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A manual lathe CNC conversion but quite different

Janger

Janger

(John)
Vendor
Premium Member
@Dabbler sent me this video. I thought it was a really cool idea. It's a CNC conversion but the moving parts get mounted in the regular tool post. This limits the travel quite a bit (4" x 4") but no significant changes to the lathe. Take it off and it's still your manual lathe. Finnish dude with a machinist sense of humor. He's good.

 
Janger said:
@Dabbler sent me this video. I thought it was a really cool idea. It's a CNC conversion but the moving parts get mounted in the regular tool post. This limits the travel quite a bit (4" x 4") but no significant changes to the lathe. Take it off and it's still your manual lathe. Finnish dude with a machinist sense of humor. He's good.

Click to expand...
That is very cool, thanks for the share.
 
That sounds like a great idea. You would still need an encoder on the spindle to coordinate threading. A person could do alot of stuff in that 4 inch window.
 
Janger said:
@Dabbler sent me this video. I thought it was a really cool idea. It's a CNC conversion but the moving parts get mounted in the regular tool post. This limits the travel quite a bit (4" x 4") but no significant changes to the lathe. Take it off and it's still your manual lathe. Finnish dude with a machinist sense of humor. He's good.

Click to expand...
I saw this when it first came out and started following him hoping to see more great ideas... still waiting but this is a keeper right down to the master 2500.
 
That is a cool concept with the on/off modularity. No threading as mentioned, but it would still be useful.

Did he say at about 1:48 he uses Mach-3 as the controller software? Maybe I should direct this to the CNC group but is Mach-3 dead/unavailable now & Mach-4 is the current/only version? Unrelated & not that I had a project in mind but I watched some YouTuber converting a mill to CNC Mach-4. He had prior Mach-3 CNC conversion experience, anyway & he went on a rant about how buggy v4 it was, support issues etc.
 
PeterT said:
That is a cool concept with the on/off modularity. No threading as mentioned, but it would still be useful.

Did he say at about 1:48 he uses Mach-3 as the controller software? Maybe I should direct this to the CNC group but is Mach-3 dead/unavailable now & Mach-4 is the current/only version? Unrelated & not that I had a project in mind but I watched some YouTuber converting a mill to CNC Mach-4. He had prior Mach-3 CNC conversion experience, anyway & he went on a rant about how buggy v4 it was, support issues etc.
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When I built my CNC router I looked at Mach4 briefly but was not impressed with its almost beta-like status. I eventually with with UCCNC.
 
Thanks @David_R8 I'm going to have to pick away at this CNC business. Have you posted any vids of your running setup or router construction? Other forums maybe?
 
PeterT said:
Thanks @David_R8 I'm going to have to pick away at this CNC business. Have you posted any vids of your running setup or router construction? Other forums maybe?
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canadianhobbymetalworkers.com

My next CNC project - a PrintNC router

I've been jonesing for a CNC router for a while now. Two main criteria 1) it had to fit on a 2' x3' table...my welding table. 2) it had to be able to mill aluminum with decent results. Looked at all the options from OpenBuilds, to Scienci to DIY. On a DIY CNC Facebook group I ran across the...
canadianhobbymetalworkers.com canadianhobbymetalworkers.com
 
I use MACH3 c/w USB SmoothStepper on my CNC router and LinuxCNC on the mill. The PC on the mill is dual boot for WIN-95 and LinuxCNC. I started with parallel port on the mill so I could switch between MACH and LCNC. Tried the USB SmoothStepper so I could get better stepping rates. Ultimately decided on the MESA 7i92H which has two parallel port emulations and plugs into my BreakOutBoard and at that point stopped with MACH3 since there is no support for the MESA board.

Here's my thread on the mill.
canadianhobbymetalworkers.com

G3616 Conversion.

I'm using the Grizzly part number because the House of Tools one is just too long. And it's big brother with the horizontal mill, the G3617 under a different part number, is still available from Grizzly. I'll try to make this thread about the conversion process of this sort of mill. Bare in...
canadianhobbymetalworkers.com canadianhobbymetalworkers.com
 
Actually very neat idea. Remember this saves you from having an extra machine - need small CNC parts - no problemmo.

Yes a CNC encoder is needed for threading on the spindle. But for non threading operations this is just like a plug and play accessory. Remove the tool post, add your CNC attachment and just like that you have tiny CNC lathe.
 
Tom Kitta said:
Actually very neat idea. Remember this saves you from having an extra machine - need small CNC parts - no problemmo.

Yes a CNC encoder is needed for threading on the spindle. But for non threading operations this is just like a plug and play accessory. Remove the tool post, add your CNC attachment and just like that you have tiny CNC lathe.
Click to expand...
Seems more expensive than adding motors to Z and X. If I wanted fully manual lathe operation on my Southbend without the connect motor interfering I just remove the belt to the Z axis. Then put the levers back so the gears work.

Having said that, when I demonstrated that capability to @David_R8 I screwed up and couldn't figure out what to do to connect the gears again. Couldn't make the leadscrew turn. Of course it's been about 8 yeas since I used them and 8 years that I haven't removed the belt from the stepper motor to the lead screw.

I can still disconnect the half nut and just the main handle (rack and pinion) to move the carriage manually for turning. I've even engaged the cross feed from the lead screw and power fed the cross slide that way. But when all the gears are connected and turning the machine is so much noisier.
 
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