The best homemade wood lathes. Designing a wood lathe for your home with your own hands. Wood lathe materials

When you want to add something warm and very beautiful to your home, wood immediately comes to mind. But when you come to a store or market, the prices make your eyes pop. Especially if these are some chiseled decorative elements. There is one great way out of this situation - to make a lathe with your own hands (for wood). At first glance, this seems very complicated, but after looking through a little literature and searching the Internet, you can easily put it together.

The main element of a wood lathe will be a three-phase electric motor, so a three-phase one should be suitable for your home electrical cable, otherwise it will constantly knock out traffic jams. RPM: no more than 1500 per minute. Various types Motors are connected in different ways: “star” or “delta”.

The main difficulty in this matter will be selecting the right capacitor.

A faceplate is placed on the motor shaft for large parts and a replaceable one for small ones. The second end of the workpiece is secured with a corner. There are special peaks on the faceplate onto which the workpiece is hammered.

After all, the workpiece is centered and secured with counter washers. Then they start the engine and insert the first cutter, which can be done with a regular chisel. He begins to remove the first layer 1-2 mm thick. After this, the workpiece becomes similar to required item, but it is still 1 mm thicker, at this time the next finishing cutter comes in, which will give real beauty to your product.

Each part can be checked using a template or measured with a micrometer. Various cuts and contours are made with the sharp end of the first cutter, and grinding is done with the finishing cutter.

You can also sand the part directly on the machine using sandpaper. And they polish it with wood shavings, holding it in their hand and leaning it against the workpiece.

A few more options for making machines:

For a home workshop where woodworking is planned, an appropriate lathe is necessary. It is not necessary to buy it if you do not need to work very intensively on it. This is exactly the instrument that even a child can make with his own hands. Of course, under the guidance of adults.

We bring to your attention a video tutorial on how to make a homemade wood lathe according to the instructions that were outlined in the magazine “ Young technician" The work requires a minimum of parts. The most complex part needed in this machine is the engine. The magazine recommended using a sewing machine motor for this.

The task arose - to make a chess piece and fill the missing bishop. All details round section, that is, the cross section of which is a circle, is processed precisely according to this principle. The workpiece rotates and the cutter removes chips.

A very old, but still useful, magazine happened to be at hand, in which an article was published on how to make a simple lathe for working with wooden blanks. This machine consists of a bed, a headstock, a tailstock, and a tool rest.

A spindle with a chuck rotates in the headstock; it receives rotation from an electric motor. The tailstock can move along the bed and is secured in the right place with a wedge. The tool rest has freedom of movement both along and across the bed. It is also secured with a wedge. The workpiece is clamped between the headstock chuck and the backstock cone. Leaning on a tool rest cutting tool. About how to make a turning head.

Since most of the parts of this machine are wooden, the master took up a hacksaw. Parts subject to the greatest loads during operation were strengthened by gluing plywood on both sides. The base and bed of the machine are assembled from planks and machines.

From metal parts I needed a cone from a bicycle handlebar. To convert it into a chuck for a lathe, I had to drill 2 holes in it and tightly drive lengths of nails into them.
The result is this design.


Second metal knot also from a bicycle. Namely the axle of the front wheel. A pre-prepared cartridge is screwed onto it and tightened tightly with a lock nut. This is how the headstock was assembled.

All that remains is to transfer the rotation to the chuck at the opposite end of the axis by attaching a pulley for the belt drive. The magazine suggested cutting out 3 circles with a jigsaw and using a jigsaw to cut out a pulley in them. But the circles cut with a jigsaw are not very even. Therefore, it was decided to make a roundabout. For this, on the one hand wooden block The nail is driven in and sharpened sharply. And with a reverse handle for ease of use. A board with a pin attached to it is the base of the tool. The diameter of the pin is equal to the diameter of the bicycle axle. Using this tool, circles are cut out of plywood.

