Wood lathe turning

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Fivetide
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Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2015 6:31 pm
Model of CNC Machine: BLACK CAT 6090

Wood lathe turning

Post by Fivetide »

Hi folks,

I'm thinking of converting my wood lathe copy attachment to turn down rough logs to spindle blanks. The attachment only has an X & Y axis. Y being the in / out cut and x side to side. Can a tool path be created in the wrap gadget only to use the 2 axis's ?

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IslaWW
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Re: Wood lathe turning

Post by IslaWW »

Can a toolpath be created for 2 axis lathe turning: Yes, see here:

Is it done with the wrapping gadget? Absolutely not. Simple profile vectors, just like the template for the copy lathe attachment.
Gary Campbell
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Fivetide
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2015 6:31 pm
Model of CNC Machine: BLACK CAT 6090

Re: Wood lathe turning

Post by Fivetide »

IslaWW thanks for the reply , in fact it was your machine that inspired me to look at doing this :) I'll look into simple vector cutting.

Fivetide
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2015 6:31 pm
Model of CNC Machine: BLACK CAT 6090

Re: Wood lathe turning

Post by Fivetide »

Gary, will the Z-Level rotary rough, work without a 4th axis, just the lathe spinning normally ? Eventually I want to do what you did by putting a timing pulley setup n the shaft, but I have money constraints atm and just want to do a large set of spindle legs for a project.

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IslaWW
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Re: Wood lathe turning

Post by IslaWW »

I am not sure I understand your question, but as a general rule, nothing related to 3D or rotary wrapped applies to a lathe, only to a rotary 4th axis.
Gary Campbell
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Fivetide
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2015 6:31 pm
Model of CNC Machine: BLACK CAT 6090

Re: Wood lathe turning

Post by Fivetide »

IslaWW wrote:I am not sure I understand your question, but as a general rule, nothing related to 3D or rotary wrapped applies to a lathe, only to a rotary 4th axis.
In your video its says "First - Z-Level rotary rough". And it looks like the lathe is spinning faster than a A-Axis/ Rotary. Plus the wood spindle block is rotating anti clockwise / normal lathe direction.

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IslaWW
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Re: Wood lathe turning

Post by IslaWW »

Which video? I have a number that show both lathe and 4th axis cutting.
Gary Campbell
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GCnC411 (at) gmail.com

Fivetide
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Re: Wood lathe turning

Post by Fivetide »

IslaWW wrote:Which video? I have a number that show both lathe and 4th axis cutting.

Sorry I got confused I watched alot of your video's its the Its the Backknife one, that's what I want to do with a router instead of knife

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IslaWW
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Re: Wood lathe turning

Post by IslaWW »

I believe you are conflating a number of actions that can be done between centers and arriving at a process that does not actually exist.

For example, the lathe shown in the video you posted. That spindle is turned by a 3 phase motor at 2K+ rpm and operates similar to your copy lathe with the exception that the profile is CNC controlled. The cutting is done at high prm with lathe tools. The toolpaths were generated with VCPro. There is no stepper, timing belt or controlled rotary axis movement on the machine.

In this second example: All the cutting is done with router bits, turned by a router, at slow rpm while the blank is being rotated by a stepper motor via a timing belt to the chuck.

The two methods are not interchangeble. The drive system cannot be interchanged, i.e., the stepper cannot rotate at high rpm like the 3 phase motor, nor can the 3 phase motor offer the control at low rpm that the stepper does. That said, the major difference lies in the surface feedrate. This is the reason there are few, if any homebrew wood lathes present in the CNC video world. The feedrate that most rotary 4th axis machines operate at will be in the 100 to 300 ipm range. 3.5" blank in the lathe video is rotating at a surface feedrate of nearly 22K ipm. On the average 10 times greater. It takes a totally different machine, with few parts in common other than a head and tailstock to accomplish these two vastly different machining operations.
Gary Campbell
GCnC Control
ATC & Servo Controller Controller Upgrades
GCnC411 (at) gmail.com

Fivetide
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2015 6:31 pm
Model of CNC Machine: BLACK CAT 6090

Re: Wood lathe turning

Post by Fivetide »

IslaWW wrote:I believe you are conflating a number of actions that can be done between centers and arriving at a process that does not actually exist.

For example, the lathe shown in the video you posted. That spindle is turned by a 3 phase motor at 2K+ rpm and operates similar to your copy lathe with the exception that the profile is CNC controlled. The cutting is done at high prm with lathe tools. The toolpaths were generated with VCPro. There is no stepper, timing belt or controlled rotary axis movement on the machine.

In this second example: All the cutting is done with router bits, turned by a router, at slow rpm while the blank is being rotated by a stepper motor via a timing belt to the chuck.

The two methods are not interchangeble. The drive system cannot be interchanged, i.e., the stepper cannot rotate at high rpm like the 3 phase motor, nor can the 3 phase motor offer the control at low rpm that the stepper does. That said, the major difference lies in the surface feedrate. This is the reason there are few, if any homebrew wood lathes present in the CNC video world. The feedrate that most rotary 4th axis machines operate at will be in the 100 to 300 ipm range. 3.5" blank in the lathe video is rotating at a surface feedrate of nearly 22K ipm. On the average 10 times greater. It takes a totally different machine, with few parts in common other than a head and tailstock to accomplish these two vastly different machining operations.
I think your right I have .. thanks for the reply. I have been able to convert the head-stock into 4th / rotary axis today by threading the tail shaft and locktite'ing a M6 bolt into it. First trial looks promising. I have mounted the Nema 32 on a spare slider so I can engage it and disengage it when I need to. I'll update the thread when I have a proof of concept.

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