[Alathe of Sia. centees by 24 i Tet lonssh lie, T have built several small lathes from serap and aw material, but I never had such a difficult proposition as when, returned from the war and fortunate to acquire a rambling old house, I thought to build myself another lathe. Ttis (tue that the workshop itself was all right, "There was plenty of dry space and hard standing for the purpose, and ‘even for an additional store—the ‘now disused basement kitchen and pantry, but there were at first sight absolutely no other facilities, Metals were all controlled, Scrap was not available to the outsider, for it fetched famine prices for foundries. Tools were also sky-high in price and sadly limited in supply. tis impossible for the younger model- makers of these days to appreciate What it was ike in 1945. By way of a start I decided that it should be about 5 in, centres to take jobs 24 in. to 30 in. long. And an all- ‘gear head. I ought to explain the reasons for deciding on the latter. There was only lighting current installed in the house and the authorities brusquely refused me permission for power points. That meant I could not use a larger motor than 1/3 hp. if I did not want to risk blowing all the house lights some winter evening. As a matter of fact an uprated £ h.p. English Electric machine ‘was used and was quite satisfactory. ‘Well, within this power limit T could have speed, or I could have a heavy turning moment, but not both. I reasoned that ah amateur does not really need speed. As a matter of fact most of his time is spent setting up. So, litle time is lost and bearing life, general maintenance time and finish of work all gain if he runs slowly. But I did want utmost power to take fair cuts in alloy steels up to 2 in. diameter and aluminium up to the maximum swing (10 in, diameter). So length, with concrote headstock and tallsiock the motor speed was reduced about 5 to 1 by a wide belt, then reduced ‘Again by gears to a range 200 to 50 rpm, This then was the general specification. I now had to look around for such materials as might be available, and elaborate the design from what T found. I will not further refer to the metal parts, the carriage, leadscrew and spindle ‘assemblies, the head gears and so on, They are’ not relevant to this article and they followed pretty much the course of thousands of “snowball” lathes (the parts finished on the lathe itself) that amateurs have ‘made, I will concentrate on the con- crete parts For’ chaiterless operation at heavy cuts really heavy masses were required for the head and tailstocks. "But iron ‘castings were not, to be had for love, money or downright larceny. 1 had worked with concrete all my life. and Knew What remarkable things can be done with the right reinforcement and mixture, So I thought 1 would try concrete for these main masses of the lathe. AC first [contemplated a concrete bed too, but the felling of an old apple tree in the garden, iron hard and 14 in. to 18 in, in diameter, coinciding with the unexpected acquirement of 14 ft. of 2} in, x 24 in. heavy stecl angle (worth. fis weight in gold to people Without official allocation certificates just then) settled the stand to be heavy timber. and the bed two 3 ft. 9 in. Tengths of the angle, bedded and stoutly bolted to the stand, then carefully faced and paralleled. ‘After several tests the mix decided on was Th parts of cement, one part of hard coke ash of similar gauge to plasterer's sand, two of ordinary washed Fiver sand and six of the small stone Granite) about jin. to in. gauge, used for making concrete pipes. ‘The reinforcement, arranged as shown in sy J. R. Mott, B.Sc. Fig. 3, was 20 s.w.g. hard steel wire, fixed ‘and positioned with soft-iron binder. "The moulds themselves were built of I in, hardwood boards screwed together with oak blocks of the kind uused for fuel, shaped as shown in the drawings. That for the head (Fig. 1) carried on the eventual base (a side in the mould box), the four long, holding- down bolts with hooked ends, passed into the concrete space as far’as they Would go, that is, the whole thickness of the base. There they were bound firmly to the reinforcement. The end. boards also carried the square section tapered blocks for the main spindle bush cores ané also for the drive shaft at the rear of the headstock. Attached to the base side was a block shaped to form the recesed base and the tunnel above it, by which the leadserew was to pass through the head. This block received at two positions on each side the ends of mahogany dowels having standard 4 in. black nuts screwed half- way