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Author Topic: Manual to cnc lathe retrofit? feaseable?  (Read 27497 times)

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Offline Hood

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Re: Manual to cnc lathe retrofit? feaseable?
« Reply #20 on: May 18, 2008, 05:24:45 PM »
Well that pic makes it look way smaller than the Computurn but I have been looking on the net as well and it seems of similar size. Actually it swings a bit more than mine, the computurn is 520mm. The Computurn is basically a TUR50  which Churchill took the basic bed and headstock and added the CNC parts. The Computurn is about 3 tonne, from what I have found so far yours weighs in around 2 tonne. The saddle on mine though will be adding a lot to the weight of my lathe.
 Now that I know the size then I can safely say no way you want steppers and you will definitely need ballscrews, best option for you in my opinion is to keep that nice machine as a manual and get a ready made CNC to convert if need be, that is presuming you have the room.

Hood

Offline jimpinder

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Re: Manual to cnc lathe retrofit? feaseable?
« Reply #21 on: May 19, 2008, 03:26:07 AM »
Having seen pictures - yes - servo motors are the way to go.

I must admit, I agree with Hood when I said a lot of my CNC friends have disposed of machines for a lot less than 15K.
If I had the space and that kind of money, I think a purpose built CNC machine would be the way to go.
The thing is, they were designed from the bottom up as a CNC machine. The motor etc will be all sized up, the power supply fitted, so it must save a lot of work. And a toolchanger !!!  ::)
Not me driving the engine - I'm better looking.
Re: Manual to cnc lathe retrofit? feaseable?
« Reply #22 on: May 19, 2008, 04:10:32 AM »
Thanks for your help guys much appriciated.
I know it would be easier and cheaper to buy a used cnc lathe, but i like the fact that the caz has a short headstock, like i said in my first post, i,ll want to get to the rear of the spindle to adjust a spider while clocking a barrel in, also the caz has a hydraulic varispeed, with a high and a low gear. The more i look into retrofitting this the easier it looks to do. As for a toolchanger, i like what hood has on his, and will want something similar, i think 'duplimatic' make one, aswell as others ive seen.
Re: Manual to cnc lathe retrofit? feaseable?
« Reply #23 on: May 19, 2008, 04:18:36 AM »
Go for it, much more fun doing it yourself  ::)

Phil_H
The Good Thing About Mach3, Is It's very Configurable

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Offline Hood

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Re: Manual to cnc lathe retrofit? feaseable?
« Reply #24 on: May 19, 2008, 04:28:36 AM »
How accurate is the Caz at the moment?
 For a Lathe that size you are going to need big ballscrews so they are not going to come cheap, as an example the Z on my Computurn is 40mm Dia. Jim mentioned earlier about using the standard leadscrew and using comp however on a lathe this size you are going to need all the help you can get and leadscrews would just mean you have to go quite a lot bigger on the motors so its a false economy in my opinion.
 Panaceabeachbum has a duplomatic on his lathe and it seems quite a nice turret although maybe it would be better with a servo on it rather than the normal motor.
Hood
Re: Manual to cnc lathe retrofit? feaseable?
« Reply #25 on: May 19, 2008, 04:40:33 AM »
Because of my limited time when i was home last i did not get a chance to power it up, however the guy i purchased it off said it will hold 1 thou over 8 inches.
Re: Manual to cnc lathe retrofit? feaseable?
« Reply #26 on: May 19, 2008, 04:53:10 AM »
http://www.automotion.co.uk/pdf/L1396-roller-pinion-system.pdf
Just to throw something out there, has anybody tried the above system instead of ballscrews?

Kev

Offline Hood

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Re: Manual to cnc lathe retrofit? feaseable?
« Reply #27 on: May 19, 2008, 05:22:47 AM »
1 thou over 8inch is not that bad for an old lathe, dont think I would bother getting it reground unless you are needing tighter tolerences. The Computurn is dead nuts as far as I can measure but then again its probably got less than 100 hours on it in total.
 I was looking at a similar rack a while back but dont know how good it is in reality, the stuff I was looking at was supposed to be as accurate as a ground ballscrew and  with similar amounts of backlash, ie minimal. I dont know how much it was and I dont have the link here but I should have it at home, will look and post it if I do.
Hood
Re: Manual to cnc lathe retrofit? feaseable?
« Reply #28 on: May 19, 2008, 06:09:26 AM »

Offline Hood

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Re: Manual to cnc lathe retrofit? feaseable?
« Reply #29 on: May 19, 2008, 06:35:52 AM »
Yes thats the stuff I was meaning, looks good but dont know the cost and whether it is as good as it seems.
Hood