In one place, during operation of the machine, quite a strong voltage is created.
Therefore, you need to tighten the nuts thoroughly. For the tailstock, a wooden block is selected, the thickness of which allows it to move between the slats of the frame.

To begin with, an oblong hole is made in the block. To tailstock did not fall through the frame; two planks were glued to the sides of the block.

Making a tool rest for a mini lathe.

The base of the tool rest is a plywood rectangle with two longitudinal grooves. It consists of two metal plates attached to the sides of a wooden block. To prevent them from coming back out, a wire pin is used. A tool rest is also a small wooden block with a beveled top. To increase durability, it is covered with a cover made of roofing iron. Metal scissors and a wooden mallet were used.

Equipping a wood lathe with an electric drive.

In order not to deviate from the instructions posted in the Young Technician magazine, a motor from an old sewing machine was used.
Before wiring, you need to turn off the power to the device. Electrical contacts must be reliable, otherwise the wiring will heat up during operation. This could cause big trouble. Therefore, the wires are well protected and twisted tightly, or even better, soldered. It goes without saying that the connections must be reliably insulated.

A rubber belt from an old tape recorder came in handy.

Result.

Now the do-it-yourself machine is finally ready and you can start turning. This is a very exciting thing. This was noted by Peter the Great.
With the help of simple operations, a log is usually transformed into an excellent chess rook.

Any a real master in woodworking has or dreams of having a lathe at home. But, unfortunately, for most carpenters and turners, their own budget does not allow them to purchase finished model and install it at home. In this case, you can make a machine and on our own from quite accessible materials.

Manufacturing Features

Homemade wood lathes are made quite easily and simply if you know in principle what a lathe is and what it consists of. A small unit with dimensions of about 80x40 centimeters in length and width with a height of 35 centimeters does not take up much space, but allows you to process workpieces with a diameter of up to 25 centimeters and a length of 20-40 centimeters.

Lathe gives unlimited possibilities in the manufacture of dishes, furniture, decorative elements.

Thanks to it, you can make any product in the form of bodies of rotation for your own use or during construction and other work.

Machine elements

At the lathe with my own hands extremely simple design and only important components:

  • electric motor - it is used as a machine drive; you can take a motor from a pump;
  • the front headstock, which serves as an outdated electric sharpener for 2 stones;
  • support for incisors to regulate and support them;
  • tailstock, which is made from an old unnecessary drill.
  • frame made of welded metal profile (welded so that a gap is formed along the entire length before being fixed with bolts).

To make your own machine, the simplest tools will be enough:

  • electric drill;
  • files;
  • Angle grinder (grinder) for cutting and cleaning;
  • electric welding with electrodes of 2 and 3 meters.

Materials needed for the machine:

  • metal profile;
  • metal corner;
  • two pipes of different diameters for support;
  • drive belt (can be taken from an old car);
  • fasteners.

Manufacturing Features

The headstock must have an axis of rotation that is located on optimal height, as well as thrust bearings to protect it.

Headstock of a homemade wood lathe

The headstock kit should include washers for attaching disc abrasives. Two washers on the left will secure discs with different diameters, which will allow you to adjust the speed. On the right, using a washer, a faceplate is attached for mounting the blank.

Such a lathe has one drawback: the headstock does not move, since there is no corresponding mechanism. But it can be moved by fixing it with a nut.

The cartridge should be chosen so that it is convenient to use. A frame is made from metal channels, to which a support must be attached in the middle. To make it adjustable, use two tubes different diameters, one of which (the narrower one) is inserted into the wider one.

Diagram of a chuck for a homemade wood lathe.

In some cases, the motor is not used at all for work on a lathe, then the discs do not need to be changed and the belt does not need to be used. The selection of disks for changing on the headstock should be made based on the optimal rotation speed for different breeds tree. For this purpose, there are tables and graphs showing the relationship between the optimal diameter of the pulley (disk) and the speed of rotation of the headstock. Moreover, for different types tree indicators will differ.

