Building this lathe from scratch was a challenge. I'm not a mechanical engineer, so the build was based on gut feeling and materials I had available. Still I'm quite happy with the end result, even though my lathe does not have the full functionality of a real lathe. But it is small, quite powerful and can still handle up to 30mm diameter metal rods through the spindle boring hole.
You can find the design files like 3D CAD drawings, electrical schematics on my website page: www.simprojects.nl/lathe_and_m....
I have also added a Vertical Mill to this lathe, again using materials from the scrapyard.
Please see • Building a vertical mi... .
Being a mechanical engineer isn't about diplomas, it's a state of mind and, you sir have that state of mind. Impressive work.
actually a artists eye we had a guy who was a opearator but would fill in when tool maker was gone..he hated it but we noticed his tooling had better clearances and overall looked better
What's this education bashing all the time? An engineering degree is just a tool like any other, it doesn't hurt to have it.
I forget if it was when my brother was doing his master's degree, or when he was doing his PhD, but whichever he was sent an a placement to a small engineering firm. As tradesmen do in the eternal trade v academia fight, they set him about doing some work for the sake of taking the p*** out of him. This was a particularly difficult job they had been struggling to do. It was only when Eddie returned a couple of hours later, job completed to perfection, he told them that he was a time served fitter and turner. He had in fact been the apprentice of the year at a very large company at that time. Besides now being a university lecturer Eddie still works as a consultant for the company he was sent to amongst others. They now acknowledge that Eddie's knowledge, usually out of reach of smaller companies, has helped keep them in business in tough times. In fact some of the work they are now capable of making has enabled them to grow. All three of us, my siblings and myself, have both a trade and at least one degree. I have the least academic training with just a law degree, prior to taking it I was a chef with my own successful catering business. Of course academic and trade qualifications are different, but one isn’t superior to the other and both are needed. I do think here in the U.K. we have lost sight of how important trade qualifications are. When I left school in '76 leaving school to go into an apprenticeship was an achievement to be proud of. Somehow that’s been lost, which I think is very sad. I watch what some people achieve in this type of video and I'm totally in awe of the creator. That is for the craftsmanship, but also for the knowledge that goes into creating a machine like this.
@@computername The degree doesn't make you an engineer. I know a lot of "engineers" with a degree, that just lack the way of thinking for an engineer. And I myself do have a mechanical engineer's degree. Things done on this video are beyond stuff many "engineers" with a degree can perform. Most notable the careful planning and thinking through of various variables and understanding how this would affect that - causation. A degree doesn't make you anything if you already don't have that something in you, it just makes it official.
@@markharris5771 This is what I think too. In my country it's also very important to have the paper, the degree, to get a job. Otherwise you will be overlooked for. But, problem is, real talent is lost in the making, cos there might be a lot more competent people out there for the EXACT job, but for a reason or another they just don't have a degree and in most cases they don't even want to bother for one also for various reasons. Schools are not for everyone and that doesn't mean they are less competent or intelligent. Master - apprentice structure would still be very potent for various fields of professions. Not all, but still many. There are various levels of engineering for example and for some this would work well and for some not as well. Problem in today's world is we want to standardize everything and it doesn't work on craftmanship. Sorry, English is not my mothertongue. Hopefully the message carries out.
I've been a machinist for 40+ years this is a stroke of Genius. My congratulations to you sir.
Was thinking the exact same thing! Amazing what someone with a little imagination and the right scraps can do!
@@kevinm3751 absolutely correct
same here...top
Robert Burns Same,35 years.It is indeed a masterpiece.I'd favour the one he built from 'scrap' over some Chinese 'crap' anytime .
Robert Burns his machine looks bether than moste store brougth desktop lathes
"140mm chuck was founded on the scrapyard"... Nice. Nice scrapyard.
no scrapyard, try ebay!
الترجمه للعربيه
@@user-ge6fd5vi5v рпомгспрнрото пппьимлддддл
If you are aware of machinebuilding industries near you, then you could go and check with them to find a suitable scrap pieces for your needs. Am i right @Rolandvanroy
I want to live near this guy. The scrapyards in my city are pure crap.
Never seen a hobbyist act like a engineer, in my believe your a real engineer, I very much respect your work.
This is simply astounding. I'm almost at a loss for words after watching ... That's how much I love what you have created here my dude. No hyperbole, this is one of those rare, 10/10 build videos on YT that give a magical dose of inspiration. Kudos to you sir
The caliper add-on and the lamels protection plate is really brilliant, love it! Great work, very talented in all kind of areas.
