home made VS lathe

[colin macdiarmid]

has anybody built a home made lathe using a motor and variable speed controls from a treadmill, the motors range from about 1.75hp to 3hp, if so how did you get on, second hand treadmills appear to sell cheap from £80-£200quid

 

[wizer]

To get it right you' need to know a good engineer or have the skills yourself. I've seen a few on American sites. Not sure it's worth the trouble TBH

 

[Jeremys]

Melvyn Firmager used a home made lathe for years which I had a play with on a course at his place. From memory it was a simple shuttered box filled with something heavy (concrete?) Shaft was mounted on top between pedestal bearing on a tensioned belt drive at the back. Faceplate mounted on the shaft and a free standing tool rest.

Not sure how treadmill parts would fit this...Im not sure how motors in those things are mounted.

It wouldnt cost much to build, but you would be limited with no tailstock. As soon as you want a tailstock and get into worrying about alignment I would give up and get the chequebook out.

That said, if you are happy to work soley on a faceplate and dont want to do anything between centers I reckon you could get a lot of capacity for little money. Im still tempted to have a go...but I want to build a drum sander first...