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The "Midget" Home-made Lathe

Published in the USA during 1945 - when small lathes even in that country were hard to come by and relatively expensive - this set
of plans was designed to enable a keen home-workshop enthusiast construct a simple but effective little lathe. Built from sections of
angle iron bolted together, the simple flat-faced bed carried a headstock and tailstock constructed from scrap automobile rocker-arm
support bearings - though commercially available lightweight plain-bearing "plummer" blocks would have done just as well. Other
parts included off-the-shelf steel bars and blocks, lengths of threaded rod and the bevel gear and handle from a breast drill
completed the parts list - with even the tool-slide, normally an awkward piece to build, fabricated from bolted-up sections of steel
plate. Interestingly, the toolpost was of the very handy height-adjustable "Norman patent" type as used for many years on the
English-made Myford/Drummond M-Type. Other scratch-built and construction kit lathes made over many decades include: F'only,
Elffers, Fogg, Geslo, Greenly, Jones, Petrie, Precision and the Multi-machine.