I know the ELS is not that popular when a Full CNC conversion isn't that much harder, but I like the idea of it and have been trying to find a design I can have a go at building. Looked at the ELS group on Yahoo(joined up) and it's a great project ,but not what I was looking for. I have read thru all the google links I could find,(including all the posts here) but there's no projects with the complete instructions (for a beginner) to build.

This one at My CNC Adventures was the simplest one I found and with enough instructions that I could actually make it, but perhaps a bit more basic than I wanted. Also the author built it to show that the ELS is not worth the effort , when a full CNC is not much more work, so maybe not the one to try! I was intrigued though as to just how little electronics he needed to replace the basic gearbox on a lathe. That's really all I want to do, have a quick way of choosing imperial of metric threads and setting the feed rate.

The main advantage, for me, of the ELS is minimal alternations needed to be made to the lathe. My thought is to remove the change gears, mount the stepper/servo motor to the input shaft of the threading gear box(as this give me a speed reduction), mount a rotary encoder on the spindle and that's it. As I would be using the lathe as a manual lathe, just with a ELS, there's no need to replace leadscrews with ball screws as I just use the same procedures I do now to allow for backlash etc,whether is saddle or cross feed and would only be feeding in one direction at a time, no switching over the backlash.

The link below should be to chipmaker.ru but on my screen goes to a long weird thing in gibberish!?

Then I found Oleg's (Chrome's translation))project on Еще одна электронная гитара для токарника, на Ардуино - Металлически� � форум and would love to have a go and building it, but as all the instructions are in Russian, it's been a hard slog so far to read thru it! I've used the translate page on Chrome to have a read thru, but as Chrome translated Electronic Gear to Electronic Guitar, there's a few problems with readability! Plus I think he's made a few additions to the Arduino board, which I would need clear instructions for. Regardless, I've bought an Ardruino Mega and the LCD module to have a go anyway, but was hoping someone (English Speaking) might have already done so and could provide some more details.

Anyway, just my silly idea. I do have a 4'x4' Plamsa table that I put together with Mach3 and have a lot of fun with that, but would rather not use Mach3 for the lathe. Just for interest, here's the lathe I've got, https://www.machineryhouse.com.au/L569D and for good measure I bought a mill aswell. https://www.machineryhouse.com.au/M162D

Can't say they're quite up to scratch with a Monarch 10EE Lathe(Oooh....Goose Bumps) or Bridgeport Mill, but they're a start.