true diy spirit

True, but I would hate to have something a bit out of balance on it.

That is one way to make a hand built lathe. But its very different from th e old lathes from the 1800s. The antique long bed lathes used wooden lathe beds. Like this one. But had all metal headstocks and tailstocks and too l rests. Bolted to the wooden lathe bed. Cheaper and easier I suppose for the guy to build his lathe this way. But still think it would have been m uch better if he found a metal headstock and tailstock and tool rest, old o r new doesn't matter. And bolted that to a pair of 2x12 stringers making t he lathe bed.