Make wood lathe out of an old drill press

How to make wood lathe out of an old drill press

What would be your answer if someone asks you to name a woodworker’s best friends?

Well, the answer should be the drill press and wood lathe without straining your mind too much. There is no dearth of beautiful objects lying around us that take beautiful shapes and curves with the help of a wood lathe or drill press. Watching a formless wood bar taking beautiful shapes in a wood lathe is a real eye candy.

So if you too want to treat your eyes with some real action that will make your jaws drop, lift shatters of your backyard storeroom and insert a piece of hardwood between tailstock and headstock of wood lathe and see how magically a formless object takes a beautiful shape in seconds. And, if you don’t have one in your damp workshop, then ngadhno – an instructables user - has us covered. He has a clean and SFW step-by-step tutorial of how to make a wood lathe out of an old drill press at home. All you have to do is follow the instructions listed below and get ready for the action.

Stuff you will require:    

Drill Press Forstner bits Wood piece (12" x 6"x1 1/2" thick) An M8-M12 bolt

         

Three pronged tee nut A bearing Two screws A thick bolt (6") Hack saw Screwdriver File Desk Grinder Two clamps Drill bits

Step 1: Making the spindle As we have to make each and every part from the scratch with the available stuff to make it look and function like a wood lathe, we will start with making a spindle. Reused and extracted sliding door bearing wheel fulfills the need perfectly, embed it in center of the piece of wood with a forstner bit and cap it with two screws with washers intact so that it doesn’t move in its place.

Step 2: Making the drive center You need to start with making a drive-in nut by cutting the head of the bolt with hacksaw.

Make four pointed pins on one end with the help of file and fix it tightly in the chunk. Once the drive-in nut is tightly attached to the chunk, try to align it with spindle using a drill bit.

You are almost done. What all you need now is checking one last time if claps attached to the spindle are tight enough to bear with the vibrations generated by the spinning drill, and the homemade poor-man's lathe is ready for some serious wood-crafting.

Precautionary measures:    

Don’t forget to safety glasses and gloves Don’t touch the wood while it’s spinning Try not to apply too much force on the wood piece with chisel Try to be cautious while carving pointed pins on the bolt

Source: Nyhandyman NYC