Hi, I'm relatively new to the CNC world but am attempting to work through that...

My first project is the retrofit of an old lathe, with the help of my brother.

My brother is a fitter and machinist so most of the work was done either by him or under his instructions.

As he put it, I'm a computer geek with delusions of adequacy when it comes to machining.

I bought the old lathe mill setup for very little because the bed and screws were stuffed.

Bought some used linear rails and ball screws and then went to my brother for help.

The spindle is either able to index or spin. It has an 8000ppr encoder with an index pulse but as yet, I haven't figure out how to program it properly.


















I've done most of the wiring and it runs, just have to fit the main spindle motor and figure out how to "program" the limit switches and encoder.



This is the router I purchased recently but it came with a generic LPT  controller which I will be changing out for a USB version and again, Gecko stepper drivers.















My final project is to fix this old Zenford Zeigler. The ANCA2000 controller is stuffed but the rest of the machine/servos/linear rails are in very good condition.

It has a 24 tool  ATC. I have bought some RUTEX DC servo controller along with the 8000ppr encoders, to "re-brain" it..



Just a little bit of work ahead.


Cheers.

Can you attach your images instead of linking to them as they dont seem to load or atleast not for me, I get a wee bit at the top of each then it seens to stall.
Hood

Sorry, I'm on holidays at the moment...

Will fix it up next week.

Thanks for the heads up..


Cheers.

Looks like the server is very hit or miss.
I managed to see the pics (and saved the lathe ones for my reference!).

What linear guides are those you're using the lathe?
I'm considering converting an almost identical lathe in a similar way, and was looking at using more common Hiwin rails, however due to their height it means the carriage wouldn't then fit under the chuck. I doubt that would be an issue though, as I can't see me doing anything 6" diameter where I'd need to have the carriage under the workpeice.
I was also thinking about mounting the z-axis screw inbetween the rails.

The server was off while I was away, sorry.
Made a few changes to the server settings, let me know how it goes.

As for the rails, they are THK

I've also made a wire bender attachment for the lathe. It has a 100:1 Harmonic reduction drive and I'm using a 400-step Stepper motor

Calibrating it and doing the post processing is going to be a lot of fun..




Cheers.

Can you attach your images instead of linking to them as they dont seem to load or atleast not for me, I get a wee bit at the top of each then it seens to stall.
Hood

Yes. The same is here.

Dan

They are loading here but very slow.

Brett

Same here. Unfortunately, far too slow for me to wait for them.

Can I edit my original posts to attach the pictures instead of linking?

Cheers.

I don't think so.  Just make a new post with the pics and I'll edit your original.

Brett