[Call Maker]

Has anybody made a gang tool type mini lathe in the style of an omni turn? I'd like to try, but I don't know a whole lot about building a cnc. I'd like to have one for home use. Does any of the software allow for more than one tool offset in a program. I've never read about anyone trying this. Being new around here, I'd like to say thanks for alot of interesting reading. There sure is a wealth of knowledge to be found!

[RotarySMP]

TurboCNC has a 60 tool offset register standard, but you could simply change that number and recompile for more it needed.

[JFettig]

Do you mean kinda like this?


more pics in my gallery:
http://www.cnczone.com/gallery/showg...what/allfields

Jon

[Call Maker]

Yep... Kinda exactly like that, only I need to have three tools. I need to have a turning tool, a drill and a boring bar. Is this possible on one of these lathes. Does a Speedway lathe have the torque to drill a 5/8 hole in wood. I'm guessing that it does.
I also need to hold about a .003" limit. Will it do that using the original parts or would I need to add ball screws. Thanks for the info!!!

[JFettig]

Drilling with a drill on the carraige is much more difficult than drilling with the tailstock, Im not completely sure why except of maybe the angles at which it has pressure.

Aligning the drill center really isnt too hard, you would wnat to make sure that you have good home switches so you wouldnt have to reset your tools.
If you get the backlash compensated for well you should be able to hold that but I cant gaurentee it, I havent cut many parts with mine because I havent built a box untill now to controll it(used my mill box for a few test runs)

I made a Z axis ballscrew for mine, I need to make a new skirt to connect it and it should work well.
Having a drill and a boring bar may cause problems because both are rather big, Im not sure if it will work well. Soon I may put a rotary table on mine to use as an automatic tool changer with 4 or 6 tools, thats just a fun idea of mine. I believe mach2 will be able to use a rotary table as a tool changer.

The lathe should be able to push that kind of a drill into wood, I havent tried any wood on my lathe yet, but its not too difficult.

Jon

[dkowalcz]

I use gang tooling a lot now on my 7x10 mini lathe. It's really easy to do, just cut yourself a big block of aluminum or steel and bore a hole for each tool. How far apart depends on how large the tools and part are. For the spacers I've been making I have them 1" apart exactly.

Then clamp the block in the toolpost and bang away. I use TurboCNC for the software of course, but I believe all them support tool offsets for lathe work. I've got some other multi-hole blocks that just clamp to the slide for jobs that need more than 3 tools, as I run out of room fast if I'm not smart about setting them up.

I'll see if I can get a good picture of the setup to show you what's going on, but it's basically the same as Jon's - a front and rear toolpost and a raft of tapped holes on the slide. I've modified my cross slide for a 5" travel rather than the stock 3", but you should be able to make it work either way.

[Call Maker]

A picture or two would be great. This is a project that I'd really like to try, but I'm not quite sure how to go about it.
On another note thanks for the reply, I ask this question about a year ago and gave up hope that it would be answered.