Using the the taig mill to turn parts...

[stjohn4]

Hi,
I apologise if this question has been asked and answered before, I had a look but could not see it.
I would like to use my taig cnc mill with mach3 to turn a part. The turning tool would be mounted on the table and the part on the z-axis in the spindle collet. What would be the best way to set this up in mach3?

many thanks,
St.John

[RICH]

Use the code generated for a lathe, alter the code such that all  X= X or X=Y  ( The x or  y of the mill are acting like the x on the lathe)
the Z stays the same since you are moving the piece  up and down instead of a tool  horizontaly back and forth. Make sure you get the signs correct for the axes and if your doing arc's you would may want to look at G18. By all means make sure you have the cutter set correctly. Frankly the results may leave something to be desired. I probably missed something above .......
RICH

[neptune]

Before I had a cnc lathe I did a lot of turning on a milling machine. Initially I had a simple set up with a chuck mounted onto a motor shaft with the motor mounted onto the table of the mill. The tool was held in the mill spindle with the spindle locked. It wasn't a very good arrangement but it did turn out a few parts with care.

Later I built a lathe type headstock which was mounted on to the table of the mill. I then had a tool holder clamped to the column with gang tooling mounted onto that. This was very successful and I made several thousand parts using that method. I also had limit switches mounted on brackets at various locations with strikers fixed to the table. The limit switches were configurable and could be set to change the speed or direction of the motor or to apply a brake to the motor so that cross drilling could be carried out using the mill spindle in the same setting.

The main limitation was rigidity as the the tool overhang was quite long, but after experimenting with various arrangements a reasonable comromise was achieved.

The pictures show the general arrangement, they are looking a bit worse for wear now but they did a good job when I needed them

Neptune

[stjohn4]

Thanks guys, that give me enough to get started. I will have a play with it and see where I get!

cheers,
St.john

[Bob La Londe]

Hi,
I apologise if this question has been asked and answered before, I had a look but could not see it.
I would like to use my taig cnc mill with mach3 to turn a part. The turning tool would be mounted on the table and the part on the z-axis in the spindle collet. What would be the best way to set this up in mach3?

many thanks,
St.John

Using a Taig Mill like a lathe.  There is a video on Youtube where a guy is making bushings that way. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbfXXeiSHsw

I think he is using a specialty 1/2" mill holder from A2Z CNC to hold 1/2" brass rod stock to make adaptor bushings. 

[stjohn4]

Hi Bob,
cool, yes. Checked that out.

many thanks,
St.john