Thread: Welding lathe

I've just made a welding lathe - between centres - I have used it successfully to cut with plasma, today I tried it with my Lincoln SP170 flux core. I bypassed the trigger with a spst switch for remote starting. Today I turned it by hand, but will motorise eventually. I was surprised how narrow the bead was, guess it doesn'r shake as much as me. Spattered like hell but will clean up with a bit of effort. Next to make a feed mechanism so I can build up shafts continuously.

Any chance of some pics of the unit, please Clive. Spraying with an anti spatter before welding, may help in removing the worst of the spatter.
Kryn

Kryn,
It's just a frame with centres made from threaded rod, I'll. Take some photos in the morning. It won't take long to remove the spatter with a scraper made from a power hacksaw blade.

I made a related bit of gear for plasma cutting pipe and didn't think of using it for welding.
//metalworkforums.com/f65/t1864...ghlight=Plasma
I would have to replace the PVC sleeves on the rollers with some steel ones because welding would make the steel a lot hotter.

We converted an old lathe at work for welding. Had to change the motor to drop the speed right down, but it works wonderfully. Nice machine to use especially when running a little hot.

Waiting on photos of your build - maybe my next home project

OK, this is the "lathe" as it is now, I have a PWM controller driving a window winder on my mill, i have the option of using it for the welding/plasma drive as well as the mill. If it works as I want and I see no reason why not. I will get another one and put this one back on the mill.
I'm thinking a couple of bike sprockets for the transmission and probably a couple more to drive a leadscrew to move the handpiece along.

Have to load the photos one at a time

Pardon my ignorance Clive, and it's possibly a stupid question, but what is a PWM controller???
Kryn

Originally Posted by KBs PensNmore

Pardon my ignorance Clive, and it's possibly a stupid question, but what is a PWM controller???
Kryn

Pusle Width Modulator, it works as a variable speed controller with very little loss of torque.
The one in the picture goes from barely moving to too much feed for the mill.
I got an old bike today and have got the sprockets off so next step is to mount them so they can drive the unit. I have to work around the clutch I made for the mill as it was pinned and I don't want to disturb it.