Building my Gingery style lathe

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My Homemade Metal Lathe Project

Yes I too am building a metal working shop from scrap using the
books written by Mr. Dave Gingery. I figured, "hey I already have a
foundry why not build some really nifty machines?" Besides what is a
laboratory without a precision indexing head or milling machine?
Heck, the least I could do is build the lathe.
Home Machinists Handbook

Go to part; 1 -- 2 -- 3 -- 4 -- 5 -- 6 -- 7 -
Part 1: Bases and bed
-8

Here are the bases freshly cast. You

can see the sprue left on one. When
the sprue is directly on the casting like
this its called a "pop gate." Notice the
ridge on the top of the castings. This is
so the bed will interlock with it.

Here is a pic of the bed casting. It

weighs about 4 pounds.

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Building my Gingery style lathe

Dave Gingery recommends building the pattern from 1/4" plywood. All of the 1/4"
plywood I've seen were about as warped and bent as an archer's bow. The 3/8"
plywood wasn't much better. So to get a straight pattern I took some wood wall
paneling material, sanded the smooth surface to rough it up then smeared a generous
amount of glue on them.

I set two pieces together on a steel table saw table and put a straight, weighted
board on it (I used about 30 pounds of weight). The glue impregnated the wood
softening it and the weight caused it to dry perfectly straight. The resulting stock
was just under 3/8" thick so the pattern is very robust and solid.
These are some of the bed castings
that didn't come out. The problem was
that I was using my 4" crucible in the
flowerpot furnace and the crucible is
actually too big for it so the metal
never got hot enough to fill the mold.

The solution was to melt just enough

metal to fill the mold and no more
(previously I was melting enough extra
metal to pour some ingots also) and
thankfully that worked.

Here is the bed casting smeared with

Prussian blue oil paint purchased from
an art supply store for about $3.00. I
did the scraping with a cheap dollar
store chisel. I don't know if I
mastered scraping but I sure got a lot
of practice sharpening that cheap
chisel...

Here is the bed scraped and ready for

the ways. The holes are drilled and
tapped for the bolts and lugs that
attached the bed. This stage was
finally reached after about 6 or 8

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Building my Gingery style lathe

hours worth of scraping. It might not

take you that long but my bed was a bit
"cratered" because of overzealous
venting with the vent wire.

I actually used a wood plane to bring

the surface down to an initial shiny flat
surface.

To part 2; carriage assembly.

Go to part; 1 -- 2 -- 3 -- 4 -- 5 -- 6 -- 7 -
Part 1: Bases and bed
-8

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Copyright © 2000, 2001 by Lionel Oliver II All Rights Reserved.
This site was created Sept. 28, 2000

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 melt metal, home metalcasting, backyard metalcasting

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Info. and Updates: --Latest update (Jan./11/2005 - one new photo -)--

A large website update is currently in the works.

Photo illustrates a test casting of a door for the

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Furnace designs Tools and materials

The "2 bucks" furnace Unfortunately "2

bucks" isn't the cost of building the furnace! It
Homemade aluminum pulleys It feels great to have
refers to the design based on 2 buckets. It an essentially unlimited supply of pulleys.
burns propane and a good scrounger can build Go to part; 1, 2, 3
it for under 10 bucks!
Homemade refractories Get the skinny on homemade
Flowerpot crucible furnace Melt metal in furnace refractories.

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 melt metal, home metalcasting, backyard metalcasting

a clay flower pot! Does it get any easier??! Need foundry supplies? Check out
(perfect booklet for beginners!) Budgetcastingsupply.com (where I shop).

Dirt and brick furnace A search for an Building steel crucibles I know that not everyone has
even simpler furnace? access to a welder so not everyone will be able to make
their own crucibles like this. But hey...its still interesting to
Live, love, cast metal! look at.
Go to part; 1, 2
Chimney pipe furnace I used this furnace
for over a year. The internal chamber was made Tool reviews In this section I review metalworking tools.
from a clay chimney flue pipe. So if people say Manufacturers; feel free to send them to me!
that it won't work (as I've read on
"rec.crafts.metalworking") tell them to shut up My early foundry setup (circa 1999) If any of them
with their theories because it works and works
from those art-metal newsgroups try to say that you must
well!
use graphite or other exotic crucibles and that expensive
commercial equipment is the only way to go then send 'em
Breaking metal in a barbecue No a here!
barbecue grill is not a furnace but when it
comes to breaking up/down large pieces of
aluminum it's close enough.

