I had the same concern a few years back when I converted a 10x20 lathe to CNC. I almost added hand wheels? on the steppers but was talked out of it. Rights I have been using the MDI functions on Mach4 and I find that it works great and is a lot faster for single projects. I was missing the hand feed feeling but now I never give it a thought and let Mach4 do it's thing.
On 05/12/2021 4:15 PM Dale Grice <dfgrice@...> wrote:
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So I built up a Little Machine Shops minilathe with Mach4 and PoKeys57 ala the Techshops design put together by Joe Katona and Ron Ginger.
Works pretty good for small stuff. Minlathe needs physical tweaking and greater rigidity. I have an Enco 13X40 geared head lathe as well where I am doing more single point threading all the time and needing to do some larger diameter tapered threads. The minilathe just does not have the low end torque. So I keep looking at the mini Vs. the 13x40 and thinking about ball screws retrofitted to the the 13x40.
My concerns and thoughts;
If I retrofit with ball screws, I am under the impression that I would not be able to use the lathe in the old fashioned mode. The ball screws would allow the cross slide or carriage to move too freely or run away under pressure. Make sense?
If I replace the carriage lead screw, which one? The one for turning or threading. I could just disengage the quick change gear box. But the feed rate chart would have to be recalculated.
Other thoughts or concerns? Another lathe is out of the question.
Thought about getting a small X Y table and mount to the cross slide.
Thanks,
Dale Grice
