crude home made lathe for nose cones

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stevem

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I mentioned this 'lathe' (i'm using the term 'lathe' loosely here) in my 2x Bullpup post in scrathbuilt and a coupel guys wanted to see it so here it is.

I kow its crude but please be kind!;)

It works great for me - I've turned 2 12" cones and a tail come on it and it sure makes the work easy. Really cuts down on the 'flutter' at the outboard end and allows me to turn at much higher speeds which lets me make a nose cone really quick.

home-made lathe
 
Steve,
Thanks for the pictures. That isn't anything to laugh at. Hey, It works, and that's what counts. Gee I wish I had an old harddrive setting around:D
Looks like your ready for some custom work;)
Larry
 
Good job on the live tailstock idea,,!
for a moment there I thought you were trying to spin balsa with a hard drive motor....now I understand
I might have to try this on my homebuilt version
 
Larry, I work in IT and have some old hard drives laying around here. If you want one let me know.
 
Originally posted by stevem
Larry, I work in IT and have some old hard drives laying around here. If you want one let me know.

Same here. WOW, what a GREAT idea! I have a drill press. What's great about this idea is that the drill press has a work surface or "table" built in that I can adapt the HDD spindle too. I always had trouble turning stuff on the drill press because at some point or another the tail stock would end up wobbling the dowel out of the chuck.

This certainly deserves an IDEA OF THE YEAR type recognition or award! You complete setup would be a great submission to EMRR.

Thanks for sharing. I can't believe you thought this was laughable. There's no way I'm going to go out and purchase a lathe if I already have the means by with to turn a stationary object. (ie - bought the drill press already) I can't wait to get home and take apart one of my old drives.
 
just goes to show that being a 'pack rat' is a good thing sometimes!

I keep all kinds of junk I strip out of old printers and computers.

Its kinda cool to actually find a practical use for some piece of junk.

And talk about cheap and dirty!

I think I'll name this thing the CHAD LATHE.
 
Stevem:
It's amazing! I'm doing a building session on "Scarp wood lathes" next month at our club meeting. my "bed and tail stock holder are almost identical. I wanted to keep the cost to as near nothing as possible, so instead of that really neat Hard Drive motor bearing set I used a 1/2 knock-out seal center punched and inserted in the back side of the tail stock, backed up with another piece of plywood. to mount a balsa or foam block 1/4" hardwood dowels are glued into both ends, one end chucked in a drill motor the tail end inserted into the oil soaked slightly over sized 9/32" "dead center" of the tail stock. So far I've only turned small 6 ane 8 inch long cones but the method seems to be working well.

I like the bearing holder idea.. Great job!!

with your permission I'd like to include your tail stock method in my presentation.
 
its a small world eh Micromister?

junk hard drives are cheap - well actually they are free if you have a friend in IT.

I have some old hard drives here if you want one all I'd need is money for shipping it.

Let me know.
 
About how much did this cost? I may have missed something, but this would be cool to have around.
 
it really cost me nothing - it is made of old scrap lumber Ii had laying around, a 6' piece of 2x4 cut in half and glued/screwed together for the frame in a 'T' fashion, some plywood scraps to make the fixtures, a few screws and the hard drive motor out of a junked hard drive.

I guess the drill is the only 'expensive part'.
If you can get a drill where the housing is flat on the top (like the milwaukee drills) and the flat top surface is inline with the chuck it makes it very easy to set this up.
 
This lathe is a great idea. I've got an old B&D drill that I never use that would be perfect for making one of these. Matter of fact, other than some screws, I've got all of the parts laying around somewhere. Sounds like a good weekend project!!

How about some pics of others home built lathes? I'd like to see how every one else has made theirs.
 
Wow this is a cool idea:D
I have a drill press I got from Sears a while ago and I've been wondering how to make nosecones on it.
I have to see if I can find a scrap computer at my brother in laws house.
This just saved me a major headache and the hassle of finding a suitable nosecone for my 3" Der Red Max yiippeeee.
Mike
 
extremevelocity - let me know if you need a hard drive motor, I think I still have a couple of these laying around.
 
I'll have to take some photos of mine but I bought on of thouse 7 and one wood working kids kits. replaced the moter with a 7vt eletric rc airplane moter i wasn't useing any more. Took a verble resister to adjust speed and it works great. though i had to do a little work on the tail stock so it wouldnt lossen up. the saws work well for fins now to and their cheap to buy relacements. it designed for lt ply and balsa.
 
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