Whose is biggest

[Dean Center]

With turners, there seems to be a natural progression toward larger material and a larger lathe to handle the bigger stock. I've also sensed a hint of elitism among turners with 'big lathes'. One morning I got to day dreaming about the woodturner equivalent of the arms race toward the biggest lathe and thought I'd see what you folks may have seen in the way of great big commercial or homemade lathes.

The conclusion of my imagining was a lathe powered by a Chevy V-8 engine, variable and/or very low speed from the transfer case off an old Blazer with the 4 wheel low transfer case, a drive shaft for a direct drive spindle and a trench for the turner to stand in. There's no way I could ever build such a thing, but if I can conceive it, somebody must have tried it.

Comments?

Dean Center

 

[Richard Baker]

It's been done, in Australia or N.Z. I think. Sorry I don't have the link but will bet someone here does.

 

[Malcolm Tibbetts]

Dean, I don't remember the details of this photo, but I believe this to be the current world record holder:

 

[waltben]

Don't know about elsewhere, but here's a lathe in Wilmington, NC, at the Southern Railroad Museum. Bet someone could talk them out of it, though I don't know how you'd move the thing.

It was used to true repaired steam engine wheels after welding them back up to size. Sure looks like you could turn wood on it though.

 

[Richard Baker]

Malcolm, that's the one I had in mind.

 

[Rob Wallace]

Dean, I don't remember the details of this photo, but I believe this to be the current world record holder:

If I am not mistaken, I believe this was done by a pair of Austrian woodturners who built the bowl from glued and screwed hardwood pieces (poplar, I think), and attached the constructed blank to a faceplate that could fit on the hub of a farm tractor, which would then be run at low rpm. A very large segmented (?) piece, all turned by hand with HSS gouges (1" or more diameter) in "long and strong" handles.

I would have liked to watch them turn it! :cool2:

Rob Wallace

 

[Mr. Don]

Mega-lathe

Rob...you are right except one thing (or 2)....the glue-up was spruce, no screws....I still have the photo and related article posted in my shop....has caused many a jaw to bounce off the floor!!:cool2::cool2: I will post the info on it tomorrow. Very interesting, to say the least!!

 

[Orlando Roman]

Yea I've seen one in Manati,Puerto Rico;
This guy makes Conga Drums which are about 20'' to 24'' wide, out of wood logs,kind of slow though. Orlando

 

[Bob Edwards]

Big lathes

There is a lathe in the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry dock Co. that they turn drive shafts for aircraft carriers with. I wish I had a picture but it's larger than any of those shown so far. But I'm sure there is a bigger and better one somewhere.

 

[john lucas]

I'm going the other direction. I'm turning small stuff on a big lathe.

 

[John Jordan]

Really big pieces are often (typically) not really all that great, just big. The problems are many and not much upside. But all else being equal, a nice large piece can add to a body of work or exhibition.

Many beginning turners are convinced they are going to do large work, but in my experience, most settle on more normal scale work. Most of the lathes available allow larger work than most of us do. That was not always the case.

John

 

[alexc]

http://www.proserpinewoodturners.com/The_Big_Bowl.html

heres another one.

Personally I'd love to turn really really big but its not easy if you don't have the money for the proper equipment and the know how. Even if you do have the lathe getting a hold of and being able to mount anything over 150# can be pretty tough. That said it looks like a ton of fun.

 

[Joe Greiner]

Here's my small lathe for turning small stuff. Set up for long-line production. Move the steady toward the chuck for the next workpiece. The steady also works on my larger lathe, by re-setting the clamp arm to an upper position. Since taking this picture, I've added an oiling wick to the clamp.

 

[n7bsn]

There is a lathe in the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry dock Co. that they turn drive shafts for aircraft carriers with. I wish I had a picture but it's larger than any of those shown so far. But I'm sure there is a bigger and better one somewhere.

Probably looks like the ones at Puget Sound Shipyard, and.....

Certainly the largest "spindle" lathes are in shipyards, where they turn shafts or (used to) turn battle ship cannons

TTFN
Ralph

 

[Jake Debski]

Could the "elitism" comment contain a touch or two of "size envy"?

Speaking only for myself, my big lathe has only produced two pieces that approached its capacity. It is in my shop because my 3rd or forth owner J-Line was not to my liking. I found the Reeves Drive in-convenient and badly abused. Heaven is spelled EVS. FWIW, there are some beautiful and creative works being done on 6in. swing old iron and mini-lathes and they are of a quality I can only wish for.

