Here is the full lathe, with a yardstick on the workbench in front of it for scale
Here is the headstock. I used a 1/4 HP motor I scavenged from an old fan. The spindle is a 5/16 threaded rod. The wood block on the spindle near the motor is a sort of thread converter, which attaches the stubby little worm gear sticking out of the motor to the spindle rod.
Despite my lack of any precision tools a combination of being very careful lining things up and scavenging useful parts allowed precise construction (well, mostly). The spindle rotates inside bearing stolen from skateboard wheels, which are a perfect fit for 5/16 rod. This allows the spindle to rotate without any perceptible wiggling or vibration, since it goes through two bearings embedded about 6 in apart in the two wooden supports.
Here is the faceplate, with my extremely ghetto attempt at a system for gripping and centering workpieces which uses the ability of the screws to be tightened to the same distance from the axis. Same idea as a christmas tree stand.
At the other end, we have the tailstock, which slides along the wooden rails which it grips using pieces of aluminium angle. The chuck is stolen from a broken hand drill and has 3/8" capacity to hold a center or a drill bit.
Since some things are still marginally out of alignment despite my best efforts the precision I can get is somewhat limited, but it is certainly capable of handling coarser operations, although I'm limited to wood and pvc for the most part due to the low HP of the motor.
homebuilding a lathe has always been something I'd like to do..but now that I have a big metal one there's little reason to do that. Though, I could make a wood turning one to make wood parts to complement metal things I make to sell..
