Simple lathe. We make a lathe with our own hands. Chain and friction transmission
Lathe needed for the manufacture and processing of metal parts. Professional equipment is quite expensive, so in order to save money, you can make a home-made metal lathe with your own hands. This can be done in several ways, and drawings of such a product are easily found on the Internet. You can use improvised materials for manufacturing, but the size of the machine can be any.
Components of a mini-lathe for metal with your own hands
Any homemade lathe consists of the following elements:
- drive - the main part of the mechanism, which is responsible for its power. The choice of a drive of the necessary power is one of the most challenging tasks. In small lathes for metal with your own hands, you can use a drive from a conventional washing machine or drills. Usually, the power of this element starts from 200 W, and the number of revolutions per minute - from 1500;
- bed - the supporting frame of the structure, which can be made of wooden bars or a steel corner. The bed must be characterized by high strength, otherwise the whole structure may fall apart from vibrations during operation;
- tailstock - made of a steel plate and a steel corner welded to it. The plate rests against the guide beds, and the main purpose of the tailstock of the lathe with your own hands is to fix the metal part during processing;
- headstock - a part similar to the tailstock, but mounted on a movable frame;
- leading and slave centers;
- caliper - a thrust mechanism for the working part.
Torque from the engine to the working part of the machine can be transmitted in several ways. Someone prefers to directly install the working part on the motor shaft - this saves space and allows you to save on spare parts. If this option is not possible, the torque can be transmitted using a friction, belt or chain drive. Each of these options has its own advantages and disadvantages.
The belt drive for the electric motor is the cheapest and is characterized by enough high level reliability. For its manufacture, you can use a belt for an electric motor, removed from any other mechanism. The disadvantage of a belt drive is that over time the belt can wear out and will have to be changed more often the more intensively you work with the machine.
The device of the front and rear headstock of a lathe. Headstock (left): 1 - wedge-shaped belt; 2 - two-stage pulley; 3 - spindle; 4 - ball bearing. Tailstock (right): 1 - body; 2 - center; 3, 6 - handles; 4 - quill; 5, 12, 14 - screws; 7 - flywheel; 8 - thrust; 9, 10 - levers; 13 - nut
A chain drive is more expensive and takes up more space, but will also last much longer than a belt drive. Friction transmission has intermediate characteristics between belt and chain.
Do-it-yourself lathe caliper: drawings, how to make from improvised materials
The caliper is one of the most important parts of a homemade lathe - the quality of the future part depends on it, as well as the amount of time and effort that you spend on its manufacture. This part is located on a special sled that moves along the guides located on the bed. The caliper can move in three directions:
- longitudinal - the working part of the machine moves along the workpiece. Longitudinal motion is used to turn a thread into a part or to remove a layer of material from the surface of a metal workpiece;
- transverse - movement perpendicular to the axis of the workpiece. Used for turning recesses and holes;
- oblique - movement at different angles for turning recesses on the surface of the workpiece.
When making a lathe caliper with your own hands, it is worth considering the fact that this part is subject to wear as a result of vibrations that occur during operation. Because of them, the fasteners are loosened, there is a backlash, all this affects the quality of the manufactured part. In order to avoid such problems, the caliper must be regularly adjusted and adjusted.
Do-it-yourself adjustment of a home-made caliper for a lathe is carried out according to gaps, backlash and oil seals. Clearance adjustment is needed when the screw responsible for moving the part in the longitudinal and transverse planes has worn out. As a result of friction, the caliper begins to loosen under loads, which significantly reduces the accuracy of manufacturing the part. You can eliminate the gaps by inserting wedges between the guides and the carriage. The backlash of the part is eliminated with a fixing screw.
If the oil seals are worn out in your machine, they should be thoroughly washed and soaked with fresh machine oil. In case of critical wear, it is better to completely replace the seals with new ones.
Caliper device: 1 - caliper carriage; 2 - lead screw; 3 - cross slide of the caliper; 4 - the rotary part of the caliper; 5 - guides of the rotary part; 6 - tool holder; 7 - screw for fixing the tool holder; 8 - screws for fixing the cutters; 9 - handle for turning the tool holder; 10 - nuts; 11 - the upper part of the caliper; 12 - transverse guide carriages; 13 - handle for moving the upper part of the caliper; 14 - handle for moving the cross slide; 15 - handle for turning on the supply of the caliper from the lead screw; 16 - handwheel for longitudinal movement of the caliper; 17 - apron
Do-it-yourself homemade lathe for metal with your own hands: assembly procedure
The mechanism is assembled in the following order:
In addition, according to the do-it-yourself drawings of a metal lathe, it can be seen that a handpiece is made to increase the stability of the cutting mechanism, and a thin strip of metal is fixed on the lower part of the structure. The latter serves to protect the working part of the machine from deformation during operation.
The device of a home-made lathe for metal processing: 1, 7 - channels; 2 - running pipe; 3 - tailstock; 4 - pallet for collecting chips; 5 - support; 6 - lead screw; 8 - electric motor; 9 - fixed headstock; 10 - lamp in a protective cap-reflector; 11 - mesh screen to protect the turner from chips; 12 - support
Choosing an electric motor for a machine
The most important part of a homemade metal lathe, the video of which can be easily found on the Internet, is the electric motor. It is with its help that the movement of the working part of the machine is carried out. Accordingly, the power of the entire structure depends on the power of this mechanism. It is selected depending on the size of the metal blanks with which you plan to work.
If you plan to operate the machine with small details, for this, a motor with a power of up to 1 kW is quite suitable. It can be removed from the old sewing machine or any other similar electrical appliance. To work with large parts, you will need an engine with a power of 1.5-2 kW.
When assembling a homemade metal lathe according to ready-made drawings, keep in mind that all electrical parts of the structure must be securely insulated. If you do not have the necessary experience with electrical equipment, it is better to seek help from a specialist in connection. So you will be sure of the safety of work and the reliability of the design.
Making a lathe from a drill with your own hands
If you want to save on spare parts and greatly simplify the task of assembling a homemade lathe, you can use a conventional electric drill as a drive. Such constructive solution there are a number of advantages:
Of course, there are negative sides at a lathe from a drill. How to make processing large parts possible with this tool? This is practically impossible, since the drill has a relatively small torque and big number revolutions. Of course, you can increase these parameters if you still install a belt drive and use it to transmit torque from the drill to the spindle, but this will greatly complicate the design, the main advantage of which is simplicity and compactness.
Making a homemade desktop metal lathe based on a drill makes sense in cases where you do not need to carry out large-scale work, and only small details need to be turned.
To make a metal lathe based on an electric drill, you will need the same parts as for a conventional design, with the exception of an electric motor and a headstock. The role of the latter is also performed by a drill. Given the compactness of the design, an ordinary table or workbench can be used as a bed, on which all components of the machine will be fixed. The drill itself is fixed in the structure with a clamp and a clamp.
Using a homemade lathe, you can not only grind parts, but also apply paint to a rotating workpiece, wind wire on a transformer, make spiral notches on the surface of a part, and perform many other actions. In addition, if you assemble a copier attachment for the machine, then with its help you can quickly and effortlessly produce small identical parts.
