[mhackney]

I'll start a new thread to document conversion of my Grizzly G0602 lathe to CNC. I actually got the lathe 2-1/2 years ago. Here are a few pics of its arrival and setup (which was a pain given it's weight and being February in New England!).

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Brings back "fond" memories!

The machine has been great as a manual lathe. I had been putting off conversion to CNC for several reasons 1) the expense of lathe CAM software and 2) lack of time. I've decided it's time to bite the bullet on both! On the CAM software front, my main application will be to turn parts for fishing reels. This is mostly "designer" profiling work that is not terribly easy to code by hand. I had a little CNC'd Sherline lathe and did all manual gcode for it. I need to ramp it up a bit. After evaluating at least 7 options for lathe CAM that were in the $1000ish price range I narrowed down to 2: SprutCAM and Rhino/VisualCAM. I also evaluated the 3D milling CAM for both of these. I am finding an increasing need for 3D. Almost all of my work to date has been 2-1/2D and VCarvePro has served extremely well for that. I was just about ready to pull the trigger when a forum member PMd me and suggested I give a look at BobCAD-CAM. I had actually eliminated them due to their list pricing. I downloaded the demo and also got an online demo. After spending a few hours with it (the new V27) I was very impressed with how well it mapped to the way I work and think. As for the price, all I can say is the BobCAD-CAM sales person made me an offer I couldn't refuse for Lathe, 3D plus index 4th axis and Art. I was able to start doing all of my 2-1/2D mill CAM work in BobCAM in a couple of days with a custom post (I tweaked) for Mach3 and my G0704. I'm looking forward to learning and using the lathe and Art modules too.

Now on to the fun topic: conversion. Here are the raw ingredients - everything ordered and came in this week:

1. Billy's G0602 CNC Conversion kit with 3/8" couplers
2. two KL23H2100-50-4B NEMA 23 570oz/in steppers
3. two KL-5056D Digital bipolar drivers
4. 48V 7.3A power supply
5. DynoMotion KFlop motion control
6. Bellows Z axis screw covers

I decided to go non-parallel port control with this machine. The world is going to have to move this direction as aging PCs no longer have parallel ports. I thought I would test the waters with KFlop, it has a great reputation and following and has some nice features like constant speed surface lathe. I'll use Mach3 for the front end and let KFlop handle the machine control. Once I have the basic lathe up and running I'll convert the motor over to VFD with an index to take advantage of CSS and be able to thread. Here is a great tutorial on VFD conversion for a G0602.

I have one small manual job to do on the lathe this week and then I can clean it up and tear it down for the CNC conversion. Billy's kit is very nicely machined and everything is basically pre-assembled. Should be a quick mechanical conversion. The electronics always take longer. I still need to figure out how best to interface the drivers to the KFlop.

Cheers,
Michael

[AVRnj]

Looks good! What is that tool cabinet you are using for a stand? I am looking for a stand for my G0602 which is CNC'd also using Billy's kit.

[mhackney]

I used a Harbor Freight 44" cabinet that I got on sale. It is a really nicely constructed unit actually. Right now I have it on the rollers so I can move the lathe around (to access the back of my G0704). It is a little tall. I am going to position the CNC lathe permanently on the other side of my shop and remove the casters so the the lathe will be about 5" lower. That will be perfect. I can mount the electronics on the cabinet side and I'm considering and all-in-one PC with touch screen mounted on an arm so things will be nice and compact.

Cheers,
Michael

[gcofieldd]

Looking forward to this

[AVRnj]

Thanks Michael.

Is that stand sturdy enough on the casters for the lathe? I actually like the idea of being able to move it around, I have a small shop and portability is a premium.

[mhackney]

Yes it is. The casters at the handle end lock, the other end are fixed. I lock them and have had not problem with movement. I did put a piece of 3/4 plywood on the top with formica surface to sit the path on. I don't even have it bolted down right now! I plan to make a pan for chips and catch mist coolant as part of this conversion.


Cheers,
Michael

[AVRnj]

Yes it is. The casters at the handle end lock, the other end are fixed. I lock them and have had not problem with movement. I did put a piece of 3/4 plywood on the top with formica surface to sit the path on. I don't even have it bolted down right now! I plan to make a pan for chips and catch mist coolant as part of this conversion.


Cheers,
Michael

Awesome! Thanks, I am definitely going to get one of those.

