Thor, or should that be Zeus?

**Boyan Silyavski** · 10-07-2017

Originally Posted by Chaz

Has anyone tried one of these, looking for an attachment that I can use to grind on Thor.

http://www.hemingwaykits.com/acatalo...g_Spindle.html

That dust will sand the rails and ball screw if everything is not airtight. Just the thought of it will make any machinist shudder . I guess i am becoming a machinist

**Davek0974** · 10-07-2017

Originally Posted by Boyan Silyavski

That dust will sand the rails and ball screw if everything is not airtight. Just the thought of it will make any machinist shudder . I guess i am becoming a machinist

Yep, never get any grinding dust near a machine with slides, ways or screws, unless its a machine built for grinding - instant death of many a lathe.

**Chaz** · 20-07-2017

Ill post some updated pics of Thor this weekend as I complete the new table and a few bits.

I have also bought a lathe (another thread) that I was going to convert into CNC or build a new one. I then started to think of a 4th axis for Thor which I could use the same headstock for. Perhaps not good as as dividing head however this then opened up a bit of a Eureka moment this morning in the shower (one of the many places for inspirational thinking).

Here's my thoughts.

Take the headstock, mount on Thor's table. Find a way to fit a motor and spin the headstock at lathe type speeds.

Create a new Mach 3 profile, I assume that that I can now assign different axis to different channels, using the CS Labs plugin. This means that my current X can become my new Z (for lathe use). I can then either use the current Z or Y to do the lathe X. This will depend on where / how I can mount lathe tools.

For the lathe tooling, this needs to be mounted on the current spindle mount plate. I can move the current spindle and aim to have more than one 'device' hanging off the main Z plate. From this - I can either try and direct mount some tools however the best approach is likely to mount a turret of sorts. This will allow tools that profile and face to be used, as well as anything that needs to drill or bore.

Any reason this might not work or is an obvious bad idea?

Thanks

**Chaz** · 21-07-2017

Ill take that as a no then ;p

In terms of Acceleration, how much would be considered good or 'too much'?

**Davek0974** · 22-07-2017

Acceleration needs to be as high as it can take. Acceleration is more important than speed.

**Chaz** · 23-07-2017

Originally Posted by Davek0974

Acceleration needs to be as high as it can take. Acceleration is more important than speed.

Thanks. I had it set to 1500, then down to 750 which is too slow. The machine seems OK with it being 2000 which Ill try for a while and see.

**m_c** · 23-07-2017

Originally Posted by Chaz

Ill take that as a no then ;p

It is doable, however, the big question I'd ask is, how much effort is it going to be to swap between lathe and router?

**Chaz** · 23-07-2017

Originally Posted by m_c

It is doable, however, the big question I'd ask is, how much effort is it going to be to swap between lathe and router?

Understood. If the lathe tools / turrets are mounted to the right of the spindle, it could be as easy as just starting the correct Mach 3 profile, no other work needed.