a tailstock from a Nova 3000 which a friend gave to me.

The design of the lathe is with a total bed length of 60", upon which side the headstock, toolrest, and tailstock. I usually start a large bowl using the tailstock for added stability and safety. Once the blank is roughed and in balance, I remove the tailstock and slide the headstock towards the end of the bed so that I can work comfortably standing at the end of the bed.

I am using a 1-1/2 hp DC motor with an electronic speed control to power my monster. It's adaquate, but a little more power would be appreciated for the really large diameters.

The real challange on this lathe is not the turning, but the hoisting of the block of wood onto it.

Hope this gives you some ideas to help you in your design.

Peter

 

[RJF]

A few years ago I decided that I just had to have a bowl lathe that would swing up to 36" over the bed. I occasonally get these crazy notions. After much thought and many, many sketches in the trash I came up with a design that works quite well. Some of the main points are:
Peter

Thanks Peter, Great Idea with the Trailer Hub & Spindle I will have to check that out, would love to see a photo of your lathe or any drawings or sketches.
Richard...

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." Dr. Seuss

 

[Kyle]

Is it cheeper to buy a lathe (like a jet minilathe) or to make one.

Also where do u get the drive parts like the threads and the internail belt drive?

Thanks
Kyle

 

[mkart]

buy or build

Kyle,
I don't think anyone here would recomend that you try to build a lathe before first owning one. In fact most people would tell you not to bother with building one at all. If I would have gone out and purchased all the parts needed to get me where I'm at on this bowl lathe I would have spent well over $1,000. That would be a bit of a waste of money. I am only building one because I already had most of the parts needed and it seemed like a fun project. If it never worked I would have lost nothing and not cared. A mini lathe is very affordable and in my mind would cost you more to try to build than buy. I bought a Jet mini with "speed control" on sale for $289. No way I could build a quality machine for that. In fact I don't believe I could build a quality machine at all. This is just for fun. I have roughed out 12 bowls around 16" in diameter and finished 1 thus far. But I know I will buy a large lathe as soon as I find a used one in my price range or save enough for a Stubby. As for the rest of your question spindles can be found on ebay when someone parts out a lathe, you can only hope its straight. Here in ST. Louis we have a used junk dealer where I found a 2hp motor, pillow blocks and pulleys cheap. Someone gave me a couple of VFDs free.
good luck
mkart