Thread: Home Made Lathe

It takes some practice, (I'm still learning myself) YouTube and a protractor have become my best friend

Take a look at the videos on this page.

https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...l+bit+grinding

Tubalcain does a good job of showing how to grind tool bits as he shows the steps on a block of wood and so it is very easy to see what is going on. It is hard to get the idea on a small bit of HSS.

Dean

how about this one?
Small Lathe | eBay

Thanks for the links i will check them out soon, i picked up a small bar 100x36mm cost all of $3.50 locally, i was looking at buying some from ebay for $15

i just had a brain fart moment and was not thinking i tried to spin the 100mm bar in the lathe and the motor is placed in a clam shell it popped one side out should be easily fixable but it was spinning the whole bar good untill the motor started to rub on the plastic

i may look into trying to machine something like a clam shell out of a small block of aluminium to mount the motor more steady

Hey Guys, Good news it took me around 1.5-2 hours machining i have now completed one side of the wheel spacers for one wheel haha yes u can have a laugh a lot of the time i was checking measurements with the vainer calipers as not to under cut the piece

i did learn that i should have cut the stock as short as possible to the required length i way over cut it and machined alllllll that off it was labour intense and time consuming but i enjoyed it

i started off with 36mm x around maybe 35-40mm wide the overall length of the piece i needed to make was 12mm so u can imagine the joy i had machining all that off on a tiny toy lathe haha

the final finished spacer came in spot on measurements or some were 00.03mm out now i donno how exact you guys like to be or precise but i consider that a good effort with using what i have on hand

the center hole still needs to either be drilled I'm not sure if to drill or machine it what's everyone's thought's on this?

now some pictures I have been wanting a lathe for years and now i am doing it and loving it

bugger half of my pictures won't load to this site

Originally Posted by gazza2009au

the center hole still needs to either be drilled I'm not sure if to drill or machine it what's everyone's thought's on this?

normally when making a spacer or something like that you would drill it out with a drill in the tail stock then go in with a boring bar to bring it to final size and make sure it is concentric (or you can use a reamer which will get the size spot on but won't fix if the hole is off center)

Btw I'm going to call it now, you have toyed with a lathe now and will soon be out looking for a fix and buying a bigger / better spec'd lathe. Once you have been bitten there is no saving you...

Hi Gazza, Don't know if you knew this, but you can end up with a small fortune metal turning??? You need to start with a BIG ONE though . Welcome to the hobby of a bottomless pit. There's always another special tool required, that you can't make but can't do without. DAMHIKT
Kryn

normally when making a spacer or something like that you would drill it out with a drill in the tail stock

What MasterSpoon means is that you would normally do this before removing the part from the chuck. This will ensure concentricity. If the parts do not need that precision then just put them back in and go. If they do need concentricity you will need to buy an indicator.

With regards to MasterSpoon's prediction, I won't mention how deep my lathe can cut in one go.

Dean

Ah bugger if it didn't take so long to machine i would make another one but by drilling the hole first, Can someone give me a tip on how to zero the dials? at this moment i am just machining material off and using the vainer calipers to measure to size i am also using the .05 as a slight guide as to how much i am removing, Last night i had a really close look at the handles/knobs it actually reads .02, .04 etc.. i was previously just counting 5 lines but i would like to learn how to zero the dials and do it the proper way

Forgot to add when i had the problem yesterday i ended up leaving off the belt and motor face cover this was rubbing and binding the motor i wasn't sure how to fix it as every attempt to repair kept binding, once it was removed the power and rpm increased a lot so much i noticed it when machining and i could hear the higher rpm pitch noise

001.jpg

i think my next lathe will be this one https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Big-...1-17e881fca362

Originally Posted by gazza2009au

i think my next lathe will be this one https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Big-Power-Mini-Metal-Rotating-Lathe-with-12000r-min-60W-Motor-and-Larger-Processing-Radius-DIY/32374848599.html
https://www.machineryhouse.com.au/L685#

There, fixed it for you

MS I would love a lathe that size but i am out of room mate, i have so many tools and saws it just clutters half of my 2.6x2.6m shed i just don't have anywhere to keep storing stuff in this shed i have 2 full size motorcycles in there, i do have 2x 2 meter benches in there but i have all sorts of crap in there too 10% organized 90% not haha i just don't have any top bench room i am currently doing a full motor rebuild on my DRZ400 motorcycle and there is just not enough space even if i could make room i have the problem of the lathe shavings and my motor rebuilding hobby colliding in a not so good way

i am constantly fighting with the wood drop saw on where to place that... i have two other bench metal drop saws plus various other saws and tooling all in the way

with these little hobby/toy lathes i can bring them inside and place them on the kitchen table 2kg and 35x25cm in size isn't a big deal where as the lathe u suggested looks stationary? also i have the luxury of air conditioning inside something the shed doesn't have

i do like that lathe tho it looks similar to those red models on Ebay SIEG i think they are called but it's all about real estate

Ah bugger if it didn't take so long to machine i would make another one but by drilling the hole first, Can someone give me a tip on how to zero the dials?

Post a picture of the dials.

Dean

It goes 0,0.2,0.4,0.6,0.8 back to 0, when i previously mentioned i was cutting 0.5 that was 5 lines or between the 0.4 and 0.6 markings

I'm still unsure if this lathe is metric or imperial, i tried machining down the 36mm stock i cannot remember what number i came to but it was a even number than i took off from memory 0.2 and it took a lot more off than 1/5th of a millimeter but again i cannot remember the exact sizes but i do remember thinking this may have been a imperial machine

unless where i am going wrong is the machine reads 0.2mm but really its machining 0.2mm off the radius so there for 0.4mm? i donno i can't work it out i have tried tho

Might be time to invest in an other couple of tools,dial indicator and magnetic base and a couple of micrometers.