# Scale miniature lathe



## mariolucchini (Jan 2, 2011)

After much looking the PMR lathe, both the wonderful builds here in this forum and in other web sites, I decided to take the plunge and scratchbuild a freelance version of it...
As I have no chance of getting the PMR castings, I started making a scale set of drawings in Autocad and began using some very unusual series of materials....

Most parts of the lathe's body are made from different thicknesses of acrylic plate which is more than sturdy for this project....

I made the drawings of certain parts so as to simulate the "cast look" found in those old lathes....I'm using fillets and chamfers to achieve that goal....

The tailstock body with the first primer coats... the whole tailstock body is made from acrylic plate, except the barrel for the spindle which was turned from aluminium...
























The tailstock mechanism.......

From left to right, first row, the fixing plate's nuts and washers, the locating threaded pin, the lever, the spindle guide and locking device and a center....

Second row, the fixing plate and the spindle body...(Threaded inside 3 mm left hand)...

Third row, the spindle's threaded mainscrew, threaded 3 mm left hand and 2 mm right hand to receive the handwheel, the fixing collar, and finally the handwheel turned & milled from brass, with the fixing nut....









The lathe's bed made in heavy acrylic plate, the bed ways from K&S rectangular brass tubing....















The headstock "casting" in the raw, you can see the acrylic material here....the headstock's axle is 3 mm diameter drill rod and it rotates in ball bearings taken from discarded PC fans.....3mm inside dia., 8 mm outside dia. and 4 mm thick....
























And to finish this already long and boring post, the faceplate, turned and milled from brass.....I did some delicate grinding on a Dremel mini-saw to make the "T nut" channels, it came out fine for my tastes, hee, hee... :big:.......





































To be continued....

Mario


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## chuck foster (Jan 2, 2011)

looking good mario.   

i will be watching this build.
i have thought about building a scale model of my 9" south bend lathe, but i never seam to have the time.

chuck


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## mariolucchini (Jan 2, 2011)

Thanks Chuck!

I've always loved the South Bend lathes....maybe if you can mail me pics and drawings I would be tempted to make that scale miniature of your lathe... :big:

Who knows?

Cheers

Mario


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## ozzie46 (Jan 2, 2011)

Nice going Mario.

 Now Thats using what you've got. Nice work! 

 I'll be watching this also.

 Ron


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## Twmaster (Jan 2, 2011)

Ok, that is amazing Mario!

I'll be following this. Cannot wait to see the finished model.


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## rleete (Jan 2, 2011)

Always a pleasure to see someone make something from just whatever materials are a hand.


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## mariolucchini (Jan 2, 2011)

Some late hour updates..... :


The spindle nose, made from a 5 mm Allen bolt, drilled and reamed 3 mm....mounted on the headtock's axis and faced in the collet chuck....maximum concentricity, when you get to this point, you begin to go berserk!!!









The feet, made in acrylic plate and some scrap styrene sheets to get the double curvature, lots of sanding and a very acceptable result.....these are the moves that gets you that "Old look"...



















I'm using a 12 Volt high torque motor used in servos for RC aeromodels to drive this little animal.....alas, the motor itself does'nt have the "Look", so I'm devising a motor sleeve made from acrylic and a PVC flange to look more "Scale like"...












































The faceplate and the main drive step pulley...











The main leadscrew, threaded 3 mm left hand, an 2 mm right hand to receive the handwheel....note the supporting flanges made in acrylic, but sleeved in brass, the oilers are in place....




























The mainscrew handwheel....








Think I'm gonna get some sleep....

Thanks for your comments and for looking....

Cheers!

Mario


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## coopertje (Jan 3, 2011)

Hi Mario,

Really looking great! Amazing work you are doing there. Are you using CNC? I will be following with great interest, keep the progress coming!

Regards Jeroen


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## mariolucchini (Jan 3, 2011)

Hey Jeroen.....!

Thanks much for your comments, and no, I'm not using CNC.....I'm from the old school in which everything is done by hand, including the mistakes!!.... :big:


Cheers

Mario


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## swilliams (Jan 3, 2011)

Some very nice modeling Mario :bow: :bow:


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## mariolucchini (Jan 3, 2011)

Some testing of the lathe bed on top of the sub - tables and feet.....making adjustments.... ???



















