Sunday 11 March 2018

Mini Lathe CNC Conversion

The requirements is simple, for my Deckel and Eagle restore I need to make new dials and dial fasteners. The dial fasteners are simple and a knurled part will probably do, but I want it to look as original as possible. These are plastic rings about 80mm diameter with formed surface resembling a toothed drive belt pulley. I need to make four of these, setup in the dividing head and mill all of them at once, then slice them up and cut the internal thread, was my initial thinking. 

But wait I have a ball screw, steppers and a  mini lathe, a small 7 x10 branded  Rotwerk.

This seemed like the ideal opportunity to finally convert the little lathe to CNC.

I need a fourth axis. So the spindle has to double as A Axis. This was done with big 120tooth HTD 3M pulley which is attached directly on the spindle.

Converting the Z axis or bed slide was simple, just replace the lead screw with the ball screw and stepper mount.

The A Axis is a bit more challenging, but also a fairly quick job.

Next configuring Linux CNC, wiring the parallel port and stepper drivers. all this was accomplished in less than two hours.

I will post some pictures shortly.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Chipmaster Gear Cutting

  Calculate all the possible gear combinations for the gear selector to cut a 15TPI thread: Imperial TPI C 5 24 20 Imperial TPI ...