Love how you used the digital calipers as a dro scale
"Still I'm quite happy with the end result" -- As well you should be! I'm blown away with what you did! Wow! I have a small lathe/mill combo and I plan to use some of your ideas to enhance it _and_ to build a CNC for woodworking. Thank you so much for sharing your work!
Very impressive work, and I thought converting my Grizzly mini mill to a lathe was quite a challenge. We need more innovators like you on Earth. Please keep spreading your knowledge and teaching the next generation.
This guy!!! I'm speechless. That was one of the coolest things I've seen on YT.
It has been a real pleasure to follow the progress of the project. What a wonderful result obtained with simple tools. As you said, building something by yourself is much more fun.
Clear, concise, perfectly paced explanation of a great design! Gets my vote for Best DIY lathe vid.
Here I am, struggling to assemble my lathe and you just made one nearly from scratch, genius work man
This is so amazing! Thank you for the in depth video and fantastic editing and narration. Keep it up.
I've seen dozens of homemade lathes. Your project is just amazing. Congratulations.
Using the Calipers as a digital read out is genius !!!!! Thank you very much for making this video
Your lathe is much more powerful than the ones from China! Probably bigger too. Probably more accurate!
My lathe was made out of popsicle sticks. For my first project I turned a #2 pencil that I use to write letters. Not only does my lathe turn light wood, it also turns heads. All my friends want a lathe like mine, but the doctors say they cant have sharp objects. I keep my lathe in my head so no one knows about it. Please don't tell the doctors or they will shock me again
no shit. you get what you paid for.....
No kidding. Bigger?! How do you figure?
@@ciprianpopa1503 thats what she said
I am very impressed by your build. I am particularly impressed with the way you built the tailstock. I don't know that I would've ever thought to construct it in such a way, to be honest. I may have been too bound to the idea of a round quill and a morse taper to have ever visualized the way you built it. The digital calipers as scales are also an incredible feature. I have a WWII era lathe, so my big project is going to be a milling machine. Seeing what you've accomplished here has given me a lot of ideas!
I'm a Maintenance Engineer but love working on Lathes. I found this video so satisfying and informative that made me watch the whole video. . .
Roland...you are GREAT !!! Your hand are in a boundle with a clever mind. Many thanks for your kind sharing.
Very impressive, you make it look easy, what you did was not easy. For me it was a great experience to look over the shoulder of such a skilled craftsman as yourself. Thanks.
Roland, this is an amazing achievement, and the re-use of material is wonderful! Congratulations, and long may you two work together :)
You sir are the reason everyone needs to get KZhead and be inspired by real genius and a sense of dare. I admire you. It must have been great fun!
It was a real pleasure to watch your process of design and build. Thank you for sharing your experience.
From start to finish, this is a VERY impressive project. Indeed, well done!!
I agree, to buy a lathe is very easy, but to build your customize lathe is much more better. I bought a mini lathe in your size and modified it to my purposes and now it works very well. I think with your skills and your fantastic scrapyard you can do many interesting projects. Thanks a lot to let us join your project.
Nice video. Awesome diy lathe. Congrats to you sir. No stupid music. Only a clear well made diy video. Wish all diy vids were like this.
The large spindle bore size on this small machine is a huge plus point. The tiny one on the Myford ML7 is the one thing I hate about my lathe. What a great job you made of this project, thanks for sharing.
well my friend ive got to say this is the best diy build ive watched on you tube. 10/10 and a gold star*
I completely agree with you! I had never seen something so pleasan to be watched!
What David said... Best DIY build on KZhead!
@@januarioqueiroz3122 what more could we say. amazing job and thank you
I like your digital caliper idea and way of accuracy alignment 🙏🙏
The use of digital caliper in such way and the ideas of that bellows curtains were very well thought! Nice job!
Sir, You are genious! The way how you described the way you built it is perfect and deserve 10/10. You designed it and build on your own, so its 11/10. From local trash scraps... WOW!
A nice thing about those calipers that are used for position feedback is that most of them have a digital output. "Digital scales" which are like calipers, but are made for them purpose are used in DROs. The calipers readouts are probably good enough for that, but the output could be used for closed loop control if you want to add cnc control. I like how the linear bearings are used for the precision ways.
This is such a beautiful home build with brilliant simplicity, that I am moved to tears. I would love to work with someone like because I believe I could learn so much about your detailed precision processes.
Yes, me too
Also your voice over. Just like those technical instruction videos of yesteryear. Just perfect!
You did a great job on building this lathe with great precision. I like your speed control.
Very inspiring work, I appreciate the way you approached all aspects of this project.
That's a really great build. I learnt a lot along the way. Thank you for sharing
Learnt? Learned. Now you learnt something.
@@humblehombre9904 I think you should stick to being a Humblehombre.
