Hi All,

I have been approached to retrofit a spinning lathe. Currently the machine is not controlled by any some sort of CNC system it actually uses a hydraulic valve to follow a pattern, thus it really is a copy spinning lathe. The customer wants to be able to jog and teach the machine. The machine has;

-2 hydraulic axis
-1 hydraulic cut of wheel
-1 hydaulic beading tool

I'm looking for information on, using Mach3 to control hydraulic cylinders for positioning. I will probably end up mounting glass scales on the axis as they are cost effective in would be very precise. The proportional drivers for the cylinders will be +/- 10v.

Also mach's teach function will it record X, Y position and feedrate? I envision putting buttons on the screen for the beading and cut off tool, these are usually used at the end of the spinning program, can i have it record M-codes for these.

the jogging will probably be done by two joysticks with NO contacts per direction, speed by potentiometers, can i use a speed pot per axis?

any ideas?

Many thanks!