Lathe alternative

Hi all,

I have been experimenting on making the extruder parts, and since I do not have a lathe, I tried several things to make the drive screw [www.reprap.org] And I found that when putting the screw in a drill (which has been fixated to my "workbench") and using a dremel like tool with either a cutting disk or grinding bit, this can actually also be done rather well. Set the drill on low(est) speed and rotating in the opposite direction of the dremel, then use the dremel tool to carefully remove the material where needed. This does not give you a fantastic result, but it might do the trick.

Do wear some safety goggles - I had some bits and pieces of disk flying around...

Joost

we should probably be a bit more explicit about that. you're halfway describing an afghan lathe. this is actually how i created my drive screws. also, if you have a dremel, you can easily clamp some washers in a vice or vice grips and then cut through it halfway. assemble 4-5 of these and you have the bearing! the metal stuff is definitely something that can be fabricated with basic powertools.

I have a 20+ year old power drill lathe which was sold here in the UK by Black & Decker. It fits a standard Black & Decker power drill (of the time!). Picked mine up very cheaply in a charity sale a while back, and have since seen another couple in various places. Haven't used it on metal parts before, but will certainly be trying it out for the drive screw.

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Steve

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