[taiden]

Hey all,

Newbie here. I'm a jack of all trades so nothing about a CNC build scares me, I just don't really know where to start. There are always tricks people have that they learn as they go along and I'm hoping some of you reading this can help me with those little gems.

I am planning on making a very small CNC wood lathe. The workpiece will be 4" in diameter maximum, and length will be 6" maximum. Most workpieces will be 3" diameter and 2" length.

I have a spare PC laptop that can be used, and a 618 atlas. I also have a drill press and various other metalworking tools including a TIG/stick welder. I'm pretty decent with it, but you wouldn't want me to do pressure vessels.

So the purpose is actually to take over manual wood lathe operations so I can focus on other work at hand.

It will need to handle outside turning as well as boring.

I have no idea what free software can be used for this or what types of stepper motors I will need or any of that. I will learn as I go.

I'm hoping to do this all for less than $200. If it's much higher than $400 I'm not sure it will be worth my time.

The goal is to do a decent job with fairly low hours of labor while spending as little as possible. A good all around compromise on the three things... quality, time, and money.
Thanks all and I hope this can work out.

[taiden]

I had a chinese cross slide vice for a drill press. I thought that maybe I could use that, but after some inspection I figured it was a no go just because the screws are so hard to turn. I'd rather just come up with something else than spend a lot of money on stepper motors that will handle it.

SO first thing is first, I need to come up with how I want to use for rails. I think I might try to find a used cross slide for a lathe for the, you guessed it, cross slide.