Features of the work of lathes for metal with their own hands, video instructions as a way to avoid mistakes
Like any other equipment, homemade lathes have their own characteristics that must be considered during assembly and operation. For example, when working with large parts or when using a powerful electric motor, strong vibrations occur, which can lead to serious errors in the processing of the part. To get rid of vibrations, the leading and driven centers of the machine must be installed on the same axis. And if you plan to install only the leading center, a cam mechanism should be attached to it.
In do-it-yourself desktop lathes for metal, it is not recommended to install a commutator motor. It is prone to a spontaneous increase in the number of revolutions, which can lead to the departure of the part. This, in turn, can lead to work injury or property damage. If, however, it is impossible to do without installing a collector motor, it is imperative to install a gearbox with it to lower the speed.
The ideal motor option for a homemade lathe is asynchronous. It does not increase the speed during operation, is resistant to heavy loads and allows you to work with metal blanks with a width of up to 100 mm.
The rules for installing and operating any type of electric motor for a lathe can be viewed in numerous video instructions on the Internet. With their help, you will not only avoid common assembly errors, but also save time and effort due to the visibility of the material.
Safety precautions when working with a homemade lathe
When working with the structure, certain safety precautions must be observed. So, after assembling the machine, you need to check its performance. The spindle should rotate easily and without delay, the front and rear centers must be aligned on a common axis. The center of symmetry of a rotating part must coincide with its axis of rotation.
On any video of the lathe with your own hands, you can see that after mounting the electric motor, it is covered with a special casing. The latter serves not only to protect the operator of the machine, but also to protect the motor itself from dust, metal particles and dirt. For a machine made on the basis of an electric drill, such a casing is not needed.
You should also adhere to the following safety rules:
Options for upgrading a homemade lathe
If you need a mechanism that can not only perform turning work, but also grind and paint the workpiece, the basic machine can be easily modified. It is best to do this for a design based on an electric drill, since it is easiest to replace the working part in it.
There are several popular modifications of the lathe for metal. How to make a conical hole? To do this, two files must be attached to the base so that they form a trapezoid. After that, a spring mechanism is mounted, which ensures that the files are fed forward and at an angle, which allows drilling cone-shaped holes into the part.
In addition, for working with metal parts different lengths you can make a machine with a collapsible base. With several boards or metal corners you can move the working tool closer or further to the fasteners holding the part, as well as change the size of the gap between the fasteners. It is most convenient to make such a design on the basis of a conventional table or workbench.
If you attach a grinding wheel to the electric motor as a working tool, you can use the machine not only to polish the surface of the part, but also to sharpen knives, scissors and other household tools. Thus, the lathe turns into a convenient multifunctional mechanism.
Assembling a lathe at home is a fairly simple task, which is further simplified by numerous video instructions and drawings from the Internet. At the same time, you can literally assemble the structure from improvised parts, using the old household appliances and waste of assembly and construction production.
Main advantage self assembly is a cost savings. In addition, it is worth noting the ability to independently adjust the dimensions and power of the device in order to adapt it to your needs. A home-made machine can be not only large, but also quite miniature, designed for processing small parts.
The lathe is intended for the manufacture and processing of metal products. Professional devices are quite expensive. It is possible to save money if you make a homemade lathe for metal. This is done by various methods.
Design features
Any metal lathe includes the following components:
- drive - a key node of the machine, on which the power of the equipment depends. Choosing a motor is quite difficult. In small devices, it is possible to use an engine from an ordinary washing machine, an electric drill. The minimum drive power should be 200 W, rpm - 1500;
- bed - the supporting frame of the device. It can be made from wood bars, steel corners. The bed for the lathe must be strong. Otherwise, the device will break due to vibration;
- tailstock - the material of manufacture is a plate of steel, to which a metal corner is welded. The plate rests against the guides of the carrier frame. It is intended to fix metal blanks during processing;
- headstock - similar to the rear, but mounted on a moving frame;
leading, slave center; - caliper - an element of emphasis for the working part.
The torque from the drive to the working part is reported different methods. Someone mounts it on the drive shaft. This is done to save space and Money. It is also possible to communicate the torque by means of a friction/belt/chain transmission. Each of these methods has its own pros and cons.
A belt drive for an electric drive is the cheapest, very reliable. To make it, use a belt that is removed from another unit. The disadvantage of such a transmission is that the belt gradually wears out. The frequency of its replacement depends on the intensity of use.
Chain transmission has a higher price, is larger in size, but has a long operating period. Friction transmission - the middle option between chain and belt.
When assembling a lathe with your own hands, use the gear that is considered suitable for solving your tasks. For example, in a mini-lathe, it is desirable to mount the working part directly on the shaft.
Creating a caliper
The caliper is considered essential element lathe. The quality of the manufactured product, the amount of effort and time that you spend on its production depend on it. The caliper is located on special slides that move along guides that are installed on the carrier frame. Movement is performed in 3 directions:
- longitudinally. The working part of the device moves along the length of the part. This movement is used to carve a thread in products, to remove a metal layer from a part;
- transversely. The working part moves at an angle of ninety degrees relative to the axis of the part. It is used to grind grooves, holes;
- obliquely. Movement is carried out at various angles. Used to make grooves on the surface of a workpiece.
When making a caliper for a homemade metal lathe with your own hands, you need to remember that it is subject to wear due to vibrational effects. Fasteners are loosened, play appears. The quality of manufactured products is deteriorating. To prevent this, you need to adjust the caliper from time to time.
It is necessary to adjust the caliper by gaps, backlash, oil seals. It is possible to remove the gaps by inserting wedges between the guides and the carriage. The backlash of the workpiece is eliminated with a special screw.
If the seals are worn out in the device, they must be washed well, lubricated with an oily liquid. With strong wear, it is advisable to change the seals to others.
How to assemble the device
To assemble a lathe for metal with your own hands, you need to perform the following steps:
- Assembly of the machine frame from beams, channel elements. If you intend to machine large workpieces, use materials that can withstand a significant load. For example, if you want to process metal parts that are longer than 5 cm, the thickness of the materials for the frame should be at least 0.3 cm for the corners and 3 cm for the rods.
- Installation of longitudinal shafts with guides on channel elements. The shafts are connected by means of a welding machine or bolts.
- Manufacturing of the headstock. For this, a hydraulic cylinder with a wall thickness of at least 0.6 cm is used. A pair of bearings must be pressed into it.
- Shaft laying. Large inner diameter bearings are used.
- Filling lubricant into the hydraulic cylinder.
- Installing the pulley and caliper with guides.
- Installation of an electric drive.
If you look at the drawings of the lathe, you can see that a handguard is used to increase the stability of the cutter holder, a thin metal strip is fixed at the bottom of the unit. It is intended to protect the working part of the device from deformation during the processing of the workpiece.
How to choose an electric drive
The most significant element of a do-it-yourself lathe is an electric drive. Thanks to him, the working part of the device moves. Therefore, the higher the drive power, the greater the power of the entire machine. It is necessary to choose an engine, taking into account the size of the metal parts that you intend to process.
