While working on the Revolve NTNU car in the workshop, we use alot of machinery. We had our own little workshop with a lathe and a mill. Unfortunatley our lathe is not of the best quality (China made) The thing broke when the autofeed disengage did not engage. The result was that the thing broke a gear shaft for the main sled. It happened friday evening when the main workshop of the university was closed (and we had alot of machining to do). I had to get creative in making a gear shaft with a mill only to repair the broken lathe.
If you have worked with machines you will probably laugh a bit. But the results was very good! The best thing about it was the nonstep variable speed control that is operated when running, and the fact that the machine was very stable. However I don not recommend doing this on a regular basis due to safety reasons. Here you can see a video of the thing in operation: Lathe video
Here you can see some pictures of the gear that broke off, the broken shaft and the new fabricated shaft.
Here are some various pictures of the build process of our new car! I am looking forward to se the end result.
Ivar A. blog 