Lets start a machine that gets finished! I know funny right, are they really ever finished?

The machine is being built to machine some parts that I need to make a few hundred pieces of, a couple times a year. You can see the pics attached, about the size of a pencil eraser and made of delrin. I would also like the machine to be able to turn out some small aluminum parts if needed in the future, as needed by the same project the delrin parts are for. Pics of the delrin part, and its drawing are attatched.

The design travel will be 14" in the Z axis an 8" in the X axis.

Found a great deal on a ELGIN lathe 5c spindle head with Hardinge taper lock spindle nose! $125. and in good condition!


I started out the build with a lathe bed made of a 6" x 6" x 36" section of surplus structural steel that was rusting away. Its got a 3/8" thick wall and I filled this section with a polymer concrete. So far I have welded support rails down the length of the bed to support the INA linear rails that will make the z axis ways, and welded on the spindle mount plate. All this was machined in a single setup with the bed "delicately" clamped to the milling machine so as not to induce any twist or stress during machining. The last thing I needed was the bed to be held in a twist while machined, and then allowed to untwist when un-clamped from the milling machine bed.

Cleanup, welding and machining of the bed section was rather time consuming but it turned out well and is ready for paint. I was delighted to find that after machining the bed to accept the rails, that there was no rocking of the INA rails in the machined slots. After bluing, the rails and slots I found there was adequate contact between the bed and rails so no scraping was needed to mate them.

I had green paint that I use for the Fence business I run, so green it is.

The machine enclosure has been started as well, and is designed to be able to wheel around the shop floor. There is no room for a machine that needs a forklift to move, so I consider this an "office" sized lathe build!