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Yep, I'm trying to build a lathe. I haven't yet jumped on the Gingery bandwagon, but I'm probably going to soon. In the mean time, here's my home-brewed wood-turning lathe, to turn spindles, knobs, and primarily to make round patterns (such as pulleys) that would otherwise be hard to make. :)
This is my brain-storming scetch for the lathe. It's a small window into my brain so be warned, things within may be disturbing. Nah j/k! :P
There's any number of possible bearings I could use here. At first I thought I'd go for babbit bearings (feeling partly inspired by someone's recent posting of a good, old bearing book (in .PDF form) on rec.crafts.metalworking), but now I think I'll just go with brass bushings instead.
You'll notice there are many other differences from the drawing. Well like I said, it's just for the general picture. The tailstock will have a ball crank, but I figure I'll drop the setscrew idea for a custom locking nut instead.
It's not as complicated as a metalcutting lathe, but it still needs something for the toolrest and tailstock to bear against. Here I bought some steel stock, one 4' length each of 1/2" square bar and 1x3/16" flat (both hot rolled..Ace doesn't seem to carry CRS). I cut them both into two 20" sections and drilled five holes (one every four inches) in them, tapped (#8-32) those in the bar, and enlarged and countersunk the holes in the flat, and screwed the flat to the bar so the two ways together form a T slot. Ah heck, here's a photo.
It's starting to look like a lathe! The attachments are held with a 1/4-20 bolt into a plate below the ways (which slides in the T slot), giving a nice and tight clamping force holding them securely.
So far everything is sand cast. (I tried some lost-foam castings but they sucked - I think my metal was too cold.) The toolrest would be very difficult in one piece without cores or odd angles, so I cast a flat base plate and the arm + column seperately then screwed them together. The tailstock is one piece, though barely since I forgot to draft the pattern on the bottom side, LOL. The shiny cylinder in the tailstock is the ram, it will hold the end of the work in place. And it's not a continuous cylinder, it's actually threaded for the left two inches. A word of advice, if you want to do that, get a piece of allthread. 1/2-20 is a hard thread to cut by hand. :-( But tapping it in aluminum is strangely extremely easy. Go figure.
Here's the motor I'll use to run it. It's an old(ish, I guess.. never checked for the date) Craftsman 1/2HP Capacitor Motor, 8.2 amps 120V 60Hz, 5/8" keyed shaft, reversible. Yes, I know, a whole half a horse? I'm thinking I'll mod this lathe to cut metal later, then maybe I can load the motor a little more than one percent.. :P
That's all I've got so far. Stay tuned!