Converting a wood lathe to rudimentary metal lathe

If you're in to modifying motorcycles it doesn't take you long to realize some metal working machines would be a helpful.

A couple trips to the machine shop to spin up some spacers and odd bits will reinforce that it sure would be nice to do it yourself at home. More so if you get your measurements wrong and they make you something that doesn't fit.

Cost savings of building or buying a metal lathe is arguable, probably not worth it if you only do a few spacers every couple years. But if you do a lot or are a "tinkerer" a lathe is a reasonable purchase. Or maybe a mill....

Anyways, I've always made my own spacers and small pieces by hand. Gets it done and I'm practiced enough to turn out my own stuff accurately. some complex pieces too.

But it's slow, tedious laborious work and I'm not as young or patient as I once was. The more complex the piece, the more I think to myself I'm getting too old for this cr.........

I'm also not flush with cash.

So, in order to save some of my time (and sanity) I'm going to cobble up a basic lathe.

In order to keep costs down, I'm "recycling" lots of bits I have lying around.

Key parts are an old wood turning lathe I've inherited somewhere over the years,  a basic x/y drill press vice, and numerous broken/ dulled HSS and Cobalt drill bits that I can grind into cutters.

Here's a pic of the humble beginnings:

[image: Posted Image]

It's in the tear down process, but it's sound so far. Headstock bearings are smooth a tight, frame is solid.

It's a single phase motor, so no speed control other than pulley steps. Slowest pulley is right around 300 rpm by the placard, so it's a touch fast for aluminum with HSS tools but will work. It's too fast for even mild steel unless I want to be grinding bits ever 3 minutes.

If it works well once I've got it all together I may look at swapping out a treadmill variable speed motor and try turning steel in the future.

The last piece of the puzzle I've got on order is a 6" 4 jaw independent chuck:

[image: Posted Image]

It's an ebay special. 80 bucks. I went 6" for more options on raw stock sizes and independent jaws for odd shaped pieces. They take longer to set up, but I'm ok with that. The nature of it will allow me to take pretty odd pieces of scrap and turn what I need from them. The desire to be able to turn odd shaped raw stock is mostly for cost savings in material purchase (IE: whatcha got lyin' around bud?) but an independent does have other pluses like turning off center (IE: making a cammed surface) .

Once I get all the parts together it will be a little bit of steel, a little bit of head scratching and a little bit of metal work.

Who knows? If it works well enough, I'll be able to turn out pieces to make the lathe itself better.

So far, I'm only into it for the price of the chuck. If I get away for another 50 bucks in stuff I'm sitting pretty as a basic Chinese sourced lathe can't be had for less than 500 bucks around these parts. Used ones just don't exist here.....

Please don't post up how it won't work, won't be accurate, gonna flex, etc. I know all this stuff, that's why I titled it "rudimentary metal lathe"......

;)

Nice!
I thought i was the only hillbilly in the bunch-  i use a old, giant harbor freight drill press with a x/y axis vise for VERY rudimentary machining.  works ok-not looking to be on  discovery channel or anything.

I have one of the Sears/Dunlap 109 mini metal lathes from the 1950s. I just need to learn how to use it. Seems like it would be handy for things that don't require the utmost precision.

[image: View Post]dalesvfr, on 04 October 2012 - 03:04 PM, said:

I have one of the Sears/Dunlap 109 mini metal lathes from the 1950s. I just need to learn how to use it. Seems like it would be handy for things that don't require the utmost precision.

Same here. I picked up a 6" atlas lathe at a garage sale with every bell and whistle that thing came with. Spent a good while cleaning everything and getting it back to spec. Polished the ways back down to 15 micron. Put a brand new motor on the thing, new belts, and let her rip. Was a pretty cool machine for the bit we had it.

[image: View Post]greatwhite, on 27 September 2012 - 08:07 AM, said:

Please don't post up how it won't work, won't be accurate, gonna flex, etc. I know all this stuff, that's why I titled it "rudimentary metal lathe"......

;)

First of, good luck on the project. Hope it works out.

Not entirely in regard, but keep an eye on those indian/chinese lathe parts. Some of it is okay, and other is 100% worthless. Not even worth anything as scrap metal.

Once you get it put together, think you should go ahead with that variable motor. Having speeds as slow as 30-60 rpm comes in handy pretty often.

[image: View Post]YoshiHNS, on 04 October 2012 - 03:25 PM, said:

[image: View Post]greatwhite, on 27 September 2012 - 08:07 AM, said:

Please don't post up how it won't work, won't be accurate, gonna flex, etc. I know all this stuff, that's why I titled it "rudimentary metal lathe"......

;)

First of, good luck on the project. Hope it works out.

Not entirely in regard, but keep an eye on those indian/chinese lathe parts. Some of it is okay, and other is 100% worthless. Not even worth anything as scrap metal.

Once you get it put together, think you should go ahead with that variable motor. Having speeds as slow as 30-60 rpm comes in handy pretty often.

Truthfully, I'll probably either use the basic lathe to make it better or eventually save up enough to buy a "proper" one.

This is a kind of a project in itself and a bit of a "stop gap" measure for now.

4 jaw chuck showed up today. It bolted right on to the lathe drive flange. Centered and ready to go. Kind of a nice surprise.

I also started to install the 1/2 drill chuck on the tail stock.

Coming along nicely.

I also balked at the though of making my own cutters out of old HSS drill bits and bought a 20 piece carbide tipped set off ebay for 20 bucks. At 20 bucks I can't really loose. I can still try to make some HSS bits later on if I want to.....

Quick pic:

[image: Posted Image]

Spun it up and have it balanced to within a couple thou. It's good enough for the work i'll be asking of it but i'll keep tweaking it.

Its hellaciously fast. I need to find a treadmill to rob the variable motor and control from.

Next up is making a better bed/ways and a cross slide for the xy vice. I also still need to add some serious weight to it and pick up a cyclometer to use as an rpm gauge. I also need a kill switch thats a "slap off" type.

So far i'm in to it for about 140-150 bucks.


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Find a used 3-phase motor and get a VFD.

[image: View Post]SEBSPEED, on 09 October 2012 - 02:11 PM, said:

Find a used 3-phase motor and get a VFD.

Sure thing. That's why I'm looking for a motorized treadmill to cannibalize.

They have the variable AC motor and the controller I need.

People are often just giving them away for the free disposal after using them for nothing more than a clothes rack for a couple years......