DIY lathe

[Scarlet Lancer]

I can’t afford nor can I justify buying a lathe to make the odd brass nut or fixing. I was thinking that it may be possible to turn a pillar drill on its side properly secured and fit a small length of 10mm brass rod into the chuck and use a file to shape. Centre dot the end whilst turning to give the centre to drill in a vice to tap a thread. Has anyone tried this?

 

[TheTiddles]

Yes, it’s rubbish.

Keep an eye on online marketplaces, sometimes people are getting rid of kit for very little

 

[Astrobits]

As The Tiddles says-----Forget it.
Try to find a local model engineering club. Ask at Heritage railways and steam fairs. I'm sure that you can find someone who would make the odd thing for a Cornish Pastie or two.
Nigel

 

[Bingy man]

There was a post on here recently where a woodworker made a lathe using plywood and a few bits of timber a motor and belt etc, it was for turning wood but can’t see why a small metal lathe can’t be also made . as others have posted it’s often surprising what comes up for sale for not much money, also auction sites car boots and craft fairs are worth considering .

 

[Kittyhawk]

This is my home made lathe.

The bed is a couple of bits of 50mm X 6mm angle iron, power is an old washing machine motor, the windy in and out thing (whatever its called) someone gave me years ago and the rest is built from scrap, the design was determined by materials available from my scrap bin.
Accuracy is to 0.1mm, not great but enough for me. Cost was about $30.
Not suggesting that you should follow my design, just saying that if you sit for a while with a pencil and paper you will come up with something similar to suit your needs.
Turned out to be one of my most used tools.

 

[ajs]

You'll have much the same issues as encountered using a pillar drill for milling - a drill simply isn't designed to take sideways forces. On a mill the bearings differ to withstand that force and critically the taper is secured in place with an additional locking screw. Without that there is a tendency for the chuck to become dislodged in use.

 

[Orraloon]

I have done some very rough brass turning on a wood lathe. Using hand held tools will only give rough results with metal. A cross slide arrangement holding the tool like Kittyhawk has shown will get better results and be more accurate. I think If I was going to build one I would use a power drill with var speed as the guts of it rather than a motor and belt.
Regards
John

 

[Ttrees]

There's a lot of bodgery you can do with a pillar drill.
If you affix the table against the wall/big hefty timber square which is plumb
the same as the column, with bit centred in table bore,
I made a jig to do so.

With the table centred then you can dream up things until your hearts content.

Especially so with battery grinders and a round table or lazy susan, if that might work,
should it not be possibly easier by other methods?

Be interesting to see what you wish to make.

Tom

 

[Speedy23]

This is my home made lathe.
"Turned" out to be one of my most used tools....

I "saw" what you did there.....

 

[stuart little]

I bought a 7" x 14" mini lathe recently from Vevor for £395 delivered. Works for me making small fittings for model ships; sheaves etc. & drilling axial holes in shafts. It with a very good 3-jaw chuck & a dead centre, I use the live centre from my wood lathe. It needed one or two 'tweeks' here & there & a good clean up. The micro-mini 12v 'things' from Cn. £100 ish, are rubbish, I tried one but since stripped it down to bed, headstock/motor & 3" chuck. I'm making a work table for the bed & fitting a 3" sanding pad, making it into a mini sander.

 

[Kittyhawk]

I "saw" what you did there.....

The photo is quite old and the lathe has been improved a bit with changes to the tailstock but it still needs work - the tailstock's movement is not smooth but therein lies an issue that possibly others have with less than ideal tools.
It works pretty well ok as it is, I use it all the time and I don't want the down time associated with trying to make improvements which would be nice to have but not totally necessary.

 

[Dabop]

I can’t afford nor can I justify buying a lathe to make the odd brass nut or fixing. I was thinking that it may be possible to turn a pillar drill on its side properly secured and fit a small length of 10mm brass rod into the chuck and use a file to shape. Centre dot the end whilst turning to give the centre to drill in a vice to tap a thread. Has anyone tried this?

Most drills are really quite 'sloppy' on their centers so give poor results...
(been there, done that- not good results...)
For a small 'lathe' like you sound like you want, I would look at at 'diy' if they don't come up on the local markets that often- my first was literally 100% homebrew- using home made 'pillow block' bearings and various bits and pieces- it wasn't capable of much more than 2" stock about a foot long- but it was actually quite accurate... made out of old bits and pieces from washing machines, old drill presses and various other bits and pieces- including a 'cutter' made from a set of vicegrips!!!
(bit of welding, bit of angle and I had a 'cutter' jaw!!!- cut the top jaw off with a hacksaw- and screwed the cutter to the bottom jaw- the vicegrips 'adjuster' screw was my 'depth of cut lol)
Sadly long gone- (I do have some polaroids of it somewhere (I'll see if I can find them, they are in one of the boxes in my storage shed lol)- yeah it was that long ago lol) but literally not one new bit in it, yet did starter motor comms skimming better than many so called 'commercial' machines..
A bit of 'bush mechanic-ing' can work wonders LOL
Of course the drill can be a great 'power source' for such a klutzed together machine...
;-)

 

[mikej460]

A few years ago I needed to turn a piece of oak newel post into a drum for a cider scratter so I made a very rough and ready wood lathe using an old B&D drill and a cheap drill clamp on eBay. It performed admirably.

 

[Trextr7monkey]

I have bought several small lathes Myford ML4, various Drummonds, Brittania, Faircut all decent enough machines for not massive money once cleaned up and sorted they invariably sell for more than purchased so keep eyes open for local bargains in the vintage section
Re homemade lathes I once saw some Africans making a lathe from an old engine block which obviously had better bearings than found in the basic pillar drills. Worth a look