down the length and such that the ends would project from the concrete about } in. to ucilitate removal. When the casting wes hard set these dowels were unscrewed without difficulty, leay~” ing the nuts sct in the concrete to take screws for the horizontal alignment of the headstock, The heads of two of these serews can be seen in the photo- graph standing out of the sheet alumi- jum cowling. Finally positions at the four top comers of the headstock received small :apered mahogany blocks, to be used when the concrete was set to fasten the cowling on with wood- screws, ‘The tailstock box (Fig. 2) was some- what different in construction having, unlike the otter, many metal parts set in the conerete, First made was the base frame. The sides of this were two 15 in. % Lin, < 3 in. tees 10 in. long, each tapped in one back web for two } in, alignment screws near the ends, also two slots cur in the edge for the shoes of the holding down bolts. On the web rojecting inward fin. thick, steel eating pads were riveted (0 each end to face the bed of the lathe when as- semibled. Also in cach of these webs two 2 in, clearing holes were drilled in line with che slots, for the holding down bolts themselves. In the remaining web was drilled a row of 3-in. holes at about 2 in, pitch, slightly counterbored, into which ordinary Lin. wire nails were hard driven from outside and afterwards turned into hooks on the inside, ‘These were for attachment of owaD SecTION on A.A. 4A. a PLAN OF 60x RT re ee November 25, 1954 reinforcement later and also to help hold the tee to the conerete as_ this was only to face up to the upper angles Of the tees and not, otherwise than the nails, to embed any part of them. The ends of the frame were two 1 in. % 1 in, angles, bowed in the middle to allow the leading serew to pass under the base of the talstock. The four sides of the frame were carefully squared up and riveted together through the inner webs. ‘The frame complete was then enclosed upside down between two hard- wood boards about 12 in, x 9 in, connected by narrow battens along the sides of the frame, and others below. them fitted at the edges to form the tapered sides and rounded top of the tailstock. Tnterposed between one wooden end and the steel frame was a block shaped to form the circular front boss. ‘The steel frame was not fastened to the wood in any. way, but just tightly wedged so. that ft could be. Positioned accurately parallel, to. the centre barrel by tapping up or down. Next, carefully marked out and bored in the sloping sides, were the holes for the length of I-in. steel, tube which formed the barrel in which the locking lever operated through a shaft carrying eccentrics bearing on the four 4. in, holding down bolts, As the length of this barrel was 1 in, less than the width Of the steel frame, the barrel was carried from the bore holes by wooden plugs fitting the holes and also the bore of the tube, thus holding it in correct position. Lower down in the mould a hole was bored in one end {0 take the Hein, steel tube which, formed the centre ‘barrel, This projected 3 in. through the hole and at the other ond, was received in, deep in a block to the tear sweep of the talltock land screwed to the end board. Both tubes were liberally spiked with 1 in. Si arate al aa! SECTION ON B.B. Fig. 2. Tallstock mould box SECTION ON A.A.November 25, 1954 ADDITIONAL WIRES ‘AROUND BARRELS. (2 oFF) qalustock 12 OFF. CROSSED. AS. SHOWN. Fig. 3. Retnforcement diagrams 6 OFF.ROLND FRONT BEARINGS, 4 OFF. ROUND REAR, HEADSTOCK BOUND TO HO BOLTS jeces of fin. steel wire driven into Rotes in the walls of the tubes and filed evel inside This was to. increase Fesistance to movement of the tubes in the concrete, in one case circume ferential, in the other axial. Finall four jy in, diameter wooden dowels ‘were flied in the fin. holes in the steel Frame, lodged at. their other ends in notches nthe sloping sides. — These formed the H.D. bolt locations. “All wood of the moulding boxes was painted one coat white lead on the side Towards the concrete, and only a night fr 80 before casting with a further coat of 2 minture of soap and linseed ol. ‘The iron inserts and reinforcement were routed with neat cement at assembly nd, so far as they were accessible, with a further coat immediately before the Concrete was mixed. What would be the front side of the head was the top Tor casting and was left open for filing, teing. trovelled to. a smooth face thereafter, “For the talstock the open He was of course, the eventual base and was not fat, but hollowed in line with the curve of