[blades]

Sounds really low-budget, I love it! BTW, how many times during your trial run did the Z axis stall on you from the limit switch getting shorted out from chips?

[justin bowser]

No stall - Yet! :-p When I finalize the wiring I'll use heat-shrink over the connections. I need to replace he yellow 14 ga stuff with something a bit more reasonable...

[knudsen]

Looks like you've been busy, Justin! Great work!

[justin bowser]

Haven't had much time lately to mess with this but this week had a little time so I changed my Z axis feed to a ballscrew I snagged off fleabay. Nice Going from .012 backlash to .001". :-) Hopefully after I replace the regular ball bearing closest to the motor with the new angular contact bearing I received in the mail today I will have .000 backlash!! Next will be a ballscrew for theX axis as soon as I find a reasonably priced one...

[Fixittt]

Justin, If your still working on this, I am very interested in seeing how the compound slide screw and nut was done on your lathe....

[justin bowser]

I haven't had time to "re-engineer" the cross-slide to incorporate the ballscrew yet but I'll add pics when I do.

[Fixittt]

does that mean your using the stock screw and brass nut?

[justin bowser]

I replaced the stock with a 10 pitch acme leadscrew and nut because I didn't want to modify the stock screw but there is a lot of backlash. I have bought a ballscrew assembly but haven't had time to retrofit as of yet.

[Fixittt]

do you possibly have a link to the ball screw? Or was it a fleabay item?

[justin bowser]

It was a fleabay item...

[blades]

Hey Justin, where did you get that cart you have your lathe on? If I don't end up selling mine, I may move it onto something like that.

[justin bowser]

Blades, it's a single drawer "service cart" from Harbor Freight. They often have them on said for between $60 - $70. The PC and other electronics sit on the bottom shelf and the keyboard goes into the drawer along with extra inserts, tool-holders, etc.

[justin bowser]

OK, finally got up off mu butt and did some more work. I had to remake my tool-post mounting block, drill a through-hole through the block, and thread one side to screw the ball-nut into. From there it was a matter of re-mounting the motor to line up with the re-positioned screw.

It looks cumbersome but it is very rigid and the little bit of cutting I've done so far seems much more precise. The only downside is that all of my programs will need to be modified since they originally compensated for all of the slop and backlash!

Here's some pics of the X axis, now just need to clean up the wiring...

[MarkGerard363]

I truly love the simple design that you have int this build up...... kind of couldn't help to notice that you ditch the ball screws for the x, z axis?? may I ask what was the problem that you were having that make you change them! you can check my build up, I have a slightly larger stepper motors on mine, and perhaps the only difference is that I have an automatic tool changer..If you decide to check me up any kind of advice or suggestion will be greatly appreciated. "By the way I'm working right know in the pressure switches as I send this message to you!"" I think that of all the job this is the part that I truly hate the most! have brake 3 taps, threading the holes to mount the stupid switches...;-(

[justin bowser]

I didn't "ditch" the ballscrews but replaced the standard Acme leadscrews WITH ballscrews. There was just too much slop in the leadscrews and a lot of "extra" programming went into working around the slop. I would love to see some details about your auto tool changer. Although I have added a quick-change tool post to this I've been thinking it really needs a changer.

[MarkGerard363]

Well there always to aspects to be an Anal Retentive and Over-killing engineer! The lathe I'm building is supposed to take over a large and very complex work that I have been doing for the last year or so manually ... and I really need to give it a more professional look and touch! "Hence.. the motors that are about 1880 Kw for the z axis, and about 1200 Kw for the x axis... that with out to count on the reductions! 1.75-1 for the z, and 2.45-1 for the x axis... so not stalling here.

It took me close to three days but I managed to use the original screw on the x axis. it was complex to achieve the tightness and at the same time the rid "BACK LASH" that I was needing.

I was so so apprehensive with the auto tool changer! but after visiting the mach3 forums and reading about it, it was a total breeze, yeah is going to take me some time to get the correct macro "tool programming" but hell I'll keep going at it until it it works flawlessly. My goal is to build a machine that can stand the test of time! in accuracy and longevity! I take my time building and do my best "Because I'm doing it for my self! feel free to go to mac-s-power.com and see the products that I build before by hand and now I'm trying to build a machine to do my beating... Thanks for your prompt replay!

Mark