A DIY digital readout for your wood lathe

Small wood lathes don’t typically come with an RPM readout, so after obtaining such a machine several months ago, engineer Zach — also known as ‘byte sized’ — decided to build his own custom display.

The device uses a Nano for control, along with a Hall effect sensor to pick up on four magnets attached to the spinning handwheel.

RPM values are shown on a series of four 7-segment displays, and everything is enclosed in a nicely 3D-printed housing. LEDs shine through a sanded acrylic window that acts as a diffuser. Power for the lathe is still provided by a single cable, with a transformer module used to convert the AC input into 5V DC for the Arduino and other electronics.