Poor mans CNC lathe cutting radius on manual lathe

[thehomeengineer]

Hi Olderdan

The smallest I have cut is 1” rad which was for the press tool for the brass end cap for the Foden fly wheel. There is nothing stopping you going smaller. The jig I made had a pin system one attached to the bed and the other to the cross slide, so you drilled the holes to the radius to be cut in a flat bit of stock and slide it over the two pins which then produces the required profile.

To cut a concave radius you simply move the tooling to the opposite side (tailstock end) and use the tail stock locked to the bed as a positive stop.
Hope this answers your questions if not please ask again for better clarification

The Home Engineer