[jupdyke]

Well it seems that no one really has much to say about this topic. Lol. I am not too surprised really. I was puttering around with some designs and here is where I am am currently at in the design. The frame is made from interlocking 3/8 inch thick hot rolled steel. My idea was to try an make all the parts fit on a single 4' x 8' sheet. That way I could put the sheet on the waterjet and cut out the entire thing in one go. Then I would weld it together.

I am reusing some parts from a cnc mill build i made a while ago. That saved me having to model them again and I was already familiar with the parts. It will used precision lead screws and anti backlash nuts, stepper motors and motor drivers that I already own. I figured if I wanted to down the road I could upgrade them to ball screw / servo motors. But better to get a working cnc lathe first and then upgrade it.

I am still not sure about building the spindle. I was looking for a good detailed post about building a lathe spindle like the one in dumpster cnc's build. But I have not see any. I read that people use a pair of angular contact bearings on the front and then a sleeve bearing on the back with some good success. The other issue will be figuring out how to align the x and z to the headstock. Any advice is welcome.