One of the earliest pictures. The bed and ways plate have not yet been drilled or surfaced.
	A view from the end showing the arrangement of the bed and the motor. The cage around the motor is made from 1" angle-iron from a sign. The motor is bolted to the frame with some 5/16" threaded rod welded to the bottom frame. Slots in the motor mounting plate allow for slight adjustments, but were not needed in this design.
	A close-up of the pillow block made to hold the lead screw. This is made of 1/2" square stock from an old porch railing. The pieces were clamped together, drilled and tapped for the inner bolts which hold the blocks together. Once screwed together, I center-punched and drilled the 1/2" hole for the bronze bushing to fit in to.
	As of February 15, 2004, I am nearly finished. The headstock has been machined and bolted down, and the belt drive is complete. This takes care of the framework.

Additional Notes:

The framework is made of 1" x 1" square tubing. Once I had the bed and motor on hand, I simply laid out the framework and welded the pieces together.

The bed is 3" x 3" x 1/4" steel tubing. This made a good solid surface from which to work from, however it is hot-rolled (and inexpensive) so it's not very flat. The top side will need to be surfaced with whatever you have available - either by scraping or by machine. I got lucky and had a mill available with a 3' capacity. We were able to finish the surface to within 0.002" down the entire length. In the future I may come back and hand-scrape the surface, but this will work fine for now.

The ways plate is 3/8" x 4" x 36" cold-rolled steel. We measured the sides to only vary by 0.001" down the length. This piece was basically bolted straight down and used as it was shipped. Once the base of the compound cross-slide was put in place and adjusted, I found there were no problem areas along the usable length of the bed. This plate was bolted to the bed with a series of 6 pairs of 1/4-20 counter-sunk screws. I tapped the bed and the ways plate is held firmly in place.
The motor is a 1/2" HP 110V unit which was rescued from the recycling place. We find a lot of these motors in old furnaces and appliances. This unit also has an accessible plate on the side which allows for wiring a reversable switch -- a project for a later date when I have the need of such a feature.


All of my CRS and the spindle was ordered from www.onlinemetals.com. The prices were good and the shipping rates were fantastic.