This is one of the best diy lathe builts I have ever seen.
Absolutely brilliant. I first looked at getting a mini lathe when the price tag still read $250 and now they're as you said, closer to $800. I never could justify the money to be spent at any point between then and now. Maybe now I could but because of the lack of justification over the years, I turned my approach to building my own, which of course didn't happen ... YET! Hahaha. Seeing your accomplishment here is definitely a boost on inspiration and revives the dream of getting it done. And then on to the mill! Ok. One step at a time. Thank you for sharing this with me and all of us. Building it yourself is definitely way more fun and rewarding! Such initiative and determined spirit is sorely lacking these days and seeing this and similar is a breath of fresh air and even if it sounds corny, a renewed hope is our survival.
Amazing work, best diy lathe seen so far
FWIW, lathes have been made from many "available" things since the Roman Empire days. The first, to no surprise were made from wood, to turn load bearing posts, axles, truing long timbers for siege engines- the last only shows that all technologies are quickly explored by man for military uses. Much later, metal lathes were built- some of them still exist today and you might be hard pressed to see the modern tool in them. But lathes shape materials that today and the future were built on. In the lead up to WW1, huge lathes were made using concret to make the basis for the engine tower and ways- metal used only for shafts, way surfaces and the like; these lathes were also military tools; making the large diameter brass shells for naval cannons was perfected on these machines. I was pleasantly surprised that "high tech junk" would get you there- I really shouldn't have been! Thank you for a wonderful presentation!
congratulations, your lathe is undoubtedly a true work of art. I have seen many videos on how to build a lathe, but his project is really the most elegant. I would buy his lathe immediately
Nou dan ik maar lekker in de moeder taal. Zeer mooi en indrukwekkend project. Keek met veel aandacht naar je werkstuk. Heb me geen seconde verveelt.
very professional filming, lots of work and interesting process of engineering. 10/10
Beautiful job my friend, very impressive!
I have been wanting to build a benchtop Yeomans-style cement bed lathe, and I've learned some things here which will surely help me. This is genius.
from many videos of diy lathe machine i've been watching before... this one is so special, keep it up sir!
Big and great project.. congrats sir... i love to have one also..
*Excellent work and a genius man Congratulations to you sir* 👍👏
One of the best things I have ever seen on KZhead. This man is a wizard.
Sir,no words to explain how impressed I am.Thank you for sharing your skills and knowledge.
Amazing, 😯it’s Big Project 📈, you are Professional many 🎖👍
Build your own lathe from a pile of junk: Step 1: be a genius.
"With a box of SCRAPS!" (c)
I really can't say that building a lathe this way is making it from 'scratch' or even scrap. All these parts were fine!
Metals stockholders usually have all sorts of stuff on their offcuts bins. You might need to wait for the right stuff to appear. Where I live the boat builders have all sorts of steel offcuts 6mm to 12mm or more. But they are usually mill finish so would need work to smooth and parallel the opposite faces. The local scrapyard is not much help as they have stopped all scrap sales to general public due to covid.
It's not just intelligence, it's about being incredibly methodical.
Pretty darned amazing man. That is one hell of a s rap yard you near. I really like how you showed how to check and adjust the chuck amd tailstock for true. Most other videos never mention that. Using the fixed dial calipers for readout is a stroke of genius too!
This is WHY it's good to narrate these videos. If this was one of those silent "hey look what I can do" videos, so much of this valuable info would be unavailable to us who are actually looking for instruction to build something.. I.e. The holes being drilled slightly larger to allow for adjustment to get the plates exactly 90 degrees and parallel. Thank you for this and I'm going to checkout your other videos. So much more helpful than silent videos.
21 dislikes from Lathe constructors...
Big lathe......out to keep the little man down.
Idiots brainless.
times 10 xD
there is always a huge knob
Ahww, yealousy. Isn't that just nice? Hmmm, that pure envy. Love it! 😂😘😉
Great Project. Did you know you can read out those calipers with an arduino? That opens up a few possibilities.
What do you mean? You can use an arduino for the scales?
@@CarbonGlassMan He means that it's possible to make a poor man's DRO with all the values on a single display rather than 3 individual displays.
@@CarbonGlassMan Those (cheap) calipers have a opening where you can attach a micro controller and read the data. Example: kzhead.info/sun/ha2tYJx_gXpofHk/bejne.html
@@jcota2003 Yup - and lots lots more. - 4 reasonable NEMA32 stepper motors makes a poor man's NC lathe - A CNC control board and you have a poor man's CNC lathe - AThe Rob pointed out, the limit is your imagination
Think you could use an arduino to read the calipers and put the data as a feedback loop into a PC based CNC program? That way they would act like glass scales.
