I spent some time working out the more lathey parts. By that I mean the structure and spur centers. It would be easiest to just show you what I did.

This is the moveable center that slides along a 2x4 and can be clamped in place:

The circular knob was cut with a jigsaw using a hackaday SPACE coaster as a template. Did you know that those coasters are exactly as wide as a 2x4? I'm pretty sure that was a coincidence. This picture shows how I attached a 6mm threaded rod.

Next was the live center which consists of a long 6mm nut that I modified with a cutoff wheel on an angle grinder.

Here the two centers are facing each other.

Oh, and I sharpened the threaded rod too.

Next, I finally made a control panel out of a plastic cutting board that I had left over from the stargate project. It just has a power switch, rotary encoder knob and a display. I was thinking of putting start and stop buttons on there too, but haven't gotten my hands on any good buttons for the job. At this point I can just use the knob and start out at 0 rpm. The power switch is my quick shut off.

Here is the back side of the control panel. Notice that the knob is still attached to a chunk of pcb from the stereo I pulled it out of. Everything is held together with hot glue.