Building machines used/waste oil fuel

Building a metal lathe Yep, I'm building it. Waste oil burners Propane is convenient but it's not the
And you better believe I'll do some heavy most economical fuel. I've been experimenting with burners
bragging when I'm done... that cleanly burn used oil and they should allow me to even
Go to part; 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 melt iron easily and cheaply.
Go to part; 1, 2, more...
Feast your eyes on The Lab's very own "line"
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Propane stuff Molding/Casting

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 melt metal, home metalcasting, backyard metalcasting

Be sure to check out the guest

galleries! How-to mix molding sand This page shows the steps
I take to mix my own greensand.
Rigging a propane system After 3 years
of using a charcoal fired furnace I've finally Sandcasting basics Learn the basics of making
advanced to propane. Here's how I hooked up
greensand molds and pouring metal. (another great
the rig.
booklet for beginners!)

Homebuilt propane burners! Charcoal Casting brass with the flowerpot furnace For
has been really good to me, but I had to move
everyone who's been wondering, the question is finally
on to propane. From common plumbing parts
answered... Yes the flowerpot crucible furnace can melt
you can build burners to melt any metal from
brass!
lead to iron.
Ingot casting Just a page showing a stack of ingots I
Propane Vs. Charcoal I made a non-
made, a couple pics of metal being poured etc...
biased comparison between the two furnace
fuels to see which is better.
Casting defects Face it, things can go wrong with a
Sheet metal flares If you want to use your casting, but we can try to prevent it.
burner outside the furnace you'll probably need
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Portable foundry Take a look at the cart I

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 melt metal, home metalcasting, backyard metalcasting

welded together to make my foundry portable.

Nice welding pics too.
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CAUTION! Metalworking can be dangerous, especially when proper safety precautions are not taken.
Because of the variations in materials, workmanship and other variables there are no guarantees on the
information in/on this web site. This information is simply what I have been successful with in my own
experiments and nothing more. I am not and will not ever be responsible for any injury, loss, or damage no
matter how serious/major or minor that may result from anyone aside from myself following the instructions,
diagrams, advice, plans and/or general information on this website. There are always dangers in
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responsibility of me nor this website to mention any or all known or unknown dangers. Be careful dag-gone-it!

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Building my Gingery style lathe

Homepage

My Homemade Metal Lathe Project

Part 2: Carriage assembly

Here are some pics of the carriage assembly. I don't have the tool post in these
pictures 'cause I just didn't feel like finishing it yet. And I'm considering the lead
screw mechanism (including the apron) a separate section so that's not in this picture
series either.

Go to part; 1-- 2 -- 3 -- 4 -- 5 -- 6 -- 7 -
Part 2: Carriage assembly
-8

Here is the first part of the carriage

assembly, the carriage itself. It rides
the bed ways. The steel plate on top of
it is the cross slide ways.

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Building my Gingery style lathe

And this is the cross slide. I think it

and the tail stock are the most
interesting looking of all the lathe
parts. It slides smoothly on the cross
slide ways.

Most of the screws are countersunk

and I had no idea how to do that in
metal. So I came up with this method
of drilling out a "stepped" hole with
3/8" and 1/2" drill bits. The method
works very well.

This is the compound swivel base and it

has a "pin" that slides into the hole in
the cross slide. This allows it to swivel
around. The steel plate on top is the
compound slide ways.

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Building my Gingery style lathe

The compound swivel base is installed

and you can see one of the clips that
lock it into position once you've
rotated it to where you want it.

This is the compound slide, its basically

a miniature cross slide. The tool post is
attached to the top of this piece. It
has a pretty smooth surface with little
noticeable draft doesn't it?! That's
what new oil bonded sand can do for
you!

Its hard to tell in the picture but I

tried to "mill" part of the surface flat
by attempting to bend and grind an old
drill bit into a milling cutter and using
the drill press as a vertical milling
machine! It started to work but I
really had no clue how to grind a good
cutter so that stopped it from being
viable.