That is one impressive build Roland. Thanks for posting :)
it´s so amazing! Congratulations!
me after cleaning the tea from the keyboard and the monitor: *a scrap yard with guide rails?*
Instantly throws keyboard Lmaooooo
I've found that sort of thing at my local junkyard/weird stuff getting place. You want the secondhand dealers that buy job lots from a city, that's where you find the good stuff.
Harmonica? Do you mean accordion?
Also bellows, you know
believe me.....you are better than 70% of the engineers around the world,,any diy build is all about integrating the perfect parts
All the inventions that changed the world was born from impossibilities.Excellent work..Congratulations.
Awesome, subscribed! If you want more subs, feel free to embed your video on our homemade tools forum; looks like you're one of us :-)
Truly a great video Sir! You've done a great job! I especially liked your idea for protecting the linear rails! That's ingenious! I think I would use the same idea in many other ways in my workshop. Thanks a lot! Lastly, I will try to build my own lathe too! Thanks for sharing!
This was most impressive to watch. Thank you for sharing your project with us!
One can see you take pride in what you are building! Well done
Very good, Roland. Thanks for the video and the explanations.
Wonderful and inspiring job. Clear step by step explanation. A masterclass!!!
Very impressive! Hands down the best D.I.Y. Home build ive eve seen. Your a very skilled builder ! Keep it up my friend.
My respect, sir! Thank you so much for this lecture!
Your dexterity is way beyond many of ours. Whether you are a qualified tradesman or not it doesn't seem to matter as most people may only have just one. YOU PROVED WHAT MANY CANNOT EVEN DREAM ABOUT. BTW, I ENVY YOU LIVING NEAR SUCH A GOOD SCRAPYARD THOUGH.
roland well done mate. it's amazing what people can do today with a bit of energy, forethought and resourcefulness. you've done a great job here. i'm envious....rgds Westfishos Australia
Excellent work, from a first-class Artisan. Well done. I did my time as a Fitter Machinist and Tool Maker. Top Job Mate. Cheers from Michael. Australia.
Well done. I have always wanted a lathe and your design was simple but ingenius all the same.
Great build. Love the utilization of the material you already have.
Excellent - I love to see real hobby DIY work like this.
A very impressive build, I can appreciate the attention to detail.
Genius might be a understatement for you sir very well done i am in the process of doing a small lathe with a four inch chuck and i hope mine might come even close to what you have done. You are a very talented man i know how hard it is to get these things on target to be useful , again you are a big cut above for sure. Thank you .
Very well presented !!! Seeing the finished product first is an excellent way of inspiring others to create. Then the detail of construction simply excellent. Creative skills at it's very best
When the scene of motor controller unit came in...i know u are not ordinary guy !! U must be a MASTER of electronics and King of engineer!! Salute you Sir !
Awesome build. I too enjoy making parts for my lathe, using the lathe itself!! I too love designing and makinv machines from scratch and scrap metal and wood. Lovely work!!!
Mooi project! Uitstekend gebruik gemaakt van precisie onderdelen! Mooi om zo kennis en kunde samen te zien komen
That was superb, some real ingenuity on show here. Well done 👏
Simply a masterpiece!!!Thanks for the video.
Truly impressive and inspirational to the detail...I'm on it gathering main components. I hope not to lose my momentum for as you said. It's more fun to face challenge and boost creativity. Job well done. Respects !!!
This is one of the best videos i have seen on yt. i was blown away. Very cool and very impressive good job
Good Job, I am glad you narrated the whole thing. A lot of DIY videos come out of indonesia or the Philippines and they just POINT at what they are doing like that is an explanation of purpose or function. I like the size and mobility of this design and I think it would serve me well.
You're a genius, Uncle! Fantastic!!!!
This is pretty incredible work. Very jealous of your scrapyard, i've never seen anything as nice as chucks or rails in the one near me.
Finally a lathe diy without welded pieces. That alone is worth a sub!
congratulations on your work and it seems like one of the best on the internet. I am Brazilian and I intend to make one based on your lathe for being the best and practical
Just beautiful...I am sure accuracy is way better than pros...loved it.
Absolutely incredible build. Thanks for sharing
Simply you are a legend ! This is the kind of videos that should get a 100 million views. Hats off to you sir
Absolutely stunning! Great job Sir.
Wow. Finally an awesome video on how to make a high quality lathe. Thank you very much.
You don't have a mechanical engineer diploma, but you have his soul. Impressive. Congratulations.
I was going to say "This guy's scrap is much different than the scrap I get", and then he acknowledges it immediately. This is really impressive!