[will gilmore]

Nice! Isn't that just like the phone to ring when you are trying out your new lathe. Now you need some insert tooling for it. Good work man!

Bret

I had one hand on the estop so I just let it go to the machine.

I'm starting to look at inserts. Bob Warfield seems to recommend CCMTs with lots of positive rake. Anyone else want to chime in on lathe tooling?

[bret4]

From what I have read on the forums the CCMTs may be a good place to start. I run a much larger bridgeport lathe at work and that tooling would be much too big to recommend. Although I do like tools it the TPG type for general work. Maybe something in the TPG 221, 222 size range would work too if the holders would fit your machine.

A tool with a small radius of .015" or less will be a little easier on a smaller machine with less power. The nice thing is that you can take a lot of fast light cuts and get a job done in good time. No matter what tooling you use there is no substitute for keeping a sharp cutter in the holder. Finding tooling that is in your budget and will hold up to the work you want to do and still be cheap enough to buy enough of so you do not feel guilty when changing them when dull, is another factor in what you end up getting. Man what a long sentence that was. I'm out of breath.

Bret

[will gilmore]

Hey Bret, thanks for the info. I'll look into the TPG. The QC toolpost is 300/CXA size and I have 2-3/16 over the slide so I think I can make pretty much anything fit. I also have a 2hp motor. Not really sure what the weak link is going to be. I'm interested in precision and ease of use more than speed. Until I get the gang tooling set up I'm ok with what I have.--Will

[Home Shopper]

Ok; so now you have it running, and it turns (and really nicely too), are you going to attempt to control the angular position of the spindle in relation to the carriage feeds, so that you "know" where the spindle is, for threading?
Ho are you going to do that.
It seems to me that this is a bigger nut to crack, but it is the one that would take the project from a straightforward, "simple", lathe to a much more capable machine in a different league.
It's a bit like automating a typewriter, I suppose, where a machine to type would be fine, but a wordprocessor is so much more capable and flexible, in ways a typewriter could never be.

And when I say your lathe is "simple", you know I mean it is capable of "plain" turning at this stage (and "plain" has nothing to do with the paint job either).

The challenge in sensing the position of the spindle is really that you are using steppers rather than servos, and while it shouldn't be necessary to use a servo, there is still a need to do the sensing. This is the bit I'm stuck at right now.

[RotarySMP]

That is pretty fast. Nice work!

[Cartierusm]

Very Nice. I'm just starting to build my own granite plate lathe as well.

Couple of questions how much did you pay for the spindle, head stock, without the collet chuck, just the head and spindle?

Where did you get the ground steel?

[will gilmore]

I paid $700 for the headstock, air collet closer, manual air valve and a chuck back plate. By far the most expensive part of this lathe. Air collet closer is total overkill for this thing but it came with the headstock.
ground steel came from victor machine, they have some stuff on sale.

[Cartierusm]

Cool thanks. The price on that head stock is not too bad I'll have to check them out. Thanks.

[will gilmore]

whoa its been awhile. optical home switches are mounted and working. need some db9 backshells to complete the wiring (just bread boarded for now)
I set up the tool table for 3 tools (right, left and parting) seems to be working.



I have a video but the camera drifts in and out of focus before running out of memory 80% of the way through the part.

Still to do:
Finish electrical
Enclosure?
Coolant?
Tool holders
Indexable tooling
Buy a chuck

--Will

[will gilmore]

Here is the video, sorry about the focus.



--Will

[LN-JET]

Very nice!
How do you set your tools?

Lars

[will gilmore]

Tool set up:
home the machine
set each tools x and z offset either by test machining and measuring or measuring and using a gauge and put info to tool table
when i put the stock in the machine i use another offset (G56 i think) to set z0 to the end of the stock.

i'm not a pro, if there is a better way to do things i'm all ears.

--Will

[will gilmore]

Lathe was working for awhile but I took it apart to build and enclosure and paint it. Finally got around to primering.

[Teyber12]

sliick!

[will gilmore]

This lathe has been in storage for a couple years. I pulled it out and powered it up. I could jog the two steppers but the spindle wouldnt come on (VFD controlled by Mach3 through G540).

Today I went to start it up to sort out the spindle issue and mach3 wont open. I get this error:



Any advice? I just completed a mill retrofit with LINUXCNC so i'm tempted to go to that for the lathe.

[will gilmore]

Crisis averted. I had switched keyboards and I guess one of the keys is stuck down. It continuously tries to pull up the help menu which does bad things to the computer.

I'm back on track!

[Home Shopper]

I have one of those keyboards too. It sits on a shelf next to my mill and gets covered in metal swarf. Keys always stick down at an awkward moment, and usually repeat at a great rate of knotsssssssssssssssssssssssssss.

I always meant to buy one of those plastic keyboard membrane covers, but never got round to it, so I've had to buy some new keyboards insteadddddddddddddddddddddddd.

Regards,

HomeShopper

[Bubba]

I use one of those "roll up indestructible" keyboards (about 10 years now) and the biggest problem I have is a couple of often used keys have the labels rubbed off. My "mentor" took a hot soldering iron and poked it into one to see what would happen and it is still working!

At ~$15 it is worthwhile as far as I am concerned :})

[will gilmore]

I have a washable keyboard that is still working after living in the shop for awhile. I'll buy another one of those for the lathe. In the mean time its one keyboard for two machines.

[Commander_Riker]

I don't know why everyone is saying "great", because that thing is shaking like chubby checker doing the ****in twist!! Even rock-bottom chinese machine tools are more rigid!!

Sorry to say, but you wasted a perfectly good surface plate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5qhdW7Z9FE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbK0C9AYMd8