Hello from the west coast

[JuryriggedSean]

Hello from Victoria BC.

Just getting into this fascinating world. I started out by making knives by hand, but got tired of all the file work. I then built my first machine as I wanted a belt grinder to make easier. I made a decent little guy out of salvaged and free materials.

What followed was a series of little projects that led me to my possibly foolhardy goal of building my own lathe. I've got a working bed, ways, and carriage and cross slide. Next on the list is building the headstock and spindle to get it functioning so I can use the lathe to build the rest of my lathe.

I've used your site previously as its been useful in sourcing material and figured I should join up and participate.

 

[Proxule]

Welcome my friend, Hope you find what you're after!

 

[YYCHM]

Welcome from Calgary. Building a lathe... I'm impressed

 

[Johnwa]

Welcome to the group. Are you making a Gingery lathe?

 

[6.5 Fan]

Welcome. You are way more ambitious than me to build a lathe.

 

[JuryriggedSean]

Hi. This whole endeavor might be quixotic, but has been great fun and an excellent practice for patience.

While I love the idea of the gingery machines, I'm cursed by the fascination of steel and I also don't have the space to do castings where I live. I would like to make a shaper in the future though.

The design is formulated from YouTube videos and old popular science articles. The bed and ways are formed by a 4 foot hunk of 8 x 8 H-beam. Most of the plate is from 5/8 A36 that I found a bunch of 9 x 22 pieces at a great price. The main carriage runs on box ways, and the cross slide runs on home made dovetails cut by hand. Scraping and paralleling those was a pain.

I'm using trailer bearings(tapered roller) for the headstock now and just 1" round bar for the spindle with a faceplate. This is just to get it functional and I plan on a larger better spindle down the road. After that will be the compound and tail stock. It's a very organic machine as much of it is more made to fit rather than to dimensions but I estimate it will have 10-12" swing over the cross slide.

I'm trying to make as much of it out of scrounged material and recycled items as possible which creates interesting problems to fit things together. I will shell out for a proper chuck though. The motor and lots of hardware comes from a free treadmill, lawnmower engine and whatever else I can find.

I'll post some pictures later tonight. Maybe give some of you a chuckle.

 

[combustable herbage]

Welcome to the group,, some great ideas there I love to see stuff re used.

 

[kevin.decelles]

Started a gingery lathe in 2001, that led to........ many sub hobbies (casting, forge, scraping, electronics, 3D printing etc.) and many good friendships from this forum

I’ve looked at many designs since gingery, and if starting today would build a cement based design that uses a v8 block to provide alignment.... I digress

Welcome, post your pictures! Some build, some buy, some watch but we all have the same disease!


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[DavidR8]

Welcome from another Victoria resident! I think that makes 4 of us in the region!

 

[YotaBota]

Enjoy the ride from one of the other Victorians

 

[kevin.decelles]

Welcome from another Victoria resident! I think that makes 4 of us in the region!

Mental note, time to enlist more johns in calgary


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[YotaBota]

World domination,,,,,,,, one website at a time,,,,,

 

[CalgaryPT]

Welcome aboard from Calgary.

 

[JuryriggedSean]

Here's a few pictures. Excuse the messy workshop.



This is the cross slide looking towards the headstock. I've got my spindle location indicated on the headstock, but still need to figure out how to get my 1.98" hole for the bearing cup. The compound location is on the slide in sharpie layout fluid. I haven't finalize my design for that yet.



This is the cross slide showing the dovetails and gib of 1/4" brass. I made a delrin lead nut from a piece of 3/4" bar I got from a machinist in town. I've heard of acetal gibs but decided on something more traditional so I went with brass. The action is nice and smooth with no movement even when I violently shake the cross slide. Eventually I'll upgrade the lead screw to 1/2-10 acme or something so I can add on a graduated dial.



This is the homebrew rack and pinion from a bike chain and sprocket. Right now it's a 1:1 ration so I need to gear that down eventually. The gear on the bottom is from an old B&S lawnmower engine I pulled apart. I'm always keeping my eye out for a proper rack and pinion. The cradle that should be under the way is off right now but would be bolted on later. It has horizontal and vertical gibs as well.



The other side of the carriage showing one brass gibb in. The bottom gib is out for now. This gib is actually 2 separate pieces of brass at the moment but still feels nice and stable. I might need to upgrade it to one piece later but time will tell. The overhang on the cross slide will be removed and pushed to the left giving a 13" swing over cross slide.

You can also see the one socket head cap screw on the dovetail to lock it. Haven't really tested how effective it is yet so modifications to that will likely be needed. The compound slide will likely end up approx 3.25" to 3.5" tall, and I should be able to mount a 3" tool post on top of that.

I'm still working out how to oil the ways. I think I might dremel channels in the bottom of the slides and just have holes I can plug on the top to stick an oiler spout.

Any thoughts or suggestions are always appreciated.

 

[CalgaryPT]

And just like that, another addiction is started

Welcome.

 

[JuryriggedSean]

It is addicting. I come from a wood/carpentry background but there's something very satisfying and primal about bending heavy metal to my will. Thanks for the positive feed back everyone.

 

[YotaBota]

It might be prudent to start a thread in "Your Active Projects" for the lathe, that way all the info is in one place.