# Building your own lathe my FAIL thread



## tool-me-up (11 Jan 2014)

Built this a few years ago, it would have bee more than strong enough for wood, no good at metal - theres a separate thread for the metal lathe


First i started with a wood lathe 





then spent ages and ages threading a very long bar










I took my 3/4" threaded bar, added two 25mm solid steel round bars and some 50mm x 25mm solid steel flat bar and made a carriage for my lathe





A simple press drill vice provided the in / out movement to attach a tool post to..







Now when you make your carriage a meter long - the two 25mm steel bars and the 3/4" threaded bar WILL FLEX!! This small movement is enough to let the tool vibrate and shag your work good and proper :wink: 

So i went with a different approach ..... A cross vice bolted straight to the frame






I even welded angle iron to it and the frame to eliminate movement as i was still having troubles




No joy - still vibration some where. I took a good look at the housing (big box on the left with the switch on) and its only 2mm plate with no real structure at all!

it was reinforced as best i could










Still no joy!!! Still vibrations and movement! :x :x :x 

So i did the only thing i could think of which was start over....










It may be ugly buts its bloody solid!!! its 6" Steel U channel - 10mm thick across the top and about 15mm thick each leg!

It weighs an absolute ton! and will be just shy of 40" centre to centre when i sort the tail stock out.

Moral of the story is - either buy a proper one! or just go totally overkill from the start!

Good luck to the others in there efforts! Hope some of this is useful!

Gav


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## SVB (19 Jan 2014)

Pic nine, (where you complain about chatter / vibration) does show a lot of material out of the chuck on a slender job so unless tailstock support removed for photo, any lathe will stuggle as the work will be the defining item in this set-up.

Other than that, good try though!!

Simon


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## tool-me-up (19 Jan 2014)

I had tried cutting right near the chuck, the problem was the main spindle could move in relation to the bed, so the tool just pushed the motor, spindle and the work away from itself.

I think I wound the tool out to take that photo just so you could see the massive increase in vibration as you get further from the chuck

I did eventually crack it and theres another thread in this section somewhere - think its called building a lathe that works or similar


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