Gallery

Photographs will be posted here as the lathe project building progresses.
Scroll down for the most recent images ...

Drilling the Toolpost

The 10mm plates that make up the 4-way toolpost were welded together and then drilled for tapping

The Completed Toolpost

This was a fun project and worked out very well. The Hi Lo plans will specify laser-cut plates to cut down on all the cutting and grinding work.

Some fabricated Tee nuts

The Tee nuts used for attaching the Toolpost to the X-Y table and used for attaching the X-Y table to the bed of the wood lathe.

The wood lathe in action

The wood lathe setup in action cutting the 4-jaw chuck mounting plate. A 150mm x 10mm disk was welded to a 1" 10tpi spindle adaptor and then turned on the wood lathe setup to accept the recess in the 4-jaw chuck. A very exciting outcome.

The 4-jaw chuck in action

This setup turns steel with no problem. Some chatter at various tool angles of course, but I was very surprised at how it handled light cuts very nicely. The 4-jaw chuck is just great, and you get pretty quick at centering a work piece.

I'm very much looking forward to starting the main building process. Laser cutter, here we come ...

The Lathe Bed I-Beams

The I-Beams were welded up from flat sections laser cut from 20mm and 12mm plate. The stitch welding sequence definitely minimized any distortion and the tops are remarkably flat, which will reduce the flattening process dramatically. Very pleased with the result and the fabrication notes are available for FREE download in the MyStore page ...

The Ways Master Reference

The Ways Master Reference which is also the basic assembly of the Dovetail Cutting Sled has been fabricated. The underside surface of the Base Plate and the perpendicular edge of the Ways Block will be used to blue up the top surface and inside edge of the Ways for scraping flat and true. Again, a great result and the fabrication notes are available for FREE download in the MyStore page ...