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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Posts
    304

    My DIY CNC Slant Bed Lathe with Gang Tooling

    Hi all,
    I've been building this at home for over a year, and thought I'd show progress here. It started with a Grizzly belt drive lathe that someone tipped over and busted up the front of the carriage. I thought it would be a good retrofit candidate and bought it cheap, but later found that the bed got bent and was useless. So I started from scratch, using just the headstock and made the rest. Below are current pictures, and here is a short video taken right after getting flood coolant working, still learning how to use it so being a little conservative, especially on the cutoff.



    I think that my biggest design flaw was not machining a shoulder for the z-axis rails to locate on. It cuts within .0002" in the first 4" of travel though, so not bad. Surface finish is better than I get with my 14" (unfortunately also Grizzly) lathe.

    I used an Acorn controller, and startup was amazing easy considering that I'm not much of a controls guy.

    Next post will be some pictures showing the build process. There are more pictures and I can shows details with the Solidworks model if anyone has questions about the design, which was based mostly upon what I already had to work with.

    Kevin

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
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    304

    Re: My DIY CNC Slant Bed Lathe with Gang Tooling

    More pictures, if anyone has questions let me know.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails 0.jpg   1.jpg   2.jpg   3.jpg  

    4.jpg   5.jpg  

  3. #3
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    Feb 2004
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    304

    Re: My DIY CNC Slant Bed Lathe with Gang Tooling

    More-

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Posts
    1523

    Re: My DIY CNC Slant Bed Lathe with Gang Tooling

    Is that epoxy granite filling the space below/behind the bed and also the side panels?
    7xCNC.com - CNC info for the minilathe (7x10, 7x12, 7x14, 7x16)

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2016
    Posts
    120

    Re: My DIY CNC Slant Bed Lathe with Gang Tooling

    Do you have speed or positioning control on the spindle? What kind of motor are you using?

    This project looks awesome!

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Posts
    5717

    Re: My DIY CNC Slant Bed Lathe with Gang Tooling

    Awesome work. ! :cheers:
    Jim Dawson
    Sandy, Oregon, USA

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Posts
    304

    Re: My DIY CNC Slant Bed Lathe with Gang Tooling

    Thanks guys,

    The bed, sides, back, and behind the bed are filled with a mix of epoxy and sand, with large river rocks to take up volume and save some money on the epoxy. I clamped down the bed to get a slight twist out while the epoxy was still soft. There's about 700lb of the mix and rock. The solid yellow in the picture below represents the fill. I ran the spindle each time I filled a section, and the machine ran smoother and quieter each time. In the beginning I was hoping that filling the bed only would be good enough, but the extrusion frame wasn't anywhere near rigid or heavy enough without it.

    The spindle motor is 3HP, 3 phase. The Acorn uses a 0-10V signal to the VFD for speed control, and there is an encoder on the spindle. The encoder is used for for threading and constant surface speed, which you can see used on the cutoff cycle in the video. They say that threading and rigid tapping will be more accurate following the encoder than you can get by watching a single pulse per rev like Mach does. I haven't done any threading or tapping yet, but looking forward to it. The encoder also gives it an actual RPM readout onscreen.

    The donor machine had a top speed of 1200 RPM, and anything above that vibrated badly, so I removed the spindle and did my best at static balancing. It appears that they neglected to finish bore the spindle, and the ID is way out of concentric with the OD. After bolting on the square weight that can be seen in the picture, It's smooth now up to the current 2200 RPM, and I'll probably raise it to 2500 since the motor is good up to 90Hz. I'm a little nervous that the Chinese gear or step pulley will fly apart at that speed, which is the only reason I haven't run it faster. That's why I bolted on a weight instead of weakening it with drilled holes.

    The headstock also had to be converted to grease instead of using the ridiculously small oil reservoirs because of the 45 degree tilt.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Posts
    1662

    Re: My DIY CNC Slant Bed Lathe with Gang Tooling

    Wow. Well planned, nicely executed.
    What's the big whammy bar on the far left ?
    Anyone who says "It only goes together one way" has no imagination.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
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    304

    Re: My DIY CNC Slant Bed Lathe with Gang Tooling

    Quote Originally Posted by cyclestart View Post
    Wow. Well planned, nicely executed.
    What's the big whammy bar on the far left ?
    Thanks, that's a 5C collet closer. Some day I'll make a pneumatic one and add a bar puller. Right now I still need to cut the drawbar tube shorter and re-thread it for collets, so only have the chuck to work with for now.

    I'm currently working on a toolholder block with 1/2", 5/8", and 3/4" holes for boring bars, taps, drills, reamers, etc. Once that's done, I'll be able to hold all the tools at once to face, bore, and tread the drawbar tube.



    I spent a LOT of time on sealing up the enclosure and protecting the linear guides and ballscrews, and I hope to put thru-tool high pressure coolant on it. I came across a 1000PSI, 3GPM pump that I hope to use for that.

    One of the pictures below shows the machine with the doors removed. Coolant that drips off of the left door when it's opened drains through the trough back into the enclosure. There is a cover plate for the cutout over the chip bin (garbage can) below.

    Kevin

  10. #10

    Re: My DIY CNC Slant Bed Lathe with Gang Tooling

    No nanny switches on the door!! I like!

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Posts
    432

    Re: My DIY CNC Slant Bed Lathe with Gang Tooling

    Well thank's I am impressed with the build and the Acorn board pretty nice combo.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Dec 2015
    Posts
    46

    Re: My DIY CNC Slant Bed Lathe with Gang Tooling

    Quote Originally Posted by kevincnc View Post
    If anyone has questions let me know.
    Excellent build you have pulled off here, the machine looks really professional. I too was thinking of building (eventually, alot of projects on the plate ATM) a slant bed lathe, but comparing my concept to yours, yours is much easier.