Your pulleys should be made of plywood; it is better to take material 10 millimeters thick and knock it down in two layers. Thus the pulley has optimal thickness 20 millimeters. It is attached to a rubber-coated chuck on an electric motor, which, when connected, acts as a drive pulley. Before turning, the faceplate is screwed onto the grinding axis after the blank has been installed.

The motor requires a separate mount; it is better to use a separate platform for it. It is also necessary to foresee the mechanism of movement of this platform, so that when replacing a pulley on the headstock, the length of the belt is sufficient for the job.

For the real owner of the house, there is a huge amount of work in the house and in the country, which will be more convenient to do with the help of the made DIY wood lathe. Production machines are quite expensive, especially since you can’t buy enough of everything you need. But if available electric drill, free time and a certain level of skill, you will soon be able to turn a variety of wooden parts.

Homemade wood lathe with your own hands

Maybe a lathe is not the most necessary thing in the household, but if you understand the principle of its operation, and even manage to make the most basic elements for finishing and construction, then this will be a serious reason to be proud of yourself as a true jack of all trades.


Details that can be made using homemade wood lathe with your own hands, may be different. It could be the legs garden furniture, balusters for railings and balconies, even details, because it is the curly elements that will distinguish your product from others for which planed rather than turned wood is used. In addition, the smooth surface of the parts allows you to use more comfortable things without worrying about sharp edges and splinters.

The main elements that you will need to construct the entire structure are the base, otherwise called the bed, as well as the front and rear supports, between which the workpiece is located. The sizes you plan to work with will depend on overall size finished machine. For some, the size is suitable, and therefore a rather modest beam can be used for the frame, but for others, the size of the garage itself will not be enough, accordingly, the frame can reach impressive sizes. In any case, its main task is to ensure that the entire structure remains stable during operation, even at high engine speeds. The material for the bed or frame can be timber or a metal profile.


Second mandatory element is the leading center - this is the point at which the motor is connected, which will rotate the workpiece. You can find many ways to create DIY wood lathe and milling machine using different engines. You need to know that the design will work with an engine of any power, but only sufficiently powerful engines have the ability to cope with wide and long pieces of wood, and even process it efficiently. Therefore, if you need a machine for a small amount of work, but constantly, for example, you always make things with your own hands, then it is better to use a fairly powerful motor, which most electric drills have.

The third mandatory element will be the driven center, it is located at the other end of the frame, secured so as to hold the second end of the workpiece and support the rotation that the driving center transmits through it. At the most simple designs it can be fixed in one position and in order to change the size of the workpiece you will need to unscrew the fasteners at the base and move it along the frame in one direction or another. In other designs, the possibility of moving it along a horizontal axis is provided in advance.

Putting together all the main elements into a single constructor is a little more difficult than making one. We must remember that both centers must be strictly at the same level, this is necessary so that during operation the workpiece does not vibrate and the turning occurs in accordance with the technology. Everything must be securely screwed, verified, nothing should fly off or fall out during the work, as we're talking about O important aspects safety precautions.

Do-it-yourself wood lathe drawings

Of course, it is much more difficult to understand the device by ear homemade unit, so it is better to resort to the assembly instructions DIY wood lathe, drawings With symbols and, of course, photographs of the main elements. Having dealt with them, you will see that putting it all together is no more difficult than making it, especially if you strictly follow the instructions.


Before you is the simplest drawing, according to which, if you have a hand-held electric drill on the farm, you can assemble DIY wood lathe. Video with the process of working on a similar unit, it can tell you the assembly sequence. First, on the frame, which is fixed to the table surface with a latch, in order to be strong and motionless (1), you must install the base for the leading center - the front support. In the diagram, this part is indicated by the number 2. The task of this part is to become the place where the drill head is inserted and where it can be placed, being securely fixed. Later we will look in more detail at how it should be arranged.

The rear support, which we see at number 4, is designed to secure the driven center in it; it can either move along horizontal line frame, always remain in one place, secured with self-tapping screws. As you can see, fasteners No. 1 are designed so that both one and the second structural part are mobile, which greatly simplifies the task when the workpieces have a significant difference in overall dimensions.


