A few years ago I decided that my CNC Taig mill was not enough and I would like a CNC lathe. Since I had done the conversion on the Taig myself, I thought it would be a fun, quick project to convert a lathe to CNC. Fun: yes, quick: no .
As I was living in a town house at the time with my shop in the basement, I needed a manual candidate that I could get down the stairs and the King 10x22 seemed to fit the bill. Its belt drive and lack of a quick change gear box made the conversion easier.
My plan was the following:
1. remove all of the manual controls/gears
2. DC servos driving ball screws
3. Replace spindle drive with a 3phase motor and VFD
4. Add automatic oiling to all moving surfaces
5. Full enclosure with flood coolant capability
6. Spindle encoder
Well, after 3 years I have a functional CNC lathe. Now I just need to do the finishing touches...
Attached are some pictures of the current state of the lathe. The chess set was fully machined on the lathe (with the exception of the top of the Rook) out of brass and 304 stainless.
I took some pictures during the build and will be posting the details as I find time