Introduction: Portable Benchtop Spring Pole Lathe

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About: Growing up in a rural area in the East of England I've always been interested in nature and trees and eventually found myself building things from the wood I could find. This has led me to follow my passion of…

I needed a lathe but have such little room in my shed that it had to be able to be packed away when I wasn't using it. It's design allows it to be clamped down to a bench or table so if need be I can chuck it in my car and set it up somewhere else. This lathe is made completely from pallet wood as many of my projects are. As always I've made a video on YouTube documenting the build and showing some of my turning "skills", instructions and plans follow below.

Thanks a lot for checking this out and I hope you enjoy it!

Step 1: Tools and Materials Needed

Tools

- Pencil, measure and square

- Crosscut saw and rip saw (I only have a crosscut) or table saw

- Hand plane or planer thicknesser

- Clamps

- Brace and 8mm bit (or drill)

- 2mm pilot hole bit

- Wood chisel and mallet

- Screwdriver (size and type depending on the screws used)

- 2 X 13mm spanners (or one spanner and one set of pliers)

- Optional - turning chisels if you wish to have a good go at turning when its finished!

Materials


- 1 length of wood 102cm X 10cm X 1.5cm (40 3/16" X 3 15/16" X 9/16")

- 1 length of wood 200cm X 5.5cm X 1.5cm (78 3/4" X 2 3/16" X 9/16")

- 1 length of wood 208cm X 4cm X 3cm (81 7/8" X 1 9/16" X 1 3/16")

- 1 length of wood 74cm X 9.5cm X 6.5cm (29 1/8" X 3 3/4" X 2 9/16")

- 1 length of wood 132cm X 11cm X 1.5cm (52" X 4 5/16" X 9/16")

- Scrap wood for the wedge and tool rests

- 200cm (78 3/4") of bungee cord or strong elastic

- 400cm (157 1/2") of para cord or rope at least

- Wood/PVA glue

- 2 X 8mm bolts, 8cm long (5/16" bolts, 3 1/8" long) with 4 nuts and 4 washers.

- 40 X 4cm screws (1 9/16")

- 20 X 6cm screws (2 3/8")



Step 2: Marking Up and Cutting the Stocks

I've included a jpeg with detailed measurements of every piece of the lathe besides the pedal and tool rests as I think they have to be cut in a way that suits you and your shop/work area. I didn't have big blocks of wood to use for the stocks so I just cut some pieces and glued them together. Not everyone will have to do that of course but if you do then you can see how I went about that process in the video.

Once you've cut the pieces you can then mark where the wedge will go, this is where I had an advantage with having slimmer pieces of wood to make the stocks. I could plan exactly where the wedge would go through the centre of the piece and then glue the two pieces together as you can see in the photos. If you have solid blocks for the stocks then of course you have to bore a hole through and clean it out with a chisel. For the purpose of this instructable though, I'll stick to what I did.

When all the pieces are cut and you check to make sure the wedge fits snugly, you can glue them all together. It's a good idea to make sure the pressure of the wedge is on the top and the bottom of the stock and not towards the sides for two reasons. First of all, a wedge that pressures the wood width ways can cause the wood to split. Secondly, the wedge needs to make contact with the side rails in order to clamp the stock firmly in place, this is why you should make the hole for the wedge slightly higher up the stock than it needs to be.

Attachments

Step 3: Attatching the Side Rails and Centres

Lining up the stocks with each other, you can then plan where the side rails will go. These are the rails that the moving stock will ride along and clamp to. You can see that I've set the bottom line of where the rail will go just under the top of the wedge hole. This is to make sure that when the wedge is tapped in it makes contact with the rails on both sides and therefore locks the stock in place.

Taking the 2 bolts I sharpened them to an angle I thought would work and then installed one of them onto the sliding stock. I clamped the rails to the other pieces and put the sliding stock between them and slid it over to the fixed stock. Giving the back of the sliding stock a little knock with the mallet marked the centre point for the bolt to go through the fixed stock. I did it this way instead of measuring the fixed stock and putting the bolt through in case there were any inaccuracies with my measurements. Luckily I did because there were certainly some inaccuracies!

After these pieces are all sorted out you can then glue and screw the side rails on and fix the two end stocks to the bottom of the lathe. This bottom piece is what allows it to be clamped to a benchtop.

Step 4: Making Slots for the Vertical Poles

I wanted the vertical poles that hold the elastic to be removable so I can store them away when I'm not using the lathe. They also needed to be firmly held onto the two fixed stocks however as they'd be under a fair bit of pressure as the elastic gets pulled down by the pedal. To overcome this problem I placed the vertical pieces on the fixed stocks and made a kind of wooden casing around them, just like a mortise and tenon joint. This meant I could put them in and pull them out as much as I like without sacrificing any of their stability.

Step 5: Attaching the Elastic, the Rope and Making the Pedal

Attaching the elastic is a pretty simple job which I was glad of after all the earlier complications! I made two little notches for the elastic to fit into to stop it wobbling around and drilled a hole on the vertical pole which was attached to the larger of the fixed stocks. Passing the cord through I tied a knot at the end and then pulled it up and over the notch and over to the other pole. I pulled the elastic down the side of the other pole until I felt that I had the right tension, made a loop at the end of the cord, screwed a screw in (what else can you do with a screw?) at a severe angle and looped the cord over. I later found this to be too tight and had to adjust it as you'll see at the end of the video. I think it just takes a little tweaking to get it how you want it.

To make the pedal I just used a load of scrap pieces and screwed them together in a pedal shape that I liked the feel of. Later, to stop the pedal moving around everywhere, I attached another piece to the pedal with a hinge which I could stand on with my right foot to stop it moving around. I think this is another situation where you have to keep tweaking things to suit your personal needs and wants.

Making a small loop around the elastic with the rope I was then able to tie the other end onto my pedal. I just used para cord for this which I won in an instructables contest so...thanks Instructables!

Step 6: Making the Tool Rests

The tools rests were very simple and really another part of the build which is down to personal preference I think. All the measurements for my rests are on the plans. I just made simple, triangular kinda shapes and screwed them on with 3 screws each. I then found a scrap piece of wood that sat on them nicely and got my chisel to the right height.

Step 7: Using the Lathe!

This was the most fun and perhaps the most challenging part of the build as I've never really used a lathe before let alone a pedal powered lathe. I don't have any turning chisels currently either so the results of my attempted turning are from a severe lack of skills and from using normal bench chisels.

A couple of last things to remember are to firstly have the wood spinning towards you, you want the wood to turn downwards into the chisel and also you can use beeswax or paste to lubricate the centres. Secondly, ALWAYS wear eye protection when using a lathe, always. This may be pedal powered but it still has enough force to make a splinter fly towards your eyes and also the chisel fly out of your hands. Always use eye protection and keep a firm hold on the chisel at all times, take it slowly and build up your confidence. Your eyes are incredibly valuable.

When you've got all that down, enjoy! I'm hoping my next attempt will yield better results and my dad has some old rusty turning chisels lying around somewhere so I'm gonna clean those up and give them a go.

Thank you very much for checking out this instructable, if you enjoyed it and you wish to keep up with my projects then please give my Facebook page a like and also head over to my YouTube page.

Hope to catch you soon!

Woodworking Contest 2017

Participated in the
Woodworking Contest 2017