Wrapped and Sculpt Nouveau

[1stcuts]

Hi Ed, The bowl and the finish are outstanding! Can't wait to try Sculpt Nouveau products.
I too had an "old sitter" in the corner of the shop that I could'nt bring my self to part with
(purchased new in the 70's). I also removed the reeves vari-drive assembly, but had the
room on the shaft for a single belt sheave and a 1/2" wide XL timing pulley. This allowed
me to keep the original motor via the use of a vfd. The timing belt goes to a nema 34 DC
brushed servo motor (1:4) . The reason for the servo motor, is the need to spin freely when
using the stock motor, and visa versa. This also requires a 2 pole switch to disengage the
the servo from the driver (electrically) when in CNC lathe mode. Here are a couple of
Photo's of the way I approached the combination indexer and cnc lathe. This was easy
to build, very rigid, and with the help of Ebay under $600 to build. The whole unit can be
removed or installed in a couple minutes. All my dxf drawings and wrapping are done in
Aspire, then to Lazy Turn for tool paths. The windsor leg takes 4min 35 sec. + 1min. with
150 grit by hand. The 30" indexed balluster takes 2hrs 45 min.

Bill

[spinningwood]

Hi Bill - Thanks for posting the pictures. Looks like a nice setup. Appears you went with rack and pinion? Are those hiwin linear bearings you are using?

Your first picture looks a little like a vega duplicator on steroids. Around 5 minutes for the windsor leg! Wow! I'm fast with a gouge on the lathe, but I could never come close to that time by hand. Since my new setup (the DOL) would have to 3D carve the leg it would take her a lot longer. I would probably be able to beat my DOL doing it by hand on my lathe.

Although, thinking about it, my rotary axis will spin at 50 rpm with pretty good torque. If I was going to do a bunch of those windsor legs I could probably manually adjust the Gcode to run the job more like a lathe. I wonder if that would speed it up? Oh well, I don't do much spindle work and I rarely do more than one of anything. Interesting to think about though. Maybe some day I'll replace the stair railings in my house.....Probably better to build something like yours to attach to my big lathe if it ever comes to that.

I spent a couple weeks during my design phase trying to decide whether to have the z vertical or horizontal. I didn't want to give up any swing or distance between centers and coudn't figure out how to attach to the lathe horizontally without having the router end of the Z hanging out there 8" to 10" unsupported. I was concerned about deflection and vibration. So I went vertical. Your design would work well on my big lathe (extended bed and bigger swing). Might have to reconsider my plans for my version 2 of my DOL.

Ed

[1stcuts]

Hi Ed, My pleasure. Exactly right... the linear rails and cars are Hiwin from Automation surplus (about $110.
for two 40" rails +2 cars) the pre-drilled rack&pinion from Mcmaster Carr ($65.). The 1.5X1.5 X.087wall thickness
box tubing allows the use of self drilling/tapping #8 fasteners for both the linear rails and rack installation. The tubing
rails are 8" apart joined with (2) 3X8X .25 flat stock , with an elongated 1/2" hole in the center for the pinch blocks
(same as the tail stock tightning system). This allows for quick parallel registration when removing & re-installing.

The nicest thing I found about the CNC lathe/ Indexer combination is the ability to rough your 3D blanks a little
over size the entire contour. This means the the tool tip is not over loaded and the fastest cutting speeds can be
maintained. Not to mention one pass. Here's a shot of the unit off the lathe.

Bill

[bgriggs]

John Kleinbauer made plans for a simpler device several years ago called the Wood Turtle. Plans are still available.
http://crankorgan.com/woodturtle.htm

Bill

http://crankorgan.com/woodturtle.jpg

[Boort]

Ed,

Congrats on making the cover of American WoodWorker! (#157 Dec/Jan 2012) Well done!

BoorT

[spinningwood]

Hi BoorT - Thanks for the heads up. I hadn't seen it yet. Randy Johnson had asked me for a photo a while back and I wasn't sure when he was going to use it. Didn't expect to see it on the cover either. That's a nice surprise.

Ed

[Boort]

Ed,

Bummer, Here is a quick scan showing your Bowl on the cover, front and center.

Regards,
Rob