A couple of years ago I decided to invest in a lathe. I had some projects (probably more excuses than projects) so that time came with no surprise. I spent a few months checking which lathes were available and comparing prices, features, shipping and if they had some level of quality control guaranteed.
I don’t have space for a big lathe, so I ended up purchasing a small bench top lathe – an HBM, model 250×550 profi vario. I’m more interested in achieving a good level of precision rather than having capacity for big parts, so I think in terms of size this lathe will serve me well.
I will make a lathe stand for it one day, but for now I’ll use it in a normal workbench – it’s far from ideal, but it will have to work until I have some time to think about the design of that stand.
The first thing I did was to take the lathe apart. Why? Well, I have an itch and… sometimes I need to take things apart. And cleaning gets easier too. The end result of this process is quite scary because you’ll see things that cannot be unseen.
THE REBUILD
Yes. I managed to put it back together. Please calm down. Yes, it powers ON and the thingy on the front spins while the sticky bit also moves. It’s a good lathe. In case you don’t trust my word, you can have a look.
3D PRINTED ACCESSORIES
I have made some 3D printed accessories for the lathe and you might be here for that. If that’s the case, serve yourself, but know that I have made these parts for my lathe and they are a bit tight on tolerances. Some scaling might be needed for your lathe.
COMPOUND POWER FEED ADAPTER
![Loading file](https://www.nbrworks.com/wp-content/plugins/woo-3d-viewer/images/ajax-loader.gif)
This fits into the compound wheel without any modifications. It drives the wheel via the 2 handles. A 1/2″ square driver can be used in a power drill to power feed.
Adapter dimensions (not the lathe parts):
– Compound wheel hole diameter: 40.2mm
– Handles distance (center to center): 35mm
– Handles holes diameter: 9.2mm
– Wall thickness: 4mm (should clear the cross-slide in every direction)
– Square driver: 1/2″
OTHER DOWNLOADS
Cross-slide covers:
10.2mm width
10.8mm height
Long (180mm)
Short (59mm)
Cover plates
Headstock chips cover plate
Chuck guard safety switch cover plate
2 Comments
Thanks for the stl files. I think my lathe is very similar to yours but maybe not exactly the same. For the Power Feed Adapter, what is the c/c distance for the two handle hole and their diameter? What size square drive fits?
Thanks,
Craig
Hi Craig,
Sorry, I’ve just added that information to the page (check above).
Thanks