 

[Bill Boehme]

Dean, I don't remember the details of this photo, but I believe this to be the current world record holder:

I thought that you weren't supposed to stick your fingers inside a bowl while it is turning.

 

[robo hippy]

Kids and their toys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

robo hippy

 

[Matt Hutchinson]

Um....

Hey Bill,

In response to your question: yes and no. I won't write that there aren't risks in doing so, but it's not uncommon for turners to touch their work without turning off the machine, especially in production turning. If you watch Richard Raffan's videos, he feels the inside of spinning work very frequently, such as when turning scoops or boxes. Of course, you'd never do this on any natural edge form......EVER.

I view it as an advanced technique with some risk, and so I'd recommend taking the safest route: turn off the lathe first.

Hutch

 

[Mr. Don]

Mega Lathe

O.K., Malcom Tibbets and all...here is a quote from the turner that really "gets into turning"...."It is a real photo and a real Spruce bowl- 13 feet in diameter by 4 feet deep. Two Austrian turners wanted to go for the world record and to increase interest in woodturning in Austria.
Some stats:
One 135 H.P. tractor, raised on heavy timbers, using the wheel hub as the faceplate;
The finish bowl wall thickness 6.375"
3,530 pounds at start, 2,640 pounds completed;
486 segments, glued up;
430 hours to assemble the blank;
40 hours to turn;
60 R.P.M. "lathe" speed
0 hours sanding time!!":cool2::cool2:

 

[Ed Jarvis]

Bigest

My Thayer, Houghton & co lathe pre civil war is a gap bed lathe swings 47" inboard with out the risers. Not the bigest, one of the oldest still in use.

ED

 

[Ken Ferrell]

There is a lathe in the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry dock Co. that they turn drive shafts for aircraft carriers with. I wish I had a picture but it's larger than any of those shown so far. But I'm sure there is a bigger and better one somewhere.

I was going to comment on the shaft lathe that used to be at the Mare Island ship yard near Vallejo CA. if I'm not mistaken the bed rails were 128 feet long and it had a chuck that was 8 ft. diameter,

 

[Joe Greiner]

Dished heads for railroad tank cars are sometimes spun on vertical-axis lathes, on the order of 8 feet diameter, possibly larger. Uses a metal roller for the spinning tool.

IIRC, Mare Island closed several years ago.

 

[mfoster]

Not as big, but I turned on it

I just spent a day turning some columns for a local jack of all trades that was rebuilding an outdoor gazebo for a local town. The posts needed to be 10 feet long. The contractor stopped by and asked if I could turn these for him. I said my Woodfast was really limited to about 4' between centers. He said, I have the lathe if you will do the turning. Turned out he had the lathe. It was an old Wadkins lathe that has a capacity of better than 12' between centers. The whole bed of the lathe can be cranked open to leave a gap bed that allows a 6' swing. I normally don't do spindle turning, but jumped at the chance to try this lathe. What a beauty. George (the contractor) said that is really nothing compared to the other lathe I have in mothballs. I attached pics of both lathes with the one I turned on first. These don't really compare to the monsters shown here, but are the biggest lathes I've had a crack at. What fun!

 

[Dean Center]

Thanks for all that everyone. Malcolm, that's an incredible picture. The Proserpine Woodturners set up is pretty close to my daydream.

I aspire to a bigger lathe, and now I can explain to my wife that a Powermatic 3520 is MID sized.

Dean

 

[Neil S]

...an old Wadkins lathe that has a capacity of better than 12' between centers. The whole bed of the lathe can be cranked open to leave a gap bed that allows a 6' swing.

My brother-in-law had one of those in his pattern making business.... AND, then sold it at auction for next to scrap metal value without even letting me know it was up for sale....

Perhaps he thought I wouldn't have been interested in having it hauled half way across the continent, but those beauties are becoming as rare as hen's teeth now. Sure would have been tempting.

But as others have said, few of us regularly turn to the full capacities of our current lathes. I rarely turn anything larger than about 24"/60cm, if for no other reason that good wood in those dimensions just doesn't wander into my workshop every day.... and if it's green, I'm struggling to lift it onto the lathe nowadays....

.....