ML7 : To convert, or not...

[mekanik]

Hi Doddy
Diesel was contemplating building a slant bed lathe some time ago but never got round to it, don't know if he got as far as designing it but might be worth dropping him a pm.
Regards
Mike

[JohnHaine]

I have cnc'd my Super 7 and I'm very glad I did. It's a late PXF version, which has room in the saddle for a 12mm ballscrew, though I had to mount the nut sticking out because there isn't room to mount it conventionally. The 12mm screw has enough rigidity that you don't need a bearing on the back.

For the non-PXF S7 and ML7 the hole in the cross slide is too small for a 12mm screw. If you look at this site:

https://cncyourmyford.com/

...he uses an 8mm ballscrew screw (I think) - these are more expensive and do need another thrust bearing at the back and to keep the screw under some tension. I think the same approach would work for the ML7.

My X ballscrew I think has a 2.5 or 3 mm pitch - whatever it is it's swallowed up in the axis setup in Mach 3. The 8mm screw will have a smaller pitch. I started driving the screw with timing belt and pulleys but went over to direct drive from the stepper when I fitted the ballscrew as I think I was getting cyclic errors from slight pulley eccentricities.

As for the Z screw - so far I haven't found a situation where I can't avoid having to cut in the positive direction, but at some point I would like to convert to a ballscrew. The above site explains how and he also sells some castings to adapt the apron. You need to keep chips off the screw, and he uses a very neat approach using Dyson vac hoses as bellows! I use Tony Jeffree's approach of a stepper on a bracket at the back of the lathe with timing belt drive to a pulley that replaces the Z handwheel. Of course the leadscrew is 1/8" pitch (on my "metric" lathe!) but again Mach 3 takes care of that.

I've done some other mods, mainly removing the flimsy Myford topslide and making a very solid toolpost mounting block for the Dickson toolholder which is dowelled so I can quickly change tools and maintain referencing. I haven't fitted limit switches, I can't see they are much use on the lathe, I do use soft limits in particular to avoid running the crossslide off the ballnut! I've fitted a crosslide reference "switch" that zeros Mach3 at the start of a session - once all my tools are calibrated I can just dial in the tool number and pretty reliably cut to a known diameter.

Happy to answer any further questions if I can help. I love CNC turning!

PS: The way I've done the conversion, I can put the lathe back to its standard state with no issues. In particular I made a new bracket for the cross-slide screw motor mount.

[JohnHaine]

BTW - happy to show you the lathe or provide some photos.

[mekanik]

Photos would be nice

[Doddy]

John,

Good to hear the changes you made - all perfectly sensible. Holes can always be made bigger :) I'd be curious if you have retained a manual operation capability or not, and if you have - do you use it? I look at the manual capability compromising the CNC options.

Would love to see any pics... Cambridge is a bit far to eyeball at this point :)

Mike

[m_c]

I think the big question you need to ask yourself, is what exactly do you intend to make with the lathe?

If you want to knock out multiples of the same part, or items with a lot of profiling, CNC'ing makes sense.
If you only want to make relatively simple parts in single quantities, then CNC can actually take longer.

I've never been a fan of CNC's that still have handles attached. Manual machining with ballscrews is a pain (larger pitch makes accuracy challenging, and they're not selflocking), and CNCing with ACME screws is not ideal.

I still have a manual lathe, and I wouldn't sell it, but then for simple parts I still like being able to take a sketch and just get on with it.
Everything on a manual lathe can be done on a CNC, it's just if I'm going to have to babysit a CNC to ensure tolerances are on spec for a one off part, I'd much rather be spinning the handles than hitting buttons!

Out of curiosity, do you have a DRO on your lathe?
It makes using a lathe far easier.

[Doddy]

I don't have a DRO - and that's half the problem.

With the stuff I have in the shed it would cost me as much to add DROs as to CNC the lathe. It's one of those binary decisions that I need to make.

I don't intend to make many multiples of the same part, no. But, part of the task to CNC it is for the hell of it. One of the appeal is for more complex shapes - tapers (yes, can be done but...) balls (I inherited a ball-turning device with the lathe, but...). Another possibly mis-guided view is that by removing the top slide I can increase the rigidity of the lathe. Also, those silly little hand wheels are not the most ergonomic with my sausage fingers. Then factor in the imperial nature (not a huge issue, but I'm clinging onto this) and a Mach conversion holds some appeal. I'm currently juggling gib-screw forces with the tightness of the part-worn cross slide acme screw to minimise backlash and rigidity.

I also wonder if throwing a micro controller in there could help produce a stand-alone capable machine with fly-by-wire controls and an easy macro option for simple shapes. I don't want to necessarily be tied into F360 to turn down a radius.

It would be my only lathe, I can't afford more space to have a CNC and manual separate option. I have been keeping an eye out for a cheap (hah!) CNC lathe to replace the Myford, and for that keeping it as-is is appealing.

EDIT:

John, can I ask what you've done with the spindle motor?

[JohnHaine]

No manual operation capability though I would like to add some handwheel encoders to give a sort of manual control, but frankly I don't really miss manual. I do have a, XBox controller for jogging which is useful for quick positioning, but not really for cutting. Even if the drivers are not powered up trying to manually turn steppers is not easy and having to disconnect them is a pain.

There is this persistent myth that CNC is only for repetitive work. Once you have calibrated tools and the ability to home the X axis, it's probably quicker to chuck a bit of bar, find its end (I have a "find bar end" macro with a tool touch sensor to do this), select the wizard to use, and let it rip, than do it manually. Mach 3 wizards let you do turning to a diameter, radiusing a shoulder, tapers, balls (internal and external), and threads. Very occasionally there's something where you need to write G code - for example doing odd profiles on gear cutters. There isn't unfortunately a Mach 3 parting wizard but it's very easy to program parting in the MDI. (One day I'll write a macro for it perhaps.) Mach 3 will thread but only syncs on 1 pulse per rev so you have to take light cuts - but so what, the wizard does it all for you anyway.

I haven't controlled the spindle yet - I keep meaning to fit a 3 phase motor and VFD but too many other things to do. So I just start and stop the lathe manually.

Photos will take a while as I'm off on hols and other things for a couple of weeks.