Home Made Lathe Omg

if it works, it works.

On the plus side, he'll never have to worry about getting parts for it!

:)

The drill press he was using was also interesting....I'm guessing a walk through his shop would be interesting.....
 
Molten metal + sandals + shorts = disaster waiting to happen.:chemist:
 
Molten metal + sandals + shorts = disaster waiting to happen.:chemist:

ROLMAO yeah I saw that to and thought He will catch hell for that.
MY dad had a small foundry just under a city block size so NO you wont catch me doing that LOL
But isn't it amazing what some folks see in a pile of scrap.
But on the other hand some folks love flirting with disaster, you know here hold my beer bob:devil:The drill press he was using was also interesting....I'm guessing a walk through his shop would be interesting.....:encourage:
 
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Aside from the cringe worthy safety issues, that's excellent work. I didn't see any precision measuring equipment in evidence, so I do wonder if he takes the "cut, try to fit, cut, try to fit" route. Most of the machines look homemade, and at the very least, usable. And a usable tool lets you refine your tools. I'm surprised he hasn't built the "engine block universal machine" yet. I would. Uses engine blocks as the bed and column/headstock. The bores of the cylinders on the headstock/column are used for the spindle. It can be used as a lathe (imagine getting another 5-6" of swing by simply moving your spindle to a higher bore!), a horizontal milling machine, and with some structural tubing bolted to the column to hold a spindle, a vertical mill.

Kudos to him for making usable machines out of scrap. Makes you wander out to your shop, see all the mass-produced stuff, and say, 'Wow. I got it easy!'
 
The lathe must work pretty good as he uses it to make parts for his tractor, which is down rite amazing to say the least!!
like you I would love to see his shop in action and it appears that he is Fairley young also.
 
It demonstrates the difference between the accuracy actually needed to make something work, and the accuracy some people think is needed to make anything work!
I'm reminded of what I've heard was a motto of the Russian arms industry (possibly originated during WW2) - perfect is the enemy of good enough.
Especially liked the way this guy made use of scrap-yard parts like old motorcycle and other(?) transmissions. Wonder how he got the lathe bed rods and the cross slide rods parallel???
 
he will have put the saddle on to the bed rods (motorcyclr fork legs









he will have put the saddle on to the bed tubes (motorcycle fork legs) and then fixed them at either end, so that the bushings on the saddle held them parralell . I built a little machine for my brothers leather business which cut a v notch in e piece of leather to fold box corners, and used two round bars for it to slide on. I did it the same way. I will try to get a pic of it and post it up.
 
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