Homemade Lathe Part 3

Lathe Part 3

The Base, Table, Stand or whatever you want to call it...

After putzing about for a couple of weeks on the floor, watching the basic lathe shake and want to tilt over from the weight of the motor, I'd had enough! No more!

Originally the idea was to use heavy Oak Slab and Runners from skids used to transport large spools of sheet metal.

The lengths and shapes that I cannibalized from a load of skids a friend dropped off would have required more thinking and time than I was willing to invest. The end result would still have been a stand that would eventually have shaken loose and required excessive maintenance.

After looking at my scrap metal pile, and an old stand that was bolted together, I opted for a steel stand. A bit lighter than I would have liked as it's mostly 2" rectangular 1/8th" tubing, but it will do for now (that's the kiss of death that means I'll use this till I'm gone...)

After some cutting, grinding, truing, leveling and more truing and leveling it came together as well as could be expected. The basic frame is far sturdier than any wood framing would have been.

The frame has 2 lengths of angle iron with 3/8ths holes drilled to bolt the table top to. The top is leaning off to the right in front of an old propane tank and a freezer compressor (yet another project that is on hold...)

I haven't included any super up-close shots of super-clean straight welds that would raise me to the level of a master welder or Mill-Wright. for the simple fact that most if not all of my welds are rather unspectacular, boring but functional.

Though the stand is made of steel, I had always intended to have a heavy oak top. These are clearest (knot free) Red and white oak runners that I could scavange.

They are all 2 X 3" dimensions and bored through to be held by 3 lengths of 3/8ths" threaded rod. Each length is also bolted to the angle iron supports with shiny new carriage bolts.

As much as I should have planed down the surface, and sanded to bring out the rich grains, I was able to resist and leave it ready for oil and metal chips to have their way.

Now that everything is bolted down, I'm getting a sense of how heavy this assembly is to move around the shop.

I did add a turnbuckle to keep a constant tension on the belt from the motor to the counter shaft. The cross slide vise is only there for show, as I've tried every possible orientation and it will never be what I need for a utile machine.

Now that this boring (but necessary) stuff is out of the way I'm onto making the carriage and compound slide assembly in foam.

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