Stripping

First task was to remove all the parts that are not required on a CNC lathe.

Items removed:

  • Feed gears
  • Feed gearbox
  • Apron gearbox
  • Compound slide
  • Leadscrews and rack

I listed all this stuff on Ebay and recouped $200 towards the project. 

Installation

I hired a ute and collected the lathe from Machinery Warehouse.

Getting off the ute with a forklift was easy, but unfortunately I did not have room to move it around using the fork.

So, I moved it into place with a pallet trolley and lifted it onto the stand with an engine hoist.

Lathe - Stripping

Naturally, there is quite a bit of stripping involved to remove parts not required for the CNC conversion.

This includes feed gearbox, apron gearbox, leadscrews, compound slide and the main gear train.

Here are some pics before and after.

It took about 2 hours to get to this stage.

Motors

I used hybrid closed loop steppers with encoders on both Z and X axis.

These were ordered from steppersonline via Ebay. They look to be rebranded Leadshine products.

Z axis is 8.25Nm (1200 oz in), and X is 4.25Nm (600 oz in). I am certain that these are overkill, but would rather have too much power than too little.

These require 48V DC, so I will add an extra 20A power supply to power these.

They will be geared via timing belts. This should give better accuracy and increased power.

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