Reply by Dan Lyke

I’d also suggest getting the first and second books in Dave Gingery's Metalworking Shop From Scratch series. Yeah, you can probably build most of your lathe out of wood, but something about reading that series opened up a whole new world for me in how I think about shop made tools and jigs, even though I haven’t built a blast furnace… yet.

I think the router as a motor will make things spin waaaay too fast (remember, you dial back a router for a 3” bit…), but maybe the motor from an old washing machine or dryer? There’s probably some good suggestions in the Gingery book for that, too.

-- Dan Lyke, Petaluma California, http://www.flutterby.net/User:DanLyke