A Watchmaker's Lathe Made from Scratch

davidlosmith.co.uk

34 pointsjstanley4 comments

I love projects like these that change my mindset by moving things from “I can’t build, can only be built by big company” to “I can build at home”.

I have a series of books that walks through how to start your own foundry in your backyard all the way to building a lathe with your product. Unfortunately I had to downsize before I could execute it.

If you have the book titles/authors I would appreciate it! That sounds really interesting.

I presume it's the Gingery series.

1. Foundry: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Charcoal-Foundry-Build-Metal-Workin...

2. Lathe: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Metal-Lathe-Build-Working-Scrap/dp/...

There are a few examples on YouTube of people who have successfully made this lathe, here's an example timelapse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBuUOO3qn30

It's a cool project, but in the end you get an aluminium lathe made of home castings. If you just want a lathe, I'd suggest starting with a secondhand mini lathe instead and modding it to your taste, they're not very expensive. It's a lot less work than making a Gingery lathe, and not all that much more expensive. But the Gingery lathe is still a cool project!

How do you even make a lathe by hand without already having a lathe?

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