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Step 22Parting thoughts
Of course, there have been people that look incredulous when I tell them I am building a wood lathe.
Some reasonably common responses: "Why the hell would you do that in this day and age", and "they are so cheap from China, what a waist of your time".
To me though, it seems completely sensible. I like making stuff, and learning about how things work. If I didn't love making things why would I want a wood lathe in the first place?
Making something that helps you make other things is very satisfying, particularly if you do it in a way that uses all your creative ingenuity. If you want to make something like this yourself, and you plan, as I did, to spend very little and to recycle other peoples landfill material, you certainly will have to think 'outside the box' as you put materials and things to new and unintended uses.
Anyway enough babbling. I hope you got something out of this instructable and look forward to any comments you might have.
Final inspirational quote from the famous mechanist Dave Gingery with a qualifier: take care and don't be reckless...
"It is interesting to note that most of our best ideas meet with opposition in our own minds as quickly as we conceive them. The objections we raise usually seem so reasonable that much of what we might do never gets done. If you don't want to do a project just write down the first dozen or so thoughts that come to your mind and you will have at least a half dozen good excuses. If that doesn't do the trick just toss the idea to the experts and they will usually be happy to kill it for you. If you really want to do it, though, it is most likely that you will find that it does not really cost very much and it is not nearly as technical and dangerous as established experts would have you believe." (Dave Gingery)
PS to see more of what I have been up to with this you may want to check out my blog: www.floweringelbow.co.uk/blog
Some reasonably common responses: "Why the hell would you do that in this day and age", and "they are so cheap from China, what a waist of your time".
To me though, it seems completely sensible. I like making stuff, and learning about how things work. If I didn't love making things why would I want a wood lathe in the first place?
Making something that helps you make other things is very satisfying, particularly if you do it in a way that uses all your creative ingenuity. If you want to make something like this yourself, and you plan, as I did, to spend very little and to recycle other peoples landfill material, you certainly will have to think 'outside the box' as you put materials and things to new and unintended uses.
Anyway enough babbling. I hope you got something out of this instructable and look forward to any comments you might have.
Final inspirational quote from the famous mechanist Dave Gingery with a qualifier: take care and don't be reckless...
"It is interesting to note that most of our best ideas meet with opposition in our own minds as quickly as we conceive them. The objections we raise usually seem so reasonable that much of what we might do never gets done. If you don't want to do a project just write down the first dozen or so thoughts that come to your mind and you will have at least a half dozen good excuses. If that doesn't do the trick just toss the idea to the experts and they will usually be happy to kill it for you. If you really want to do it, though, it is most likely that you will find that it does not really cost very much and it is not nearly as technical and dangerous as established experts would have you believe." (Dave Gingery)
PS to see more of what I have been up to with this you may want to check out my blog: www.floweringelbow.co.uk/blog
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I actually lent the lathe to a friend about a year ago now. I have been thinking about making a new one, for turning absolutely massive stuff - one day...
There are mods I would do to this one, if I was building it over again. Like I would build in some kind of 'feedback' into the motor speed regulation - so that I could get better speed control under variable loads - It is quite annoying the way it slows down when you are roughing out a blank with some 'vigour'. And I did always intend to make a digital display of the spindle rpm, using the motor's built in tachometer...
Anyway, your post has reminded me that at some point I should get the lathe back from my friend - It has been away so long, it is now quite difficult to find a space for it in the workshop now ;-)
Are you planning to use scrap for you lathe? If you want any feedback on your metal lathe designs, I would be happy to take a look.
Thanks again, B.
Why don,t you read the instructable before shouting your mouth off.
Also cheap tools anneal easily when you sharpen them on the grinder, causing you to constantly have to resharpen the tools.
Making your own lathe is fun and can save you a few hundred dollars but don't screw around with cheap gouges.
Lathes are easily balanced and are often called upon to turn unbalanced jobs. It is called using balancing weights. Beyond that all lathes can be potentially extremely dangerous, it is just physics. So I'm not too sure what your point is with your comment. Personal vendetta against HF maybe?
I agree with Shantinath and Kearney's comments on this, but I would like to know in what way you thought it particularly dangerous? I could think of a million ways it is dangerous, but it is all about assessing the risks and making a considered judgement right? I have lots to learn, so it maybe you have spotted something I missed or didn't think carefully enough about?
thanks for the comments..
I don't often comment, and I suspect (without going back to look at them) that most of my comments have been critical. But I do mean critical in the full sense. I will always attempt to explain why I am writing what I have done. Primarily in an effort to allow an instructable to be improved.
You would notice that I have no Instructables - primarily because I have never had time to properly document any projects at the time. However, as for exposing myself to public scrutiny - that I have done on many occasions in other ways, so I do understand exactly how it feels to have someone comment on your work/concepts/ideas.
It would seem unfair to stop people commenting without having written Instructables as you are potentially ruling out the time earned knowledge and wisdom of people who may want to help, but do not have the time or perhaps the inclination to write their own Instructables.
For an example of the comments I have in mind, see my Instructable on making a new cord for a laptop power supply. People who have submitted no Instructables told me all sorts of reasons why such a project was likely to cause electrical shock or a house fire and should not even be allowed on Instructables. They were shooting from the hip. I finally got one of them to cease when I challenged him to place a glue stick on the hottest power supply he could find and see if it melted after a couple of hours. Meanwhile, I have had that cord plugged into my power supply continuously for almost six months and it works as well and as safely as the original I lost.
It reminds me of a story my mother told. She was a registered nurse. Another nurse who had never married and never given birth to a child thought the women in the maternity ward were just a bunch of whiners who needed to toughen up and quit complaining about pain.
Personally I consider carefully if something is generic enough to be of widespread use or not. I do lots of stuff, but most of it is unique to my situation and would be of no use at all to anyone else just how I did it.
Oh, and I was pfred1 but if you lose your password on this site and have a new email address I do not think it is possible to recover your old account. So even I have more than one Instructible, just not credit for them any longer. Ain't the Internet great?
Anyhow that is my perspective on the matter.
I'm unique, just like everyone else!
Maybe I should start a more straightforward website with the domain Brag.net? Because that is what a lot of posts here look like to me.
Then I could branch out with the name dontdoitthisway.com. I'm sure that could be a smashing success too!
Possibly I'm just overstatingtheobvious.org?
In any event I am not so quick to pass judgment on people who are not so prolific here for lack of those other sites to post to. They simply may possess better editorial skills than average.
or
http://www.floweringelbow.co.uk/2009/make-your-own-lathe-form-scrap/breakfast-bowl/
Congratulations on this build and thanks so much for sharing it with us. I'm quite gobsmacked by your imagination and building skills. I want to build my own but every time I go to do laundry it will be sitting there staring at me-- unfinished. ;o(
Someone is going to ask so it might as well be me. Do you have any thoughts on how you could get a Morse Taper into the head and tail stocks? I wouldn't even know where to start.
Anyway, thanks again for sharing your skills.
DD
Great job!