[heilcnc]

what do you guys think of this lathe for a cnc retro it has dovetail bed screw will be in middle i want a lathe for small work i have built cnc machines before i have a mini mill cnc now that is works great i cnced a 7x12 but it never worked like i wanted drilling with the carriage on that bed layout is not what its made for it lifts up(no down force) but this one has dovetail bed i want a lathe for upto 1" aluminium and brass parts also on software i use cnczues on my mill it is the best i have used yet good support and its dos based but it does not have lathe support i use turbocnc on the lathe but it has many bugs hardly no support is there any other good dos based software for lathe with threading out there i tried mach3 do not like it very much
here is the link to the lathe there is a manual with part breakdown http://www.toolsandmore.us/index.asp...OD&ProdID=1542

[higgrobot]

With only 1/5HP you would be limited to 0.010" cuts and 2000 rpm is a bit slow, also at higher motor speeds the motor would have less torque so it probably would struggle to even do 0.01" cuts!!

Using machinst Toolbox:


MATERIAL= Wrought Alum 2024-T4, T351 (120 HB)
SURFACE SPEED= 518 FPM
CUTTING TOOL MATERIAL= CARBIDE
NOMINAL STOCK DIAMETER= 1 inches 25.4 mm
DEPTH OF PASS= 0.01 inches
SPINDLE SPEED= 1998 RPM
FEEDRATE= 16.983 IPM 0.0085 IPR 431.3682 mmPM 0.2159 mmPR
MATERIAL REMOVAL RATE= 0.52836 in³/min
MATERIAL POWER CONSTANT= 0.33
REQUIRED HORSEPOWER= 0.20513


With Brass you'd have to take even smaller cuts

MATERIAL= Brass
SURFACE SPEED= 519 FPM
CUTTING TOOL MATERIAL= CARBIDE
NOMINAL STOCK DIAMETER= 1 inches 25.4 mm
DEPTH OF PASS= 0.008 inches
SPINDLE SPEED= 1998 RPM
FEEDRATE= 13.5864 IPM 0.0068 IPR 345.09456 mmPM 0.17272 mmPR
MATERIAL REMOVAL RATE= 0.3388 in³/min
MATERIAL POWER CONSTANT= 0.5
REQUIRED HORSEPOWER= 0.1993

It's really nothing more than a toy lathe, I'm pretty sure the handles and tailstock are made of plastic! you'd be better off getting something bigger and by bigger i mean more rigid and with a more powerfull motor.

Harbour Freight can be had for $329-$399 has a 3/4HP motor with 2-speed gearbox and spins 2900rpm