Ok, I am advancing with my retrofit of the lathe portion of a Smithy 1220Xl. The mill portion will be scrapped entirely as it is pretty worthless (and I have a cnc mill already). I really want to use EMC2 but I have to admit that it is probably my single largest source of anxiety for the whole project. I am not a programmer, I have no programming skills and I am most comfortable in the windows environment. I have no Linux experience and everything Linux just looks so foreign to me. I think that this is where I will need the most hand holding.
In terms of experience, this is my second build, the first being a retrofit on a full size CNC mill. I did take the easy way out and went the "kit" route with an AjaxCNC control.
For this build I want to do the whole build from scratch but will also need to try and keep the costs fairly contained, especially considering what the base machine is. My original plan was to try and use a servo for the spindle and to try and incorporate indexing into the spindle for use at a later date. I have seen high speed brushless DC servos that seem like they would be pretty good for the application and cost wise would be pretty competitive with an AC motor and VFD. My biggest concern with this set up is torque and I am just not sure that the servo would have enough torque even with gear reduction.
Thinking about the spindle more though, I will really be limited by software and most of the hobby software doesn't really support indexing on a lathe, so I really won't be able to take advantage of it, so is there a benefit? So right now I am leaning back towards an AC induction motor and VFD. Realistically I think mostly I will be doing basic lathe work with threading, so I really need to build that functionality in. Looking into some older threads I have seen some issues with single index pulse sensors versus encoders with EMC for threading. Has there been a consensus on what is the best hardware set up is? Obviously the single index pulse has an advantage in cost and encoders in accuracy, but what is easiest to integrate into EMC? I am in the planning stages right now so planning for it now is much easier than trying to later.
Has anyone done a similar build and want to share any advice as to hardware and software etc?