Here I'm drilling the entrance for the

feedscrew. After I drill it to size I
need to "tap" threads into it.

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Building my Gingery style lathe

This is the cross slide feedscrew and

two homemade setscrew collars.

Ball handles are attached to the

feedscrew. The big one will go on the
cross slide and the small one is for the
compound slide.

Here we have the finished carriage

assembly except for the tool post. As I
said at the top of the page, I'm
considering the apron and lead screw
mechanism a separate section.

To Part 3; lead screw assembly.

Go to part; 1-- 2 -- 3 -- 4 -- 5 -- 6 -- 7 -
Part 2: Carriage assembly
-8

Homepage

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Building my Gingery style lathe

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Copyright © 2000, 2001 by Lionel Oliver II All Rights Reserved.
This site was created Sept. 28, 2000

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Building my Gingery style lathe

Homepage

My Homemade Metal Lathe Project

Part 3: Leadscrew assembly

As soon as you finish the carriage assembly progress really picks up speed.
At this point most of the hard and tedious work is done. This page is on the
finished leadscrew assembly. The leadscrew moves the carriage assembly
along the ways side to side. All I have to do now is build the countershaft
(motor mount) and the lathe will be able to start cutting and turning (to bore
the headstock pattern)! The head and tail stock and faceplate patterns are the
only ones left to build. Thank goodness... Tabletop Machining

Go to part; 1 -- 2 -- 3 -- 4 -- 5 -- 6 -- 7 -
Part 3: Leadscrew assembly
-8

The first thing I did was install the

apron. It's the rectangular casting.

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Building my Gingery style lathe

This is the left (headstock) end of the

leadscrew. You can see the bearing of
course, with the journal in it. The
leadscrew (threaded rod) is threaded
into half of the journal and one of my
homemade setscrew collars is keeping
it in place.

Here is the right (tailstock) end of the

leadscrew. It's the same setup as the
other end except there's no rod
coupling nut and a ball handle is
attached for hand feed.

Dave Gingery says to thread nuts onto

the leadscrew against the journals to
act as lock nuts. I didn't do that
because I didn't fully understand the
drawing at first and I found that
threading the journals on very tightly
makes the locknuts unnecessary (at
least as far as I can tell right now).

For some reason Dave Gingery is big on

using auto body putty as if it were
wood filler. And he also directs the
reader into using it to print lead screw
threads onto the splitnut pattern. I
actually use non-toxic water based
wood filler to fill the wood flaws and
make fillets so I wasn't about to buy a
$16.00 can of auto body putty for such
a small part.

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Building my Gingery style lathe

Instead I got some plumber's putty called "propoxy 20" (made by; Hercules chemical
co. inc.) available in the plumbing section of your local hardware or plumbing supply
store near either the solder and Teflon tape or the adhesives. Another type is called
"epoxy putty" (from; Oatey) They seem to both be the same. There are also other
brands simply called "plumber's putty" and the colors just vary slightly. The putty
comes in a cylindrical tube with a white core and grey outer layer (some brands have
the colors reversed). You break of some of both colors and knead it between your
finger until it's uniformly grey.

About 20 minutes later it's "steel hard" (according to the package. It's hard as heck
but not hard as steel). I put some putty on the splitnut halves and squeezed them onto
the leadscrew as described in the book and the threads were printed with the pattern
ready to be removed in 5 seconds! However I left the pattern on the leadscrew for 5
minutes before removing it. I don't even think the silicone spray was needed.

I couldn't resist testing the accuracy of the threads so I attached this pattern to
the apron and it actually drove the carriage on the leadscrew! But don't try it unless
you're willing to risk breaking the pattern.

Here is the finished splitnut pattern

with steel core (to leave threads in the
sand for the piece of threaded rod
that is set in the mold) in place and the
fillets all done and smooth. Make the
fillets as small as possible because
they need to be cut, chiseled and all
out filed away to get the threaded
core out the casting.

Here I am pouring the splitnut casting

in my baby flask. This is metal from
another run in part 3 of the "2 bucks"
furnace adventure.

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Building my Gingery style lathe

Here's the splitnut as it looked fresh

out the sand after a little filing. I got
my pot metal to cast this part from the
casings of some vacuum cleaner motors
I dismantled. I threw a few aluminum
lawn chair tubes in the pot also. Now I
need to cut the fillets away, remove
the core and cleanup the resulting
threads with a tap.

