Homemade lathe improvements 

It is amazing how you can put so much information, but well explained, in just 7 minutes :)

"A lot of you may say to use the weight of the motor....etc.....but THAT'S A DUMB IDEA"

\_/belt shakes because pulleys are not done properly and you need more tension on it.How to explain this the best ? \ _ / belt needs to touch pulley just with \ / sides.The _ thing on pulley needs to be deeper ,that way belt will not skip and it wont dance hula hoop. Hope this helps,i am qualified lathe operator and i have made many V belt pulleys for machines trough years.I recommend using a profile knife for making pulleys in wood,you can make one out of scrap metal ,since wood is soft compared to steel.Use bevel gauge on your belt and transfer the angles just like you are doing dovetail. Nice and fun video as usual.

I learned a lot on their channel. God bless you and your family. I'm always watching your videos here in Honduras.

Matthias you're absolutely one of my favorite youtubers. Every video is just a joy to watch. All the best wishes to you from Bavaria. :)

I love this whole series. What started as a "I don't need a lathe, so I've never made one" has turned into an awesome series of videos. I love that you share your bad ideas and show us what you are thinking.

It needs green paint!

The block that locks in place the shaft of the pulleys, does it make the shaft vibrate? I'm saying this because by the shape it has, it can't be much balanced. Or is it?

Did you know Adam savage gave you a compliment on your work and loves how you do it with such limited tools?

I like the incremental improvement. Also how you are keeping this build to just simple tools.

You didn't say "varnish" even once in this video!

your lathe is much better than more chinese wood lathes.

"For each action there is an opposite and equal reaction." Clearly, you have not met my wife.

That butterfly nut that acts as a lock for the threaded rod was an awesome idea! Really nice upgrade in general!

Good improvements. A suggestion for the tail stock. I would have made the whole tail stock variable so you can slide and lock it anywhere along the lathe chassis. Have 2 x hex nuts embedded in the front and rear tail stock which would accomodate the all threaded spindle (spike). You could then finely adjust the point of the spindle into the work piece by screwing the threaded spindle. If you want to get rid of the floppy ver belt. Run a spring loaded jockey wheel. Two x bearings would place less friction than the design you have now which will generate heat and wear. If you use bearings you can slot the shaft and put cur lips on to iliminate travel. Bearings are about $5.00 each new.

still have to earn that green paint!

Looks great, nice improvements. Can I ask about the motor you are using please, what sort of power rating is it?

I've seen a few vids where people 3D-print prosthetic hands for kids. How about making one in wood?

Dear God, w'd you please turn me into a zombie so i can eat Matthias brain!

Good improvements

Your ability to visualise solutions and work your way through issues is amazing. Thanks for all that you do and share! Tom

The belt should be tighter, unless you're designing to stop the piece at the slightest tool catch. Also, if you're going to get into faceplate turning, you're going to need better thrust bearing support.

any idea what motor he's using? an what is an acceptable rpm (highest and lowest)?

A spring tensioned idler pulley, such as on a lawn tractor deck should provide tension and dampen belt vibration.

Get a P.O.box and let people send you things. Then make a video about it

How long do you estimate the threaded rod will work in the wooden threads? Perhaps embedded nuts would work here too.

Matthias, You sir are a smart man. I'm often impressed by how resourceful you are and the way you solve problems.

sand the tool rest strip, more consistent cuts.

Cool! You need to buy yourself a set of turning tools. Bench chisels are dangerous to use on a lathe (not that I'm the safety police). You can even make your own tools with carbide cutters (you can buy them real cheap from Cap'n Eddie Castilian (look him up on youtube))

Nice! I suppose that was the only v belt you had. Ideally you need a shorter belt, than it not gonna take up that much space. Plus you will need shorter wood to support your motor, which makes it structurally more stable. Plus short belt would vibrate less, as far as I'm concerned. I guess you have to dismantle it if you wanna move it around!? Well done otherwise

That is a lot of work for a slightly nicer working scroll saw stand.

hey Matthias, what does it feel like when adam savage gave a shout out to you on his recent Reddit AMA?

👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

On the headstock, I would delete the spurred center block, and make a faceplate that has holes to pass machine screws. That way, you could make up various other faceplates and chucks that could be attached to the permanent faceplate.

muito bom!!

have you thought about adding a live center?

A very ingenious way to make a very useful tool. Thanks for sharing.

Always good to see developments through use, certainly seems to be improving with every iteration! Why not just use pillow bearings though? They are so cheap and will give more precision and durability. Threaded bar was definitely the way, maybe T nuts in the tailstock rather than cutting a thread in the wood?

Thanks, Matthias, enjoyed hearing your design / thought process regarding the tailstock shaft. xox

Nice improvements. Nice work as usual.

Greetings from Brazil my friend, plus brain you are a very dear person. All the best!

Nice Modifications Matthias.

Thanks for the update... looking great!

I'm always inspired by what you can do with a few inexpensive tools, some scrap wood, and a sharp mind!