[mhackney]

Well, it turns out the Keling drivers have are not compatible with the KFlop - they requite of their 5us Direction Setup Time requirement. So rather than mess around, I returned the drivers and ordered the KStep. It plugs right into KFlop and provides 4 drivers. Compared to the compatible Gecko drives, it is actually cheaper, more convenient and gives me 2 extra drives to mess around with.

I completed my manual lathe job this weekend so I am starting to tear down the lathe tonight for the conversion.

cheers,
Michael

[mhackney]

Ok, I started the teardown and cleanup. It took something like 45 minutes to clean the swarf, oil, grime off the lathe and stand. I removed the tailstock and dug in using Billy's instructions that he emailed with the kit. Total time to disassemble was less than 30 minutes!

Cleaned up and ready to tear down:

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And that was the basic tear down! While I'm in there, I want to take a look at my gibs and try to figure out the leadscrew tell-tsale problem I've had (the lead screw leaves an obvious spiral on the part under some circumstances).

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This seems to be the culprit, it was not adjusted properly allowing the saddle to lift up and down. I tried to adjust it to no avail. I need to look at the manual to figure out how it is supposed to work.

[mhackney]

Just looked at the manual, that part is called a saddle clamp plate and it is not mentioned anywhere! Just listed in the parts diagram. Anyone know how to adjust it properly?

Edit AH! this is the saddle lock and should be loose when not locking the saddle. It was the other strip in the second to last photo above that was not screwed in all the way either and allowing saddle lift. Now properly tightened, the saddle slides smoothly and does not lift.

[SCzEngrgGroup]

MIchael,

That is used to lock the saddle in a fixed position, usually for facing or parting.

Regards,
Ray L.

[mhackney]

Thanks Ray, yeah, I edited my post above - I figured it out. Makes sense now. I had an Allen wrench epoxied in the screw head for the lock so once I removed the Allen, I lost track of what it was!

[mhackney]

By the way Ray, the KStep I ordered Friday came in yesterday, talk about fast. It mounts easily to the KFlop and should be easy to interface. I'm glad I went this route, it will be a clean electronics cabinet.

[SCzEngrgGroup]

By the way Ray, the KStep I ordered Friday came in yesterday, talk about fast. It mounts easily to the KFlop and should be easy to interface. I'm glad I went this route, it will be a clean electronics cabinet.

Michael,

Cool!. Post a picture!

Regards,
Ray L.

[mhackney]

Got the mechanicals (Billy's kit) mounted tonight. Even with the little extra work I did to cleanup and adjust the cross slide gib it was a 45 minute job start to finish. The only tricky part was removing the original Z screw coupler. I was able to drive the pin out with a 3/16" rod and a small hammer.

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Before I tighten everything I want to install these bellows screw covers on the Z ball screw.

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[fretsman]

Looking great, Michael, following the build, thanks for doing this.

Where did you pickup those bellows?

Thanks,
Dave

[mhackney]

Hi Dave, I got these on eBay

Pretty nice units and a great price.

[mhackney]

Ray, not much to see but here is the KStep docked to the KFlop:



With the mechanical assembly done, I'm putting together the electronics. I'm going to lay it out on a board to get things to work and figure out how to lay out my box.

Cheers,
Michael

[fretsman]

Hi Dave, I got these on eBay

Pretty nice units and a great price.

Nice find, thank you sir-

Dave

[mhackney]

Got this little slotted table from LittleMachineShop. It's 1" thick. Just playing around and maybe use it on the lathe.

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I also took out the gears to the Z screw feed:

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and I printed a couple of Hoss' nifty stepper covers. They are taped on until my 3mm x 30mm screws come in to attach them properly. It was pretty easy removing the long screws and grinding them down as per Hoss' instructions. I wasn't able to get the screws out of the steppers on my G0704 so I haven't been able to install these covers on that machine yet.

Now I'm wiring on mounts for the bellows to protect the Z ballscrew. Ordered some 2" OD 3/8" wall aluminum tubing. The ID of the bellows is right at 2". I plan to cut a slice about 1.25" long, drill 3 holes through spaced 120° so I can screw it to the apron on one side and the lathe on the other. Should work, I'll post photos when done.

I've also been making progress on the electronics. I am configuring my KFlop with the KStep. It is pretty straight forward to do the configuration and upload it. The KFlop-KStep combo is nice and compact and provides all of the I/O I need for home switches, spindle speed control, spindle index, etc. I have a metal cabinet ready to start mounting the electronics. I haven't been able to wire up the steppers yet as I don't have any 18 gauge 4 conductor cable. I thought I had some extra but it was 22 gauge.

cheers,
Michael