For processing small workpieces, it is optimal to use a drive with a power of 1 kW. It can be removed from an unnecessary sewing machine. For processing large parts, a 1.5 kW engine is required.
If you use diagrams when assembling a metal lathe with your own hands, remember that everything electrical elements must be well insulated. If you do not know how to handle electricity, contact a professional. That way you won't get hurt.
How to create a machine from a drill
If you want to save money and make it easier to assemble the machine, use an ordinary electric drill instead of the engine. So you can:
- quickly assemble and disassemble the lathe with your own hands. The electric drill is easily dismantled from the bed, can be used for drilling holes;
- easily transport the device. This is especially true for those who process parts in the garage, on the street;
- save money. An electric drill allows you not to use the transmission, use replaceable nozzles as a working tool.
Of course, this device has certain disadvantages. How to make a metal lathe based on a drill so that large workpieces can be processed? The answer is practically nothing. The electric drill has a rather small torque, a large number of revolutions. It is possible to change these indicators if you mount a belt drive. However, the design will become much more complicated. The machine will lose its key advantage.
Making a lathe based on an electric drill is recommended for those who intend to process only small workpieces. To create a device, you will need everything the same as for an ordinary machine, except for the drive and headstock. The supporting frame can be an ordinary table, a workbench. The electric drill is fixed by means of a collar, a clamp.
Using a machine in which a homemade scroll chuck, it is possible to carry out the turning of blanks, their coloring, winding the wire on the transformer device, the creation of spiral notches.
Features of functioning
Like any other equipment, do-it-yourself lathes / milling machines have their own characteristics. They must be taken into account when assembling and operating the device. For example, when processing large workpieces or when using a powerful electric motor, a significant vibration effect is manifested. It can lead to inaccuracies. To prevent this, the master and slave centers of the device must be mounted on the same axis. If you intend to mount only the drive center, attach a cam unit to it.
It is undesirable to put a collector engine in self-made devices. It can spontaneously increase the number of revolutions. This leads to the fact that the workpiece flies out, various injuries occur, equipment deteriorates. If you nevertheless installed a similar engine, do not forget to mount a gearbox with it that lowers the speed.
The best motor is asynchronous. It does not increase the number of revolutions when processing a workpiece, is resistant to high loads, and makes it possible to process metal products up to a decimeter wide.
Safety
When operating a homemade device, follow these rules:
- The cutter must be parallel to the surface of the part being machined, otherwise the machine will break due to the tool jumping off.
- When processing the ends, the workpiece must rest against the tailstock.
- Use a special shield or goggles to protect your eyes from metal chips flying in all directions.
- After processing, the machine must be cleaned, removing metal chips and other industrial waste. Do not allow small particles to enter the electric motor of a homemade lathe for processing metal blanks.
For a home craftsman with the skills of a turner, the machine will not be superfluous on the farm. The problem is that such equipment is expensive and will definitely make a hole in family budget. However, there is a way out - to assemble a home-made metal lathe with your own hands, which, in terms of technical characteristics, is not inferior to the factory unit. This work will not require extra costs. Today we will figure out how to design a device that will be required to make a metal lathe for home use, and also consider a step-by-step assembly algorithm with detailed photo instructions.
The industrial unit is quite complex in design. Today, such devices are controlled by numerical program units (CNCs). Human participation in the work is reduced to a minimum. However, masters with the education of a turner are trained to work with mechanical installations, which means that a lathe for metal or a mini-workshop, made by hand, will not become something new.
A home-made unit of this type will help the master in metal processing, giving it necessary forms. These units have been used in agriculture, in the manufacture of parts for machinery, plows, and other equipment. A desktop lathe for metal does not take up much space, it is made from improvised materials, without requiring special investments.
DIY do-it-yourself metal lathe: work performed
The work that can be done on a do-it-yourself turning (milling) machine for metal is quite extensive. Let's list the main ones. With this unit, you can:
- grind a smooth, cylindrical surface;
- cut sharp ends and ledges;
- carve grooves or a cone on the part;
- process the inner surface, drill the workpiece.
Works are carried out with the help of special cutters, for the manufacture of which alloy steel is used.
Very important! If the home master has not encountered turning, he should not perform such work. Without experience, it is easy to get serious injuries, perhaps even incompatible with life. To learn, you should start with woodworking on the machine. The work algorithm is identical, and the risk of injury is lower.
What does a lathe consist of: device details
Let it include many nodes. A do-it-yourself mini-turning machine for metal is equipped with four main ones - a frame (on which parts are attached), a caliper, a front and rear headstock and a tool holder. We should not forget about the electric drive (we will talk about it later in more detail). Let's start with the frame.
Frame for a lathe: what is required for manufacturing
The task of this node is to hold all equipment and parts in a rigid, fixed position. Sometimes it is made of wood, but in this case it will not be possible to process heavy parts - there is a risk of frame distortion, which is unacceptable. The best option will make a frame from metal corners and channels.
Helpful information! The thickness of the metal of the channel and the corner depends on the power of the electric drive and the size of the parts planned for processing.
A bunch of metal parts of the frame is carried out by welded or bolted joints. The task is to correctly calculate the dimensions of the frame and assemble the frame according to a pre-compiled, calculated scheme.
Lathe caliper: manufacturing nuances
The support with the tool holder must be movable, but with fixation if necessary. The cutters should be clamped tightly, without backlash. Otherwise, they will vomit during operation, which will lead to injury.
Important! The caliper of the device must be movable
Do-it-yourself tool holder for a lathe
Two or more bolts are used as tool holder clamps. In this case, it is better to make the knot rotating. This will allow you not to change the cutter, each time unscrewing the clamping bolts, but to turn the head, on which up to four cutters are fixed.
Do-it-yourself headstock of a lathe
Through this node, the leading center and the electric drive are connected. For factory-made industrial units, a gearbox is installed in this part, through which it is possible to change the rotation speed. It will not be possible to assemble the “kolobok of gears” itself. The only option for changing speed is to install several pulleys on a shaft that transmits torque, with a different diameter. This implies that each of the pulleys will require a separate belt of a certain length. You can buy the headstock of a lathe in the price range from 10,000 to 30,000 rubles.
Having dealt with the device of such units, let's move on to practical advice for manufacturing.
Do-it-yourself metal lathe manufacturing steps
To begin with, we offer to look at the unit assembled by ourselves. Some details are taken from faulty devices and mechanisms.
The work algorithm will be as follows:
- a detailed drawing of the future unit is drawn up, indicating dimensions, materials;
- the electric motor is selected according to the power and the number of revolutions per minute;
- strictly following the drawn up scheme, frame parts are prepared in size;
- assembly is carried out by the selected method (welding or bolting).
Let's consider each of these stages in more detail.
Preparation stage: design and drawing up a drawing
As an example, and possibly the basis of a future small lathe, we can take the diagrams of such units, provided by us below.
Helpful information! Choosing a tree for the manufacture of the frame, you should not hope for the durability of the structure. The best option for mounting the frame - a metal channel with welded joints.
When the frame is assembled, we proceed to the manufacture and installation of the remaining nodes on it.
