Articles
from Amateur Work Magazine Lathe-Making for Amateurs
As someone who bought a lathe rather than build one, I firmly believe that people who build lathes are a cut above those of us who just buy. Why? Because in the process of building, debugging and perfecting a machine you learn lessons that can be learned no other way. Another example of the school of hard knocks I guess. I would like to build one the lathes described in this book, but there are too many projects in the queue. I'll never live long enough to build everything I want.
You get three series of articles on building a metal lathe. Well, maybe it's more like two and a half.
The
first series entitled "Lathe-Making for Amateurs" by Paul Hasluck started
off explaining the readers what lathes were about, the types available in
the 1880's, and what they would do. He then explains the poppit head and how
to bore the headstock. But this fourth article is the last. He quit writing.
The second series is "Lathe Building for Amateurs" by James Lukin, well know for his expertise on lathes. Here, Lukin explains that the reader really shouldn't be concerned why Hasluck's series stopped, and that he was going to take up where Hasluck left off because building a lathe is an important activity.
The last series by F J Durrance is entitled "Lathe Chucks for Amateurs". No, there are no three-jaw scroll chucks described, but there are number of others of value.
Lukin's series is really the best. He describes buying castings, scraping them, checking alignment and such. He recommends buying castings because that was too complicated for the average reader.... for them maybe, but certainly not for you. He recommends using another lathe to build a lathe. But it's not totally necessary. And ol' Uncle Dave Gingery shows us ways around that.
These
are small simple lathes that model makers needed. No roller bearings. Not
even bronze bushings. Early lathes used a conical steel bearing running in
castiron. It sounds primitive, but it worked.
Rank beginners always think they need top of the line equipment to build something. You don't need all those crazy power woodworking tools that Norm uses on television to build a birdhouse. You don't need a CNC machining center to build a model engine. I would love to build one of these small lathes to see what kind of accuracy it could provide. I suspect it would do a better job than most people would imagine. Machining on one of these simple, homemade lathes would be like cutting dovetails by hand with a backsaw and chisel. And that would be something to be proud of.
Great articles. Fascinating illustrations. Get hot. Extract ideas, adapt, combine with Gingery, etc etc. Interesting reading for technology nuts, builders, machinists, and anyone with the curiosity they're supposed to have. Get a copy. 5-1/2 x 8-1/2 softcover 109 pages
No. 23683 ... $9.95
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