The sows ear, a Clarke Metalworker Mill / Lathe conversion to cnc

[FatFreddie]

Some pictures from my conversion of a cheap and nasty Clarke Mill / Lathe.

I've called it the sows ear because I don't think any amount of effort will turn it into a silk purse. It's also a bootstrap project - I've had to keep it working during the process since it's the only metalworking machinery I've got. The Z axis is the best example of this.

It's very much an experiment / work in progress as you will see.

Starting point...



X axis - doesn't look too bad but the coupler is pretty rubbish so it'll need remaking.



The Y axis works quite well apart from the tendency of the axis to bind if anything other than the vice is bolted to the milling table.



The Z axis will make you wince but it's accurate enough to make the proper brackets which would take ages by hand.



It's actually working a lot better than I thought it would. Backlash is approx .016mm on the X and Y axes and about 1 mm on the Z (and it wobbles) but that should be sorted soon. The worm gear from the existing fine feed will never provide great accuracy though so I may need to go to an external leadscrew.

Electronics are a system 4 kit from DIYCNC and which has worked great with EMC2 as the controller.

Don't be afraid to take the mickey - I'm under no illusions

Mark