The feet are bolted to the wooden base, which was lovingly sanded and treated with some hand rubbed Tung oil....in my modest opinion, the best treatment you can give to wood....



http://i
104.photobucket.com/albums/m164/mariolucchini/PM%20Lathe/PC270038.jpg


The feet are reinforced with a 2 mm dia. steel bar, with scale hardware (Nuts & flanges), so you can regulate the tension.....this, along with the bolted feet achieved a surprisingly stiffness of the ensemble...










You can also see the main leadscrew and its fixing flanges in place...



























I'm using 1 mm Allen bolts, 00-90 and 00-80 brass bolts for every sub-assembly....glue is used very sparingly.....this has the big advantage of being able to dissassemble everything for painting and fixing boo-boo's.... 


Next step is trying to solve the transmission via gears..............

See ya....

Mario


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## hobby (Jan 3, 2011)

WHOA..... th_wav

That is nice work.

You have a very good skill in working with a variety of materials.

Keep up the great work.


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## lee9966 (Jan 3, 2011)

Wow, that is coming along very nicely! Inspirational it is

Lee


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## coopertje (Jan 4, 2011)

Great work for not using CNC! I think I am too impatient to make these kind of shapes by hand. Its really coming along nicely and in my opinion its looks better then a set of castings!

Regards Jeroen


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## prof65 (Jan 6, 2011)

You are doing a very good work, Mario. A small old lathe built from scrap is on my "to-do" list, so I'm following with great interest. Thanks for sharing it.

Roberto


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## zeeprogrammer (Jan 6, 2011)

I always enjoy seeing models like this.
This one looks very nice.


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## mariolucchini (Jan 6, 2011)

Thanks boys for your kind comments....this makes me go farther ahead pushing the envelope!... :big:


The motor casing brackets, which will carry the countershaft bracket as well...

































The motor inside its casing.....I tested it for one hour at 12 Volts with no apparent heating.....that's a relief!... 












The countershaft brackett....

















The bed already painted & polished, with all the reinforcing scale hardware....








































Some of the lathe's body parts, painted, waiting for final polishing...









Find attached a back view drawing of the lathe in Autocad (PDF version), showing the tranmission gears....







To be continued....

Mario


































View attachment Miniature lathe back view.pdf


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## Dan Rowe (Jan 6, 2011)

Very nice scratch build. I will have to try one of these in the future, I have a very old Young lathe that needs restoration a scale version might be fun.

If you need 1mm scale hex head bolts Scale Hardware has them.

Dan


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## mariolucchini (Jan 12, 2011)

We continue with the already painted & polished countershaft bracket and the motor brackets....



The motor brackets....



















The countershaft bracket with the complete countershaft in place...


















Rolling happily under finger power.....



















The motor & countershaft assembly in place in the lathe's bed..............please notice the fake oilers (No need of oilers since I'm using shielded ball bearings, it's just for scale appearences).... :big:


























































And here going fast under 12 Volt power.....





















Thanks for looking and cheers to all....

Mario


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## rleete (Jan 12, 2011)

Absolutely lovely work.


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## T70MkIII (Jan 12, 2011)

Stunning, Mario.


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## zeeprogrammer (Jan 12, 2011)

Awesome. Very beautiful.


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## kustomkb (Jan 12, 2011)

Wow! Beautiful work Mario!

Thanks for sharing,


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## Twmaster (Jan 12, 2011)

That is magnificent looking Mario! Magnificent!


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## DOC123 (Jan 13, 2011)

Great work.
Where did you get the acrylic from?
Is is just scrap?


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## mariolucchini (Jan 13, 2011)

DOC123  said:
			
		

> Great work.
> Where did you get the acrylic from?
> Is is just scrap?




Thanks DOC123!.....yes, I have been collecting discarded parts of illuminated signs, and I have scrap pieces of acrylic sheets in 1, 2, 5, 7, 10 and 12 mm thicknesses.....all of them in different colors, clear and opaque... :

When I need other thicknesses I just glue pieces together with chloroform in liquid state....this concoction melts the acrylic very fast and makes a union stronger than the material itself....

