…getting ideas.
http://woodgears.ca/lathe/homemade.html
That’s pretty nice, but I would think it has a few problems:
- drill presses tend to have a lot of runout compared to even a cheap lathe headstock. So this wouldn’t be very good for precision work.
- a wood bed would flex a lot, I would think. again, bad for precision, and may prevent you from milling harder steels at all.
- the wood would be subject to humidity. precision again.
- with no steel bed, you can’t use a magnetic base on a stand for a dial indicator… making it hard to calibrate. precision again!
Still, if you use the basic idea, improve the headstock somehow but use the motor, gears and belt, you’ve got a great start. I would think that a largeish aluminum extrusion profile (eg 3 inches on side) with a steel bed attached to it somehow, like a taig lathe, and you’re doing well. You could pack plaster into the extrusion cavities to increase its mass…
Well, I’m pretty sure this lathe is intended for woodworking of table legs, chess pieces,… and not metalworking, jewelry or even tool making. 
oh yeah!That’s a tool rest for wood chisels. I assumed (and should have asked) that you’d want to do metal-working and precision work.
Don’t get me wrong: I still think its pretty cool, but I think I might go the gingery lathe route if I wanted to build my own.
It’s not mine and I don’t want to go the same route.
What route do you want to go?
5 axis milling and looking into an option to match the belt of the 4th axis to a spindled motor, so milling and turning are both possible.
However I doubt the bearings on the 4th axis are ment for that kind on abuse.
I THINK you could buy the headstock portion of a sherline lathe and use that…