[dmauch]

I have had a few of muy customers ask me to de4sign and build for them a CNC wood lathe. At the time I was not very interested. Recently, I had two more requests so I am reconsidering designing and build an add on retrofit to one of the inexpensive wood lathes ($160).
The cnc retrorfit portion would be a bolt on except for the spindle.
Here are the features I have though about so far.
Length of machine from ebay 40"
Spindle would have both the stock motor and a stepper motor that can be attached via a timing belt for indexing and to rotate the stock.
The Z axis( long axis on a lathe) would be rack and pinion driven by stepper motor. The X axis ( cross slide) would be driven by a stepper and an acme leadscrew.
The C axis is a large stepper motor connected to the spindle for indexing or used as a constant turing device
The cross slide would primarily be set up to use a trim router for cutting but other tools could be mounted also.

Any other features that would be must have?
Comments

Dan Mauch
Camtronics, inc. -- CNC with Dan Mauch
[email protected]

[jolafson]

I have had a few of muy customers ask me to de4sign and build for them a CNC wood lathe. At the time I was not very interested. Recently, I had two more requests so I am reconsidering designing and build an add on retrofit to one of the inexpensive wood lathes ($160).
The cnc retrorfit portion would be a bolt on except for the spindle.
Here are the features I have though about so far.
Length of machine from ebay 40"
Spindle would have both the stock motor and a stepper motor that can be attached via a timing belt for indexing and to rotate the stock.
The Z axis( long axis on a lathe) would be rack and pinion driven by stepper motor. The X axis ( cross slide) would be driven by a stepper and an acme leadscrew.
The C axis is a large stepper motor connected to the spindle for indexing or used as a constant turing device
The cross slide would primarily be set up to use a trim router for cutting but other tools could be mounted also.

Any other features that would be must have?
Comments

Dan Mauch
Camtronics, inc. -- CNC with Dan Mauch
[email protected]

A traveling steady rest that travels just to the left of the tool, so you would rough the part down to flats, on the first pass from left to right, then hold tight to those flats and profile from right to left. This is how our WEMA cnc lathe is, and it is a life saver (literally!) to contain a broken spindle and prevent any chatter.