Poor Man ;) Lathe Setup on Milling Indexer

[khalid]

Here is the cheap modification to my Indexer to turn it into TURNING Tool ;) Today I will travel in search of small 1HP Motor for my Lathe.. However, I have substitute arrangement (Drill Machine) if i not find the Motor...


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[the_doctor]

Hi Khalid, looks great. It sounds like your trying to get some higher rpms by hooking up a 1hp motor. I think you'll need to beef up your tool mount. A common problem with duplicating are snags. I run a duplicator lathe and know from experiance a bad snag will rip tooling loose and anything attached to it. Good luck, Carl

[khalid]

Carl

Thanks for your post and suggestions.. I have downloaded Dolphin Partmaster Lathe software Demo, so that I can program all the moves in Gcode... No duplicator, its now become an independendt CNC Lathe...

I will check the functionality of my this setup in coming weekend... I hope the arrangement is sturdy enough, I will show you the detailed pictures of the setup....

The tool is tightly fitted into Square bore metallic part, also an external Elen screw is given for further reinforcement... A groove is made into angle iron, so that the square part snuggly fitted into it, again a bolt is also provided to reinforce both...

The top of angle iron is squared with the Router Body and you can also see its fitted with 8mm dia bolt... Angle iron have no movements (Axial, lateral)...

I will run the actual part soon, then i will come to know the defficiency of the setup...However its an R&D cheap solution to the wood turnining. Meanwhile, i will have some good know how of lathe programming, and just imagine the benefits...

1- you have a lathe setup on the existining router...
2- You can turn the part quickly to the exact vector countour..

3-The same vectors can be easily used for feature machining...

4- Great parts with beautiful production and high income (which is scarce in this region) ;)

[the_doctor]

Great deal, I'd like to hook one up for 9' to 10' runs. Big demand in my area.
Carl

[khalid]

Okay ..The time is come to show you the results of my Lathe attachment work on my Milling machine... I didn't found 1HP motor in Junk Yard so I powered the chuck with the existing Drill Machine, the work you see is for FunFair Bazar, i start creating from yesterday.. The CAD part took much time as compared to CAM and machining...

You can also see the home made Lathe tools and inserts...


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[rb99]

You are amazing...well done!

I always read all your posts...



RB

[myxpykalix]

Khalid,
That stuff looks really cool. I would like to see this cutting in action. If you have a video camera and could take some video and upload to youtube would be neat.

Unlike a lot of us (me included) when we want a bit or tool we just go buy it. Sounds like that is not a convienent option for you and you think about it and go make the tools you need. They look like they turn out to work pretty good too.

How did you draw the profiles and make the toolpaths? What i'm unclear on is...these designs were cut with tooling as opposed to router bits so the toolpathing was limited to just following the profile correct?

I can definitely see one advantage by doing this is being able to make "non-conical"(is that a word?) designs and cuts.

Were different parts of the designs made with different tooling for each piece, or one tool one design for a one piece?

VERY NICE STUFF!

[khalid]

Richard, thanks for compliments and stay tuned

Jack...I draw 2D Profile (only One Half) in AutoCAD , bring it into CAM software Dolphin Partmaster (Lathe)... This software is great and userfriendly.... I used Roughing operation and then performed Finish operation...For Finish operation I made a Button Insert (small tool 4th one from Left-Right)...

I used MachTurn (Lathe controlling software from Artsoft)...

You know the CNC lathe capabilities..You can make any profile through CNC Lathe.. and my Router is Fully Lathe Convertible by that attachment..

Its difficult to make a video for now, I will post some pictures when i next time start turnining...

Used only Two tools for all the parts...You can't go Finish operation in one go, especially when you have valleys (Grooves) in profile... The Cam software helps you defining those valleys and generating separate Finishing operation for those Grooves... All tool paths are combined in a single output GM-code file..

Regards

[khalid]

In my Setup the Tool is stationery like the Lathe tool (i.e. no rotation of tool)...

[mikeacg]

Khalid,

As always, you amaze me at what you can do with your homemade set-up and bits. Thanks for teaching all of us a bit of humility!

I look forward to your pictures from this year's Fun Fair!

Mike