# Bowl Turning Lathe



## ShedBoy (Jun 4, 2011)

Don't you hate it when you say "I can give you a hand with making that" thinking that they won't get around to it then they do. Well here is what kept interupting me today. Building this to turn a wooden bowl up to 800mm diameter and 250mm deep. I am not going to be the first to anything that large on it.





Substantial beams cut up




Some feet so it will stand




Big no brain welding more my style.




Where we are up to so far




Tool rest will be built off the arm sticking out the side and needs some gussetting below the spindle.

Brock


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## RollaJohn (Jun 7, 2011)

Special bowl turning lathes are quite often of a home brew nature. The biggest question I have is with the speed of rotation of the bowl blank. It appears that with the driven pulley as shown on the head stock, this will be rather fast for the initial cuts on an out of balance blank. This could create some excitment on initial startup. I have seen smaller lathes dance rather wildly around the shop when started with a poorly balanced block of wood mounted. It seems to take forever to slow down after you hit the stop button.


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## ShedBoy (Jun 7, 2011)

That pulley was on the spindle when I bought it and still needs to be removed. I am going to get some 4 row 1 inch bore pulleys for it and maybe a reduction to that as well. A gearbox from a motorbike was also throw up against a wall to see if it sticks. At the size my mate wants to turn it is going to be slow. It is built with a max diameter of 800mm.

Brock


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## krv3000 (Jun 7, 2011)

ooooo welding with shorts on  nice knees


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## ShedBoy (Jun 8, 2011)

Yes I should have been wearing long pants because I don't usually do this much 200amp plus welding at once. Ended up with some nice sunburn from it on me legs :'( bit tender. Lots of galvo fumes too from that one piece hence the fan in the door to clear the shed when the welder went off and I went outside.

Brock


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## Omnimill (Jun 9, 2011)

Nice job, I've seen a couple of big bowl lathe builds on the net before. Must be fun turning a section of tree trunk!

Vic.


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## ShedBoy (Jun 10, 2011)

I ain't gonna go first. I will be standing back holding the video camera. If it is not required for an inquiry I will post the video :big:
The owner is left handed so I will build it to suit him.

Brock


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## Ken I (Jun 10, 2011)

I once turned a 14" bowl from two pieces of Teak glued together - during the roughing it blew apart.

Apart from the damage to the underwear I got off scott free - but I've been very leery of a large bowls ever since.

Ken


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## ShedBoy (Jun 10, 2011)

This thing is sounding more and more like a bad idea. I am in charge of building it because I have no faith in my mates welding either does he for that matter. He is a farm boy and thinks all welds break eventually. I seen him weld some 20mm plate,butt weld with no beveling . When I quizzed him about weld prep he said "no worries I will weld the other side as well. After watching 4 sticks go into a continuous bead the two plates were not flat any more, more banana shape. Easy park a tractor on it to flatten it them weld it next to the tyre  Amazing.
He did complain the whole time about the amount of bevelling I made him do on these parts. 
Quote "Waste of time this is" 
Brock


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## mhh (Jul 2, 2011)

Has there been more progress? looking forward to it!


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## ShedBoy (Jul 2, 2011)

No he has been out of town so I have been doing some of my things. Picked up some pulleys and bearings and have found a motor to run it. Built a furnace over the last couple of days, in home foundry area. Just waitng for the sun to come up and going to pull the form work out. To many projects but it keeps me home and out of trouble.
Brock


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## Omnimill (Jul 6, 2011)

What size motor are you planning on using? Last one I saw was something like 10HP.

Vic.


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## ShedBoy (Jul 7, 2011)

The largest size it can turn is 800mm, the slowest speed we are looking for is about 200rpm maybe a bit less. The lowest ratio we have is 14.5-1. The motor we are going to start with is a 1.25hp at 2850rpm to see how it goes. If this is not big enough we have a 3hp and a 10hp laying around. I am sick of this sitting in the middle of my shed so more will be done next week when I get back to the man cave.

Brock


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## ShedBoy (Jul 26, 2011)

Got some more done on the bowl turning lthe today. Turned up a jackshaft and a bearing housing. 








Made a mistake on the shaft was not thinking and went to far on one cut  it will still work okay and will be hidden by the pulley. Still I know it is there. I will make an adjustable mount for the bearing over the next few days.

Brock


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## ShedBoy (Jul 29, 2011)

My mate come around yesterday so we done some work on the lathe.




Got the jack shaft mounted




Pulleys lined up




Motor mounted




Spins realy nice.
We had a casualty when putting the pulley on the motor, it broke. Had another pulley laying around which is a bit bigger so it spins a bit fast at the moment. Tail stock and tool rest to go. Oh and a weight to put on the motor to keep the belt in tension, motor weight is not quite enough.
Brock


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## Omnimill (Jul 30, 2011)

Looking really nice, I like bigger projects. Are you going to paint it a nice colour? - red oxide is a bit old hat now ;D

Vic.

