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Mach4 currently has a set of "wizards" for lathe work that will generate g-code for simple shapes. CamBam will also do turning generation.
That looks like a very nice, clean design. It's good and bad that you can put it on the milling table. It's good that you can lift it and it fits. The bad part is it won't take "large" parts. The Little Machine Shop 7x16 lathe seems a good candidate for conversion. I would hate to discarding all the irrelevant parts though.I'm still converting a Sherline lathe to CNC. The basic machine is functioning but I need to mount the encoder. The Sherline CNC kit was easy to install but they have no mounting scheme for an encoder. Have been taken away by travels and now "restoration" of a basement wall. (Had a friend and structural engineer look it over. Expected to hear it's ok OR call these guys and get it fixed. He said you should put in some steel support beams but, oh, you could do this yourself handing me a set of plans. More time away from the shop!)I'm mainly doing the Sherline to see how useful a CNC lathe will be in a hobby shop setting. It is a little small, but should answer the question. If I'd known about this 7x16 design I'd have been real tempted. The Little Machine Shop 8.5x20 looks like a good size if CNC is found to be useful. I've stated to use CamBam for lathe G-code generation. They have an experimental plug in that's marginally useful. I expect it will rapidly get better. Till then I expect a good bit of hand coding.My plan is to use a quick change tool post. This, I think, will be similar to the Tormach mill tooling, consistent manual tool changes. I don't think gang tooling would be useful for a one off parts. But hey, I have no experience with CNC lathes. I'll be real interested in your experiences.My reasons for a CNC lathe include fancy round profiling and threading. Round profiles like columns for model engines. Also threading a dozen parts or so, like studs or special screws. It'll be interested to see what uses others find.Please keep posting and let us know what uses you find. Thanks.Hugh
Hugh, I hope that maybe you will start a thread dealing with your Sherline CNC conversion.Jim
Quote from: Flyboy Jim on June 25, 2016, 03:41:46 AMHugh, I hope that maybe you will start a thread dealing with your Sherline CNC conversion.JimA CNC build thread is a little off topic here. I also hate to document the retrofit in several places. I am documenting the process on the LinuxCNC forum. I hope anyone interested will follow the thread there. It includes all the nitty gritty ugly details showing my ignorance. I will post the final result here and, certainly, how I end up using it in making engines.It's good to see interest in CNC here. I know how useful a CNC mill is. I have more doubts about a lathe but there's some interest in this also. I'll be interested in everyones experiences, and hopefully add a little.Thanks.Hugh
Is the encoder setup correctly on the spindle?
Mach4 uses a hardware motion control board, in this case a PoKey57e.