Here's a peak over the apron where

you can see the splitnut casting
engaged on the leadscrew.

Here's a look at the lathe so far. It's

really starting to look like a lathe! You
can also see the splitnut detent lever
on the face of the apron. Its used to
engage and disengage the splitnut with
the lead screw.

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Building my Gingery style lathe

Here I cranked the carriage all the

way across the ways and back. The lead
screw assembly works well!

Click here to get a sneak peak at a

picture from next update the
countershaft!

Go to part; 1--2 -- 3 -- 4 -- 5 -- 6 -- 7 --
Part 3: Leadscrew assembly
8

Homepage

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Page contents copyright © 2002 by Lionel Oliver II
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Building my Gingery style lathe

Homepage

My Homemade Metal Lathe Project

Part 4: The countershaft

At last I'll be able to power up this soon-to-be lathe and get the thing finished! I
know I said progress is quick after the carriage assembly but I had to do so much
custom work on this part (you'll see why below) that that totally ruined my flow
and slowed me down a lot. But you know what, only three casting remain (head
and tailstock and faceplate) and the lathe itself will finally pick up some of the
slack! April/02/2002
Arc Welding

Go to part; 1 -- 2 -- 3 -- 4 -- 5 -- 6 -- 7
Part 4: The countershaft
-- 8

Here is a pile of the necessary metal

cut to size to make the countershaft.
Mainly just angle iron that I've
scavenged from discarded bed frames.

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Building my Gingery style lathe

After welding together some scraps of

metal the countershaft is taking
shape! While Dave Gingery riveted his
assembly together he does mention
that welding is much faster (no
argument there). I actually super
glued the parts together then welded
them! No clamps needed! You heard it
here from The Lab...

My welding seems to be improving! Of

course this is the best weld on the
entire thing and I'm not showing you
the others!

I got this perfectly good 1/2 hp 1725

rpm washing machine motor from a
working washing machine! Forget clean
clothes I need a lathe! Actually my
neighbor left the washing machine
outside for her daughter to pick up
and take home. I thought she was
actually discarding it so I inquired and
she told me that I can have it if her
daughter doesn't come within the next
few days. Lucky me, she never showed
up! Ha! guess her daughter likes the
washboard method...

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Building my Gingery style lathe

The motor was used vertically (with the shaft and pulley pointing down) in the washing
machine so there are no mounting parts suitable for my lathe application. So I had to
make a motor mount. I was going to weld an assmebly together from scraps but then I
figured I might as well make a pattern and cast it just in case I get my hands on
another similar motor.

Here is the finished motor mount. Its

made up of two castings. I based it on
a similar mount that I made from wood
while using this motor on a homemade
wood lathe. In case you're wondering,
I've dismantled the wood lathe it
wasn't accurate at all (I guess that's
what happens when you try to weld the
spindle together...)

Here is the motor in place on the 2-

piece motor mount and a look at the
way I mounted it on the countershaft.
Those are 3/8-16 bolts going into the
countershaft.

This is a look at the countershaft's

bearings. I just cast some aluminum
bearings from the patterns shown. If
you look closely you'll see that there is

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Building my Gingery style lathe

a copper "bushing" in the bearing. This

is actually a coupling for 1/2" copper
plumbing pipe!

Click photo for a larger image!

The outer diameter of 1/2" copper pipe is 5/8" (the same as the shaft I'm using)
therefore the inner diameter a the coupling is 5/8" also. Making it a perfect
improvised bushing! All I had to do was file out the small nub that stops the pipes
from entering too far. This should last at least until I locate or learn to machine
bronze bushings or maybe I'll leave it.
Click photo for a larger image! You can see the pulleys (I cast them
myself!) in place on the countershaft
here. I purchased the belt connecting
the motor to the outboard (the 6")
pulley from an auto parts store. They
refer to them as fan belts. They are
3/8" wide rather than 1/2" (which the
pulleys are sized for) but that's no big
deal, the belts just slide a bit deeper
into the pulley grooves.

Once the lathe is far enough along I'll

cast new pulleys and clean them up on
the lathe and replace these.

