[JTJT]

A number of you noticed in the videos that the machine appears to be a lathe only. That is correct, we removed the milling head assembly from a Mill Turn and made some changes to run the machine as a lathe only. Over the years we have been asked if we had a separate lathe machine, but we have always concentrated on the combo machine concept. However, there are a lot of small CNC mills and conversions on the market now, but few reasonably priced CNC lathes. Our machine with 1.5" spindle bore, 17" swing and 30" between centers offers a lot of turning capability. Using the Gecko 540 4 axis drives, with Z and X active leaves 2 CNC drivers available for other functions such as spindle indexing and cnc toolpost
( 1 now in testing). Our plan is to offer a nice package with 3 jaw, 4 jaw and 5C collet system and CNC turret toolpost. We have added a nice lift up splash shield and rear chip guard, a handy swing away tool tray as well as the standard DRO. Changes to the stepper drive ratios offer rapids of 80 IPM. The computer is a specially built lightweight unit with touch screen as well as mouse and keyboard with Mach 3 software pre-loaded and configured for the machine. Here are some pictures of the prototype we are testing.

[JTJT]

Over the years a lot of people have asked about turning brake drums, rotors and flywheels. With 17" swing, the machine is capable of all these operations, but as a home project, not as a business, as real brake drum machines are very specialized. Here is a short project we did recently.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj_...khA3PxI0RYaeZA

[JTJT]

Over the years a lot of people have asked about turning brake drums, rotors and flywheels. With 17" swing, the machine is capable of all these operations, but as a home project, not as a business, as real brake drum machines are very specialized. Here is a short project we did recently.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj_...khA3PxI0RYaeZA

[JTJT]

We have had quite a few e-mails and calls about the lathe only machine. Just FYI, the prototype is now on its way to the factory for their evaluation and final production design. From my experience, it will most likely be the end of the year by the time we receive a prototype and get it tested and then give the OK to go into production. pricing is still up in the air, but good news is that the dollar has been steadily increasing in strength over the past couple years. Here is the name we have settled on.

[02corvette]

Does this mean you guys are coming out with a stand alone mill?

[JTJT]

No, the small mill market is flooded with machines, it's the lathe market that has few reasonably priced CNC offerings.

[instructor37]

Are you planning on an indexable spindle or CNC toolpost on this lathe?

[JTJT]

Are you planning on an indexable spindle or CNC toolpost on this lathe?

We plan to have the CNC toolpost as a standard feature on the Turnado, and as an option on the Mill Turn. We are testing a couple different designs now at the factory. We have built a spindle indexer and tried it out with success, but not sure if it is a high demand item, because it really needs to be used in conjunction with live tooling. The 4 axis Gecko drive has all the ports necessary to run the CNC toolpost as well as a spindle indexer on the Turnado.

[instructor37]

I hope the CNC toolpost will be a retrofit for older machines as well. Do you have any estimate of the price?

[JTJT]

Can't say for sure yet as far as a retrofit goes, because we are going to make it a standard feature on the TURNADO. However, we'll try to keep it as reasonable as possible once we know the cost of crating them as separate retro fit units.

Update-
We are actually testing 2 different styles- one is the basic 4 position turret with stepper drive, and the other is the larger rotary style with 6 holders. We are leaning toward the turret style because it is fairly lightweight and easy to remove when changing from mill to lathe function on the Mill Turn model. We may offer the larger 6 position unit as a factory option for those ordering just the lathe only machine.

[instructor37]

Can't say for sure yet as far as a retrofit goes, because we are going to make it a standard feature on the TURNADO. However, we'll try to keep it as reasonable as possible once we know the cost of crating them as separate retro fit units.

Update-
We are actually testing 2 different styles- one is the basic 4 position turret with stepper drive, and the other is the larger rotary style with 6 holders. We are leaning toward the turret style because it is fairly lightweight and easy to remove when changing from mill to lathe function on the Mill Turn model. We may offer the larger 6 position unit as a factory option for those ordering just the lathe only machine.

Any further updates on the lathe and toolpost?

[JTJT]

Any further updates on the lathe and toolpost?

Here is a short video of the first test. We are going to modify the toolpost to accept the AXA style toolpost so the individual toolholders can be pre-set at center height and length for quick changeouts.
More videos will be coming along as we make progress.