Rose Engine Lathe V3



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My Home Built Rose Engine Lathe (Build # 3 - 10/3/2025)

Ornamental turning originated in the 1500s, proliferating with European nobility. It was commonly practiced for pastime and profit thru the early 1900s to the end of the Victorian era to decorate a myriad of personal items such as top-of-the-line pocket watches, pens, lighters, cigarette cases, jewelry boxes, snuffboxes, hair and money clips, combs, wine goblets, as well as many other items.

For many years I've been fascinated with the Rose Engine Lathe. I built my first Rose Engine Lathe around 2012/2013. After using my first Rose Engine for ten plus years, I decided it was time to build Rose Engine Lathe # 2. Rose Engine Lathe # 2 has been working very well for more than a year. I've learned a lot, built several attachments and tools including a universal cutting frame and overhead motor drive system.

Now, for several months I've been getting the bug to build another Rose Engine Lathe. So on October 3, 2025 I fired up the furnace and melted a VW aluminum car wheel, given to me by my grandson, and poured the headstock casting.

The following photos and text describes the process of building Rose Engine Lathe # 3.

I will try to keep this page updated as the build progresses.

Want to know more about Ornamental Turning and the Rose Engine Lathe, visit Ornamental Turners International and the Ornamental Turning Book of Knowledge.

Creating the headstock (part 1)

When I designed and built Rose Engine Lathe # 2, I knew that the headstock would be the most difficult part, after much thought and consideration I decided to build a metal melting furnace and cast the headstock out of aluminum. After many hours researching on YouTube "how to build a casting furnace" followed by many more hours "how to cast aluminum" I started to work. I built the furnace out of an old BBQ grill propane tank, found an old aluminum Jeep car wheel and cut it into small pieces on my wood cutting bandsaw using a bi-metal bandsaw blade. I built the pattern for the headstock with wood and used the pattern to create a sand mold to pour the molten aluminum into. The cast aluminum headstorck was then milled to specifications on my milling machine.

I was pleased with Rose Engine # 2 headstock so I decided to use the same headstock pattern for Rose Engine # 3. My grandson gave me a damaged VW aluminum car wheel, I cut the wheel into small pieces so they would fit into the furnace crucible. I used the headstock pattern to create a sand mold with casting sand, melted the aluminum in the furnace and poured the molten aluminum into the sand mold.

The headstock casting came out great, no voids or noticeable imperfections. I milled the outer surface of the casting to specifications, drilled and taped all the bolt holes and bored the holes for the spindle and pivot bushings. The last photo shows to spindle and pivot bushing installed, now on to the spindle.

Creating the headstock (part 2)

I turned the 1 inch diameter spindle on my old 9 inch South Bend, started with a 1.5 inch bar with a .5 inch through hole, a number 2 morse taper was turned into the end, no threads. I think this will give me more options for chucks and collets.

Turning the pulley on my old 9 inch South Bend. I plan to use a 3/8 inch V-belt to drive the spindle. This should solve the issue of round polyurethane belts stretching when going uphill on the rosette then lunging forward as the rosette go over the top. The aluminum V-belt pulley will be mounted to a V-belt pulley hub, I remove the V-belt portion of the original V-belt pulley and drilled and tapped the remaining hub so as to mount the aluminum V-belt pulley to hub.

The spindle will be driven by a stepper motor bolted to the bottom of the headstock. The pivot points for the headstock will be attached to the underside of the table. A hole will be cut into the table for the headstock with sufficient clearance for the rocking action.

The crossing wheel has been completed with the adjustment detent and the headstock is now complete. The thrust bearing, collars and pumping return spring will be remove from Rose Engine V2 and installed on Rose Engine V3 during final assemble.

Final Assemble of Rose Engine Lathe (Build # 3)

The Rose Engine Lathe Spindle is powered by a stepper motor mounted to the bottom of the headstock. The stepper motor drives the spindle via a 3/8 inch V-belt. The V-belt should solve the issue of round polyurethane belts stretching when going uphill on the rosette then lunging forward as the rosette go over the top. The pivot point of the headstock is located below the table.

An Arduino Uno R4 microcontroller with a Nextion touch screen display is used to control the stepper motor, it provides Start/Stop, Forward/Reverse and Spindle Speed Control. The Nextion Display also displays spindle RPM and counts spindle revolutions, a reset button will reset the spindle revolutions counter to zero. The revolution counter is also reset to zero when the Start/Stop or Forward/Reverse buttons are pressed.

The cutter positioning is controlled by a Rockwell/Delta compound cross slide. A quick change tool post with overhead drive motor system will drive a drill frame or an universal cutting frame. A Makita Variable Speed Compact Router also makes an excellent cutter for the Rose Engine.

A cable/pulley system is used to maintain headstock/rosette pressure to the rubber/touch, pressure can be adjusted by adding or removing weight from the container.

The pumping return spring, thrust bearing, collar and the cabinet from Rose Engine #2 were used with no change.

Still have some tweaking to do but the Rose Engine Lathe (build # 3) is ready to go to work.

Oval Chuck Mechanism

I designed and 3D printed an oval chuck mechanism for my Rose Engine Lathe. I 3D printed the mechanism with PLA+ filament, I set the wall loops and other settings to 10/12 and increased the fill to 30 percent. I used light cuts with the drill frame otherwise the mechanism will flex. The mechanism has some play with no way to make adjustments, however, the first two pieces turned out quite well.

The oval chuck mechanism action is independent of the rosettes. Most any rosette can be used to decorate the oval turned item.

Not sure what the next step may be, maybe 3D print a heavy duty version or maybe build a metal version.

For anyone interested, I've made the 3D Print STL files available for download Download 3D Print Files. Keep in mind that the system is designed for my rose engine lathe and would need to be revised to fit other rose engines. After 3D printing, I used a triangle file on the inside dovetails and a flat file and sandpaper on the outside dovetails to get a proper fit.

I designed and drew the Oval Chuck with FreeCAD software, a free open-source 3D modeling software. The Oval Chuck is madeup of five parts/files, included in the download ZIP file. Download FreeCAD Files. I would not consider the FreeCAD drawings to be complete drawings, I only got to the point of producing a 3D printable file. You may be able to use these files as a starting point to make revisions to fit your Rose Engine. The 3D printed version should not be used on a regular wood lathe as a high speed oval chuck.

This video shows the 3D printed version in action.

The oval chuck action is independent of the rosettes, most any rosette can be used to decorate the oval turned item. In the video, I'm turning a basket weave pattern on the bowl using a 12 bump sine wave rosette.

At the beginning of the video, the headstock is locked to turn a smooth surface, then the headstock is unlocked and the rosette is engaged to cut the basket weave pattern then the headstock is again locked to turn the smooth inside of the bowl.