Printing A Lathe

I was working on a design for a printable Stirling engine based on the Miser from Jerry Howell (http://www.jerry-howell.com/Miser.html -- there are several other beautiful Stirling engine kits on his site) last weekend, and I realized that there are a few parts that will have to be turned on a lathe.  I started thinking about how to get my hands on a lathe again, and then I remembered that I had seen some printable lathes on Thingiverse . . .

Right now I'm printing the first of many, many parts that will be needed for a printable lathe similar to the one shown here http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:9242 and here:

The version I'm printing is found here http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:12472  This is a derivative of Sublime's lathe shown in the video above, and it is a version recommended by Sublime I think because of the geometry of the gears.  I expect this project to take several days if not a couple of weeks.  It will require several tens of hours of printing time alone.  I hope to print several parts each night, several more during the day, and then a third shift when I get home from work each day.  We'll see how it goes.

I'm suspicious of how much precision I will be able to get out of a 3D printed lathe, but the videos and discussions online are promising.  If nothing else, I know I will learn a lot more about lathes and machine design in general by printing one out piece by piece and putting it together.

The original designer goes by the name Sublime online, and his blog is over at http://geometricobjectdepositiontool.blogspot.com/  Considering what he's been able to create using mostly printed plastic parts, this is a pretty incredible design.  He also has several other impressive projects going, including his own version of a 3D printer.  Please check out his work.  Much respect.

Pictures/videos to come as the printing and building proceeds . . .

D