Lathe Bed

[rosinante]

Hi I am after some advice /tips for constucting a wood turning lathe bed.The head and tailstocks are sorted see projects "nesting box", I anticipate the the bed to be made from 4x2 channel with 50x 10 bright steel strips on top to form the ways, will Bright mild steel strips be very straight? Should I go for Ground flat plate [ the thought of the price worries me] I will need minimum of 2M lengths.
Q what means should i use to fix the strips to the bed? set screws countersunk in? Welding? Araldite? the current setup that I have is Ok but I would like also to build a saddle that can be traversed back and forth like a metal lathe for turning parallell and tapered wood cylinders that are repeatable and accurate, also drilling from the tailstock to be better than it is.
I know that these facilities are available on high end lathes like Wadkin etc but these are out of budget , all are £1500 plus on the bay etc.
All ideas and tips gratefully recieved, especially on building the saddle with rack etc,thanks in advance.Also interested in buying a lathe bed suitable, one that is probably worn out for metal turning would sitill be goodenuff for my purpose or even a saddle that could be modded,

Thanks for reading
Cheers


Chris

 

[rtbcomp]

Link to project

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=30561

For a taper couldn't you move the tailstock over rather use a cross-feed?

 

[GeorgiePorgie]

So what figure have you come up with in terms of buying materials and components?

You can pick a decent lathe up for 3 to4 hundred doesn't matter if its a metal lathe either as it will do wood as well,you just got to have the saddle rest and backplate.

 

[rosinante]

Link to project

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=30561

For a taper couldn't you move the tailstock over rather use a cross-feed?

Hi yes the tailstock does have facility for this but the tool still needs to run parallell to bed on a saddle,[ expecting to run long slow tapers c 1.5 m ]

Cheers for the link

Chris

 

[MattF]

Hi I am after some advice /tips for constucting a wood turning lathe bed.The head and tailstocks are sorted see projects "nesting box", I anticipate the the bed to be made from 4x2 channel with 50x 10 bright steel strips on top to form the ways, will Bright mild steel strips be very straight? Should I go for Ground flat plate [ the thought of the price worries me] I will need minimum of 2M lengths.

I'd be tempted to have a look on Ebay and see if you can pick up an old gap bed lathe, of around the bed length you need. There's one somewhere down your way on there at the moment for not too much brass, (at the moment, and no idea of bed length), if I recall. Just do a search for old/vintage/antique lathe.

 

[GeorgiePorgie]

GumTree always semm to have cheap lathes.

 

[GeorgiePorgie]

I've sent you a PM,Charnwood wood lathe at £180

 

[rtbcomp]

Hi yes the tailstock does have facility for this but the tool still needs to run parallell to bed on a saddle,[ expecting to run long slow tapers c 1.5 m ]

Cheers for the link

Chris

Yes - For some reason I thought you meant traversing perpendicular to the bed.

 

[GeorgiePorgie]

There's one in your home county at £50 with a decent sized bed

 

[rosinante]

There's one in your home county at £50 with a decent sized bed

Hi Whereabouts/link/webpage please
cheers
chris

 

[MattF]

Gumtree.

 

[GeorgiePorgie]

That ones gone now,seems someone musta had a look? item not there?

There's another in bristol though for £50 sobs,that must be worth the trek from Kent?

 

[rosinante]

lathe bed bars

sorted now thanks for replies