Mario


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## Deanofid (Jan 13, 2011)

Mario, your work is beautiful! Really enjoying this thread.

Dean


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## mariolucchini (Jan 18, 2011)

You boys are too kind in your comments!............ 

We continue rolling with the headstock.....although far from being finished, I couldn't resist mounting it on the lathe's bed and give it a try under power...

The headstock in place with the countershaft aligned....















































The ensemble with the faceplate in place....




















The beast under power, with the faceplate in place to appreciate the movements.....notice that the secondary belt is in the highest revs position...




















A back view of the machine....











Headstock plate with the SB logo.....










I think this would be it for today.............I'm really having a ball with this..... :big:

Cheers

                  Mario


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## Deanofid (Jan 18, 2011)

It's almost too good, Mario. No one will believe you built it yourself. Of course, we will! 
Thanks for all the nice pics.

Dean


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## kcmillin (Jan 18, 2011)

This is an Awesome project Mario. 

Dido what Dean said. Your attention to detail is outstanding. 

Kel


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## Twmaster (Jan 18, 2011)

That is simply gorgeous.... 

Eagerly awaiting more progress.


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## swilliams (Jan 19, 2011)

Really impressive work, looks fantastic :bow: :bow: :bow:

Love the way you make such good use of acrylic


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## krv3000 (Jan 19, 2011)

HI that's fantastic th_wav


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## ttrikalin (Jan 19, 2011)

:bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:

words fail me! 

 :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:


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## winklmj (Jan 19, 2011)

th_confused0052  

th_wav

Looks good enough to actually make some chips.


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## mariolucchini (Feb 16, 2011)

Hey boys!.............long time no see................... :big:

Some new stages on the mini lathe.....

After lots of cold sweating, I finally managed to make those transmission gears work....


Distance between gear centers is critical; after that; everything works smoothly....

Take a look at the lathe's rear view, it seems a very busy machine.....




























In this closeup, you can appreciate the banjo with the 2 small brass gears which compose the inverting mechanism....




















The tailstock is finished too....here it is in place, seen with the spindle at full extent and retracted...


















And finally, 2 pics of the lathe as it is today...
















More news very soon.............

Best regards....

                           Mario


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## dsquire (Feb 16, 2011)

Mario

WOW, That is amazing, what else can we say. It was definitely worth the wait. I will be watching for more on this. :bow: :bow:

Cheers 

Don


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## tel (Feb 16, 2011)

> I will be watching for more on this. bow down bow down



Yep, so will I, very, very nice work indeed!


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## 90LX_Notch (Feb 16, 2011)

Mario,

Very Impressive!  Thm: Thm:

-Bob


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## Tin Falcon (Feb 16, 2011)

A work of art indeed
Tin


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## lazylathe (Feb 16, 2011)

That is awesome work Mario!!! :bow:

This thread is a great one to follow and i eagerly await the next instalment!!

Andrew


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## gbritnell (Feb 16, 2011)

Mario,
What can I say? Absolutely beautiful work. 
gbritnell


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## steamer (Feb 16, 2011)

Thats Awesome Mario!

Dave


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## coopertje (Feb 17, 2011)

Mario, stunning work! :bow: I am trying the stuart casting set now, but your home made lathe looks far better! Proofs you have more then excellent machining skils, very impressive!

Jeroen


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## DaveH (Feb 17, 2011)

Absolutely Superb


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## xo18thfa (Feb 17, 2011)

Gorgeous th_confused0052 th_confused0052 work!!


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## ChooChooMike (Feb 17, 2011)

th_confused0052 th_confused0052 th_confused0052

That's just too amazing !! How'd you make the gears and what material ?

Mike


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## steamer (Feb 17, 2011)

Maybe it's me...are the ways brass? goes great with the paint!


Dave


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## prof65 (Feb 18, 2011)

Awesome work Mario!!!  :bow:

Roberto


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## Tin Falcon (Feb 18, 2011)

> The lathe's bed made in heavy acrylic plate, the bed ways from K&S rectangular brass tubing....


Tin


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