Next drawing- This is a front support device inside which the drill is fixed. As you can see, there is always a hole in the adjustable system so that you can place the tool inside and securely fix it there, and then take it back out by unscrewing the screws. It is best to place the drill upside down, so it will be much more stable, which is very important for proper operation systems. At the same time, the correct operation of its drill will not change in any way.

Make a wood lathe with your own hands

An important step in how make a wood lathe with your own hands- this is a driven center device, so it should also rotate, repeating the movements of the drill. To achieve this, you need to place a bearing inside it, which will help achieve this result.


You can easily take such a thrust bearing from any unit of a suitable size. Based on the experience of craftsmen who have performed similar manipulations, a release bearing from a VAZ car may be suitable. The entire structure is welded so that the reliability of the components is maximum - the tip will be a sharpened bolt, which will have to sufficient quantity centimeters to plunge into the workpiece. It is welded onto a washer, which is welded to the bearing housing, and on the other side, through another washer, a pancake bolt with threads and a lock nut is welded, which helps adjust the length of the center and fix it in the selected position.


The tools you will need are welding machine, grinder, a screwdriver, with which the fastenings of the headstocks (supports) are fixed. Now we can proudly say that for DIY wood lathe chuck ready.


The center of the structure should not be on the same axis, located between the leading and driven centers, but slightly lower. After all, it is on him that the emphasis will fall hand tools, and the angle must be sharp, but it must still be there. Even if you make the very base of the center from a wooden block, it is still recommended to make the top of it from metal. Typically, rolled metal is ideal for this purpose - a corner that allows you to rest the tool securely against it; it is durable and does not deform even at high speeds.

DIY wood lathe photo

Operating principle DIY wood lathe, photo which you see in our article today is quite simple. In the hole that we thoughtfully designed in the front support, a drill is inserted and tightened well in a vice, secured with a nut.


After a gap equal to the length of the workpiece being processed, a tailstock is installed, which, after the workpiece is installed between the drill bit and the sharpened bolt, is tightened with a lock nut. Check the strength of the seat of the piece of wood inside; it should not come out from both ends, it should be firmly seated.


On the left side you have a drive, with right side- a tailstock, and in the middle - a metal corner. You turn on the drill and the workpiece begins to rotate at a speed that is set as the operating speed of the power tool (of course, it’s very good when you have the ability to manually adjust the torque on the electric drill). Arm yourself with a sharpener and move it evenly along the surface metal corner, remove the shavings from the workpiece, to ensure safe work, be sure to wear not only thick protective gloves, but also plastic glasses, as well as a respirator to prevent small particles of wood shavings from entering the respiratory tract.
It is very difficult to make such things if you do not have the opportunity to make the main components to order in the factory. After all, the principle of operation of any copier is that there are additional elements, which move in several planes at once, which will make it possible to obtain identical products at the output. Without a programmed machine, doing this yourself is very difficult. On the Internet you can find several videos with examples of how certain ideas are brought to life, but be prepared that the process of debugging the copier’s operation can be quite lengthy. According to reviews from those who have made similar devices, it will be somewhat easier to make a slightly different one functional features a milling and copying machine based on a conventional milling machine.

Our article is devoted to nostalgia for school labor training workshops. Many people know how to do wood turning, but not everyone can afford to buy and maintain equipment for this. Is it possible to assemble a machine with your own hands that meets technology and safety requirements? Let’s figure it out together.

What GOST says

The good news is that you don't have to reinvent the wheel. The entire assembly process and drawings of each machine module are described in TU3872-477-02077099-2002, and although this document is not publicly available, it can be obtained upon individual request. Although this is unlikely to be needed: the device of the machine is so primitive that you can easily navigate the intricacies of its manufacture even from images from school textbooks.

