Lathe mounted to Router Table

[mario1]

Anyone have experience turning wood parts by mounting a lathe to the table of a 3 axis router? I don't, but we are about to try it. Any thoughts, horror stories, advice or suggestions? Besides the obvious solution of purchasing a CNC lathe of course, that'd be too easy. Thanks.

[Matthew Hajicek - Singularity]

I've done small parts by putting the stock in the spindle of a mill and setting up lathe tools on the table. That worked pretty well, and you can have a lot of tools all ready to go. The chips fall out the end when you're boring and drilling, and you can have a soft-catch bin under your parting tool.

 

How big a part are you looking to make?

[mario1]

The finished part is 3 1/2 Dia. x 16".

[Matthew Hajicek - Singularity]

Well, if your router has 18" for Z travel you could try my approach, otherwise you'll probably have to do yours. I would probably work okay I think, you'll just have to make a toolholder setup for holding various lathe tools at different Y-axis positions on the router head. If your lathe has an indexing plate like my grandfathers old 9" Atlas then you could rout some flutes down your part or drill mounting holes or whatever after turning it. Come to think of it, that would be a pretty sweet setup!

[mario1]

I think the idea so far was to fix the lathe to the table, spin the stock in the lathe, then have the router come down with an endmill.

[GoetzInd]

quote:

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I think the idea so far was to fix the lathe to the table, spin the stock in the lathe, then have the router come down with an endmill.

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Without having a locking spindle you won't be able to use a turning tool very well so "turn milling" would be your only option.

[Leon82]

12 hours ago, sedmondson said:

I found mine today, still in the boxes never put together. It was buried under a lot of other stuff in the shop. I got it mostly put together today. It's a Craig Jig brand, real heavy built. Now I gotta find the dang router. I looked it up online this afternoon. It cost over $700.00 today. I think it cost me in the neighborhood $250.00. Needless to say, I am still cleaning up the dang shop. We did get her mom's stuff out there. I've still got a big pile of insulation laying in there. No backing on it. It's 8' wide, made to be put in a new steel building, as a matter of fact, it's leftover from building the new shop at the car dealership. I think I will cut it onto 15" wide batts and insulate the roof of the porch I enclosed last summer.

Good luck, we're all counting on you.