[Jaden]

Hey guys, this is my first post here although I've been lurking for quite some time.

I designed and built a CNC lathe for pool cue building and I just finished (for the most part) and I thought I'd post a video of it in action on one of the test runs....

So here you go. Tell me what you think.

Ok I guess my first post can't have links so I'll follow it right up with the link to the video.

Jaden

[Jaden]

CNC Lathe test - YouTube


Jaden

[aarggh]

Great job Jaden, very nice and simple design! I enjoy watching these as i'm toying with the idea of cnc'ing one of my lathes, or building a new one (which i'm kinda leaning towards. How do you go with accuracy? Not that it matters that much if your doing cue's mainly I guess anyway?

cheers,
Ian

[Jaden]

Great job Jaden, very nice and simple design! I enjoy watching these as i'm toying with the idea of cnc'ing one of my lathes, or building a new one (which i'm kinda leaning towards. How do you go with accuracy? Not that it matters that much if your doing cue's mainly I guess anyway?

cheers,
Ian

Lining up the joint pin, turning down for joining the wood together, making pool cues probably requires more accuracy than any other wood working.

That is the tricky part. The hardest thing about accuracy with this setup is that I took the tube to a machine shop to have 1.5" 8 tpi threads put on it for the back plates for the chucks.

the threads can't be absolutely perfect, although they come close, within about .005"

What you have to do is put one back plate on the tube and put the tube in a metal lathe and face the back plate so that it is perfectly true in reference to the spindle.

then you put on theother back plate and do the same. That way the back plate faces are true in relation to the spindle bore.

As far as getting everything else accurate there are a couple of ways to do it.

You can us a dial indicator at either ende of the spindle and line up everything with a square to the plane. that's what I did. I mounted everything on the hardwood work bench and lined up everything relative to the square of of the table. Then I put some wood stock in the chuck and spin it sending the router down it and measure with calipers the front and back of the stock.

I slightly loosen up the mounting bolts on the pillow block bearings and tap it in the right direction until the calipers show that the stock is being taken down to the same depth at the front and back of the stock..

It ends up being pretty damn accurate. I'm currently within about .001"

Jaden

[aarggh]

Sounds like quite a highly accurate and repeatable procedure you have down pat Jaden! I'd love to see some pics of the progress and end results. What timbers do you use, and do you do any form of striping or inlays for the cue's?

cheers,
Ian

[Jaden]

Sounds like quite a highly accurate and repeatable procedure you have down pat Jaden! I'd love to see some pics of the progress and end results. What timbers do you use, and do you do any form of striping or inlays for the cue's?

cheers,
Ian

I currently do points with veneers and simple inlays, mostly abalone and MOP dots. I also do ring work with indexed grooves and other exotic hardwoods or veneers for the ring work.

The points are done by using a 90 degree v-groove and cutting in at an angle and then gluing veneers onto a square piece that you glue at an angle into the cut v-groove, then when you turn it round, you end up with points that have veneers on either side of the triangular point.

Here's some pics of one of the plain jane cues I've made without points or veneers but with some brass and inlayed wood ring work.

[slowlearner]

awesome!

[CNC Padawan]

Jaden,
What was the total cost of your build? Do you have anymore video's of the lathe turning blanks?

thanks,
Padawan

[Bob Adams]

Great workmanship and Idea for the Lathe!!
Cheers
Bob Adams
CNC Programming Software Tools

[drdee1280]

Nice job! Any further work to show?

[Jaden]

Jaden,
What was the total cost of your build? Do you have anymore video's of the lathe turning blanks?

thanks,
Padawan

Sorry for the delayed response, I haven't been on in a while and haven't been making cues for the last year or so. Total cost of the build was about $1000-1100.

Have no more videos right now. I'll be getting a grizzly 4003G when my tax returns come in and I'll be using this lathe for turning tapers and the grizzly for the precision work. I'll also be fixing the errors (had a problem with the spindle) that came about with my rear chuck with that lathe also.

I'm also going to be doing a 4 axis router project for doing more intricate inlay work, and I'll create a new thread for that once I start.

Jaden

[TTalma]

Whats the finish like of the lathe is it smooth or do you need to do alot of sanding? My experience has been alot of fuzz when following your method.

[tanus75]

Hello, I'd like one as well, I live in Italy and is not found, you build one for me?