Homemade Lathe

[Jeremy Maso]

Hi,

We're working on our own lathe design and are looking for feedback on it. Here's the page with pictures of the design, BOM, and implementation plan:
http://openfarmtech.org/index.php?title=Open_Source_Lathe#Design_2

We're using the entire shaft to mount the spindle, and the bolts from each section adjust the level to keep anything from coming loose and to add extra support. The far bolts can be set to the correct height and left there while the near ones can be loosened to adjust the slide distance and then tightened so that the far bolts keep their height set and the cross slide and tail stock keep their alignment with the spindle.

It's somewhat similar to these lathe designs:
http://www.lathes.co.uk/drummond/page2.html
http://www.lathes.co.uk/scope/
http://www.lathes.co.uk/kneller/index.html

I will write up a list of what we are going to be doing with the lathe later, so we can see if what we are building will meet our needs. Basically we're looking to bore out steam engine parts.

Pictures:
http://openfarmtech.org/images/3/3e/Lathe_2.0_1.jpg
http://openfarmtech.org/images/6/69/Lathe_2.0_2.jpg
http://openfarmtech.org/images/9/9c/Lathe_2.0_XYZ_3D_1.jpg

The hydraulic motor is powered by the LifeTrac engine (http://openfarmtech.org/index.php?title=LifeTrac).

Is it going to work? Are we missing anything critical?

[aametalmaster]

Building is fine but is there a reason why you just don't buy one? They seem to be cheap right now...Bob