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Author Topic: Lathe Tool Alignment Project  (Read 2281 times)

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Lathe Tool Alignment Project
« on: November 23, 2022, 10:37:00 PM »
I machine little stuff.  A #000 center drill won't tolerate a lot of misalignment.  A .020" carbide drill, set for a .200" depth is a bit more forgiving, but not by much.

So, when I read about a commercial product that promised easy alignment of tools, I was very interested.  The system is designed for CNC swiss automatics but the principle is the same for any lathe. 

At it's heart, the inventor mounted a camera/microscope in the bushing of the machine and came up with software that looks at a simple target, plots lots of points on the target as the spindle is rotated and determines the exact center of the spindle.  After that, it's a relatively simple matter to align the rest of the tools to that center.

The system looked to be beyond my budget (I didn't ask), so I decided to see if it couldn't be done on the cheap.

So.

I bought one of these: https://www.ebay.com/itm/313868557442

It has a 8mm diameter so I figured it would be a simple matter to mount it in my 5C spindle.  It's never that easy.  The casing isn't electrically isolated so the camera kept cutting out whenever it was grounded to the machine.

So.

I made a PVC casing for the camera and tried again.

It worked.