Another positive fact— The STD-120M was apparently designed for on-site manufacturing, so you can either find almost all components for assembly on sale, or make and modify it yourself. Naturally, if you have the opportunity to inexpensively purchase components for this machine or its younger brother TD-120, do so. Factory-produced parts are more reliable, easier to adjust, and the unified frame design allows you to assemble one machine from many donors.

Please also note that standardization of modules largely determines the safety of equipment operation. The basic principles of industrial safety are stated in GOST 12.2.026.0-93, and the rules of electrical protection are set out in GOST R IEC 60204-1. Harmonize any part or machine module you manufacture with these standards.

Manufacturing of the bed

Instead of a cast iron frame, we offer a lighter welded structure. It consists of two pieces of 72-gauge angle steel, each 1250 mm long. There is a great temptation to make the bed larger to process more massive products, but remember that such changes require intervention in other components of the machine. Perhaps you should take the TT-10460 as a sample for a meter-long workpiece.

We place the corners on a flat horizontal plane shelves to each other. We insert calibrated inserts between them so that the frame guides are positioned strictly parallel with a distance of 45 mm. To fasten the guides, we use two corners, the same as on the frame, 190 mm each, which we place on the front and rear edges. Before welding parts, it is recommended to squeeze them with clamps so that the metal does not move when it cools.

The guides are fastened with another 190 mm jumper, in the bottom shelf of which there are cutouts for each corner. This part is installed to form a cell, the dimensions exactly corresponding to the landing pin of the headstock, in standard version this is 45x165 mm.

Such a frame can be attached in any way to a workbench or deck, but it is recommended to weld all fastening elements without compromising the integrity of the base. If a separate corner is allocated for the machine, weld pipe legs perpendicular to the corners of the frame and, for greater stability, make a small “brace” for them with a sledgehammer. Ultimately, the weight of the frame attached to the workbench should not be less than 60-70 kg.

Podruchnik

This element conditionally consists of two parts. For both, you need one type of workpiece - a 50 mm corner, inside of which another, 30 mm wide, is inserted. They are welded along the edges, in the end you should get two sections of 260 and 600 mm.

The short part is the adjustable base of the hand rest. One of the shelves is cut off, but not completely, leaving a 110 mm long section with an inclined cut. The other shelf is cut at a right angle 60 mm from the rear edge. You need to make a counter frame from a thick steel plate that will clamp the guide of the tool rest.

To make a guide with a clamp, take regular pipe per inch and make a longitudinal cut in it with a grinder. The resulting sleeve should be about 150 mm long; we insert it into a 25 mm corner, orienting the slot outward perpendicular to one of the shelves. We tighten the parts with a clamp and weld along the entire length closest to the shelf slot. Cover the workpiece with a second corner of the same length and attach it to the tube with reverse side.

The guide is welded flat to the protruding flange of the adjustment rail on its inner side. For fixation, a screw with a long handle and a nut welded to the rail are used. On the reverse side, the strike plate is fastened with a cotter pin or even a welded rod.

The hand rest is mounted on a 20 mm smooth reinforcement rod, which is located in the center with outside corner blanks. The rod fits tightly into the tube of the guide system, and when the screw is tightened, it is securely pressed on all sides. A long corner piece 600 mm long is welded to the rod with a slight inclination toward itself and a slightly “sharpened” leading edge.

Drive and transmission

The standard drive option is an asynchronous three-phase motor with a power of up to 2 kW (usually 1.2 kW), connected to the headstock shaft by a V-belt drive on two-belt pulleys. The bed for fastening the engine can be located between the legs of the frame, or on an additional scaffold behind the headstock, which will complicate the assembly, but will make it more convenient to transfer the belt.

It is not always possible to use the engine at the required shaft speed, so reaching the final speed is achieved by adjusting the diameter of the pulleys. For example, if you have a blood pressure at 1480 rpm, then in order to reach the coveted 1100 and 2150 rpm, the diameters of the leading and driven streams must be in a ratio of 1:1.5 and 1.3:1.

