Gasoline powered lathe

Not square enough.

It's surely doable, but I live off-grid and I can tell you that needing to run an engine (direct or generator) to power shop equipment would be a miserable last resort. The investment it would take to build, maintain, and fuel engine-driven shop equipment would generally be better applied to say, a home built wind turbine

You dont think us hard cases are Grown, do ya?

Gunner

Political Correctness

A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical liberal minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.

True indeed. My first Triumph Bonny, had a riser between the driver and passenger seats. Many the lady who rode with me would grab on tight repeatedly..then later climb off the bike in a smiling stupor and stumble around. One lady called it the O Machine.

Gunner

Political Correctness

A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical liberal minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.

I'm a big fan (pun) of wind turbines. Been collectin props since before props means well, whatever it now means, I have a big ass beam for a stantion and more wire than one should need to build one. Wind is not a problem today but mostly it runs dry. I only need to run a frig and a 20 watt bulb so when the end comes around I'll be semi prepared.. I have a prop mounted on the front of my house. Not hooked to anything but funny anyway

I can tell ya'all that I am a certifiable redneck and darn proud of it. I once got in a fight with my bestest friend athe time in the the bottom of a big hole we dug so our friend could have a place to smoke weed and look at chix mags. It's still there but caved in now due to erosion and gravity and sech. He about dug my eyes out as I slammed him ginst the other wall of this cave.. Evryone has a redneck side and it ain't purty but ya just gotta deal with it. I got this big lug wrench any body need one?

On Sun, 17 Dec 2006 17:45:43 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, "Michael A. Terrell" quickly quoth:

Yabbut it's absolute hell on end mills!

- - Let Exxon send their own troops -

-------------------------------------------------------

An old friend of mine powered his big lathe with a small 4cyl gas engine (band unknown) hooked through a 4 speed truck tranny. Of course the lathe had a 36" swing by 120" between centers so any suitable electric motor would have killed his meager electric service.

If you are talking about a more modest lathe and/or the other metal working tools (mill, saw, etc) you probably need to think diesel generator, preferably an 1800 rpm job. Someone on the NG has some very interesting data on fuel consumption, etc.

i just have three 400cc snomobile engines and was tryin to put 'em to use. At about 200 rpm they make close to 20 horsies so I thought it would be fun to power up a lathe or mill somehow. They would only run for about an hour at a stretch so fuel is no bigg deal

Not if you use those dull, chipped or broken ones from your scrap metal bin. Anyway, its a lot faster than trying to bead blast them clean. ;-)

I recall reading of a woodturner who made very large turnings using a lathe powered by a Ford Econoline van. I never saw pictures of his set up, but I bet Red Green would have been jealous.

Only if it was held together with the handyman's secret weapon, duct tape. :-)

Harold

Have you ever heard of a "Hillbilly Armature Lathe"?

Blink. Blink.

Nope! Don't have a clue.

Harold

I used to rebuild a lot of universal motors for vacuum cleaners. The guys always wanted to see the armature lathe to see how I cleaned up the dirty and worn commutators. I told them It was a trade secret, because I cleaned and polished them with an adjustable DC power supply and a large ink eraser. Then I used the tip of a modified Exacto knife blade to undercut the mica. Most of them looked like brand new motors after a few minutes work. I told them that I used a "Hillbilly Armature Lathe", and most just went away shaking their heads. ;-)

It was a good deal. I would have someone drop off a 100 "scrap" motors to recycle, then end up selling a lot of them back to the same people. They were happy to find the exact motor they needed for 20 to

Chuckle!

Where there's a will, there's a way, eh?

I've done a few of those motors in my day, but with my trusty ol' Graziano for turning the armature. When I was refining precious metals, my melting furnace used an old vacuum motor that I modified for the purpose. It, along with a couple others that got used the same way, got the armature(s) turned, with new brushes and bearings installed. They're making it hard to do that today, with our disposable everything society.

Harold

These were mostly for very old machines, '40s to '60s machines or ones that sold for over $1,000 new in the mid '80s. The throwaway stuff was stripped for screws and switches, then sold as scrap metal. There wasn't enough motor left to rebuild by the time someone wanted one fixed.