How to choose an electric drive for such a unit
The electric motor is the most important part of the design. The size of the parts that can be made on the machine depends on its power. With an electric motor power of 800÷1000 W, the device will allow processing only small parts. For large workpieces, 1.5÷2 kW motors are used.
An important stage in the installation of the electric motor is the connection to the network. Contacts and connections, whether it is possible to touch them during operation, must be carefully insulated. The motor terminals are connected in a certain order. If home master there are no skills in this area or he doubts his abilities, it is better to entrust this work to a professional.
Very important! Connection work is carried out after the voltage is removed (from the introductory machine). Remember that defeat electric shock hazardous to health and fatal.
How to assemble a milling or turning machine
After the frame is made, we install the shafts on it, fixing them by welding. Next, we mount the headstock, shafts and pulleys with a caliper. And only lastly we put the electric motor in place, fix it and tighten the belts or chains (depending on the type of torque transmission).
Making a lathe from a drill with your own hands: step by step instructions
by the most simple option will make a lathe from a drill. Now let's look at step by step what needs to be done for this. We’ll make a reservation right away that such a device will only allow polishing, but not processing at all - there is not enough power for metal turning. We will present more manufacturing videos below, but for now we will consider a device from a drill for woodworking. This will give a general idea, such units are almost identical.
| Illustration | Action to take |
 | To begin with, we saw off a blank from a wooden handle. A handle will subsequently be made from it. |
 | We drive a sharpened drill into the center of one of the ends. This side will be clamped in the power drill chuck. |
 | We make a frame. In our case, it is wooden. These clamps are needed for rigid fixation of the drill-drive. |
 | Installing the drive. The location of the clamps must be clearly calculated according to the size. |
 | All screws of the clamps are pulled thoroughly. The reliability of fastening, and hence the final result, depends on this. |
 | In the chuck of a fixed electric drill, we install a workpiece with a drill driven into it and stretch the clamps with a special key. |
 | We are running out with reverse side driven center for secure double-sided fixation. One-sided fastening of the workpiece will not work. All that can be achieved with this is to break the bearings of the drill. |
 | Thoroughly tighten the fixing nuts. Now the equipment is ready to work. |
 | We turn on the drill at maximum speed. The power button is fixed with a button on the side of the handle. Now the workpiece can be given the desired look with a chisel and a file. |
 | Here we have such a neat pen. If you need to grind a metal cylinder, it should be clamped into a chuck, and drill a small hole on the reverse side of the driven center mount, lubricating it with grease or lithol. The rest of the steps are similar. |
DIY Lathe Modernization: Some Tricks
Drill units are easily upgraded. For example, the bed on which the electric drill is attached is made movable, and the part is statically fixed. Then, by installing different cutters instead of a drill, cone-shaped or other holes are made. A wheel with sandpaper will allow you to evenly sand the surface.
As for the installation of the CNC (numerical program control), it will not be possible to do such work on your own. It involves the replacement of components and mechanisms of the lathe.
Good to know! Working on a CNC machine is no easier than working on a mechanical one. The turner also needs to know everything about the speed of rotation, reading drawings and projects, materials of cutters for various metals.
The nuances of working on homemade structures
As in the operation of each equipment, various sometimes unpleasant situations arise during the operation of home-made lathes. Powerful engine for working with large metal parts, gives sensitive vibrations. This leads to uneven processing of the workpiece - marriage. This is treated by setting the centers (leading and driven) on one axis, or using a cam mechanism (with one leading center).
It is not recommended to install a collector motor as an electric drive - it is better to use an asynchronous one. It eliminates the disadvantage of unplanned over-revving that can cause the workpiece to fly out of the clamps, causing personal injury or property damage.
We offer you to see a few photos of lathes made by the hands of ordinary home craftsmen.
In order to make it easier for the reader to understand the algorithm for manufacturing such units, below is a video of making a lathe with your own hands:
Safety rules when working on a homemade lathe
The main thing, as in any business, is attentiveness and accuracy. This applies to every action, from the strength of the clamping of the workpiece to the slightest movement of the cutter. There are special requirements for clothing. It is forbidden to work in loose-fitting overalls, with dangling sleeves or the bottom of the jacket. If the clothes are just like that, you should fix the jacket on the sleeves and on the bottom with an elastic band. Remember, if the sleeve is wound around a rotating workpiece, you can be left without a hand.
It is important to monitor the condition of the wiring. At the slightest smell of burnt insulation, you need to turn off the voltage and find the source. Cutters are carefully inspected for cracks before starting work. If one is found, the use of the tool is prohibited.
Very important! Under no circumstances should you approach the machine while intoxicated. Even a small dose of alcohol or a hangover reduces attentiveness. According to statistics, 70% of people left without limbs as a result of an injury at work were intoxicated or suffered from a hangover.
Maintenance of a homemade unit: what actions are required
After each use of the machine, it must be swept clean so that no dust and chips remain. After that, all rotating parts are lubricated.
Before turning on the unit, it is visually inspected for violations of the insulation of the electrical wiring, normal rotation of the bearings. A short-term inclusion without a clamped workpiece is mandatory - “idle”.
Factory-made professional lathes: equipment cost
The cost of such factory-made units is quite high. Consider the prices for some models presented on the Russian market as of January 2018:
| brand, model | Workpiece diameter (max), mm | Rotation speed, rpm | Unit weight, kg | Cost, rub. |
| 110 | 400÷3600 | 13 | 28 000 |
| 180 | 100÷2500 | 33 | 48 000 |
| 300 | 50÷2500 | 38 | 53 000 |
| 300 | 5000 | 6.3 | 10 100 |
| 250 | 500÷3500 | 27 | 14 000 |
ML 110×125 Vs (screw-cutting)
Conclusion
If the home master has the education of a turner or at least similar skills, a lathe on the farm will be useful. It will help save on the purchase of some parts for mechanical devices, polishing or even painting. It is also made for stools or tables. As it became clear from the article, it is not so difficult to make such a unit with your own hands. You just need to be attentive to the schemes and follow certain rules.
And finally, about how to choose a lathe - the video is short, but fascinating and instructive. Enjoy watching!
The first machine that every artisan feels the need for is a desktop drilling machine, or simply a drill. But upon purchasing it or making it with your own hands, it soon turns out that you need to sharpen something, and a lathe costs an order of magnitude more expensive. Great is the temptation to make a universal lathe like the one in fig. below:
Before the ingenuity, skill and accuracy of such masters, it remains only to take off your hat. Yes, wood can also be turned on a metal lathe; many of these bench lathes are equipped with inserts in the spindle chuck to hold the wood workpiece. But - alas! - a home-made universal lathe will not hold accuracy on metal for a long time.
The point is not only that the cutting force of metal is many times greater than that of wood. The very physics of metal cutting is completely different. In order not to go into the basics, even a cursory superficial review of which will require an exorbitant amount of space, let's take it and compare it: have you seen a metal chisel sharp as a chisel or a piece of iron planer? And what happens if you cut a tree with a chisel? The drill can still cope with both materials: there the cutting force is symmetrically concentrated on the working body itself. But as far as the point of metal is concerned, the requirements for the machine tool, the requirements for the machine tool for it, turn out to be such that machine tool building became a separate branch long before the industrial era. The best machine-building plant does not make machine tools for itself - it is not up to it. However, it is quite possible to assemble a wood lathe with your own hands, and in such a way that it will keep the maximum machining accuracy of +/-0.5 mm achievable on wood for many years, if not decades. You still cannot do without 2-3 turning operations for metal (see below), but in this case they can be custom-made by a turner of 2-3 categories on a conventional, not increased accuracy, machine, even if it is a restored DIP. And, of course, you will need to buy a set of cutters for processing wood on a lathe, see Fig. Everything else will not require mandatory additional costs.
