Hello, I am considering building a small lathe and have motor a from a chop saw. It has 4800 on the tag which I assume is the speed of the motor before it goes through the gears. The motor runs ok but I have no way to check the speed. Any advice on speed reduction would be welcome. The motor has brushes. Electronic would be better as pully system would make construction more problematic. Thank you.
LATHE.
- Thread starter amakah
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Phil Pascoe
Established Member
By the time you've bought bearings etc. and the rest of a lathe you'd be better off buying a lathe.
sawtooth-9
Established Member
Agree, by the time you buy the components, you would be better off buying a second hand lathe.
The motor is probably the cheapest component.
Also, using the motor you have may not be the best way to go, better off with an induction motor 1440 rpm.
Orraloon
Established Member
If I was going to build a lathe from scratch I would get a decent mains powered drill with var speed. Does away with getting pulleys, belts and bearings.
Regards
John
Regards
John
clogs
just can't decide
but he live's in Shetland......not an easy place to get stuff.......
how about a sheep powered one of these.....
how about a sheep powered one of these.....
Phil Pascoe
Established Member
Reminded me of the old joke about the answer to the tourist asking directions - if I was going there, I wouldn't start from here.
If you want to check the speed of the motor but don't have a tachometer, a cheap and easy method is to stick a bit of tape to the shaft so it sticks out on one side, then put something sturdy next to the motor so the tape hits once per turn.
Switch the motor on and record it running for a few tens of seconds (I usually take a video with a phone but you only need the audio). Load the file into a free sound editor like audacity, and you should see a spike each time the tape hits the object.
Pick a span of time and count the spikes.
Works great for induction and DC motors. Guess you might hit problems if you try it with something noisy.
Switch the motor on and record it running for a few tens of seconds (I usually take a video with a phone but you only need the audio). Load the file into a free sound editor like audacity, and you should see a spike each time the tape hits the object.
Pick a span of time and count the spikes.
Works great for induction and DC motors. Guess you might hit problems if you try it with something noisy.
niall Y
Established Member
I use a home-made metalworking lathe, that my son was given. Though, judging by how it has been built the components have to have been made at the makers place of work. It certainly has its idiosyncrasies and shortcomings. Funilly enough, one of them was the motor, which I have replaced adding a VFD to help achieve slower speeds.
I have toyed in the past with building a pole lathe which is a fairly straightforward build. And if, for the OP it is a case of -this way I get to have a lathe. then why not?.
I remember, many years ago, visiting an old saw-mill near where I am living today. The saw was powered by the stream and so was a home-made bandsaw built largely from scrap timber, with a minimum amount of metal parts
I have toyed in the past with building a pole lathe which is a fairly straightforward build. And if, for the OP it is a case of -this way I get to have a lathe. then why not?.
I remember, many years ago, visiting an old saw-mill near where I am living today. The saw was powered by the stream and so was a home-made bandsaw built largely from scrap timber, with a minimum amount of metal parts
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No idea if you know what you are doing, and apologies if you do. But lathes are not straightforward to build. First let’s presume you are talking about a wood turning lathe. If it’s a metalwork lathe, forget it.
Wood lathes still need a decent amount of rigidity and concentricity. This is not easy to reliably achieve. To be effective they need to interface with some standard parts, such as chucks, live centres etc. so this means morse tapers and threads. They also need to be adjustable in all the dimensions necessary. They need a solid rest else frankly they would be dangerous.
There are all sorts of cheap old lathes on eBay and Facebook marketplace. Get an old one and get it to work. That’s a far easier job with a wood lathe than a metal lathe. And it’s a great project.
Sorry if you know all that.
Steve
Wood lathes still need a decent amount of rigidity and concentricity. This is not easy to reliably achieve. To be effective they need to interface with some standard parts, such as chucks, live centres etc. so this means morse tapers and threads. They also need to be adjustable in all the dimensions necessary. They need a solid rest else frankly they would be dangerous.
There are all sorts of cheap old lathes on eBay and Facebook marketplace. Get an old one and get it to work. That’s a far easier job with a wood lathe than a metal lathe. And it’s a great project.
Sorry if you know all that.
Steve
J Bodger
Member
Many years ago I built a wood turning lathe from scratch. Most of the materials came from the scrap bin at work. The bearings and pulleys were the the biggest expense. The motor was from an old washing machine - not an option nowadays. You can definitely by a lathe for less than you can make one.
If you are interested, I have two redundant lathes to dispose of. I live in Lancashire. Both have worked well - I just moved on to metal lathes. Photos attached. The smaller lathe has a home made extension to the bed.
If you are interested, I have two redundant lathes to dispose of. I live in Lancashire. Both have worked well - I just moved on to metal lathes. Photos attached. The smaller lathe has a home made extension to the bed.