Being that I'll need to grab the

countershaft's release handle to
change belt speeds I figured that I
might as well cast a nice one so I can
switch speeds in comfort and style.

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Building my Gingery style lathe

The pattern was a piece of the handle

of a battered umbrella that I found
abandoned in a parking lot after a
strong rain storm. I just had to have
that handle!

Click photo for a larger image!

Here you can see the lathe's progress.
I've built a small stand for it which
has two drawers for lathe related
parts and accessories. It's built mainly
from 3/4" plywood and scrap 2 X 4
lumber. I was planning to just use
regular screws as cheap drawer pulls
but I decided to go all out and treat
myself... So I went to the dollar store
and bought these folded sheetmetal
drawer pulls!

Part 5; the headstock!

Go to part; 1 -- 2 -- 3 -- 4 -- 5 -- 6 -- 7
Part 4: The countershaft
-- 8

Homepage

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 Building my Gingery style lathe

Homepage

My Homemade Metal Lathe Project

Part 5: The headstock

OKay the headstock is complete and at this point I can use the lathe for a few
applications. I guess I should build the tailstock next... July/23/2002

Need the cold rolled steel for your lathe or other projects? I got mine online from this
company

Go to part; 1 -- 2 -- 3 -- 4 -- 5 -- 6 -- 7 -
Part 5: The headstock
-8

I cast the headstock several times in

order to find a way to get the smallest
shrink cavity. The one in the front
shows almost no signs of shrinkage so
it's the one I went with.

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Building my Gingery style lathe

To bore the headstock accurately a

temporary headstock assembly is made.
Dave Gingery directs the reader to
build an adjustable angle iron based
assembly. I decided to take a little
extra time and cast a solid temporary
headstock which has slides and ways
clamps to connect to the ways. It was a
little extra work but it was very
steady. The pulley is off center 'cause
the temp headstock was too big and I
had to let it hang off the left side.

This let me test a prototype headstock

design for a wood turning lathe I'd like
to design and build.
I didn't have any lathe tool material to
grind my boring bar from as the book
recommends so instead I used a piece
of hardened steel off a thread cutting
tap. The end of the tap was square so
it was easy to grind to shape.

This tap came from a cheap set of taps

and dies that I bought from a popular
auto parts catalog. This set was bull-
feces! The catalog listed it as "Our
best carbon steel tap and die set" for
$19.95. I'm glad I didn't buy their
worst carbon steel set...
Here is the temporary apron that
carries the headstock along the ways
as it is bored.

Rather then drilling and tapping holes

in the front of the headstock to attach
the temporary apron I simply drilled
it's holes to fit the screw locations of
the front ways clamp. I welded this
thing together but you can probably
cut out a "T" shape and bend the front
piece downward to get the
configuration shown. Okay enough talk,
let's bore this bad mutha...

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Building my Gingery style lathe

Sorry, no action photo...

Here you can see the headstock just

after I finished boring it. All the metal
chips are cleaned away. It is much
easier to bore one side at a time then
install the bearing for added support. I
got this tip from Metalworking
Gearheads (He has good tips on
scraping also). Check his site out if you
haven't already!

Here is a closeup of the finished bore,

the boring bar and the bit. That's a
nice clean hole. And I didn't build
Gingery's adjustment gauge nor did I
ever measure the bore. I simply kept
boring the hole larger and larger 'til it
looked close to the bearing size then I
tried to slide the bearing in. I kept
extending the boring bit by miniscule
amounts until the bearing slid in with a
bit of friction. Warning, there is a big
risk of boring the hole too large if
you're not careful!

Here are the bearings. I think they a

little different from What D. Gingery
described. I had to split the plain
sleeve bearings for them to fit in the
flanged bearings because even though
they're labeled as 5/8" inner diameter
they turn out to be less. Got these
from Mcmaster.com.

Check out part 6; the tailstock!

