Home Made Lathe

[Larry Bud]

Are you documenting this machine on a website? I'd love to see it.

I built a 22" drum sander last year. One of the coolest machines in my collection

[Andy Dingley]

Martial arts stuff is better done with a drawknife, not a lathe. Best of all it's done with an axe and choosing the right tree to begin with.

The problem is short grain. You want the grain to be as straight as possible, but given the usual constraints it's better to have a slight wiggle in the surface than it is to have a smooth surface and weakness from short grain. A lathe will happily make something that looks fine, but snaps clean across when you use it.