is it possible? Make-shift lathe?

thd9791

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So - has anyone mocked up their own lathe? I'd love to give wand props a try, but have no space or $ for a bench-top lathe...
I do have a dremel..a couple of drills and a small drill press - so I'm not short on chucks or rotating motors....but is it possible to use these in other ways? What would you use to anchor the other end of the wood? Thanks!!!!
 
I've heard of others doing it with a drill, but it was for smaller stuff. You could try a drill, in a vise. Than put your plastic, or wood in the
drill chuck, and spin away! Of course some common sense, and careful motivation, would be a plus!

I have a project coming up, I'm going to try it out on myself.
 
I've heard of others doing it with a drill, but it was for smaller stuff. You could try a drill, in a vise. Than put your plastic, or wood in the
drill chuck, and spin away! Of course some common sense, and careful motivation, would be a plus!

I have a project coming up, I'm going to try it out on myself.

I did this vertically with a dowel in my drill press. Gooddamn physics came into play - and anything past a couple inches flies in a wild circle when spun! This is why a lathe has two ends - so be careful! this posed a problem, so I came here haha
 
I tried to make a home-made lathe last year to make some HP wands for my kids for Halloween. It didn't really work. I had better results with hand-held tools.

I have done the power drill version mentioned above, and it works well for small projects. I've mostly used it with a file to taper a piece of metal rod. I've never tried it with wood.


ETA:

I just read the page from the link above. If you're going to DIY a lathe, this looks like it could work.
 
I've done it several times with a drill press making small brass pieces with a set of files. Sometimes you can find extra-wide chucks to fit larger materials, but you're going to have a hard time doing anything but fine detail work on a drill press.

You can also find small hobby lathes for exactly the kind of wand-sized things you're talking about for like $150.
 
I've done it several times with a drill press making small brass pieces with a set of files. Sometimes you can find extra-wide chucks to fit larger materials, but you're going to have a hard time doing anything but fine detail work on a drill press.

You can also find small hobby lathes for exactly the kind of wand-sized things you're talking about for like $150.

Were would I look for extra wide chucks and do they cost an arm an a leg? curious because I'm thinking of concocting some kind of lathe myself.
Any info appreciated....Thanks.

Sean..
 
Well, that was really more speculation than fact.. :unsure
I haven't bought one myself, but I recall using a drill press with a removable chuck a while back, so someone must make them.
You might be able to find replacement lathe parts that you can MacGyver into a drill press extension, but the more you add, the more powerful your drill press will have to be, or you might burn out the motor.

Either way, a part like that would be pretty expensive, and for what you're doing, you might be better off with a mini-lathe.
 
Craftsman still sells a 'mini' desktop lathe with a 4 inch diameter capacity onlline for under $200. mixed reviews. Check craigslist and ebay and see if you can come up with a taig micro lathe or similar knock off, usually you can for in the 100-150 range. Dremel if you can still find it made a lathe, it was model dremel lathe "700-01" and turn up every now and then if you can find one. Never seen one in person though and I don't think they're made anymore.
 
Oddly enough, I just did this very thing with a drill press at work. Not wands mind you, but a drumstick. Bosses kid wanted to modify one so we chucked it up in the drill press. In order to stop the end from spinning wildly out of control, I came up with the idea of inserting a rollerblade wheel bearing into a piece of wood and clamped this on center to the drill press bed. Raising the bed up into the stock, it acted just like a vertical lathe. Files and sand paper were our best tools as there is no way to really fashion a good tool rest in this way.
 
Oddly enough, I just did this very thing with a drill press at work. Not wands mind you, but a drumstick. Bosses kid wanted to modify one so we chucked it up in the drill press. In order to stop the end from spinning wildly out of control, I came up with the idea of inserting a rollerblade wheel bearing into a piece of wood and clamped this on center to the drill press bed. Raising the bed up into the stock, it acted just like a vertical lathe. Files and sand paper were our best tools as there is no way to really fashion a good tool rest in this way.

huh, thank you!

All these ideas are fascinating, especially that grizzly thing. Im still trying to do this for as little $ as possible...so maybe I could build something like that out of wood..if the drill press doesn't work.

- - - Updated - - -

hey, if ..when you lower a drill press to a piece of wood lets say, and right when it touches, the bit slips a hair..that means part of the chuck is loose..is there a way to tighten this up? (it's not the bit itself)
 
when you say slips.do you mean stops in the chuck for a second .or do you mean the bit moves to the side. I always tighten my bits at all three key point's on the chuck....
 
Look around you... can you construct some sort of rudimentary lathe?
tumblr_m7k8ecdduR1rae5vno1_1280.jpg




Sorry, I couldn't help myself.
 
If the chuck itself is slipping on the spindle. Most drill presses still us a MT taper of some sort to hold the chuck on. Easiest way to tell is if there's a metal wedge tool that came with your drill press and a slot in the spindle head it would insert to get the chuck off. If yours does & it's loose, just unplug the drill press, raise the table all the way up. You may need a couple of 2x4's to fill out the remaining space between the table surface & chuck jaws. Then just pull the drill handle to force the chuck onto the spindle more to tighten it on the MT taper.
 
Instructables has some home grown lathes on it. Not super fancy, but some simple designs. And some neat techniques.
wood lathe - search Instructables

About 10 years ago, Harbor Freight clearanced out these little ~$35 wood lathes. I don't think they carry them any more, and I don't remember the name.

And way more work, but you could go old school, and build a full lathe:
http://www.vintageprojects.com/lathe-milling-plans.html
Unlikely to ever be as good as a Grizzly unless you're really into spiffing things up, but I've always wanted to give it a try.
 
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I've done the drill in a vise and the drill press routes. If your hand drill doesn't have a speed adjustment built into the trigger you will need a router control switch . Take to large hose clamps and tighten them around the drill body, you might need to shim them with wood so your vise will hold them properly. Then if you trigger has a speed control you mount it in the vise and pull the trigger adjusting your speed to where you want it, then lock the trigger. If it doesn't have a speed control use the router speed switch to control it, be aware if you use a router speed control you can only use the drill at low speeds for 3-5 minutes before you have to either take the drill up to full speed or turn it off to cool down or you risk burning out the motor.

I've also used a drill press as a makeshift lathe to make parts such as firing pins, turn down ram rod ends, and to make springs for firearms.
 
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