Go to part; 1 -- 2 -- 3 -- 4 -- 5 -- 6 -- 7 -
Part 5: The headstock
-8

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Building my Gingery style lathe

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Building my Gingery style lathe

Homepage

My Homemade Metal Lathe Project

Part 6: The tailstock

The tailstock itself is done but there's still some finishing touches to add to it
(namely the tailstock ram) I plan to cover that in part 7; finishing touches.
Aug./26/2002

Metalcasting

Need the cold rolled steel for your lathe or other projects? I got mine online from this
company

Go to part; 1 -- 2 -- 3 -- 4 -- 5 -- 6 -- 7 -
Part 6: The tailstock
-8
Here is a picture of the tailstock
pattern and a perfectly usable
sandmold. I however didn't use this
mold to cast the tailstock because I
didn't have any cores at the time (this
pic was taken before I cast the
pulleys).

I just put this pic in because it shows

the pattern. I used a drillpress to
insert dowels into the "barrel" section
to form the core prints. By the way,
this mold is made with the greensand I
mixed on this page! The mold I used to
cast the stock is the one in the photo
below...

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Building my Gingery style lathe

This pattern was a lot easier to make than I expected because I thought I'd need a
wood lathe to make the core prints on the "barrel" portion of the tailstock. D. Gingery
mentions how he used a table saw. I have neither machine that I can use so I thought
I'd have to rig some sneaky homemade chuck and temporary tailstock to turn the
pattern from wood on this lathe. However the drill press was accurate enough. Glad
too... saved a lot of time. However I did design and cast a sneaky little 4-jaw chuck.
Take a look at it in use making the faceplate pattern!
Okay, here is a picture of the tailstock
mold with the core in place. You'll
clearly notice that there is another
cavity in the mold. I looked at it like
this; I've got some space left in the
flask so I might as well slap another
pattern in there... So I decided to cast
a small stepped pulley (extra pulleys
will probably come in handy sooner or
later). The pulley is the size specified
for the Gingery shaper project.

The tailstock core is shorter than the

core print since it came from my pulley
making core box which makes smaller
cores. But it was long enough (barely).
The hole you see is the sprue hole for the tailstock, the pulley's sprue is not visible in
the picture.

As you can see from this picture both

of the castings came out very well (I
love it when that happens). Each
casting has its own sprue because I
treated this like two separate molds
rather than using one sprue for both
patterns. I think there's less chance
for a shrink cavity that way.

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Building my Gingery style lathe

Here is a straight-on view of the baked

sand core in the casting. The hole in
the center of the core is the vent. All
I need to do is scrape this core sand
out (easy with a screwdriver) and there
will be a nice straight bore through the
casting.

Here I'm turning down the end of the

boring bar to fit in the tailstock's pre-
cast hole to bore it out larger.

This is a shot of both parts of the

tailstock together ready to be bored.
In fact the boring bar is already
extended into it, I guess it can't wait
to start...

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Building my Gingery style lathe

Here I'm measuring the bore with my

measuring device (are these calipers?)
They were a good price from my local
dollar store... that's right one dollar.
Glad they only cost a dollar, they
weren't very accurate!

Just as I mentioned with the

headstock I didn't build D. Gingery's
special cutter bit depth gauge. So I
made cuts until it looked close to
finished size then made miniscule
adjustments to the bit. I DO NOT
recommend this because it is way to
easy to over bore the hole (but the
method worked for me).
I also didn't attach the tailstock to the carriage to drive it along the ways. I simply
moved the carriage up to it and used it to push the tailstock past the bit, then I'd
move the carriage back and pull (by hand) the tailstock back away from the bit. Then
I'd adjust the cutter and do it over again. I didn't even install the power feed yet!

Here is the tailstock after boring. A

nice clean hole ready for the ram.

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Building my Gingery style lathe

This picture shows the beginning of

when I used the lathe to put a 60°
point on the temporary tailstock ram.

Here's a look at the complete tailstock

with it's temporary ram. The setscrew
on the ram is made from a piece of a
sprue.

Go to part; 1 -- 2 -- 3 -- 4 -- 5 -- 6 -- 7 -
Part 6: The tailstock
-8

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Page contents copyright © 2002 by Lionel Oliver II
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 A homemade lathe

Homepage

My Homemade Metal Lathe Project

Part 7: The faceplate and finishing touches

I'll be updating this page when I get motivated to. I've kinda lost interest in the lathe
since working on oil burner designs...

