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
lathe indexer project--might not really be the right spot to
- glenn
- Vectric Wizard
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Re: lathe indexer project--might not really be the right spot to
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
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
- Vectric Staff
- Posts: 1964
- Joined: Mon May 16, 2005 10:15 am
- Model of CNC Machine: A few ...
- Location: Alcester U.K
- Contact:
Re: lathe indexer project--might not really be the right spot to
Moved to new rotary section