Originally Posted by
RLWoodie
HI
When I last posted I was trying to get the trial version of Mach3 to talk to a Taig lathe I had installed steppers on. I have now done that and my ambitions have taken a giant leap.
I have two related/unrelated questions.
1. I fitted a ball screw to the Taig I purchased for the x slide which I realise is a little course for my little lathe but I was desperate for some progress. The tread gauge reads 6G. At this stage I am not sure if I can simply change the parameters to take account of this coarseness or if I really need to purchase finer ball screw. I would be grateful for advice and a link if this is the best way to go.
[If you replaced the regular Taig leadscrew, which has 20 threads per inch, with a ball screw that has 6 threads per inch, you'll have less mechanical advantage but it still should work. You will have to change the steps per unit setting for the X axis to correspond to the new value.]
2. I am also doing a bit of work on my Seig x2 mill. I have a stepper on the cross slide and a self-contained power driver on the Z handle to lift and lower the mill head. . All of the videos I have seen about attaching a stepper to move this axis involve a complete rebuild including a replacement of the existing screw and mounting a stepper on top. As I said I already have a power driver attached to the existing handle/spigot that lifts and lowers it effortlessly. Is it possible to simply replace this with a stepper with plenty of torque, say a Nema 34? The heavy lifting that replacing the existing screw with a ball screw is a bit beyond me physically.
[You can put something onto the existing quill drive that will make the Z axis go up and down. The problem is that this is a very loose rack and pinion setup with a huge amount of backlash, which is why people usually replace the whole mechanism with a screw.]
The last time I posted we had a discussion about Acorn as opposed to Mach 3 and my initial thought was that it might be a better way for me to go. The problem is that Acorn requires windows 10 and the only computer I have available with that operating system is a laptop that I use for heaps of other stuff. So I am seriously thinking of moving from the demo versions of Mach 3 to purchasing a licence. The initial idea is to use the existing parallel port but maybe later to try a smooth stepper and ethernet connection. Again any comments would be appreciated.
woodie