Hand Cranked Lathe Build Log

[Gun Freak]

UPDATE Plan for cutting mech added at bottom
UPDATE Added crank and "chuck" to lathe, pics at bottom, and video


Ok so I decided to make a little hand powered lathe for things like o-ring grooves and trimming little fittings and things like that. I don't want to spend a lot of money on it but I want it to work. I think this will do the job. It will cut by a spring-loaded arm with a blade on it that can slide up and down a track and lock in position to make o-ring grooves. Here is the beginning of it, just the wooden body for now.

Ignore the dates... they're really messed up



Back view showing the hole in which the crank shaft will go.

Back view

Hand crank made of pvc.

Cutting mechanism

Front (with "chuck")

Crank

Top view with bar

Video
[youtube][/youtube]

[clemsonguy1125]

Looks good, my suggestion is that on the crank handle ad another slightly larger piece of pvc so the it wont rub your hand, the handle will turn in the pipe, i did that with my crank gatling gun and it worked great

[Gun Freak]

Oh yeah thats a good idea, maybe some thin walled one inch or regular 1.25 will work for that, thanks. I was thinking about that. I need to go to Ace to get some aluminum or some sort or nipple to go through the hole to be the crank shaft because I dont want to drill it out any more for any pvc because there isn't any wood left around it.

Edit: What gatling gun?!

[clemsonguy1125]

Its powered by rubber bands and only shoots about 10 yards so I never bothered posting it, It was a early prototype

[Gun Freak]

Oh ok.
Have you seen the rubber band gatling gun on YouTube? You should check it out...

[clemsonguy1125]

mine shots mini darts or q-tips, what does it shoot, rubber bands, ok and back to lathes, dont want to hijack your topic

[Gun Freak]

Bump for update.

[clemsonguy1125]

I think a hacksaw blade would work better than a knife

[Gun Freak]

I'm gonna use a single edged razor blade or something

[clemsonguy1125]

Well for cutting pvc, a hack saw blade will be quickest and for wood pistons too

[Gun Freak]

I might try it
-message too short-

[Demon]

Good luck if you actually plan to machine anthing other then wax with that ...

[Gun Freak]

It should be able to cut o-ring grooves in pvc.

[skyjive]

Funny, I had a similar thought a while back

http://www.spudfiles.com/forums/homemad ... 19163.html

Which worked pretty well but I ended up doing this:

http://www.micromark.com/MICROLUX-7X14- ... ,8176.html


But good luck, building one's own tools is very rewarding.

[Gun Freak]

Yes, I've seen your lathe. Pretty cool.