[Tormachmaster]

Any future plans for a lathe kit?

[bohica]

Tommy told me several months ago that a CNC lathe was on the horizion. Not sure what the status is. If they get it done, I'll be one of the first in line for it.

[Shev]

Tommy told me several months ago that a CNC lathe was on the horizion. Not sure what the status is. If they get it done, I'll be one of the first in line for it.

He basically told us the same thing when we where there just before New Years...

[Cruiser]

I had many a pleasant conversation with Gene before his passing. I'll miss his calls for sure. One of the topics was of course Lathes, I think he may have picked my empty knogin because I have been a cnc lathe man for over 30 yrs.
One of the lathe items he was thinking of was a turret. I told him that we had access to a manual lathe with a turret mounted on tail stock and it only got used for one job every two yrs. It was very limited to what it was good for.
I also felt that a lathe would have much smaller following than does the mill. I don't recall if I was able to mention that the Ideal small lathe should have a slant bed, be setup for tooling which popped chips DOWN into a deep chip pan and some form of a tooling drum for cnc use. I know I didn't get to say that I'd also go for a DC spindle drive with torque down under 1krpm and top speed in the 10k+rpm range. This would be a bit of a spendy machine but could even become a one of a kind and very desirable to entry level shops. Having run lathes in a jobber shop, I know about setup times for differant jobs and how they can really add up. I ran a Hitachi seiki which was really difficult to set up most jobs in it as it was really better suited for long runs without change. I also ran some big Cinncinati's which were very quick and easy to set up for most jobs. The main differance was in the tool drum and how the tooling was incorporated. The tooling must be easily changed out and yet rigid enough to do the job while still be versatile ! This is no small order ! It is also imperitive to make it robust enough to take the inevitable hits in conjunction with brain farting ! Or the machine becomes a useless piece of junk in short order. I've seen the damage that can be done and know that it is inevitable and can't be eliminated but must be designed for !
So, I guess it all boils down to how much lathe is going to be iron and how much is going to be cosmetics. They all have their practical side and limitations. To pick a target cost in $ and keep design within that would end up being just another simple modified manual lathe. For a good lathe, I'd suggest designing the iron and ordering it from china then doing the rest of it in house. Then maybe it would end up being a desirable one of a kind sought out by many !
I guess this is a bit more than two cents worth isn't it ! Sorry !
Don