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Author Topic: AL54b (lathe) project from New Zealand  (Read 163028 times)

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Re: AL54b (lathe) project from New Zealand
« Reply #10 on: November 07, 2010, 06:12:46 AM »
I have I hope come up with a suitable solution for the chip bin:



Now guys a couple of things yes the bin is warped from the heat of welding - its a bin so it don't matter. Yes i would have preferred that it wasn't warped but i have never worked with sheet metal before and i didn't know that it would warp that easy.
I have used slide rails to attach it to the underside of the coolant try so it slides in and out beautifully and comes to a stop right under the coolant try. The rails have catches on the sides so that you can take the bin right out of the machine to empty it, ill bolt on a rear handle to assist with this as well.

Re; coolant extraction, i have simply put a drain hole in the corner and tig'd some mesh which holds a piece of  scotch bright in there the idea being that this will separate the bulk of the chips and other solids from the coolant, the coolant tank will also have a finer screen to get out any of the fines that make it through.

just above the 3 jaw you can see the edge of the coolant tank, i decided to keep the tank i had but extended it to firstly increase the amount of fluid available (i plan on pouring the stuff on) and second i ant never going back there for anything so i may as well use the space up with something.

Colour choice (NZ spelling), i decided to go with an off white inspired by JHChoppers build http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,13365.0.html as well as Dave Decaussins little lathe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UubzocrQ1ew&feature=player_embedded#! found his link through www.cnccookbook.com - your the man Bob!
Obviously its still early days but i absolutely love the colour, im thinking some dark blue pin stripes and logos will really set the thing off.

You may also notice I have the bottom and an internal wall (you can't see it) in the cabinet as well, I'm thinking a set of 4 or 5 draws on the size for the chucks and tooling.
I had the main power switch on my mill towards the back and boy is it a pain to have to reach back there to shut things off this time i got things up close and smack bang in the center if the thing its much better.

I have only used the lathe a few times but I feel like it should have a lot more toque than it does for such a big motor. My tooling is only the standard crappy 12mm stuff (1/2" for the metric impaired) but I am only able to take .5mm cuts before i feel like i will stall the machine i want to be taking 5mm not .5mm passes. 

Offline Hood

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Re: AL54b (lathe) project from New Zealand
« Reply #11 on: November 07, 2010, 09:12:25 AM »
Looking great and also good to see another lathe user.

Hood
Re: AL54b (lathe) project from New Zealand
« Reply #12 on: November 07, 2010, 02:26:54 PM »
Thanks hood.

Here is another view from the front, you can see that i have 3 pulley sizes to choose from. That is the new mill stand on the side there, figured i may as well do two of everything to save me a bit of money.



This is the problem with a working machine the project slows down so that you can use it to finnish other projects, "nice pile o crap you got there" .
Note the quick change 200l post on the ply, i am already sick of the dinky litlle 12mm tooling, although im thinking i might have got a little carried away with the new BIGGER tool post.



Re: AL54b (lathe) project from New Zealand
« Reply #13 on: November 07, 2010, 03:43:02 PM »
Looks great !  (I like the color too)

JH
Re: AL54b (lathe) project from New Zealand
« Reply #14 on: November 07, 2010, 04:55:31 PM »
Thanks JH, your machine is awesome, I cant wait to get one!

So after much consideration I have decided to use steppers, The mill I retro'd uses servos they are fast powerful but expensive, I have never used steppers before and i am keen to have a play, I also have a considerable size restriction on my X axis so the smaller footprint of the steppers should help with this. I guess no self respecting lathe tinkerer could sleep soundly at night with out a tool turret so again step motors due to size would be used, I figure i may as well make em all step motors.

I'm a huge fan of the G100 Grex by Gecko it was a pretty major flop due to as I understand it how hard it is to make the initial connection (its not that hard to be honest), anyways I already own two of them and they run great i came really close to ordering a third for this project but after many sleepless nights finally settled on a C32 (www.cnc4pc.com) and smooth stepper (www.warp9td.com) combo. I hate the idea of using anything with a parallel port as in my professional opinion it should be punishable with death to have manufactured a computer with a parallel port in the last 10 years.
The reason i settled on this combo came down to support, both boards carry excellent support both from the manufacturers as well as users that an people are always finding new ways to make them sing, the Grex as good as it is is just not being used by anyone who's writing online about it.
G201
Drivers: I own a bunch of G320's they work great, the G251's are cheap and if they are half as good as the G201's are then its a no brainer. I have ordered 5 of them again more spare parts for other projects.

