Comments on: A Wood Lathe for Under $30?

By: Toolmonger » Blog Archive » Hands-On: The Adjustable Clamp Co.’s Mini Wood Lathe

Thu, 10 May 2007 15:39:54 +0000

[...] Michael recently saw our post on the Mini Wood Lathe, decided he wanted to check it out, and ordered one. When it arrived, he was kind enough to send his thoughts on his experience and snap a few pics for us, which we’d like to share with you. Read on past the jump for his opinions and photos. [...]

By: Michael W.

Michael W. — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 01:45:36 +0000

The mini lathe arrived today. I’ll assemble it tonight and try it out tomorrow in my shop.

Rob, you’re correct. The drills chuck is used. The lathe has a headstock spindle that simply has a shaft that extends out the back (towards the drill).

If I feel it’s safe enough I’ll probably end up setting this up for my kids. I’ll probably mount it to a chunk of oak to help cut down on vibration.

By: John

John — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 09:36:26 +0000

In the 1980s, in the UK Black&Decker used to produce a drill attachement for woodturning. This was a drill clamp. Drill clamp fitted with rotating point, a tool rest, a four prong drive and a small faceplate.
Yes it did work, but - only small pieces. No hard woods like hornbeam. Keep your tools really, really sharp.
Eventually burnt out a couple of drills, but does get you hooked.
Problems included to adjust tailstock you needed to unclamp the tail slide it down your bench and reclamp. No use to get any pressure for holding the wood between centres. No lathe bed meant you could (by accident) not have the drive and tailstock in alignment.
Nowadays I do look back at the lack of saftey warnings. Being hit in the face as a piece flys away from turning between centres is not as character building as one would wish.
Even though this one looks better with the plastic guard, I would still recommend using a full face mask.

By: Rob

Rob — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 13:37:31 +0000

I’m interested to know how this works. From one of the pictures I saw, there doesn’t seem to be a headstock spindle so I’m assuming that it uses the drill chuck in some way. I couldn’t find any more details to confirm if this was the case.

By: James

James — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 02:47:50 +0000

I’ve heard of people making simple lathes powered by drills, but this is the first time I’ve seen a commercially available one. It looks very interesting.

ShopNotes 73 has an article on building a mini-lathe with a normal motor, in case anybody is interested in making their own.

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 21:24:01 +0000

I just ordered one I don’t have a “real” lathe. I’ll let you know more about it when it arrives.

I’ll probably fix it up with a dedicated motor.