Go to part; 1 -- 2 -- 3 -- 4 -- 5 -- 6 -- 7 -
Part 7: The faceplate and stuff...
-8
The faceplate pattern is turned on the
lathe from a piece of plywood. Gingery
says to attach the pattern to the lathe
with a "threaded shaft adaptor." Too
bad I've never heard of a threaded
shaft adaptor...

I have however read a lot of books and

have seen pictures of 4-jaw chucks. So
I designed a quick and cheap chuck,
made a pattern, cast it and finished it
off a little. The jaw screws are made
from threaded rod since I didn't feel
like buying some bolts.

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A homemade lathe

At this point I'm using the regular

metal cutting bits to machine the
plywood disk. I glued a hub on both
sides of the disk so my 4-jaw chuck
could grip it on both ends letting me
machine both sides.

The hub on the front is later removed.

Here is the cast faceplate with the

gate and sprue still attached. The
pattern is next to it. The center hole
was actually drilled after casting. I
covered the center hole in the pattern
with tape which caused a slight
depression on the casting. This
depression automatically centered the
bit in the drill press. It worked well for
me but If you mess up you have to cast
a new faceplate.

Go to part; 1 -- 2 -- 3 -- 4 -- 5 -- 6 -- 7 -
Part 7: The faceplate and stuff...
-8

Homepage

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Page contents copyright © 2002 by Lionel Oliver II
All Rights Reserved.

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 Building my Gingery style lathe

Homepage

My Homemade Metal Lathe Project

Part 8: Closing comments

This part is coming as soon as I get to it! 2002

Part 8: Closing comments Go to part; 1 -- 2 -- 3 -- 4 -- 5 -- 6 -- 7 -- 8

Part 8: Closing comments Go to part; 1 -- 2 -- 3 -- 4 -- 5 -- 6 -- 7 -- 8

Homepage

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Page contents copyright © 2002 by Lionel Oliver II
All Rights Reserved.

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 http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/book_fp.html

Homepage | "catalog" page

Orders are mailed within 24 hours of receipt on weekdays (48 hours on weekends)!

The Flowerpot
Crucible
Furnace
Build a furnace from a
flowerpot and melt metal!
2nd edition

Also see; sample page 1; sample page 2;

Back cover.
Melt and cast aluminum and more!
Use barbecue charcoal as fuel!

CURRENTLY SOLD OUT! WILL RETURN!

Start melting and pouring metal easily at almost no cost
and while having fun! This booklet explains how to build
the furnace and how to use it to melt and pour metal!
Perfect for anyone who's never done this before.

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 http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/book_fp.html

I have to be honest, the flowerpot crucible furnace is

one of the simplest and cheapest ways to build a
working furnace. Take care of it and even with fairly
heavy usage it can last quite awhile (mine lasted 7
months and I left it outdoors uncovered and used it
heavily). It'll melt aluminum within 10 or 15 minutes and
I've gone from a cold unlit furnace to pouring bronze in
about 31 minutes.

Picture it... You're at home and just finished that tin of

"holiday" popcorn. You know, the type sold around the
holidays in those painted cans with three flavors of
popcorn in it. The potted geraniums just died so you've
got a clay flowerpot going unused. And as a matter of
fact you've still got about half a bag of cement and
sand in the garage from when you repaired the patio.
Why not put it all together and add a small foundry to
your workshop?!

I've built several of these furnaces because they're so

cheap and easy to just slap together. You probably have
all you need to build one around the house or garage
right now. It'll also work as a small forge and is nice for
heat treating or tempering small tools. You'll also learn
how to build or improvise crucibles (the pot that holds
the metal) and a simple pair of tongs to grip the hot
crucible with.

Cheap to build... cheap to fuel... and easy to use. So why

not start melting metal in a barbecue grill charcoal
powered flowerpot!? I think it'll come in handy for you!

5-1/2 X 8-1/2 softcover booklet 33 pages.

Heavily illustrated. $7.95 (FREE s/h in U.S.A.
international is extra)

Orders are mailed within 24 hours of receipt on weekdays (48 hours on weekends)!

CURRENTLY SOLD OUT! WILL RETURN!

Homepage | "catalog" page

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http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/book_fp.html

www.backyardmetalcasting.com
Page contents are copyright © 2000-2002 by Lionel Oliver II
All Rights Reserved.

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