jim noonan

Hi
Just found this site which looks great. I am a DIY caster in Shrewsbury, England UK; looking to make the gingery lathe but using a rolled steel joist bed for the ways. Look forward to receiving any advice or direction as to techniques from those more experienced. Currently wondering about the accuracy of a milled spirit level base for use in flatting/scraping and how flat and level a piece of highly polished marble (previously fireplace hearth) might be as a DIY surface plate? I am keen to stick to the diy and budget principles adopted by gingery.
Thanks
jim

Hi jim - welcome to HomemadeTools.net :welcome:

Gingery builders are always welcome here. Let's see if we can get you some answers.

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Originally Posted by jim noonan

Hi
Just found this site which looks great. I am a DIY caster in Shrewsbury, England UK; looking to make the gingery lathe but using a rolled steel joist bed for the ways. Look forward to receiving any advice or direction as to techniques from those more experienced. Currently wondering about the accuracy of a milled spirit level base for use in flatting/scraping and how flat and level a piece of highly polished marble (previously fireplace hearth) might be as a DIY surface plate? I am keen to stick to the diy and budget principles adopted by gingery.
Thanks
jim

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Those items are not accurate enough. If you study the art of scraping, you will see that to create flat surfaces, you need to scrape three surfaces that can be compared one to another. Otherwise you need a surface plate of some sort . . . granite being the best material. But the three surface method beats all others as far as I know. And it is the least expensive.

As for a lathe bed, look up concrete lathes. They made them in the U.S. during WW1 because they didn't have time to cast machine tools to make ammunition. I believe these lathes are also made in some third-world countries because of their low cost.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jim noonan

Hi
Just found this site which looks great. I am a DIY caster in Shrewsbury, England UK; looking to make the gingery lathe but using a rolled steel joist bed for the ways. Look forward to receiving any advice or direction as to techniques from those more experienced. Currently wondering about the accuracy of a milled spirit level base for use in flatting/scraping and how flat and level a piece of highly polished marble (previously fireplace hearth) might be as a DIY surface plate? I am keen to stick to the diy and budget principles adopted by gingery.
Thanks
jim

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Hi Jim,
I made a metal lathe back in 1950 in Manchester UK using cold rolled steel which needs little improvement afterwards.
I have used tons of structural steel in numerous applications over the years but one try's to avoid machining as it has a tendency to warp.
My email is sr888@cogeco.ca if you have any desire to contact.
Cheers
Steve Roberts
Profession engineer