On Wed, 2013-06-12 at 19:28 +0200, Roland Jollivet wrote: > On 12 June 2013 17:35, andy pugh <bodge...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > I accidentally bought another lathe from eBay. > > It is beautifully made, in the 1920s, with no regard to cost > > practicality or logic. One of these: > > http://www.lathes.co.uk/rivett/page2.html > > > > It isn't quite as nice as the one in the pictures, and has no > > changewheels or screwcutting box. (imagine is stops short at the back > > of the headstock). > > > > Should I CNC it? > > > > If I do, I would have to do it sympathetically. (My other hobby is > > vehicles from the same era). > > As the entire cross-slide pops off at the flick of a lever, it is not > > difficult to imagine a slot-on CNC cross-slide, possibly incorporating > > a tool turret. In this respect the conversion is easier than the > > Chinese lathe I converted. > > > > However, the Z-axis poses something of a quandry. There is no way at > > all to swap the leadscrew to a ballscrew. It sits snugly in a > > semicircular slot in the bed. > > So, perhaps I could mount a ballscrew on a bracket at the back. Then I > > could slot-on the CNC top-slide and bolt it to the nut, and if I > > wanted to use the lathe in manual mode I could unbolt it, swap back to > > the manual toolslide, and resort to craftsmanship. > > > > Or, I could just convert it to an electric leadscrew with an Arduino > > and sell it on as a working lathe. > > > > I do think it needs to be mounted on an oak cabinet like the original > > Rivett ones. I think that looks great :-) > > (Then flat-belt drive to a motor/vfd mounted underneath) > > > > > > > If it's a piece of iron to you, then hack away. If you see value in it's > authenticity, then why not fix it up and re-sell it, and put the money > towards a more 'appropriate' machine. (presumably more recent) > > I have a similar dilemma, but with a mint condition Myford 7 that was my > fathers'. I haven't switched it on for 3 years because it's a pain to use, > but why CNC it and butcher it when I have a CNC lathe already??? > > Regards > Roland
Hi all, I have a Jet lathe that I'm deep into converting to CNC. If I had it to do again I would buy a CNC lathe with a dead control. So much good stuff comes with that approach, servo motors, limit switches, etc. Unfortunately, just getting dead iron here is expensive. It is bad enough from LA but much worse from IL east. Hard to win. maybe not even 2 cents worth. Dave ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This SF.net email is sponsored by Windows: Build for Windows Store. http://p.sf.net/sfu/windows-dev2dev _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
