Hay Stevie.

[Falcon]

Your Lathe is awesome. I am thinking of trying to build one myself.
I do not have access to a machine shop. So my lathe will be crude compared to yours. But I am getting a lot of ideas from you.


I am thinking of using the hub off of a front wheel drive car for my spindle. It looks like this.
.

The big one has a speed sensor. This type of Bering is vary tough. What do you think?

By the way your Lathe is really cool.

[ynneb]

Welcome to the forum Falcon.

I think balsaman bought his lathe from a manufacturer. ( I could be wrong though )

I guess a hub from a car wheel would be plenty strong enough. Let us know how you go with your project.

[Falcon]

Yea I guess it was Stevie, Lathe I was looking at. I made the correction.

[ynneb]

Thats good Falcon.

Maybe next time it might be a good idea to post your comment into the actual thread that is appropriate to the subject. ( Just a suggestion )

Did you know that you can also send private messages to the person also?

[Stevie]

Not too bad of an idea to use a car based part; however the rear drive type would be a better choice; and here's why

First the moment of force will be better distributed over the greater length of the axle shaft; might I suggest something from a big Cadillac as they had about the biggest motor and the axle shaft will be beefier
Cut the rear axle in 1/2; and if needed you could make 2 lathes

Be very carefull with cleaning the drive faceup like you did; a bit of a problem could happen once 1000rpm is exceeded (balance is very important)
I'm not sure just where you could find a chuck to fit the bolt circle; but you might

Next drive
I'd think if you intend to use it outside an IC engine would be great; if indoors maybe a electric motor would be the better of the 2 (but you could always vent exhaust through the wall)
I've seen a great lathe made this way; it could swing a 20" tree and made beautiful collumns for houses

It will be tough without a machine shop to fall back on; but hey I do a lot of stuff here too (home)

Please keep us up to date on the projects progression; love pics

Stevie

[Falcon]

I see I did a poor job of explaining it. When I get it [the hub] mounted on a piece of I beam, and take a few pics you will see what I am trying to do.

I am also thinking of making a linear ways. Buy using the ball bearings from some of thees hubs. I am a mechanic, and we have several hubs laying around. I will post some pics when I get to that.