Concrete Lathe

openfarmtech.org/index.php?title=Lathe
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=184364356772

I've been sitting on this idea for a while and for the life of me: I'm not sure why. I guess I wanted credit for it or something.

I noticed just now that you guys are using black iron pipe polished between centers to build CNC routers.

The open farm tech's lathe-ways/the multimachine inspired me about a year ago that a concrete lathe could make itself:

-starting with the headstock(car axel) and a mount for a steady rest
->bore the tailstock: and from there:
--->a boring bar could be turned between centers to true-up a pair of hemi-cylindrical ways made from 1/4 sections of black iron sewer pipe.

The headstock could be made from a truck/car axel as has been done before with saw mills and "large bowl lathes"

The carriage would be made from a section of round stock with a keyway to keep it from rotating in it's ways. Put some t-slots in the carriage for a compound rest/Z table and you've got yourself a lathe/mill in a 3rd world location with only an automobile, some concrete, and some scrap metal & without the need to cast anything.

This comic is what inspired me to put this out there.

http://wondermark.com/541/

I'm not a civil engineer so engineering the base to properly handle the loads to be expected from machining has been beyond me so far, although I'm inclided to believe that it would involve a top view of the ways resembling an XXXX like on many cast iron lathes as the majority of force seems to be dedicated to stretching the ways away from eachother.

As a matter of practicality: I think the whole thing should be made using a 50 gallon drum or two as a form. That way: the legs can be kicked out and the machine can be rolled around in order to transport it from location to location, steamroller style.

Thoughts?