From: muratlanne@gmail.com   
      
   "Richard Smith"  wrote in message news:m1ecyqje7q.fsf@void.com...   
      
   I am not sure a lathe is necessary at all if welded together   
   (end-plates, etc.).   
   Well, making rollers for the "barrel" to roll on would benefit from a   
   lathe.   
   The idea of a rope drive, from which the name "lathe" comes from  - a   
   lath, rope and plank for the foot-pedal - is hopefully also very   
   achievable.   
      
   ---------------------------   
      
   Before I bought a house with shop space I used my father's wood lathe to   
   make machine parts such as pulleys and rollers. Rings sawed from scrap water   
   pipe reinforced the hubs. Unfortunately the dimensions of water pipe don't   
   match available bearing sizes. Fitting them to a removable press fit is   
   necessarily a metal lathe task. Wood was adequate for hand crank, wind and   
   water power but doesn't last long on motorized equipment.   
      
   I found that multiple turns of cotton string made a pretty reliable outdoor   
   rope drive. I boiled the wooden pulleys in molten canning wax to   
   weatherproof them. The wax shrinks as it solidifies and pulls in from the   
   surface, which then isn't slippery. The knot tends to ride smoothly on the   
   outside of the strings. A taut-line hitch adjusts the tension without   
   needing an idler or other means.   
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taut-line_hitch   
      
   When I built custom industrial equipment I bought components that fit   
   together and never needed lathe work. The parts were expensive but the   
   competing bidders had to pay the same prices so it didn't matter. Now I pay   
   much less for remnants and second hand and usually have to modify the sizes   
   to fit. Today I turned a replacement plus a spare for a stainless steel cap   
   screw with an oversized shank that's missing from my car's roof rack.   
   jsw   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)