[LeeWay]

http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate...rUrl=Translate


It's difficult to translate directly. I do speak German, so it's a little better in the actual german. I am rusty though, so the english did fill in the gaps a little.

[skmetal7]

is there an advantage to mounting the saddle/cross slide on an angle, as opposed to building a 'flat' lathe and mounting the whole thing to a bench that is angled? it would seem easier to build and still serve the same purpose.

[Guldberg]

Im still considering that option to. The advantage of having the cross slide angle is that turret/tool is angled infront of the axis. To get the same effect with a normal bed, you had to have some overhang on the cross slider itself. I think ill have to build a mock up of both designsto get a idea how it works.

By the way, im finishing up my master theises at the moment, so besides from checking the zone when i get bored writing, i dont have much time to do any machine work or build anything right now

[svenakela]

Why don't you make it flat and then cast a concrete base? Then you'll have a good base, nice angle and no welding-strange-pieces headache.
Darn! That's an adult Kinderegg!

[Guldberg]

Hehe... Like the idea. So the base plate (or whatever you call the piece where the rails and headstock is bolted to) could be bolted to a large slanted concrete block. Sure would make the fabrication easier. How do you suggest bolting it to the block without bending it, its only 15mm thick, so i guess you could bend/warp it just by tighting it against a not perfectly flat surface?

[Guldberg]

Some searching led me to two options:

Selfleveling epoxy

Let the baseplate ride on bolts - http://s177.photobucket.com/albums/w...nt=18liten.jpg

I like the second option the best, my only worry is how easy it is to perfectly align the baseplate so it doesnt bend or warp

[LeeWay]

If you wanted to go the rock route, then you could use a granite surface plate sized properly. They are fairly inexpensive compaired to having steel or cast iron fabbed up. You could pour a slanted concrete base and simply set the surface plate into it while still wet. Drill and insert some J bolts into the surface plate bottom first, and you would have a solid base.
I doubt you would ever see any bowing in a 4 or 5 inch thick surface plate. (10 to 13 mm)
I have been running that option around in my head for my future lathe project. Mine would not be a slanted base though.
I have a little minim lathe cnc'ed now and I just have a lot of backlash. Hard to get anything near perfect that way. I have some better screws, but it would still take a good deal of work to install those. I'm thinking my time might be better spent on a complete new build. I am watching your thread with interest. Good luck with whatever you chose.

[Guldberg]

I had a converted mini lathe as well but came to the same conclusion as you. Time was better spend on new build.

As for the granit, i would rather just bolt the baseplate to the concrete itself. When i think about it, if aligned properly, a surface ground 20mm steelplate properly would be just fine

[Guldberg]

Doing a little reading i find that concrete moves and creeps over time (many years), so either you should loosen and tighten the bolts ones in a while or you should look into other sorts of materiales such as the epoxy granite. Guess i still have to rethink the solution

[digits]

If you are going to bolt anything down in more than 3 places, you will end up distorting it to fit the thing you are bolting it to. Couldn't you build it flat, build a tilted table of no great accuracy and then just fix the machine at either end of the bed and the furthest out part of the cross-member? As long as the centre of gravity of the machine is within its feet (at all times), it won't want to move due to gravity.

[svenakela]

The well known brake system producer ISR has a home made heavy duty lathe made of a steel cage filled with tarmac.

[Guldberg]

My spindle arrived today. Its a brand new sparepart for a german optimum lathe,MT4 taper inside, bore-through of 26mm. Bought a 125mm chuck adapter that needs a little adjustment to fit my chucks, ill do that when the lathe is up and running.

[praetor]

Now that's a beautiful piec of equipment...can't wait to see the machines completion..

[the4thseal]

so how much does something that nice cost? if you do not my me asking, and did you get matching bearings? nice!

[Guldberg]

150$ for it all, incl. shipping. Im glad i didnt bother making it my self:-) I didnt order a set of bearings, instead i plan to buy some angular contact bearings, 7209's of some sort

[chich2]

Wow!!!! Nice one!!!!! You saved yourself A LOT of work there.

Well done,
Chich

[praetor]

Guldburg, how does your turret/"revolver operate? I see their is a stepper motor incorporated into it but what makes the turret/revolver lift?. is it also run with pnuematic (air) pressure?

[Guldberg]

Springbased for holding and pneumatic for releasing. But i think i changed my mind and are going to build the turret the german linked to earlier build. Another guy also build it, he just uploaded a video on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-9J4KsXYwU

Oppose to my design, this one has been proven to work.

[praetor]

I think both ideas are cool your design and dumpstercnc's build (youtube video). I'd like to build your turret lathe also and down loaded the plans for it but I can't seem to open SAT files...please advise on how to open [SAT] files. Thanks

[Guldberg]

It aint mine,just to clarify:-) Its some german guys.

Sat files are 3d cad file, most cad programs can open these. I uses pro/e, only i cannot open the file if the filename contains spaces or odd german letters