Machine instruments are costly. To chop metallic — even comparatively comfortable metallic, like aluminum — you want a particularly inflexible body. Physics and the economics of market forces being what they’re, producers obtain that rigidity utilizing a number of hundred and even thousand kilos of heavy iron (or metal, in the event that they’re fancy). The price of the fabric alone, plus delivery all of that weight, rapidly turns into substantial, and that’s earlier than you get to the precise precision manufacturing and management electronics. However Chris Borge discovered an inexpensive workaround that allow him design this DIY metalworking lathe that ought to value about $100 to construct.
The Open Lathe V1 is one machine in a collection that Borge is designing. The entire machines on this collection make the most of poured concrete to attain nice rigidity at a low value. The thought to make use of concrete for machine instrument frames isn’t a brand new one. It appears to pop up each few many years, earlier than disappearing once more into obscurity. That’s possible as a result of complexity concerned in creating types into which builders can pour the concrete. And that’s the place Borge’s design philosophy actually begins gaining traction. His machines use 3D-printed types that anybody with a primary 3D printer can fabricate.
That is Borge’s second try at designing a lathe constructed on this manner. The primary labored, however was tough to assemble and carried out poorly—to the purpose the place substantial spindle deflection is plainly seen within the video, even below a comparatively gentle load. This new design solves each of these issues and appears to carry out very nicely.
The brilliance of this design is in how the types (hole 3D-printed containers to carry the concrete) hold the opposite elements, just like the spindle mount, in place whereas the concrete dries. These complicated types could be nearly not possible to manufacture with out 3D printing, however now they’re virtually trivial with hobbyist printer fashions. And after the concrete is totally dry, the types stay to offer the lathe a pleasant look.
The associated fee to construct the machine, which Borge estimates at $100-150 AUD (about $66-100 USD) is a results of filament, concrete, non-printable elements just like the tailstock, and the motor. A whole BoM and construct tutorial aren’t but obtainable (Borge is engaged on these), however the STL information are already on Printables.
In fact, this isn’t a high-precision machine and it could not fulfill machinists that work with lathes costing hundreds (or tens of hundreds) of {dollars}, however it is extremely inexpensive and needs to be ok for many hobbyist wants.
