I am located in southwestern ontario canada and have had my cnc machine since 2007 xmas it a 5x9 model 4x8 working surface 3 axis the but 4 now.This is the story of my latest project :
I wanted to be able to use my old rockwell lathe on the front end of the cnc machine .I found that by the time i bought a head and a tail stock ,then designed some sort of bed i may as well use a lathe i had kicking around.
First off i had to raise the router support then cut the cnc table (replaceable) and mount the rockwell .
I also ran some mock up tests with a wood model lathe .Then a 4th axis was needed and a stepper motor to drive the lathe .First i experimented with a belt drive which was fine then went to chain as the lathe had a threaded 1 in x 8pt left thread outboard shaft fitting the stepper here was tricky.But it works fine it was difficult as i asked a lot of people there opions and asked a lot of people about settings ,but its great. My biggest problem was to know what sort of steppers i had as there was no documentaion with my machine .Well i sorted it out ,now i have wiring diagrams ,parts lists and suppliers.It was a large undertaking and a challenge but its turned out well.Now i feel i know my machine and could tackle more
I'm cutting on the round and flad and 3d
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wra5FjQmG8I belt driven
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7r1bgLBg4Y indexer cut
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YYLsw9arik a wrap
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ee0qc7pK-U using the chain setup
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJkpm3iqVz4 electric guitar