Offline Hood

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Re: AL54b (lathe) project from New Zealand
« Reply #15 on: November 07, 2010, 05:29:08 PM »
Steppers should work fine on a small lathe like that. AC Servos also have a small size for their power but afraid they are, although coming down in price, still expensive.

Hood
Re: AL54b (lathe) project from New Zealand
« Reply #16 on: November 08, 2010, 03:34:21 AM »
One really good thing about the AL54b is that it has Tee slots in the slide, this is for the optional milling vice, tool goes in the spindle vice gives you an Y axis and away you go. I've quickly grown tires of using the cruddy 12mm tooling inspite of only having used the lathe 3 or 4 times so i decided to build an adapter plate for my giant sized 20mm quick change tool post.



The black block comes with the tool post it has only one hole in the center for the main shaft.
Another shot:




I figured that now was as good a time as any to begin the process of replacing the lead screw with a ball screw. The one in the machine is 12mm the one I have is 16mm as well as the nut being id say twice the size, its going to take a bit of work but I think if i can mill a little out of the slide as well as grind the nut i should be able to fit it in there.

« Last Edit: November 08, 2010, 03:41:11 AM by jrslick22 »
Re: AL54b (lathe) project from New Zealand
« Reply #17 on: November 08, 2010, 04:08:22 AM »
I'm far from a machinist but i have more enthusiasm than I know what to do with so had a go at milling a pocket for the nut ad well as the socket I'm going to have to fit the the end of the ball screw. I wouldn't know where to begin to get bobcad to produce the code for the 3D pocket so it just sort of made it up as a went, it is the approximate size of the nut, the only measurement that i made sure was spot in was the width of the nut flange and boy is it tight on the nut. My plan is to hammer the nut in there then some how bot it so that it cant rotate, with no movement from side to side and no way to rotate i should have a zero backlash X axis - well heres hoping!
My fist time using a ball nosed cutter and i quite enjoyed it, to be honest the only reason it was easy was due to my new Gwizard subscription, set the feed rate and the spindle speed and away you go.

The hole in the middle is the original nut mount.



So after cutting as deep as i dare and taking some more measurements I am going to have to grind this nut something silly. Sorry the  pic is bad it was moving in the machine.
You'll notice the M6 cap screw in the side this is a grease nipple hole, I figured that if im going to grind the flange off I had better give myself as much chance of seating it as i can by retaining as many of the bolt holes as i can by grinding it on an angle i was able to retain 4 of the six holes instead of keeping 2. I'm starting to also think that i may be able to utilize this grease hole as well by drilling through the slide and attaching some sort of screw to this hole to assist with preventing rotation. The reason i say some sort of screw is that I had to mill so much out of the slide to give the nut clearance that i only have about 1.5mm between the peak of the nut and the top of the slide, the goal is not to clamp it using this screw but to prevent rotation of the nut so maybe all use a grub screw, even better would be a flat grease nipple - ill come up with something.

Re: AL54b (lathe) project from New Zealand
« Reply #18 on: November 08, 2010, 06:02:57 PM »
I got sick and tired of tripping over everything  and had a clean up, as part of my clean up I cleared a space and made a home for my lathe.
I have added the right hand side panel and the back, its starting to look like a nice machine now.



You can see that I have also bolted up the new tool post, in previous post I mentioned that it was under powered I have found the reason for this. My inverter only puts out 200 odd volts instead of the standard 415v, thinking I had brought the wrong inverter i madly ran of to a local industrial motor shop and asked them about it, they explained the difference between the star and delta configuration, 20min later i was cutting 2mm passes and grinning from ear to ear.

Offline budman68

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Re: AL54b (lathe) project from New Zealand
« Reply #19 on: November 08, 2010, 06:06:53 PM »
Absolutely love this thread, especially the chip/coolant tray..... thanks so mjuch for sharing-  8)

Dave
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