Repurposing a Drill Press into a Wooden Lathe

Maker News Woodworking Workshop
Repurposing a Drill Press into a Wooden Lathe

Say you’ve upgraded to a bigger, newer, better drill press… what do you do with the old one? For Ryan Nodwell of Shopbuilt.org, the answer was to repurpose the drill press and turn it into a wooden lathe.

This project was inspired by the need to repurpose my old drill press. Because the drill press has all the main mechanical components of a lathe, it was just a matter of coming up with a design that would be heavy enough to limit vibration as well as coming up with a way to adapt a homemade drive center to tapered shaft.

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It’s not just the first wooden lathe that Nodwell has built, but the first he’s owned as well. The project looks like it was fun to build. I’m sure he’ll have a fun time practicing with his new (repurposed) tool.

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A typical day for Lisa includes: getting up to see the sunrise, bicycling, interning at Make:, reading and writing short stories, and listening to audiobooks and podcasts for hours while working on projects or chores.

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