Welcome to the forums Edward, please show us the lathe you made, it could save us ££££'s in the future ...
Welcome Edward it would be nice to see some of the machines you have built.
I am more than happy to show you the lathe machine that I have build. However, do give me time to digest and try to figure how to post photos and videos on this forum. Also any help in this matter will be deeply appreciated.
As for trying to save money by building it yourself, I am sorry to mention that it is not justified nor cheap to build a general wood turning lathe when you can buy it off the self cheaply, especially those made in the Far East. The lathe that I have built is not cheap and it does not fall into the general categorically as other wood lathe. However it have the following features and capability not found on a general wood turning lathe:
1) A very simple build in attachment capable of making exact copies from template (Batch production using template).
2) The same attachment above with capability to make exact copies from sample (Batch production using sample).
3) A routing attachment to milled equally spaced flutes / slots on the surface of the workpiece with a index spindle head.
4) A side guide cum protractor attachment to drilled / milled equally spaced holes or multi flat surfaces on the workpiece at any angle.
5) Build in cutter sharpening attachment
6) Centre holes drilling station
7) A lathe machine so safe to operates that even the blind, people with one arm, the senior citizen and young ladies can operates the machine safely
8) Enable a novice wood turner to became a highly skilled turner within 1 hour.
I know the above description of the machine does not sound possible. Please be patience while I try and figure how to load photos etc. For those interested I am more than happy to shared my engineering drawings etc on this machine. All these will be posted on a new thread.
Regards
Edward Po