PS I hope we're going to see it in action when it's done!


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## ShedBoy (Aug 1, 2011)

Paint will be determined by the owner as I hate painting at the best of times. Red oxide may be old hat to some but old school to others. The paint on the it is not a primer it is a two pack paint which looks a bit like red oxide, this material is recycled from a printers shed where the owner works. Knowing the owner I can't see paint going on it anytime soon as he only likes to do what is necessary eg: he won't let me weld up the hole in the bottom of his boat because "There is not much water coming through" zany character but a good mate. There will definately be a video of it running.


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## metalmad (Aug 1, 2011)

nice job Mate 
Pete


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## steamer (Aug 2, 2011)

Hey Brock,

I for one get nervous around big lathes of any kind....be careful....that one has potential :


Nice welding job! :bow:

Dave


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## ShedBoy (Aug 2, 2011)

We will start with small items. I have told him to build a lean to out on his farm for it to go in with a large concrete block set into the ground to bolt it to. It is looking more and more scary but it has been done before so in theory it should work. Not looking forward to interupted cuts on a 700 diameter with a hand held tool :-\
Anyone have plans for a scroll chuck on the large side?

Brock


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## Omnimill (Aug 2, 2011)

Here's a big lathe in action:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEO43Zo6CbY[/ame]

Vic.


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## ShedBoy (Aug 2, 2011)

The wobble would have me worried. I would always be thinking "is that getting worse". He seems to have very long handle tools also, probably help at times. Gives me some direction for the tool post also no tail stock. Thanks for the video.

Brock


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## steamer (Aug 5, 2011)

Anyone have plans for a scroll chuck on the large side?




I was thinking more like a good chuck guard! :big:

Dave


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## Omnimill (Aug 6, 2011)

Heavy duty tool rests:

http://www.bowriverwoods.com/VB36-toolrest/VB36-Bowl-Master-Lathe/VB36-Toolrests

I think the tooling also needs to be on the large size to match the work.

Vic.


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## ShedBoy (Aug 14, 2011)

Not much done this week, hd lots of other jobs on around and done some casting. Got a tool post made but I did not have a welder arc weldr to eld the tool rest to some stainless I had laying around. It is all built just need to bend and curve one and weld the rests on the posts.





Going to order a scroll chuck this week and get a bowl turning attachment to go o it and hopefully next time Icome home from work bolt it down out the farm and turn something. We will build a tailstock next week, found a nice hand wheel at the tip.
Brock


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## ShedBoy (Aug 24, 2011)

After 3 shops in Perth we found a suitable scroll chuck for this beast. Having a 1in 8tpi lh thread on the spindle wasn't helping when it came to getting it to fit. So a adapter with small hole was bought and my mate deided I could turn an internal left hand thread no problems. Thanks Fleece. So when it was nice and quiet I watched a Tubal Cain video on the subject on youtube and jumped in with a piece if acetal. This is attempt number two after turning the wrong thread in the first bit.








The set up I used, some gears changed and away I went. Using an insert.








Well that worked but I noticed I had other problems. The chuck was going to be a fair way out from the head stock and there was no shoulder for it to locate against to help keep it square. 
Quiet place have a think.
Brock


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## ShedBoy (Aug 24, 2011)

I decided to go to a 7/8 9tpi lh thread, this would give me a shoulder for location and I would have to cut the old 1inch thread off to cut the 7/8 thread on the spindle. Out came the spindle again. I did not know whether it was best to do the shaft first or the nut so I started with the nut. Que one chuck adapter spindle. The centre hole was bored to the correct size and threading began.














Little bit tight at first




A bit of sanding and thread deepening an on it went. A small recess was turned in the back of the adapter to locate it and it is done. Total runout 0.12, not bad I reckon for my first effort at thread cutting, don't know what I have been worrying about. One thing I did notice is the inserts are not really the best for a deep thread like this, I would sharpen some HSS to get more clearance from the tool next time.
Thanks for looking in.
Brock
 PS yes I am going to paint it since it is apart


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## ShedBoy (Aug 27, 2011)

More Done




Chuck is on, lining up the tailstock




More suports were put on the colum, big beams still twist




Tailstock half done




Bolted down and tested








http://s1080.photobucket.com/albums...Turning Lathe/?action=view&current=MOV001.mp4
A short video an the amateur owner
This peice was put in it second it was going okay until a big chunk come out, it came from the wood pile.




It turned it with no problems. Well this job is done back to my things.
Thanks for following along I hope you enjoyed the journey of two blokes with an idea

Brock


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## metalmad (Aug 27, 2011)

Great post Brock :bow: :bow:
I really enjoyed it 
Pete


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## Omnimill (Aug 28, 2011)

Nice work!


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