hi guys

OK , i see one familiar name in this forum and his a Aussie like me.

but the true run down is im a motor mechanic and have some free time on my hands

I love drag racing and have a few fast cars  and i want to go faster , presently building a 1200Bhp plus turbo 6 cylinder 4 litre falcon E series motor. will find out  if i make the horse power once i get it on the heenan and froude  engine  dyno i run at work.

I'm in the process of contemplating converting this old copy lathe to a CNC_lathe . I know it will not be good and fast as some of the CNC_machines out there in the market place like the Okuna's , Mazak' , Puma's , Hitachi Seiki's , Mori Seiki's  and Pinnacle's and the list is endless.

But if i had the cash i wouldn't hesitate to buy a MIlling center and a lathe in cnc setup. Maybe  in a few years time

It's more a hobby at this stage for me , i want to be able to make my own parts at a slow pace .

i see a great deal of knowledgeable people in here and cnczone.com and many other good websites.

so here it goes i have this lathe and  have attached several pictures of it  , it is a very robust unit so rigidity is not a issue.

Will have to make all the brackets and adapter to couple the stepper motors to the lathe. This is not a issue as i have other lathes and mills at  work. But the problem is im new to electronics and CNC is not my strong point. Some sort of guidance would be appreciated as to the approach i take on  doing this conversion .

Yes some may say its a big machine  but i thought why do a bench top lathe when i can start on the big lathe and be done with it .

Its just a larger version of the small bench top unit and i want to be able to turn some bigger parts than what the limits of the bench top lathe will permit.

I plan to convert a pacific U2 universal milling machine also to a 4-axis  cnc setup also which is sitting in a section of my workshop probably tackle them both at the same time

I'm one that does things BIG , now the stepper motors i had planned to use are http://www.kelinginc.net/SMotorstock.html ( NEMA 34 HIGH TORQUE STEPPER MOTOR 1812 oz-in, ½” Single shaft with flat, 180
KL34H160-62-8B ½” Dual shaft with flat: Price: $189 (  in stock)

this crowd has drivers and power supply also am waiting on a email back from them as we speak.

these stepper motors are probably over kill for the lathe and mill setup but for the price there selling them i figure just spend a little more and get some decent horse power  steppers.

again im open to criticism and suggestions here guys , what are your thoughts i need all the help i can get  am a fast learner , did bachelor of applied science , all math, science and computer studies  at university back 20 years ago and kick my self in the head i didn't  finish schooling . Did FORTRAN77 , basic , Pascal  program writing back in 1984 now i am showing my age


1. stepper motors or servos ? size ? brands ?
2. stepper motor controllers ? servo controllers ?
3. power supply ?
4. spindle speed controller ?
5. Ball screws and nuts/flanges ? size and specifications ? what brands ?
6. what software ? sorry im not being biased here , i am looking into " Mach " ?

any help will be great here guys

and i'm extremely sorry if some of you think i shouldn't have posted this thread in this section , looked all over and thought this would be the best section for this post

there is no chronological order that i have written this post so correct me

cheers



 

Personally I think i would consider using servos with the rutex drives.  I am building another Gantry type CNC mill using the rutex drives and some 1/2 hp servos and am very impressed so far.  I like how smooth the servos run and the fact that the feedback from the encoders goes to the drive instead of mach 3 and i am guessing steppers work the same way on some drives.  my 2 stepper machines don't have feedback and use delrin ballnuts on leadscrews and it's ok but i don't think that would be the way to go for cutting steel. Mach 3 is AWESOME and very configurable and reliable.  Transformer, bridge diode, and a couple of caps and you'll have a power supply.  if i can find my receipt i will get you the company name where i purchased the transformer.  I purchased my ball screws and ball nuts from mcmastercarr.com  (thompson) there may be somthing cheaper out there.  I am using 1" dia screws with 1/2 lead for my newest gantry mill so i could keep the rapid speed high as the x-axis has 108" of travel.  Looks like you are going to have fun converting those. 

hi

thanks for that reply mrmatt68,  any help is greatly appreciated and once again thank you

We in Melbourne Australia have a newspaper called the " Melbourne trading post " , this newspaper has  categories of different things for sale from cars to house hold goods to tools and machinery. Yes they are listed on the net and i was reading it and come across some guy selling ball screws.

 I telephone him and with a few  minutes i was on the road to his place.

He lives about a 1 hour drive from me on the freeway so i zoooooooooooooooommmm down to Geelong, to my surprises 3 of the 4 ball screws were NEW never been used or taken out of there wrappers.

The ball screws are German made by Steinmeyer and the purchase order papers come with the ball screws .

The ball screws are 40mm units , this one i have taken pictures of is 600mm long. the others are roughly 2000mm long . Does anyone read German all the documentation is in German ?

One of the longer  ball screws and nut/flange was seized due to the fact there was a lot of grit on the  shaft and i imagine inside the  nut also.
again this size ball screw and nut is over kill for my lathe but they cost me for all four $150 so i couldn't not complain nor resist buying them.
Now that i'm on this forum , not be harsh on me when i ask this question ,  i'm new to CNC machinery and computer drawing software and  software that controls the CNC machinery .

I seen in one of the threads a guy designed a tool change for a lathe has anyone got any  other ideas of there own , would love to hear if you do and any pictures or information on a CNC_tool changer for a Center lathe.



question-1 : is : How good is Mach for controlling a 2-axis CNC_lathe ?

question-2 : Is there a demo version of the software on here that i can have a play with ?

cheers

Well all I can say is you are one lucky ^&*%$^&*. Wish I could find deals like that
 As for Mach, I use it on my retrofit mill and its superb, not tried it with a lathe yet as I still have to convert my old Colchester Student but I have no doubts that it will run a lathe as well as it does the mill.
 You can download a fully functioning trial version of Mach, it has some limitations such as 1000 lines code max but at $160 US for the full version it wont break the bank
 As well as this great support forum there is  also a Yahoo group with no end of help and support.
 You will find the Mach download page here
http://www.artofcnc.ca/DownLoads.htm

Oh as for the German translation, you could try babelfish, it might not be that great with technical terms but it should give you an idea.
http://babelfish.altavista.com/

Hood

Nice screws and wow what a bargin.  I would imagine the mach 3 lathe will run as well as the mill.

hi

thanks hood for that information

OK mach3 is on the agenda , have  been corresponding behind the scenes to place a order for the hamburger with the lot
lets see how i go

any other  positive or negative feedback is welcome guys

don't be shy

cheers