History and evolution
Further in the text, you will come across technical solutions that are effective, but little known to amateur craftsmen, because. in industry, for one reason or another, they are not used or are used to a limited extent. However, they can simplify and facilitate the manufacture of a home-made lathe for woodworking so much that in some cases it will be possible to limit oneself to a hand drill from a power tool. The machine tool industry of the millennium is developing under the sign of solving the problem: how to make machine parts with an accuracy of, say, 0.2 of the same units on a machine tool with an accuracy of, for example, 1 conventional unit of length? Etc. In order to understand how technology came to such a life, it will be useful to turn briefly to history.
The progenitor of all machines for processing materials by rotation is a device with which Neolithic people made fire and drilled horn, bone, stone, pos. 1 in pic; in recent cases, an abrasive from a wet quartz sand. The primitive Celts, on the same principle, came up with a foot-operated lathe, pos. 2; the centers were made of sharpened burnt stakes of hard wood. In England, this unit is still in use among furniture makers. The forest is not cut down there by quarters. Having bought a couple of timbers for felling, the master then takes out ready-made legs, balusters, etc. in armfuls to the track. In a craft of this type, the machine lived approx. until the beginning of the 18th century, pos. 3, although the workpiece in it rotates back and forth and the master has to be additionally distracted to turn the cutter over.
IN Ancient Egypt already in the era of the Middle Kingdom, a lathe with a beam drive was well known, pos. 4. "Motor" was, of course, a slave. In the Russian village community (in the world), with its strong traditions of mutual assistance and mutual assistance, the beam lathe survived in the outback until ... the 80s of the last century! Bulk individual wood construction was in no way included in the five-year plans, but the Soviet leadership in the provinces looked through their fingers at unauthorized logging in limited quantities for their own needs or at unauthorized purchases of wild logs from timber industry enterprises for the universal Soviet currency with a strength of 40 vol. and half a litre.
For fine and / or fine work, a foot loom with a string and a beam was not suitable: there are always inhomogeneities in a tree, and the workpiece itself was a flywheel - a damper of torsional vibrations. Radical improvements to the lathe were introduced by master Theodore in Ancient Greece approx. in 400 BC uh, pos. 6. He supplemented the foot drive, firstly, with a crank - now the workpiece rotated in one direction. Secondly, I made the centers rotating and provided one of them with a grip to hold the workpiece. Thirdly, he introduced a heavy flywheel into the kinematic scheme. Separate machines of this design were in operation at industrial enterprises before the start of the electrification of industry, pos. 7 - in the then complete absence of social guarantees, the labor of an unskilled helper was cheaper than the cost of maintaining a steam engine.
The electrified wood lathe (item 8 in the previous figure) has not changed much since late XIX c (see also fig. below):
- a - motor rotor and other massive drive parts do not require the use of a separate flywheel;
- b - in the clamping chuck, you can put various tips for various kinds of workpieces (see below) or a drill;
- c - a handpiece with a rotary shelf-stop for the cutter, mounted on a movable carriage, makes it possible to carry out a wide variety of work operations;
- d - tailstock with a rotating center allows you to bring the accuracy of processing to the maximum possible on a tree;
- e - the screw for feeding the tailstock quill (see below) makes it possible to carry out complex processing of the workpiece into a part in one setting. The tree in the course of processing gives in under pressure of the holder and the center. If the tailstock is rigidly fixed, the workpiece becomes loose during processing. The machine has to be stopped and the blanks reinstalled, which in no way contributes to the quality of the work.
What if there is no motor?
A non-volatile wood lathe may still come in handy these days; say, in a country house or an unequipped construction site. The muscular strength of a normally developed person is sufficient for turning workpieces from ordinary timber with a diameter of approx. up to 150 mm. In such a case, 2 options are possible (see the following figure): a good old machine with a foot drive (the dimensions of its most important unit - the crank are given at the top right); more about it, see below, and processing on goats with manual drive towline (lower right in the figure). Lesina in girth cannot be rounded in this way, but it is possible to machine the supporting pillars of the porch, gazebo or canopy over the barbecue.
Make or buy?
The first question that needs to be addressed is: since certain obligatory costs (see below) are unavoidable, is it possible to purchase a woodworking machine without getting into a loan and without cutting the budget? There are, and very good ones.
If you come across an old UBDN-1 at a reasonable price (on the left in the figure) or its modern counterparts (in the center), do not yawn! There is no need to re-equip anything at home: a motor up to 350 W with double insulation of the windings. The machine is plugged into a regular socket, grounding is not required. And you get in one product:
- circular saw;
- Electronadzhak for tool sharpening, etc.;
- planer;
- Disc grinder;
- Horizontal drilling machine;
- Lathe for woodworking.
Another option, most likely cheaper, but only for horizontal drilling and turning - a drill frame that turns it into a lathe, on the right in fig. The beds of drills for a drill are already being sold almost on the streets peddling, but far from everyone knows about turning. Meanwhile, an electric drill as a machine drive for wood has serious advantages (see below), and a lathe with it will be no worse than a branded one. But much cheaper.
Note: for starters, it's better to hastily build a simple lathe and work on it a little. Wood turning skills are easy to develop, and how to quickly make a simple wood lathe, see the video:
Video: simple homemade lathe
Main material
The next question is what to make a homemade lathe from? The answer seems to be obvious: from metal, after all, there cannot be a machine weaker than a workpiece, can it? And how did primitive people drill stone with wood? How did the ancient Egyptians build pyramids with wood and copper (there was no bronze then)? And see above about the main issue of machine tool building.
A lathe for woodworking can be made of metal (pos. 1 in the figure), metal-wood, pos. 2, from improvised materials with minimal use of metal, pos. 3 and even ... without a frame, pos. 4. So, on any of them, a fairly experienced and accurate craftsman can work regularly for a long time with maximum accuracy for a tree. Wood is not only a noble, but also a grateful material.
What tree?
Yes, but which tree to take? Best of all - oak without defects, seasoned, having undergone complete natural shrinkage and shrinkage. Lathes made of quality oak 100 or more years old still work today. And as for home-made work - the frame and headstock of an oak (in the literal sense) machine are made very simply, see below.
If there is no oak lumber of suitable quality, then you can get by with ordinary drill pine, but the bed will have to be made according to the frame-and-beam power scheme. In Anglo-Saxon countries, where oaks have long been registered individually, such home lathes are very common. Drawings of an "English" wood lathe with a frame made of ordinary timber are given in fig; dimensions in inches. This is actually an ancient foot machine with a crank, adapted for an electric drive. To return it to a non-volatile form, it is enough to extend the middle rack of the bed to the bottom, put it on the paw and mount the pedal with the connecting rod, crank and flywheel, see above.
