lathe indexer project--might not really be the right spot to

[stankern]

I wanted to be able to use my old rockwell lathe on the front end of the cnc machine .I found that by the time i bought a head and a tail stock ,then designed some sort of bed i may as well use a lathe i had kicking around.
First off i had to raise the router support then cut the cnc table (replaceable) and mount the rockwell .
I also ran some mock up tests with a wood model lathe .Then a 4th axis was needed and a stepper motor to drive the lathe .First i experimented with a belt drive which was fine then went to chain as the lathe had a threaded 1 in x 8pt left thread outboard shaft fitting the stepper here was tricky.But it works fine it was difficult as i asked a lot of people there opions and asked a lot of people about settings ,but its great. My biggest problem was to know what sort of steppers i had as there was no documentaion with my machine .Well i sorted it out ,now i have wiring diagrams ,parts lists and suppliers.It was a large undertaking and a challenge but its turned out well.Now i feel i know my machine and could tackle more
I'm cutting on the round .
I am looking forward to aspire including programming for a lathe indexer and its in the works so i thought i would post my story ,Vectric have good software for these machines and it shows they have a continuing interest in out interests

belt driven


indexer cut

a wrap

using the chain setup

[glenn]

Hi Stankern,

I don't know how I missed this post- great job on the lathe indexer switchover!
I can see that if you want to switch back to manual lathe, you haven't done any irreversible changes to it. I like that.
May I ask if there is a lot of tension/thrust put on the stepper motor shaft, or how tight was the belt drive and now chain drive?
Thanks, Glenn

[BrianM]

Moved to new rotary section