Hi all,

Well after reading the Gingery book and the Flemming book I am thinking of
building my own lathe. I figure that if I build it myself I get the lathe
that I want and can shell out the money as needed, instead of all at once.
It will also give me something to do, which is the most important thing for
me.

So my question is about the ways, the books show how to build "box" ways,
most commercial lathes have "v" ways. Are there any other types of ways to
make ways? What are some of the important features of a way that I shold
keep in mind if I try to design something? Are there any books out there
that have some theory about lathe building?

TIA
Mark Forkheim

Mark Forkheim wrote:
Hi all,

Well after reading the Gingery book and the Flemming book I am thinking of
building my own lathe. I figure that if I build it myself I get the lathe
that I want and can shell out the money as needed, instead of all at once.
It will also give me something to do, which is the most important thing for
me.

So my question is about the ways, the books show how to build "box" ways,
most commercial lathes have "v" ways. Are there any other types of ways to
make ways? What are some of the important features of a way that I shold
keep in mind if I try to design something? Are there any books out there
that have some theory about lathe building?

The little Unimat lathe used 2 parallel round shafts.

http://www.unimat.homestead.com/

Consider shafts from a pair of matching hydraulic cylinders.
The piston ends of the shafts would most likely have a nice taper and
threaded stub that you could anchor to a stout plate or casting. On the
other end, if they had an eye or a clevis, you could mount them to
another plate or casting. Decide which end will hold the headstock, and
procede from there.

NOTE: I have never tried this. It just seems a simple way to get two
reasonably rigid and parallel way surfaces.

Rex the Wrench



Mark Forkheim wrote:
Hi all,

Well after reading the Gingery book and the Flemming book I am thinking of
building my own lathe. I figure that if I build it myself I get the lathe
that I want and can shell out the money as needed, instead of all at once.
It will also give me something to do, which is the most important thing for
me.

So my question is about the ways, the books show how to build "box" ways,
most commercial lathes have "v" ways. Are there any other types of ways to
make ways? What are some of the important features of a way that I shold
keep in mind if I try to design something? Are there any books out there
that have some theory about lathe building?

TIA
Mark Forkheim

I would use thk liner rails for my ways.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...110486 6&rd=1

On Sat, 31 Jul 2004 01:17:58 -0400, Rex the Wrench
wrote:

Consider shafts from a pair of matching hydraulic cylinders.
The piston ends of the shafts would most likely have a nice taper and
threaded stub that you could anchor to a stout plate or casting. On the
other end, if they had an eye or a clevis, you could mount them to
another plate or casting. Decide which end will hold the headstock, and
procede from there.

NOTE: I have never tried this. It just seems a simple way to get two
reasonably rigid and parallel way surfaces.

Rex the Wrench



Mark Forkheim wrote:
Hi all,

Well after reading the Gingery book and the Flemming book I am thinking of
building my own lathe. I figure that if I build it myself I get the lathe
that I want and can shell out the money as needed, instead of all at once.
It will also give me something to do, which is the most important thing for
me.

So my question is about the ways, the books show how to build "box" ways,
most commercial lathes have "v" ways. Are there any other types of ways to
make ways? What are some of the important features of a way that I shold
keep in mind if I try to design something? Are there any books out there
that have some theory about lathe building?

TIA
Mark Forkheim



On the subject of round shafts for ways: I worked for a guy who has
been a machinist for a long time. During the second world war he
worked in a show in Seattle that built a lathe themselves for one
particular type of work. Since materials and machine tools were scarce
then the machine used shafting for the ways and the bulk of the
machine was concrete. The concrete was cast in place to hold the ways
and motor mounts. I believe the headstock was also concrete. I think
the spindle was mounted in the cast headstock to some plates cast into
the cement. A turret tool post from an engine lathe was adapted to the
round ways. I think it was a collet machine without any provision for
a chuck mount. Since the engine lathe could be used with either the
tailstock or the turret, but not both at the same time, transferring
the turret to a special built machine gave them two lathes to be used
at once instead of just one. After the war the machine sat un-used for
years and just had stuff piled on it. I suppose it's been dismantled
by now.
ERS

"Tim Williams" wrote in message
...
Just about anything prismatic will work. Simple or as complicated, light
or
heavy as you want. The first and last words work best (simple and heavy),
of course...

Triangular ways are nice because you don't have any possibility of
side-to-side misalignment, assuming the triange wears evenly. Witha box
way, the front or rear face might wear unevenly, producing a crosswise
translation at that point. In other words, a non straight path.

I was thinking of using hexagonal CRS. It has a couple of triangular sides.
I would imagine that I would have to have the weight of the
carriage/tailstock on the angled faces, not the flat on top.

But- without any precision tools (mill, surface grinder or planer) to
produce these shapes to a high level of precision over a good length, you
are basically left with scraping as your precision tool and fitting
something together such as box ways. I suppose you could try scraping
your
own dovetail ways but it wouldn't be as easy. Certainly not as easy when
you have readily available slide material such as the CRS used in the
project.

How much scraping would be needed on CRS? I thought the stuff was drawn to
tolerance?

I do not think you will be happy with round ways. I built a large
woodturning lathe, and the bed was made from a 4"x8"x1/2" thick rectangular
tubing. To this was plug welded 19 lb/ft 6" channel iron. The bed is about
6' long. The rectangular tubing was orientated with the 8" dimension
horizontal, and the 6" channel was then welded to the 4" sides, with the top
flange about 1 1'2" above the surface of the tube. It turned out the
flanges on the channel was not square so I ended up grinding/draw filing the
flanges to get them flat/square/smooth. Took about a day to do this.

The tailstock was fabricated from 1/2" plate and a turned/machined
tailstock. It has gibs that ride against the top vertical corners of the
channel.

The lathe weighs 1500 lbs, has a 24" swing, and will mount 48" between
centers.

Also, it has a compound Reeves drive, a spindle lock, a spindle brake, a
tool drawer under the bed which pivots on the right front corner, all shop
made.

I spent approx 1500 hrs. over a 1 year period building this lathe, but have
never regretted it.

Now, having established that I know a little something about lathes
(especially wood lathes), none of the wood lathes I have ever seen that had
round ways were worth a fiddlers damn. Unless you can stiffen them up in
some manner, they will never prove satisfactory.

To see photos of the lathe, go to www.hillcountryturners.org then click on
'James R. Johnson' then click on 'Click here to see lathe'.

Regards,
J R Johnson

"JR Johnson" wrote in message
...
I do not think you will be happy with round ways.

Drummond was very successful with their round bed lathe:
http://www.lathes.co.uk/drummond/page2.html

Leon