Woodbox 23

Over the next few posts, I’ll be detailing the rest of the build out of the “spring pole” lathe I built last weekend.  I was able to complete it fairly quickly, and I snapped some cell phone pictures along the way.

This  edition of the blog will feature th buid out of the uprights, and attaching the crossbeams.

As you can see in the above picture, the uprights are attached to a sort of “A” frame to hold them up.  This design came about for two reasons.  One, it’s based on a period (1583) drawing of a lathe I found.  Two, it’s a practical and easy to build method of holding the beam up.  I grabbed some 2×4, and just started cutting what felt right in terms of lengths based on what I had on hand.  I want to be able to break it down and travel with it, so each upright needed to be able to stand up independently and be self contained.  The angled pieces are cut with a 45 degree angle on the table saw, and screwed into place with long wood screws.  The beam upright rests on the horizontal 2×4 which extends a little bit out from the base for stability, but not getting in the way.

The cross beams are Douglas Fir 2×4.  I took a standard 8′ one, and cut it in half to create a 4′ bed for the lathe.  Subtract a little bit for the head and tail stock, and you have about 3.5′ feet of workable area.  To attach them to the uprights I fit the 2×4 into the notches, and clamped it down.  I then drilled a couple of holes through the 2×4 and upright for the bolts I was going to use.  I drilled it pretty close to the size of the bolts for a tight fit, which turned out to be too tight.  So I had to drill it out a bit bigger to allow a little wiggle room to get the bolts throught.  Once the crossbeams are bolted on, the whole frame is quite rigid, and very sturdy.

That’s it for this post, next post will cover the head/tail stock, making the centers, and more.