the frame ends. "The casting was done on a Saturday ‘morning in summer in an underground basement in artificial light, On the Monday evening the entire moulding boxes ere carefully lined and come pletely immersed. ina tank of water. Here’ they remained in the dark for another week, afler which they were faken out of the water, the sides of the boxes removed without touching. the cores, and left again in the dark for Month. ‘Then the cores were drawn (al fwthout special diiculty except two of Those for the tailstock_ holding-down bolts, which had to be drilled out later), ‘minor surface repairs made and the cast- Ings left on a comer of the workshop floor in ordinary daylight until wanted, which proved tobe more than six months. from casting, "Meanwhile, I was making the stand and bed. It was qn fact more than a year afler casting before any appreciable load except their ‘own weight was applied to the concrete masses. ‘When the bed, together with all the carriage, topside, tool-rest and lead- screw assemblies were completed, T was ready for the main spindle bushes, These were of scrap type metal, hard antimony lead, but not too herd 10 scrape freely, The headstock was placed fon the bench on its back end with an iron plate and a square section ring, bellmounted in the. bore (to. producs the rear collar of the rear bush), inter- posed between the bench surface and the concrete, A similar ring (f in. of Jarge diameter pipe) was placed on top ‘of the rear bush location and a long. wooden plug (a length of old curtain pole 4 in. smaller than the rear bearing Grawing size), threaded through the cored hole of the concrete and both fins, located atthe Bator in a hole in the iron plate an at the In the cored hole for the ront bush, ‘A similar arrangement was used for the rear driving shaft bush, but of course in smaller diameters, Then all rings and plugs were accurately located in drawing positions and the metal run in. ‘The metal was poured pretty hot, and there was some spurting. For’ the concrete, even after six months, was not perfecily dry although I swept the holes ‘with a paraffin tore. T suppose it never wwouild be. "There was also some smoke and burning of the wooden plugs in spite of being heavily coated with blacklead. rtheless, the filling, including the back collars, was excellent, 80 litle, wimming of Bosses and no repairing of bores was found necessary, neither was the concrete in any way affected. ‘The. front bushes were done in the same way, the concrete being reversed to lie on its front end. Only the main spindle had by this time been fabricated (but not ground) so it was itself used as a core for its own front (tapered) bush, withdrawn longitudinally, of course, some 4 in. out of its drasing, position to give the fitting allowance. This latter bbush was nearly 4 in, in diameter at the ‘outer boss and required quite a lot of ‘metal. The result, however, Was just as ‘g00d as the others. ‘When fully assembled with spindle, all gears and accessories, the weight of the headstock was estimated at around 480 Tb. and the tailstock was propor- tionately heavy. The peripheral accuracy (with spindle grourd on dead centres on. the machine's own’ bed by a motor igrinder bolted to the carriage top) was Nery good indeed and on test was Certainly not less than that of a standard mass produced modelmaker's. lathe, For vertical alignment the head was fitted first parallel to the bed by optical methods, then the tailstock base. pads fied (a line up. with if also opticaly. Horizontally alignment’ was of course dealt with by the side adjustment screws of the castings, making the head first square with the crossways of the carriage by taking trial surfacing cuts, ‘then lining up the tailstock 10 suit, ‘This machine was started over seven ‘years ago and tock its first maximum Guts some two and a half years later. ight months ago the lathe passed out ‘of my hands, but ap to then there had never at any time been trouble with the ‘concrete, either due to vibration, force Get T have broken a number of tools in the lathe) or veathering, The con- crete surfuces are painted some six Coats in all, so they may be considered sealed from the weather, There have fof course been mechanical repairs and alterations, including a complete over- hhaul in 1953 with anew leadscrew. Also, a lite time previous, T-had the high speed. pinion (cattsiron) of the head ‘ears break up at speed and under load, ‘without damage tc the concrete, Tt has Since been replaced by a high-tensile steel one turned, bored and gear-cut fon the machine itself. a9 / 7 4 shies