When placing the engine, it is useful to provide the frame with a plate attached to the gate canopies. An engine installed using such a system will be in a suspended state all the time and will ensure that the belt is tightly pressed by its own weight. And if you equip the platform with a pedal, the speed can be changed even on the go.

There are no problems with the electrical part either. Switching is performed by a standard three-phase starting button with reverse; for such a low-power motor there is no need to install a starter. The only thing is turning on the brakes DC while holding the stop button, which requires a powerful diode bridge(on KD203D) according to standard scheme inclusions.

Frequency controlled motor can be used as direct drive, which will eliminate the need to construct a headstock. To do this, you need to fix the engine on the transition platform, in the lower part of which there is a longitudinal mounting spike 45 mm wide as a standard means of adjustment for the STD120 frame.

Headstock

Looking ahead, we note that both the front and tailstock include parts that can only be made with access to a metal lathe. Otherwise, it makes sense to think about purchasing ready-made modules, or at least their cast consoles.

At the base of the headstock there are two bearing housings of types S, V or U, permanently mounted on an angle steel frame. Unfortunately, it is impossible to predict which sizes will be available, but in general, the height of the spindle axis above the bed should be at least 120 mm. Given that the diameter of the spindle shaft is about 25 mm, the most interesting would be the standard size of the bearing unit with a total height dimension of about 70 mm.

The shaft is machined from round carbon steel with a diameter of 40 mm with a tolerance of no more than 0.05 mm. There are two main variations of the shaft. The first is the simplest: the shaft pillar remains in the center, then descents are made to the landing diameter of the bearing units, then threads are cut at the ends. For axial fixation, four grooves are machined on the shaft for retaining rings.

1 — seats for bearings; 2 — grooves for retaining rings

The second variation has an extension in the form of a skirt immediately behind the cartridge thread. It is designed to install a flanged thrust bearing mounted on the boss of the headstock base. This approach allows you to reduce bearing wear if massive parts are processed on the machine.

The base of the headstock is two pairs of corners or two channels turned towards each other. By moving the vertical shelves together, you can adjust the height of the base to the axial height of the existing bearing units. A 45 mm strip is welded to the base below, which acts as an adjustment groove. The order of assembly is important: first, bearings are pressed onto the spindle, then the shaft is mounted on a frame with a backing of adjusting steel plates.

Tailstock

Making a tailstock is much easier. It consists of four parts:

  1. The base is made from angle steel, 100mm high, using the same principle as for the headstock. Two 50 mm corners are bolted across the top; in their shelves in the center there are cutouts with squares 40 mm wide.
  2. The guide (external) thick-walled square tube is 40 mm wide, 150 mm long and has an internal clearance of 20x20 mm. In the rear part you need to install a plug 6-8 mm thick and with a hole in the center of 8 mm, it is secured with two screws through the walls of the tube.
  3. The inner tube, also known as the quill, is made from a 20 mm profile tube, preferably thick-walled and milled exactly to fit the guide clearance. An M14 nut is welded in the rear part of the quill; a metal rod, widened to 5 mm, is inserted and welded into the front part, widened to 5 mm to fit a double-row bearing.
  4. The drive screw has a thread for a nut in the quill (it is advisable to make it trapezoidal); in the rear part there is a transition to an 8 mm thread for attaching the flywheel.

The principle of operation and assembly diagram of the quill are quite obvious, but Special attention You need to pay attention to aligning the axes. The guide tube, fixed by welding in the cutouts of the corners, can rise higher or lower due to linings made of transformer steel. The headstock and tailstock must be absolutely aligned, the tolerance is only a couple of tenths.

As for the method of attachment to the frame, it is the same for both the headstocks and the tool rest. M14 or M16 studs are welded to the bottom of the headstocks, and a large plowshare bolt is inserted into the slot of the tool rest. The modules are tightened from below with nuts with rods welded to them like levers. For uniform, tight pressing from below, a 50 mm channel is placed as a counter strip.