Drive unit
Working with a muscle motor is, of course, an amateur: now electricity is available almost everywhere. In extreme cases, you can also be powered from the car battery through a voltage converter. If you meet somewhere in other articles on this topic something like: pull a 3-phase cable towards you, make a protective ground, buy a 3-5 kW motor, do not believe the elephant that he is a buffalo. To round a wood of medium "clumsiness" up to a diameter of 300 mm, a machine drive power of 1-1.5 kW is sufficient; for turning a 200 mm log into a figured support post - 350 W.
Much more important is the spindle speed. The frequency of its rotation should not exceed 600-700 rpm, otherwise the probability of “biting” the cutter and the occurrence of a traumatic situation increases sharply. It is best to limit yourself to speeds set within (60-70) - (300-400) 1 / min. Then the following is possible. drive options:
- Double insulated asynchronous motor with capacitor start + mechanical transmission.
- Engine of the same type 2-4 speed.
- Electric drill drive.
just a motor
It is not easy, because it is impossible to regulate the rotation speed of an asynchronous electric motor by changing the supply voltage: the slip of the rotor grows like an avalanche and, accordingly. torque drops. Making a powerful frequency converter is difficult and expensive. It remains only 2-3 speed manual transmission. Belt or chain - they dampen jerks due to inhomogeneities of the workpiece, and gear, on the contrary, enhances them. Plus - a heavy rotor, heavy pulleys, an elastic belt. The inertia of the torsion drive turns out to be such that it is possible to sharpen completely knotty blocks of a shape on a cut that has nothing in common with a circle. Minus - you need to order or look for turned pulleys.
washing machine motor
The speed of rotation of an asynchronous electric motor can be changed in steps by switching the windings. Motors of this type are installed in some models of washing machines (only in washing machines with a direct drum drive) and in floor fans with airflow switching. The rotation speeds in both cases are ideal for woodturning. Fan motor power approx. 40-70 W, which is enough for a mini-machine (see below). The motor power from the washing machine is 300-400 W - quite enough.
Drawings of a wood lathe with a motor from a washing machine are shown in Fig.:
A motor from a washing machine with a direct drum drive as a drive for a woodworking lathe has a great advantage: its bearing assemblies are designed for a large unbalanced load, so it will be possible to sharpen the most viscous and serrated wood. But with knots, the situation is worse: the flywheel is only the rotor of the motor, and the cutter will twitch on them.
Note: how to make a wood lathe with a motor from a washing machine, see video:
Video: lathe with a washing machine engine
From a drill
From the point of view of an ordinary home master, both machines have a big drawback: you need to either put a grip on the headstock only for wood, or order an adapter for the motor shaft with a Morse taper for a clamping cam chuck. Finding the sizes of typical Morse cones on the Internet is not difficult; the dimensions of the cone for a conventional drill chuck No. 1, see fig. on right. But - you need to sharpen the cone with an accuracy of no worse than +/-0.025 mm. That is, you need a metal lathe with increased accuracy of 0.02 mm. A master of sufficient qualification who owns such equipment may simply not be found within reach.
If the drive of the machine is an electric drill, the problems of precision machining disappear: the cartridge can be removed with a home-made puller, and a typical purchased holder for a wooden workpiece can be placed on the cone. Or just clamp the same chuck, but cheaper with a cylindrical shank. Or even make a workpiece holder yourself, (see below).
The design of such a critical unit as the headstock in a lathe from a drill is also extremely simplified: it turns into a simple clamp. Two options for drawings of a clamp for a drill for a lathe are given in fig:
Headstocks - clamps for a wood lathe from a drill
Left metal; on the right - from solid small-layer wood. Wooden is better: it dampens vibrations well and does not spoil the collar of the drill. Its manufacture has some peculiarities:
- Threaded stud for clamping lamb 1 needs M10-M12;
- A blind hole for the stud is first drilled 1-1.5 m narrower so that it enters it with a turn along the thread;
- The upper part of the hole is drilled to the full diameter;
- The pin is screwed in until it stops;
- The workpiece is laid flat and a through hole is drilled in place for the lock screw 2 M4-M6;
- Fix the stud with a locking screw;
- Collect the knot finally.
An electric drill as a machine drive has only one drawback: a commutator motor with a thyristor speed controller. At a low speed, the torque on the shaft drops noticeably, this is already felt when drilling. Therefore, on a machine from a drill with a power of 280-350 W, it is possible to sharpen wooden blanks with a diameter of approx. up to 150 mm. However, the simplification of the manufacturing technology of a woodworking lathe driven by a drill is so thorough that drill machines are made in a wide variety of versions, see a selection of videos:
From improvised materials without a bed:
Video: wood lathe quickly
With plywood frame:
Video: plywood lathe with a drill engine
Regular design:
Video: universal wood lathe
Improved with extended functionality:
Video: improved wood lathe from a drill
bed
The metal and oak bed of a wood lathe have their own advantages and disadvantages. But by combining wooden power (bearing) elements with reinforced metal fasteners, it is possible to get a frame that is made "on the knee" hand tool+ electric drill and will last at least 20-30 years.
The design of the combined frame of a wood lathe is shown in the figure:
The main structural material is a standard oak beam 100x100 3 m long. The overall length of the frame is 1.2 m. The drawing is to scale, the missing dimensions can be removed and recalculated in mm from it. If there is more good oak, the length of the bed can be increased to 1.5-2 m. Both headstocks are of the same design and are designed for home-made rotation units, see below. The ridges at the bottom of the pasterns eliminate the skew of the centers. The whole structure can be made with hand carpentry tools and an electric drill.
Note: a mini-lathe for wood was made according to a fundamentally the same power circuit, see next. rice. It will fit a motor from a 2-3 speed floor fan, see above, with a 1: 1 gear.
If all the same metal
The totality of the qualities of an oak bed is quite enough for turning wood. The use of metal for this purpose in mass production is dictated by economic considerations: it's just that the cost of a metal product intended for continuous 3-shift operation turns out to be much less than a wooden one. 1 cu. m of aged oak is much more expensive than a centner of conventional structural steel.
Amateur craftsmen, not knowing about it, often “for the sake of strength” make the beds of lathes for wood from a channel. But it turns out rough even for “wooden” accuracy (on the left in the figure), and trimming the working surfaces of channels at home is not realistic. In addition, welding can lead the entire structure with a “propeller”, which is completely unrealistic to fix. Therefore, it is better to assemble the frame from the channel with bolts (on the right in the figure).
Much more reliable in this regard is the frame of twin pipes (on the left in the next figure): when welding, it leads less, you can correct the skew by pulling the frame with bolts to the base, and it is possible to achieve a divergence of the centers of handicraft headstocks of 0.2 mm or less . Drawings of a welded tubular bed of a lathe for wood from a drill are also shown in fig.
grandmother
It would seem that it is impossible to make the headstock of a lathe, and the back one with a rotating center, without precision turning work. No, it is possible - using the phenomenon of oil hydrodynamic cushion (OHD). This, by the way, is one of the ways to answer the question: how to make parts for a machine with an accuracy of 0.2 on a machine with an accuracy of 1. In mechanical engineering, the GDP is rarely used, because. for its formation and stabilization, the machine with the workpiece fixed in it must idle for 2-5 minutes. If a shift lesson is only 10 parts, then every shift loss of working time will be up to an hour or half an hour, which in mass production "rolls over". But in general, in the GDP technique, it is not uncommon. For example, warming up the internal combustion engine of your car is necessary incl. and in order to form a GDP between the connecting rod clamps and the crankshaft journals, otherwise the motor resource is sharply reduced.
