I am converting a 14-40 Vectrax lathe to CNC. It's not a heavy duty machine but larger than I really need, so it will be fine.
I saw, and couldn't resist a turret unit on 'bay; below.
So next I bought the accessory kit; also below. The turret has 5/8" holes.
The turret came from a 10" Logan, so I'll have to make an adapter plate to raise and center it.
I have a fair number of drills larger than 1/2" with stepped down shanks and they will be fine to use with the turret, but I also have a very complete set of good quality drills, up to 1 1/4" including some metric sizes, that have Morse taper shanks, mostly MT3.
So here are my questions:
In making the adapter plate, how can I achieve the most exact height to match the lathe spindle height. The other factors, parallel, side to side, I can make adjustable so no problem there, but how best to get the exact height?
The other question is how should I modify to be able to use the MT3 taper drills? Some of my ideas are; to make a external adapter 5/8 to MT3 but it seems that would be a lot of overhang; or, to mount the turret head in my other CNC lathe and machine out one of the holes to MT3, but if I screw it up, I've ruined the head. And then I'd need to make a slot for a tapered pin for release. I also don't know if there is enough depth there for the MT3 taper.
So I'm looking for ideas.
Thanks in advance
Ozzie