This lathe was built from the bed and main spindle of a scrapped metal–cutting lathe, and varous other parts that I had in the workshop.
The main spindle had a MT2 taper in the nose end, a 9/16" diameter through hole, 1-1/8" main bearing journals and 1-1/8" nose thread. This enabled it to accept all the existing Myford chucks, backplates, faceplates, etc. that have been accumulated over the past forty-odd years. The 240v, 1-hp, single-phase motor, pulley & belts were all from the substantial "stockpile" under the benches. The stand was made from two old cast iron frames that were once part of a 19th century paper perforating machine; the top plate is an offcut of 15" deep steel channel. The stand is very heavy, which is a distinct advantage for this machine, as it is sometimes used to turn off-centre or heavy objects, which can cause vibration.
The headstock was fabricated from the casing of a Morris Minor starter motor — this was shortened, and machined to accept four steel blocks and two plates, before being arc-welded. The only thing I had to buy was a pair of inexpensive self-aligning bearings, to fit the spindle.
The lathe was built some years ago, and has been slightly modified since; the first thing was to raise the spindle centre height above the bed. A couple of offcuts of aluminium billets were sandwiched between the headstock and the bed to lift the spindle nearly 100mm. This modification made the original tailstock redundant, so another one was made by sawing in half an old machine vice, and bolting an alumimium block to the sliding part of the vice. This block was bored out to suit the outer diameter of an old drilling machine quill, which means that if required, then the tailstock spindle can be driven as well as the main (headstock) spindle – this is via countershaft at the back of the machine; it’s not shown in this photograph. At the time this photo was taken the machine was driven directly from the motor – with a spindle speed of approximately 700 rpm.
This machine began as a homemade woodturning lathe but has also become, amongst other things, a horizontal drilling machine, spring winder, disk sander (max. 500mm diameter), indexing device, and so on.
