Don't be tempted to copy something you've seen on social media. Cymbal lathes are DANGEROUS.
If you get advice from a working maker, in the cymbalsmith world or from anywhere else, question everything and be critical. Get at least two more opinions.
The trouble at the moment is with the rise of independent cymbal-making, the craft is more visible than ever, meaning advice and ideas become poor facsimiles as they get further from the source. What was maybe an acceptable tolerance in terms of risk at the start can become a dangerously cut corner once the idea has been through a few iterations.
Cymbal making looks cool. Making a lathe and having a cymbal spinning in front of you looks cool, maybe it makes you feel like part of a sacred club or something, maybe not, but that mystique needs to be challenged, and is, at least in part, what's driving the desire to see the end result before and despite the necessary safety steps.
What doesn't look cool is a bandage on missing fingers for a few weeks while you figure out how you'll ever play drums again, not to mention just going about your daily business. And that's, in a way, a best-case scenario if things were to go badly wrong with a poorly built machine. People die from lathe accidents. This is serious.
Get at least 3 opinions.
If you're unsure of anything, don't do it.
Talk to qualified machinists. Forget about this being a cymbal lathe — it's a piece of machinery to spin metal around safely so you can do your work. Don't be blinded by mystique.
More detail will follow — this is an overview intended to prompt serious reflection before you begin.