What is GDP
The principle of operation of the GDP is shown in Fig.:
Any grease is suitable for it: grease, grease, cyatim, fiol. But best of all - shahtol, special lubricant for mining machines and mechanisms. Due to the difficult working conditions, they, like the Kalashnikov assault rifle, are made with large gaps between the rubbing parts, but they are not required to fire quickly. Shaftol is specially designed for relatively slow moving joints of rotation and is excellent for wood lathe headstocks using HDF.
Headstock
The device of a typical headstock of a lathe for woodworking is given on the left in fig. There are so many metal lathes in it for an amateur, and the shaft journals and bearing cap sockets need to be sharpened with the same accuracy as the Morse taper.
For a home-made headstock using the GDP, you will need, in addition to purchased threaded parts: M12-M20 studs for the shaft, nuts and washers for them, another piece of bronze (not brass!) Foil 0.2-0.35 mm thick and, on the clip, steel tube with walls of sufficient thickness (see right in the figure). The entire assembly is made next. way:
- The tube on the clip is cut exactly to the size of the thickness of the wooden body of the headstock, and pressed into it;
- The body with the clip is laid flat, laid flat and the tube is drilled along the diameter of the threaded shaft;
- The inner corners of the opening of the clip are smoothed with manual scraping - a reamer - as is done when installing air conditioners;
- A rectangle is cut out of bronze foil with a height along the thickness of the headstock body and a width of 3 shaft diameters (for M12 36 mm, for M16 48 mm), its corners are slightly cut at 45 degrees. In 3 diameters, because the bronze insert should slightly converge at the edges, and π = 3.1415926 ...
- 6-8 bronze washers are cut out of the same foil with a ballerina compass with two needles;
- The washers are clamped in turn with their palms between plywood with a small skin glued on them and, turning their hands back and forth, remove the burrs;
- The shaft is wrapped in the same skin and, squeezing it with your hand, the shaft is pulled several times with a twist in order to slightly remove the sharp edges of the thread;
- Wrap the shaft with foil and try to insert it dry into the holder. If necessary, repeat operation 7. It is necessary that the shaft in the foil wrapper enters tightly and is difficult to turn by hand in the holder;
- They take out the shaft, remove the foil and screw one of the nuts onto it to the place;
- Lubricate the shaft threads liberally with grease;
- The same lubricant lubricates the clip inside;
- On one side, ordinary steel and 3-4 bronze washers are applied, each generously lubricating with the same lubricant;
- Again wrap the shaft with foil and insert it into the holder;
- Washers are applied in reverse order on the other side, also lubricating abundantly;
- They screw and tighten the other nut so tightly that the shaft can barely be turned by hand;
- The nuts are temporarily fixed with locknuts;
- Lay the workpiece flat and drill through holes for cotter pins;
- Spinning regular nuts. Best off cuts of bicycle spokes, they have very high shear strength;
- They assemble the headstock, put its pulley in place;
- They twist the pulley with their hands until it starts to rotate tightly, but without jamming;
- Assemble the drive of the machine and run it at idle at the minimum spindle speed (in the slowest gear) until the motor picks up full speed. If necessary, push the pulley by hand;
- Repeat step 21 at maximum spindle speed (in the fastest gear);
- The gripper of the workpiece is put in place - the assembly is ready for work.
If you don’t trust any very smart physics there (although nodes with GFS keep accuracy no worse than analogues on rolling friction), then in fig. - drawings of a bearing assembly, equally suitable for a homemade circular saw and a wood lathe. In the latter case, a flat sole with side supports is not needed - the round body is simply inserted into the headstock body and fixed with a screw. Instead of a saw blade, they put either a faceplate or an adapter with a cone for a chuck (det. 6).
tailstock
The designs of the rotating centers of lathes for metal (at the top in the figure on the right) and for wood (in the same place below) are not fundamentally different, only the “wooden” one is designed for many times lower loads. But in work, especially at home, there is a significant difference: axial holes in turned wooden details drilling is extremely rare, because their strength is greatly reduced by this - wood, unlike metal, cracks easily. That is, by abandoning the quills for interchangeable working bodies, it is possible to simplify the design of the tailstock to suitability for manufacturing “on the knee” with a small share of simple custom-made turning work.
A typical design of the tailstock of a wood lathe is shown in fig. below. On the right there is an insert with a rotating center in a wooden tailstock made from a garage door hinge. It also uses the GDP, and the center shank is fitted to the cage in the same way as the headstock shaft, but simpler and lighter: the gap between the pin and the socket of the garage hinge is approx. 0.5 mm and, as a rule, the assembly turns out to be suitable for work without fitting and grinding.
Some difficulties are caused only by fixing the center from the reverse longitudinal stroke. It is unrealistic to cut a trapezoidal thread and make a lock cracker or an eccentric for it at home, and the lock screw will quickly crush the usual metric thread. The output is a floating aluminum sleeve. Locksmiths are familiar with this method: if you need to clamp a threaded part in a vice, they wrap it in thin aluminum or put it between aluminum spacers - absolutely nothing happens to the thread.
handcuff
The simplest tool holder for a cutter is a piece of board with a wooden boss nailed / screwed to it. But this is not suitable for fine work: during the point of shaped parts, you need to turn the shelf (stop) of the cutter, without loosening the fastening of the handpiece itself and without moving it. Therefore, the handpiece must be made of metal with a swivel stop, however, custom turning and milling work is not required for this; see drawings in fig. on right.
Holder
So we got to the last question: how to securely fix the workpiece in the headstock of a woodworking lathe? Considering that the tree is easily torn, crushed, pricked, and the blocks on the lathe sometimes come in forms that are simply amazing.
The answer to this question is not as terrible as the devil is painted. Universal holder - trident, pos. 1 in fig. It is these that are supplied with household woodworking machines, for example. mentioned UBDN-1. The shank is either smooth for a chuck or threaded for mounting on a shaft. The trident holder securely holds workpieces up to 100-120 mm in diameter, and round ones up to 200 mm. There is only one drawback: it is very difficult to make a good trident for a wood lathe.
Screw chuck for small clean work (for example, turning wooden glasses), pos. 2, it is generally impossible to do without special equipment, but it is successfully replaced by a clamping chuck, pos. 3. If you need to process, on the contrary, a large workpiece with an irregular configuration in the cut, use a faceplate, pos. 4.
A faceplate for turning wood can also be made independently from bakelized plywood with a thickness of 12-16 mm. In this case, the washer is made 2-layer: the same one is attached to the plywood circle from the back side. sheet steel 1-1.5 mm thick. Holes for spikes in a plywood circle are drilled through, and instead of turned spikes, then you can put cut-off nail tips. A glass for installing a faceplate under a nut on a threaded shaft shank can also be made from plywood rings and a steel bottom.
