Dale and other folks - you seen this?

Have you seen this? (Again, a DIY for a low-cost permanent culture.)

http://makezine.com/projects/the-multimachine-150-12-swing-metal-lathemilldrill/

That's well beyond my ability to make. I'm a master of MacGyvering simple new things together from my existing tools. Looks like something that every machine shop could use.

I had an epiphany last night, concerning my cordless hedge cutter. I'm going to attach it to the wheelbarrow or to a free baby stroller, in a manner that allows the cutter bar to stick out to the side at about 3 inches off the ground. It will be a small sickle bar mower for maintaining roadsides and for small scale hay production. . I've already cut several thousand square feet and it works great, but I was bent over like a dummy.

Here's an alternative method -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_J._Gingery

http://www.gingerybooks.com/

and even more info -

http://www.homeshopmachinist.net/home

Warning - this can become addictive.....

I've got the gingery books.

It looks like the first lathe proposed in this thread would be easier to produce. Also the gingery lathe doesn't scale up to larger dimensions - it is hard to get it sufficiently rigid to take the stresses of bigger/heavier work. Oh, and you need to get really good at aluminium casting!

Michael Cox wrote:I've got the gingery books.

It looks like the first lathe proposed in this thread would be easier to produce.

If you think so, hit that "Like" button. I'm still pretty new here and need the encouragement!