[Legion99999]

Legions 7 by 14 minlathe cnc conversion

Well my overwhellming need for a cnc lathe is forcing me to take a shot at converting a minilathe to suit these purposes. I plan to use this as a log and to also get advice and help from this wonderful community.

I bought a micromark 7 by 14, Ron steeles cnc plans, and Mach 3.

My biggest problem is threading is an absolute must and i have found little to no support on how or what are the best boards(affordable) for this.

So far it looks like the c11 board at www.cnc4pc.com suits my purposes best. I don't see any reason to put more than 300 oz steppers on it.

What i need to do is find a setup that best suits my needs. Any advice from you seasoned vets out there? It needs to thread small aluminum and plastic parts.

Legion

[maxboostbusa]

The C11 Board is only a breakout/spindle controlboard. You will need a Stepper Driver board like Xylotec, hobbycnc, or individual boards like the Kelings or what most consider king Gecko Drives. With some of the boards you will need a breakout board to interface with a parallel port for the drivers, home and limit switch. The Keling and Gecko boards are a little higher but they have built in protection for shorts, and such. You will need a power supply and obviously steppers also. I'm not sure about 300 oz. would be enough it depends on if you are going to shoehorn ballscrews into the axis' or stay with the acme screws. Ballscrews will usually be more accurate and consume less power to drive due to the lower friction coefficient. I would expect to do CNC threading with out some sort of indexing then zero backlash would be a big deal. Just my 2 pennys though.

[Legion99999]

Yes i plan on adding ballscrews. Im looking at the xylotec stepper board. Thanks for the advice

[bones]

Hi,
I did a 9x20 Hafco lathe. I used ballscrews with a 500 oz/in on the Z and a 300 oz/in with 2:1 pulleys on the X.
I'm using a xylotex board and it runs great.

I know someone that used and air ram to get rid of the backlash on the X axis. But a ballscrew on the Z.
And another guy that fitted the motor to the small feed on the top of the tool holder. He only needed small cuts.

Cheers
Rodney

[maxboostbusa]

Another help for some info on the conversion is Home Shop Machinist in the past 2 issues are running a story on converting a lathe to cnc and how they added the ballscrews and some other ways to mount them. They may be helpfull if you could find them if you havent seen it already. If you cant find it and you want to see it let me know and I'll try to scan and send it to you.

[Legion99999]

I read the home shop machinst all the time ill go pick those up.


Just a quick though. the micromark comes with a built in tachometer. Do you think i can tie this into the cnc4pc board? Or do i need their sensor kit?
http://www.micromark.com/detailimgs/82710d.jpg

[maxboostbusa]

I have no idea on that one, maybe go to cnc4pc's yah00 group and ask. There hasent been alot going on overthere lately though my c6 speed control board toasted and i sent it back and havent heard anything yet. Its usually pretty quick over there though.

[salzburg]

Look up DAK ENGINEERING-Home of Turbocnc and read his article he
wrote of his 7x12 conversion. You will find answers there for a lot of your
questions.

[maxboostbusa]

Is that on here or elsewhere?

[Mike Nash]

http://www.dakeng.com/artind.html

[tbilalis]

Can anyone recommend me ballscrew brands and model numbers for my 7x10 mini lathe (sieg c2) Z and X axes.

I wonder how can abyone fit a ballscrew with ballnut under the the cross slide of such small size. Must be miniature ballscrew...

Is there a site with simila cnc conversions, videos etc.

Thanks in advance