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Stephen Nelson

Stephen Nelson

Stephen Nelson

Joined
Aug 30, 2025
Messages
4
Likes
1
Location
Bloomfield, NY
Hello,
Thank you for adding me to the forum. I'm looking forward to learning.
I'm a beginning wood turner, trying to make some modifications to a wood lathe in order to make stave-constructed snare drum shells.
My goal is to fabricate a carriage, cross-slide, tool-post, and boring bar in order to turn the stave cylinders to certain outside and inside diameters.
I've done 99.9% of the metal fabrication. Now, I'm doing fine-tuning, chasing gremlins in the system, getting dust control set up, and ultimately--scratching my head about what is going wrong with my setup. That's what brings me here; I have little knowledge about cutting tool edge shapes, correct approach angles, speeds and feeds, etc. Essentially, I've modified a wood lathe to operate like a traditional metal lathe, and the surface finishes on the wood shells I'm attempting to turn need improvement.
What I do know is that rigidity is key to proper cutting and smooth surface finishes. I'm still working on that.
Of course, I'll be posting questions. Just wanted to get the introduction out of the way.
Thanks again.IMG_7958.jpegIMG_7768.jpeg
 
Interesting approach. My first thought is to use the lathe as a wood lathe, and not try to turn it into a metal lathe configuration. OTOH, your application is pretty unique. At any rate, welcome to the forums.
 
Welcome to the forums. My thoughts on converting wood lathe to metal is no. Wood lathes can be used to turn soft metals such as aluminum and copper. Harder metals require slower speeds with all except very high end wood lathes cannot deliver. Maybe if you are wanting to go down a hole of changing motors or various other items. Good luck in whichever way you decide to go.
 
I'm not modifying a wood lathe so that it can turn metal materials. I'm adding a shop-fabricated carriage, cross-slide, and boring bar to my wood lathe, so that I can turn wooden stave-constructed cylinders. The wooden cylinders I make are for snare drums. Sorry if my original post wasn't clear.
 
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