Finally, on the basis of a 3-4 layer faceplate, you can make a homemade cam chuck for wood, pos. 5. Are the cams sure not to converge? So the accuracy of the workpiece is even worse. But you can sharpen bowls, saucers, etc. from cuts of a valuable tree. products that do not leave traces of processing.
Note: the variety of wood blank holders is not limited to those described. For example, see the video on how to make a mini lathe with a hole holder for the smallest woodwork:
Video: mini wood lathe
Finally
Making a machine and working on it are different things not only in industry. Therefore, in the end, see a selection of videos on how to sharpen a tree on a machine and make a copy machine for wood for turning balusters out of a grinder.
In order to make a lathe with your own hands, a home craftsman will need to understand the mechanism of its action, prepare some materials and have the patience necessary for assembly. homemade design, which will allow you to process a variety of metal products.
1 Why do I need a homemade lathe?
No man will refuse to have a small lathe in his house or apartment. Indeed, with its help, you can perform many operations related to the processing of metal parts, ranging from knurling a corrugated surface and boring holes, and ending with threading and giving the outer surfaces of parts of given shapes.
Of course, you can try to purchase a factory turning unit. But not everyone can afford such a purchase, and it is almost impossible to place a production machine in an ordinary home due to the fact that metal turning equipment takes up a lot of space. An excellent alternative to acquiring a bulky and inconvenient factory machine is to make a simple and yet functional lathe with your own hands.
A home-made metal lathe, assembled in accordance with all the rules, will have simple controls, take up a minimum of space, and be easy to operate. At the same time, you can easily process various metal and steel products of small geometric dimensions on it, becoming a real home craftsman.
2 The device and mechanism of action of a homemade machine
Before you start creating a turning unit for domestic use, it would be useful to learn about its main components and the mechanism of operation of such equipment. The elementary machine consists of the following parts:
- two grandmas;
- frame;
- two centers: one of them is the slave, the other is the leader;
- stop for working cutting tool;
- electric drive.
The mechanisms of the machine are installed on the frame (in a home-made unit, its role is played by the frame). The tailstock moves along this base of the unit. The headstock is necessary to accommodate the basic rotation unit of the equipment; it is fixed. A transmission device is also mounted in the frame, connecting the leading center with the electric motor. Through this center, the required rotation is transmitted to the workpiece.
The bed of the "home" machine is usually made of wooden beam, you can also use corners or profiles made of steel (metal). It doesn't matter what kind of frame material you choose, as long as it firmly fixes the installation centers.
It is allowed to install almost any electric motor on a home-made turning unit, even a very small one in power, but it should be understood that it specifications may not be enough for high-quality processing of parts, especially when it comes to a metalworking machine. low power an electric motor will not allow working with metal, but even a motor with a power of about two hundred watts can handle wooden blanks.
Rotation in homemade machines can be communicated by means of a chain, friction or belt drive. The last of these is used most often, since it is characterized by maximum reliability. In addition, there are also such designs of units made independently, in which a transmission device is not provided at all. In them, the leading center or chuck for attaching a working tool is placed directly on the motor shaft. A video of the operation of such a unit can be easily found on the Internet.
3 Some design features of "home" lathes
To prevent vibration of the workpieces, the driving and driven center should be mounted on the same axis. If you plan to manufacture a machine with only one center (with a leading one), the design of such equipment will need to provide for the possibility of fastening the product with a cam chuck or faceplate.
Experts do not advise installing collector-type electric motors on home-made turning units. Their revolutions in the absence of working loads can increase without the operator's command, which leads to the departure of the part from the fastening elements. It is clear that such a "flying" blank can do a lot of trouble in a limited space - in an apartment or in a private garage.
If you still plan to install a collector motor, take care to equip it with a special gearbox. This mechanism eliminates the risk of uncontrolled acceleration of parts processed on the machine.
The optimal type of drive for a homemade unit is the usual asynchronous motor. It is characterized by high stability under loads (constant speed) and provides high-quality processing of parts up to 70 wide and up to 10 centimeters in cross section. In general, the type and power of the electric motor must be selected so that the product subjected to turning receives sufficient rotational force.
The driven center, which, as noted, is located on the tailstock, can be stationary or rotating. It is made from a standard bolt - you just need to sharpen the end of its threaded section under the cone. The bolt is treated with machine oil and inserted into the thread (internal) cut in the tailstock. Its course should be approximately 2.5–3 centimeters. The rotation of the bolt makes it possible to press the workpiece between the two centers of the unit.
4 The process of self-manufacturing a unit for turning
Next, we will talk about how to make a homemade bow-type lathe, and also provide a video of this simple process. With the help of such an installation, you can grind metal products and other materials, sharpen knives and other cutting devices. The unit, among other things, will become your best assistant in cases where you yourself are repairing your car.
To begin with, we need to cut out two strong wood racks and attach bolts to them with nuts. A bed will be attached to them homemade machine, which can also be made of wood (if possible, it is better to use some sort of high-quality metal for the frame - a steel corner or a channel).
Be sure to make a special handpiece, which increases the level of stability of the cutter for turning metal parts. A similar handguard is a construction of two boards glued at right angles (or connected with small screws). Moreover, a strip of thin metal is attached to the bottom board, which is necessary to protect the working tool from changing its shape during rotation. A slot is cut out in a plank standing horizontally, which makes it possible to control the movements of the handpiece.
You shouldn’t have any problems with the manufacture of the tailstock and headstock - the essence is clear, and if there are any difficulties, you can watch a video on the Internet, where this process is shown and described in great detail. Headstock cartridges, as a rule, are made from finished cylinders that are suitable in cross section for general design machine, or by welding sheet iron.
It is advisable to install the frame of a home-made installation on a duralumin base, securely fasten the frame to it, mount all the machine components (there are not so many of them). After that, we take up the power unit of our equipment. First of all, we choose a suitable electric motor. For processing metal products, it must be powerful enough:
- if you plan to work with small parts - from 500 to 1000 watts;
- to work with more "large-scale" blanks - from 1500 to 2000 watts.
For "artisanal" turning equipment, motors from old sewing and washing machines, as well as engines from other equipment. Here, decide for yourself which drive you can mount on a homemade unit. A hollow steel shaft (spindle head) is connected to the electric motor using a belt or other transmission. This shaft is connected to a pulley, which is mounted on a key. A pulley is needed to attach a working tool.
You can connect power mechanisms yourself, but it is better to involve a specialist electrician in this operation. In this case, you will be sure that your lathe will provide complete electrical safety for turning operations. After assembly, the machine is ready for use. If you later need to expand its operational capabilities, it is easy to do.
So, for example, on the protruding end of the motor shaft, you can put abrasive or, and with their help, polish it, as well as high-quality sharpening household tool. If desired, it is not difficult to make or purchase a special type of adapter equipped with a chuck for drilling metals. It can be attached to the above shaft and perform slot milling in various parts and drilling holes.
Enjoy working on your own homemade mini turning center!
