Thread: Building on a lathe idea
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10-08-2019 #1
So, I really need a lathe with rigid tapping ability and live tooling, but workshop space is restricted, and power supply sufficiently limited to rule out any cheap (aka big!) industrial options.
I could upgrade my Denford Cyclone to get rigid tapping, but that would mean a period without a functioning lathe.
A few months ago, while stood threading some parts on my much abused Clarke CL500, I thought the nice flat topped bed would be almost ideal to mount a couple linear rails on, and combine it with a gangtool setup would be somewhere in the ball park of what I'd need.
But after a bit measuring/sketching, I came to the conclusion the bed would likely be too narrow once a reasonably sized cross slide is fitted and loaded up with my ideal amount of tooling.
So letting the idea roll around in my head, the big issue is a suitable base. I'm not sure when I had the eureka moment, but that's where my recent post about Epoxy Granite comes in. Why don't I cast one?
At the moment, I've got as far as sketching some rough spindle/bed shapes, and working on the list of things that will need to be allowed for in the base mould/cast I.e. ballscrew/motor mounts, cable routing, way cover mounting screws (aka the little details that could potentially cause big headaches!).
I'm probably going to go for a slant bed build, as although it makes the casting/machining a bit more problematic, the swarf management is far better in the long term.
I'm still very much undecided about the spindle mount. I'm likely to buy a spindle from China, but I'm not sure whether a steel weldment, or another EG cast would be better.
So this thread is going to be somewhere to list my ideas/thoughts, and for anybody else to add in comments/advise/criticism (I already know this could be very likely end up in a reasonably expensive stupid idea!)Avoiding the rubbish customer service from AluminiumWarehouse since July '13.
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