Once upon a time, lathes were big heavy machines driven by massive AC motors, hewn out of cast iron and sheer will. Today, we have machine tools of all shapes and sizes, many of which are compact and tidy DIY creations. [Maxim Kachurovskiy]’s Modulathe fits the latter description nicely.
The concept behind the project was simple—this was to be a modular, digital lathe that was open-source and readily buildable on a DIY level, without sacrificing usability. To that end, Modulathe is kitted out to process metal, wooden, and plastic parts, so you can fabricate in whatever material is most appropriate for your needs.
It features a 125 mm chuck and an MT5 spindle, and relies on 15 mm linear rails, 12 mm ball screws, and NEMA23 stepper motors. Because its modular, much of the rest of the design is up to you. You can set it up with pretty much any practical bed length—just choose the right ball screw and rail to achieve it. It’s also set up to work however you like—you can manually operate it, or use it for CNC machining tasks instead.
If you want a small lathe that’s customizable and CNC-ready, this might be the project you’re looking for. We’ve featured some other similar projects in this space, too. Do your research, and explore! If you come up with new grand machine tools of your own design, don’t hesitate to let us know!
Thanks to [mip] for the tip!
Wow MT5 is a monster headstock taper for that lathe size, but the bigger the better.
Interesting Idea, to combine such an oversized spindle with a little DIY machine. Looks quite solid, but I guess the proof is in the chatter. Would love to take it for a spin
Definitely interesting. With a little math, you could probably even machine softer steels on something like this using really shallow cuts.
Electrochemical machining seems to lend itself more readily to the DIY CNC hobbyist. It’s even reversible in some cases.
Electrochemical machining is suitable only for extremely niche product specific applications and not for general purpose CNC.
Electrodischarge machining is a completely different process and story though.
Interesting looking tool post. Looks like 16mm tooling in the one pictured. I’d be curious to know what the manual version looks like since I don’t see myself making the jump into the cnc world.
Because it’s modular… ya that’s the exact reason people buy mini lathes
I mean crap my toy micro lathe with a 12v DC motor on extruded aluminum can do “metal wood and plastic” it will even do soft steels once i mounted it on a half inch aluminum plate and take my time
It’s a nema23 motor. Its near worthy of being considered a high torque motor. Would need to be a little patient though. It’s can run on a standard 120v outlet.
I feel like This Old Tony’s thoughts and observations on small lathes are worthwhile posting here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05vUCdzhoe4
There’s a few more in the series but I won’t link them all.
This is another quite nice review of the “7×14” minilathe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfJSxWOEP44
… And it also has quite some time allocated into describing all the upgrades to make it more accurate.
It also reminds me that not all people want to use a lathe to make bearing seats, bushings or tool spindles. You can make nice looking metal knobs with a minilathe like this. It’s even a nice upgrade from the regular wood lathe if you only want to use it for wood.
This is cool for a couple of reasons: it’s compact, accurate (if not all that rigid), and some innovative parts sourcing. It would be really nice for small production runs, where its speed/accuracy and price would shine.
If there’s any throw away line I’ve come to dislike, it’s “do your research”.
Doing research on the Internet can lead you to many conspiracy theories, ranging from “flat earth” to “smallpox vaccine turns you into a cow”.
I did my own research and came to the conclusion that Aaron Rogers is a worse human being than he is a Quarterback, and he sucks at that now.