Machsupport Forum
General CNC Chat => Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) => Topic started by: Jfong on May 20, 2014, 10:59:40 PM
-
After converting a unimat lathe to cnc for my buddy, I decided that my own 7x12 mini lathe needs to be converted too. I had this short thk kr26 linear stage that I got for about $40 on eBay. To small for anything else but perfect for the lathe cross slide X axis. The carriage Z axis is a 10mm diameter THK ground ballscrew purchased from eBay for $115. Stepper motors are 300oz-in nema 23 that was given to me. Stepper drivers are Gecko210 also purchased used from eBay for cheap. Power supply is a diy 36 volt output from a transformer salvaged from a old broken desk lamp.
Backlash on both axis is minimal due to the high grade THK ground ballscrews. Rapid speed is set at 100ipm. I had tested it at 200ipm but thought that was ridiculously fast for such a small lathe.
Mach3 Turn running on a old P4 desktop using parallel port step/direction output.
In the video roughing pass is at 5ipm and the finished pass is 1ipm.
http://youtu.be/zuGZxvZJS_w
First time threading
http://youtu.be/2HpvWgHT8To
(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/21/yja2y8a8.jpg)
(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/21/rypegebu.jpg)
-
Looks great & works great! CNC lathes are such fun. ;D
Is that the stock spindle drive motor? Speed control looks to be very stable.
-
Thanks!
Ya it's the original stock motor and speed control. I think having the larger 5" chuck helps to smooth it out, flywheel effect.
The hardest part now is the CAM software. I haven't found any at a reasonable price yet so I am using the built in MACH wizards.
-
I made some tool holders for some TCMT inserts I got for cheap on eBay. They cut aluminum better than anything I've used before.
(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/22/qe3u8ure.jpg)
-
The hardest part now is the CAM software. I haven't found any at a reasonable price yet so I am using the built in MACH wizards.
I got very lucky and bought Dolphin Lathe v10 for a great price from Hood here on the forum. It has a few quirks but is a very powerful program. Problem is that I use it so rarely I've never become proficient & struggle every time a need arises. Most of my stuff is very simple & the Wizards work great.
Those are some great looking tool holders!
-
I downloaded deskproto eval but I can't seem to get my head around lathe operations. It's not as simple as 3axis milling like cambam. I'll keep using the wizards for now.
I made a bunch of those dovetail holders a few years ago. The one on the right is original that came with the tool post. I figured it would be quicker to make some insert holders instead of ordering a set from LMS.
-
I did a simple turning last night. Small handle to replace a broken plastic one. Took about 15 minutes to do. Could never have done this manually or rather this nice looking while turning the lathe handles by hand. (http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/24/y5ezena5.jpg)
-
Looks great! What did you use for CAM?
-
I downloaded the cambam eval and it has a beta lathe turning add on. For this simple part, it seems to work fine. I haven't found any other inexpensive CAM program that can do lathe work yet.
-
Made a handle so I can put it on the rear of the stepper motor. Was cutting fine but near the end the X axis didn't retract enough and the tool bit hit the part. Made from drill rod steel. Have to reprogram and rerun the job.
(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/25/e7azazyq.jpg)
-
Jfong,
CNC lathes are fun and glad you got it up and running.
You may want to have a look at LazyTurn for doing profiles on the lathe.
Like you I have made a lot of holders for the small quick change. One to add to your to do list is a drill chuck holder
and attached shows one I use a lot. A few comments about it:
- Drill / ream the arbor hole first and then square up the stock based on the arbor and machine the rest as required.
- In the picture is a small Albrecht chuck ( 0 - 1/8" ) shown for comparison to a keyed chuck ( which happens to repeatably hold drills accurately )
so the distance to the tool post is minimized.
- The tool post will need to be oriented based on drill holder. I say this because you set the drill so it's parrell to the lathe center and then use
the master tool to touch off. So the threading tool holder wants to be perpendicular to the lathe center. Just something to think about when your
making other holders. That allows for tool changes in the program.
Have fun,
RICH
-
Just a tip.....
Drill and ream a deep hole ( say 1" with the tail stock ) into a finished piece of stock, with spindle off use a ground rod in the drill
and the tool holder somewhat loose, insert / adjust the drill holder and quick change. Allows for quick and dirty alignment
of the drill. Refine or use other methods to suite yourself......
RICH
-
Good tips Rich.;D
Another option for holding drills & reamers is a straight-shanked ER16 collet chuck. I use a 5/8" shanked chuck which conveniently fits my AXA boring bar holder perfectly. The ER16 stuff from CTC in Hong Kong is good quality & good value. Takes 9-12 days to get to the USA but worth the wait.
-
Great ideas Rich! I like the drill holder. Correct me if wrong but I thought lazycam/lazy turn was no longer being developed. Hate to drop any money on a program that will no longer be updated.
-
Jfong,
Do not use LazyCam for the lathe, rather use Lazyturn. Lazyturn is free,has a manual, was a replacement for the LC lathe module.
It's not to be compared to the higher up programs like Bob Cad, Dolphin,etc but for profiles, it is quick and easy to use ie; a handle.
NFS has a lathe program which is economical in cost and uses wizards.
RICH
-
I downloaded lazy turn and it seems to work good but I like cambam interface a bit better. Both are much better than trying to write gcode manually.
-
Made this floating drawing pen holder out of UHMW plastic and steel drill rod. I used the lathe to turn down 1/2" rod to 3/8" to fit a ER collet. A spring is used to hold the pen down for uneven surfaces. I also made a slightly larger UMHW holder for bigger sized markers. Inspiration was from reading a Hackaday.com post about a neat DIY Spirograph machine. Drawing done on my gantry router I made last year.
(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/06/04/are5yzy3.jpg)
http://youtu.be/5jd_TfeR4Fw