Hey matt, I think that turning a bowl with that sort of arbor and a so light weight lathe isn't a good idea, because the forse thats donde to it may bend it or brake the whole structure. My lathe has a 35mm arbor which isn't very large for a lathe. I like it but just for spindle turning, a 12 mm shaft is pretty easy to bend. A not so big bowl at 1700 rpm can shake a little bit my 170 kg homemade lathe. At my lathe the motor pivots and it's locked in place by a piece of iron with a chanel, so it can't vibrate very much and it's very fast to change speeds. Cheers from Uruguay and sorry for my english

Using the lathe you are building to build the lathe you are building. Nice.

Still waiting for the video where you start building your own motors. ;-P

I'll know it's done when it's painted green. Nice job looks awesome

Thank you for the great video on making the wood lathe, I am going to give it a try although I am not the wood master that you seem to be, you are very talented

I want to do what you do.

If you only had a small metal lathe. Then you could have easily made a real quill for the tailstock ;-) (I'm still wondering if it were possible to make a metal lathe out of wood...) Regarding the modifications, the lateral motor movement appears a bit over complicated although it does help to get four speeds out of just 2x2 pulleys. I find a very practical system is the one used on the Vicmarc lathes, which have three gears out of a 3x3 pulley constellation for "coarse adjustment", aided by motor speed adjustment by frequency converter. I figure with a small lathe such as this, two speeds might do it if they are chosen well and the ratios sufficiently different. You won't need especially slow speeds since you can't mount especially big workpieces anyway. (incidentally, that is the configuration of my Emco Compact V8 metal lathe and it works like a charm, although with that you really DO want very slow speeds at rather high torque for threading etc. But I digress ;-) In any event, I'd try just turning around either the headstock pulley or the motor pulley and adding electronic speed control and see where that gets you.

Hi Matthias, Lathe looks great, good mods too, I don't have a lot of experience with wooden threads, but I wonder why you didn't mount nuts in the tail stock like you did for the clamp bolts. IMHO you are one gifted mechanical mind, keep on trucking' I enjoy your videos very much, cheers.

very cool! easy...

Hey! I don't know if it would be too much to ask for, but... Could you make some videos with just the recordings of the noises of some of your Machines, such as your dust collector, heater, etc.? I just think it would make for a really good white noise :) I don't know why, but the low hum of machinery makes me tired 😴

Dear Mathias I have followed your projects and enchants me your creativity and practicality of their inventions, but how do I get the projects. A hug for all joiners of Brazil.

Wonderful! Great job! Now...you need to come up with some sort of guard around the belt and pulleys to keep little fingers out (Harriet's SP?).

As a wood turner I'm really enjoying this. I like your tailstock I'm thinking about doing something similar as an extension for my 900mm lathe so I can have a go at pool/snooker cues. keep up the good work :-)

Is your coulor sheme inspired by your oil bottle ? it looks Kind of the same aß your homemade tools

definately solved a lot of the issues you had previously. how are the wood bearings holding up in the headstock? if you're wanting to do bowl turning, that is REALLY asking a lot of your headstock...most production bowl lathes have a 3-point bearing for the headstock spindle to deal with the stress. It must hold the entire weight of the bowl as well as withstand the forces induced from actual turning so it deserves to be as strong as you can make it. I would suggest making a duplicate headstock, but making it taller so you get more distance between the spindle and the ways (that distance ultimately is your upper limit on the size of bowl you can turn) and beef up the spindle support there, with adding another bearing block (possibly two!).

You're a genius...

If the V-belt flopping is an issue, you can always add an adjustable idler/tensioner pulley that is mounted on a vertical board. With no slack you will have less chance of your tool stopping the work piece from spinning suddenly.

Why didn't you just serrate the rod instead? should provide plenty of friction. Awesome project anyway. Your skills are above and beyond most people of this world.

hard maple can make for satisfactory spindle bearings when saturated with oil, but you might notice that sintered bronze bearings are not too expensive at the hardware store. that's progressing from the 1920s to 1950s.

I think you should fix the engine belt with this tip: snag.gy/5E7Hk.jpg I don't know if the image is correct with your system ( I don't remember well) but I think you need to fix friction on belt and also to don't burn your motor. So the race point - B is the flexibility belt and the point C point is momentum of rotation motor , also the point E can be assimilated with the level of the current in the motor windings. Maybe you can use one level and mechanical spring.

Just a thought, One way to remove vibration from the belt without transferring it to the lathe might be a spring loaded belt tensioner arm/ idler pulley, as long as the spring wasn't too strong. The vibration would cause the tensioner to continuously automatically adjust and remove vibration. But it's probably overkill and not really necessary here.

Fantastic ideas. I like to see how your mind works. Simple problem solving.

I'd be interested in seeing your machinist-level accuracy put towards something like segmented turning and the like. It seems like they'd be a good fit, even if it's not the most utilitarian of ideas.

