Homemade Woodworking Lathe

This My Homemade Lathe I made Last year. It consists of An old drill press and Off cuts I had Leftover in the shop. Rails are from An Old louvre door some pine and for the rotating centre I used the bit/ collet end from an old router that was broke. I use this quite often and it still works great.

This made from An Old router I had Laying around that was broken, I cut it down to use as the rotating centre. The push in shaft lock button is also in use and makes it easier to change the bits for different projects.

Just A simple setup Using an old drill press mounted to the bed. There was quite a few measurements to get this right and true. I mounted a steel pin in the chuck so that I could line up the Tail stock for The right Centre line and it worked out perfect I also used a laser just to be 100%

The Bed was made from leftover 2x3" lengths of pressure treated stock I had .glued and screwed together. I let it dry over night. Following day I mounted the rails used from a used louvre door. as the wood was good and strong and true. They were glued and screwed to the bed using a off cut of wood cut to the size I needed for the channel gap, Screwed one end then moved the block to opposite end and repeated the process. all checked out with squares and measures.

As I was only using pine for this as at the time that's all I had, I thought I would make it stronger by adding some steel to the underneath fixed into two routed grooves. This worked out well as it is very strong

This is also made from Pine. Can be Moved to 3 different positions by moving the nut and bolt to the 3 different points, Can also swing any position left and right and forwards and backwards.

Both head and Tail stock are both made very much alike. As you can see from the pics they both have the floating block that moves up and down the bed and when you tighten up the nut it locks it into place

The switch is the one from the drill press I just added A white switch to the right side and this act's as an emergency stop and total power shut off.

This is the part of the old router I had under the bench for years I knew I would need it some day :)

I cut it down here and there with a hack saw and filed it smooth. The bit I used in the chuck is a ground down forstner bit as I wanted it strong, The grinding process I used was I cut the forstner bit head/Blade off then placed the shaft into my drill and used the drill with the bench grinder.

A homemade faceplate made from Oak Used M12 Threaded rod with backing washers bolted and recessed into the Oak and I used Industrial liquid thread lock....

I made these addons, As in the vertical Position it can still be used as a drill press and I can use the whole length of the bed to in the drill press position if I need it.... I like this a lot 2 machines in one. Later On I am going to make a stand so I can set it to Vertical and horizontal in one place in the shop.

Here are a few projects I have made on this lathe candlestick holders, Teak tool handles, A goblet, and a table post