DV-59 Hardinge Lathe going CNC

I started under another thread. A member gave a good suggestion to start a new thread, so here is the first posting.

Hi!
I am new to this forum.
A few details first:
Location: Montreal, Canada
Objective: To learn and have the basic insight of CNC
Project: To convert a Hardinge DV 59 manual lathe to CNC lathe
Material to machine: Stainless Steel 316
Size of Components: About 75% of the items will be 1” dia or less with a max. length of 2” and the remaining 25% can go up to 2.5” dia and 4” in length.

I propose to complete this project in two phases

Phase I
I will keep the head and spindle of the DV 59 lathe as it is, driven by 1 HP induction motor.
The bed of this lathe is having a longitudinal slot in the middle of the bed and chamfers through out the length.
The existing Hardinge cross slide can be moved and fixed on the bed of lathe. Due to the size of this slide, I do not like to modify this slide but intend to proceed as follows:

1. To purchase an imported heavy duty mill & drill table (sold on ebay item # 7578353458) The table has11” longitudinal and 7.5” cross travel
2. Remove both the lead screws and replace with rolled ball screws and two nuts on each screw. The screw size will be ¾” or 5/8” dia depending upon the available space to mount nuts.
3. The guide ways of the cross table slides will be scraped and improved upon as required, to a reasonable condition.
4. Stepper motors will be mounted on both axis of the table, directly coupled to the ball screws if space permits, or else through timing belt and pulleys. The torque of motors will be decided depending on the condition of table.
5. The table is to be mounted on the lathe bed and fixed to the bed so that the cross slide - 7.5” travel of the table is Z axis of the lathe and the longitudinal slide -11” travel is X axis.
6. The above arrangement will give sufficient place on the longitudinal slide of the table to mount three or four tools and possibility of mounting a live tool also.
7. Initially the setup will be tried for drilling, boring, turning and facing operations only, with the spindle running with the existing arrangement of induction motor drive.
8. The spindle axis is at 4.5” height from the top face of the bed whereas cross table height is going to be 5” when fixed on bed. So for initial trials the tools will have to be mounted in special tool holders to match the spindle axis. Alternately depending on the dimensions of the longitudinal table, holes can be drilled and reamed in the side of the table so that the tool mounting arrangement is similar to the Hardinge turret tool mounting system.

Phase II
On successful completion and testing of the above, I will proceed to raise the height of the spindle head by providing spacer on the bed and the spindle will be driven by a servo motor of suitable power. This will enable to cut threads and provide full CNC capability.

Thanks,

RRossey