Is there a web site which will show me how to turn a wood turning lathe into a metal turning lathe?

Question

Is there a web site which will show me how to turn a wood turning lathe into a metal turning lathe?

Answer 1

Don't think about it. It is, essentiall, not feasible.

If you are looking to do proper metal  lathe work including boring, turning and threading then you need to buy the correct machine.

A wood lathe doesn't have the "beef" (not sturdy enough) to handle the demands of metal work.

Regards,

Eric

Answer 2

You would probably have more luck turning wood on a metal lathe than you would trying to fashion a woodturning lathe into a metal lathe.

Most woodturning lathes are not built with the same same heft, I mean the bed is not heavy enough to support the stresses of metal turning. Never mind that you'd have to find a carriage, lead s***w, tool post, etc. and somehow try to fit that to your woodturning lathe.

Metal lathes are in ready supply used. And for reasonable prices. This savings is a by product of all of our manufacturing jobs going overseas, but it comes as benefit to you. You can get a metal lathe, say, a hobbyist one, for a couple hundred dollars if you shop around. You'd probably spend a couple thousand dollars trying to turn your wood late into a metal lathe and it still wouldn't be very good as a metal lathe.

Answer 3

Unless you are talking about shaping sheet metal against a wooden form, it is not practical to change a wood turning lathe to a metal turning lathe.

  Amoung the reasons are the greater horsepower required for working metal, the usual requirement for precision in working metal, the difficulty in hand holding a tool on metal (yes I have tried).   A metal working lathe normally uses vice mounted tools that are tracked with threaded mechanisms.  Because of the additional force required for cutting metal, normally the mountings are much heavier and much stronger than is needed for wood.

Answer 4

Nope. This would be the most dangerous machine you have ever seen. Wood lathes are not made to handle the stress a metal lathe is. You could probably buy a metal lathe by the time you added all the equipment to make it "look like" a metal lathe.