Kickstarter campaign for open source glass blowing lathe - video

[mklotz]

It's not my area of expertise but I can guess...

The tailstock has to be able to grip the work, not just support it as is done in a metal lathe. This means the tailstock chuck must turn in perfect synchrony with the headstock chuck. Remember, the glass, unlike metal, is going to go rubbery while being formed so the HS chuck can't simply drive a freewheeling TS chuck else the work would be twisted. Thus the TS must be driven just as the HS is driven and the two drives have to be carefully synchronized.

It's not clear to me how that was done in the days before electronics, servos, etc. but even with modern electronics it will require some careful engineering.

The no-tailstock glass lathe we had in college had a fixture for supplying compressed air through a rotating gland into the tubing being worked so the glass could be inflated/blown while it was being formed. This is another complexity that would add to the price.

In addition, you have the demand factor. The market for glass-blowing lathes is probably fairly small so prices will be high.

OTOH, the folks who "don't need no steenkin' lathe" do some truly incredible things with simple hand tools...