Did you see that Adam Savage of Mythbusters gave your channel a shout out on his last Reddit AMA. He said he particularly liked this lathe design. www.tested.com/art/makers/565107-highlights-adam-savages-reddit-ama/

I'm going to wait till it's completely done then hopefully he puts plans on his website. I've been wanting to do something like this with a motor I have laying around and I would love to buy plans instead of taking the time to do my own. Plus his would be better than mine anyway.

The engineering cleverness inside Matthias continues to boggle me. I wish more companies had employees like him, my fridge and my bandsaw would both work better.

Please, where did you get the engine? Do you have any specific location I live in Canada Ontario. Thank you

I used to work with someone who looked almost exactly like you Matthias. He has a soft voice too. This person was a genius in electronics and engineering. He has since retired and I have moved on from the job too. But amazing when I watch your videos I think of this person.

Все что ты делаешь это круто.All you're doing is cool.

Would you consider making a "machine taper" insert for the tailstock to hold a live center or drill chuck? Both are very handy accessories for lathe-based projects.

Good idea Mathias---an idea,project that anyone can afford to make and then turn out a reasonable article safely..People in really poor countrys could afford to make that lathe and thats good..Perhaps aid organisations could get kits made up of this style lathe and ship them to where they are really needed?????

I watched your lathe videos a month or so ago and in one of them you showed a duplicator. And at the very end of the video you added on or linked to another video by a gentleman (Russian I believer) who had made a duplicator and was demonstrating it. I can't find that link again. Would you be kind enough to send me the link. Thank you so much.

Have you seen this build using your gear generator? Wintergatan - Marble Machine (music instrument using 2000 marbles) This is the finished video but there is an entire build series.

Ну вот, теперь похоже на станок. А для установки двигателя, рекомендую два фиксированных положения. "Google translate" Well, now it seems to be on the machine. And for the installation of the engine, I recommend two fixed positions.

really looking forward to seeing the chuck. could save me spending $300 for one from Packard

A belt tensioner may have worked better.

BTW, have you seen the Wintergatan musical Marble Machine? He really plugs your gear design program a lot.

I've made my own adaptation from your model, but I dont think the Threaded Rod do a good job because it does not turn with the wooden part when you upgrade the speed over 1800RPM for sanding, the wood burn . I personnaly used a blank shaft with bearing sweavel at the end of the threaded rod. Way better result. for the belt tension, i put the motor on a pivot, in that way the motor weight put the tension to the belt and then it doesnt shake, and it is fast to switch from one gear to another. really good starting model!

My father's old lathe that he got from my grandfather has pretty much the exact same arrangement for the tailstock. The tailstock was a sharpened bolt with a metal crank and a wingnut to lock in place. At some point my father found a live center that fit the bolt so then he didn't need to oil the wood. The lathe is also made of wood but has a machined head stock with a proper MT 1 taper and threads. No ball bearings, just two oil reservoirs filled with cotton on top of the pillow blocks.

79 people just didn't like this video .Where else can you find such a resourceful video on a wood lathe .I believe some people are naturally dumb

I would love to watch a stream of you playing the game "Besiege" and listen to your process as you figure out how to make a more efficient sheep slaughtering machine :P.

под ремнём можно разместить натяжной ролик на "ножке" с пружиной a belt tensioning pulley can be put on " leg" with a spring (cool Google translate) :)

I have an old tablesaw that uses the motor weight to tension the belt. I absolutely hate the design. As you said it shakes the entire table. New belt old belt doesn't matter, the machine just ends up walking around the concrete floor. I shouldn't have to focus on my push sticks and workpieces skating across the table and not on the spinning blade in the middle.

Your supposed to pull on it to give the belt tension. If it still wobbles like that, that means you didn’t pull on it to give it tension. Have you ever seen how a swamp cooler motor works?

"Didn't want to use all my fancy tools..." Ahh capitalism. It's a beautiful system.

To reduce the friction between the work piece and tail shaft, you could make your own live center out of wood. You could fix a bearing in it that screws into your threaded shaft, then insert the point from your first shaft in the bearing.

Is the dust causing any problems to the motor? I have the same motor, and want to know b4 I start one project. Plz

love this build lathes are so expensive

Clever as usual.

You can use a drill and belt sander to do point sharpening. Put the rod in the drill, take it down on the belt sander. It's how i sharpen my TIG electrodes.

very inspiring .. all possible with basic tools & must compliment you on your presentation .. job well done

maybe your kids will earn pocket money turning bowls sooner or later ;-) - wish I had the place for a late.

Keep one leg firmly on the ground, lift the other leg high enough to clear the motor's height and swing it over the motor. You will have successfully mounted your motor.

2:29 If you put a compression spring over the shaft , it will keep the nut from free wheeling from vibration.

Matthias!!!!!! That lathe is really cool. Your ability is amazing. Thanks.

Thanks for sharing ideas on how to make things like this without conventional or "proper" tools and materials. I will put this to use soon enough. kudos!