Building a lathe from industrial scrap

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: I have also added a Vertical Mill to this lathe, again using materials from the scrapyard. Please see