    Any plans to put a turret on your X axis?
    Are you using steppers or servos for your axis?
    Which grizzly was your donor lathe?
    I see you have plans you drew up in solidworks. Any chance I can get a copy, if you don't mind so I can have a more detailed look? I'd love to build something similar.
    Any chance you can do a slow walk-around video of your lathe?

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Posts
    304

    Re: My DIY CNC Slant Bed Lathe with Gang Tooling

    Quote Originally Posted by AutomatedIngen View Post
    Excellent build you have pulled off here, the machine looks really professional. I too was thinking of building (eventually, alot of projects on the plate ATM) a slant bed lathe, but comparing my concept to yours, yours is much easier.

    Any plans to put a turret on your X axis?
    Are you using steppers or servos for your axis?
    Which grizzly was your donor lathe?
    I see you have plans you drew up in solidworks. Any chance I can get a copy, if you don't mind so I can have a more detailed look? I'd love to build something similar.
    Any chance you can do a slow walk-around video of your lathe?
    Thanks, no plans for a turret at this time, but it would be a nice addition. Maybe in the future. I use DC servos and will add some details. The headstock came from a G9249. Send me a PM and we can discuss the files. I'll be pulling it away from the wall soon and will get some pictures, space is too tight for a real walk around.

    Here's a 5 minute video of threading the drawbar for the collet closer that's installed now. Rigid tapping will be next to get set up.



    Kevin

  14. #14
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    Dec 2013
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    5717

    Re: My DIY CNC Slant Bed Lathe with Gang Tooling

    Bravo! :cheers:
    Jim Dawson
    Sandy, Oregon, USA

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Dec 2015
    Posts
    46

    Re: My DIY CNC Slant Bed Lathe with Gang Tooling

    Quote Originally Posted by kevincnc View Post
    Send me a PM and we can discuss the files. I'll be pulling it away from the wall soon and will get some pictures, space is too tight for a real walk around.
    Kevin
    PM sent.

    Looking forward to that walk-around when you get a chance to pull it off the wall.

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
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    304

    Re: My DIY CNC Slant Bed Lathe with Gang Tooling

    Thanks Jim. Not a video but I attached some pictures of the back.

    Here is a quick video of rigid tapping-


    Since then I made a spindle nose protector shown in the top right picture. It's much easier to pop the 5C adapter out with a spanner wrench than having to knock it out with a bar from the left.

    I also upgraded to a 1/4 HP coolant pump, and added thru-coolant. I'm not sure that high pressure will be worth the trouble at this point, so that's on hold for now. At least it will put the coolant where it needs to be for boring, and the big drill will be used to start deep holes for boring. That holder wasn't quite finished in the picture, I was just in a hurry to see coolant going through the drill.

    After adding the improved coolant pump, I had a need for some +/- .0002" OD Stainess bushings and took a quick video of turning the OD, and then drilling-
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z37nfpynhY
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx4yIxY09RM

    I'll post again when I get some pictures or video of using the thru-coolant tools. Until then if anyone wants to see any other details, let me know.
    Kevin

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Posts
    304

    Re: My DIY CNC Slant Bed Lathe with Gang Tooling

    To answer a couple of Youtube questions:
    I used C series TA wipers from these guys- https://www.cqm-inc.com/uploads/1/5/...ipers-2012.pdf
    Cost at this point is about $4k USD not including tooling, but would be a lot more if I had to buy things like the larger and curved extrusions, tooling plates, spindle motor & drive, and lots of other small parts and materials.

    I'm finding that it's hard to leave gang tools set up all the time and spending too much time zeroing tools. Part of the problem was inaccurate homing using limit switches, so now it homes to the index pulses on the X and Z motor encoders. To do that I made a little transistor circuit to switch 24V inputs on the Acorn with the 5V index pulse. With that done it's dead on every time. Here is a video showing the difference between homing to the switch on the first axis, and homing to the encoder on the second axis. With the switch it would vary by up to .002", which you can see in the video after it stops before resetting home to 0. To home to the encoder as shown on the second axis, it finds the switch first and then backs off to the encoder pulse.


  18. #18
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Posts
    304

    Re: My DIY CNC Slant Bed Lathe with Gang Tooling

    I hadn't planned on making a turret at first because I wasn't sure if I could make one that would be accurate enough. A Hirth coupling type seemed like it would be best, so I decided to see if I could make one to base a turret on. It came out better than expected, so I modeled a turret based upon that. The coupling has a .005" gap between the flat faces when the angled surfaces mate. It's made from some 3" ID X 4" OD SST DOM tubing that I had. I roughed the rings out with a carbide endmill, and finished them with a surplus 10 degree tapered carbide endmill found on ebay cheap. The fit doesn't look that great because of my sloppy deburring, but it feels pretty perfect when mated.

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Posts
    304

    Re: My DIY CNC Slant Bed Lathe with Gang Tooling

    Here is the turret design. The last time I ran a lathe with a turret was an Emco 25 years ago in a college class, so have I practically no experience with them. After that, the only CNC lathe I've run has been this one. I designed the turret based upon pictures I could find on the internet, incorporating what looked like common features and methods. I'd be really glad to get any suggestions for improvements, and probably won't get to building this until winter, so there's plenty of time. I can post more details if anything is not clear. The two pictures that look similar show it clamped vs. unlcamped. It still needs fasteners but this is the general idea.
    Kevin

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Posts
    5717

    Re: My DIY CNC Slant Bed Lathe with Gang Tooling

    Nice design! Looks and works almost exactly like my Hardinge turret.
    Jim Dawson
    Sandy, Oregon, USA

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