Convert Wood Lathe from hand held tooling

[Wobblybootie]

The 900mm length was just showing the capacity of the lathe , sorry I did not make that clearer. I want to retain the ability to machine that sort of length between centres, Newel posts, Spindles etc. right down to pens (a good seller). I would like to turn bowls, goblets and other chuck held items as well. Basically do all the things I used to be able to do ...

[steve123]

The 900mm length was just showing the capacity of the lathe , sorry I did not make that clearer. I want to retain the ability to machine that sort of length between centres, Newel posts, Spindles etc. right down to pens (a good seller). I would like to turn bowls, goblets and other chuck held items as well. Basically do all the things I used to be able to do ...

Hi,
Why not just set up a two guide rail cnc system running 900-1000 mm to the front or back of the lathe, with a two rail cross slide joined too it,with a router bolted to the cross slide, cutter facing wood ,which could then take care of your spindle work plus outside of bowls.then mount the router again on the cross slide but at a slight angle facing towards the chuck for your inside bowl work providing the radius of the bowl it big enough to clear the router body or you could play with the angles you mount it at.

[Wobblybootie]

I get what you mean ...and that is a possibility. I was looking at the bowl problem from the the direction of mounting the blank and machining in one go, if I mounted the blank then proceeded to mill the outside first then rechucked it as I would under normal circumstances, then milled the inside to finish, problem solved. I still may be better off mounting the router on a rotary table on the cross slide ... I am assuming that I would continue to keep the blank turning in the standard direction to get the cutter into a 'reversed' or concave bowl lip. I had fallen into my normal trap of overcomplicating things...

[steve123]

I get what you mean ...and that is a possibility. I was looking at the bowl problem from the the direction of mounting the blank and machining in one go, if I mounted the blank then proceeded to mill the outside first then rechucked it as I would under normal circumstances, then milled the inside to finish, problem solved. I still may be better off mounting the router on a rotary table on the cross slide ... I am assuming that I would continue to keep the blank turning in the standard direction to get the cutter into a 'reversed' or concave bowl lip. I had fallen into my normal trap of overcomplicating things...

Hi,
Yes think you might need the rotary table if using a normal router,something like this may work without because of the small body http://www.mycncuk.com/forums/showth...ight=brushless ,but it does mean your in for a lot of work with the total conversion,the good thing about using a router/spindle is the speed will do all the work,so you could drive your lathe chuck very slow,maybe with a stepper motor,the motor would run continually for turning work and then index round for your fluting,barley twists or any holes you need round the circumference.

Steve.

[John S]

Sorry to piss on your chips but from the looks of that machine, nice as it is, it's not a real candidate for a CNC conversion.

You would probably be a lot better off selling it or using it as a second op machine and starting with a clean sheet of paper.
What you want to do has been done before in various stages, simple linear rails for the bed and cross slide and a double drive system for the head as Steve says, motor to spin at speed for turning and stepped geared drive for barley twists etc.

.

[steve123]

Well hope you get it sorted mate,so you can get back to making a living.

Steve.