On 17 November 2010 02:45, Jon Elson <el...@pico-systems.com> wrote: > Metric threading and tapers are the main reason I would like to CNC it. .... > But, it can only do Imperial threads.
Assuming it is a conventional lathe with a leadscrew and a power-feed shaft down the front, then perhaps a solution would be to simply independently motorise both shafts from the right-hand end? You would end up with an electronic leadscrew so could cut any pitch, and the other motor could wind the X out and back in at the ends of the thread. You would have a lot of backlash, but manual lathes work perfectly well with backlash so it is probably not a huge issue. That only really works for threading, unless you use the leadscrew for all longitudinal feeds. A lot of lathes do work that way (mainly little ones) so it isn't such a dreadful idea outside of an industrial context. You would have the option of switching from facing feed to longitudinal on the "X" motor (interesting from a HAL point of view) You could still use the lathe manually for your finishing cuts, just using the CNC for the repetitive cuts, and to cut threads. -- atp ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Beautiful is writing same markup. Internet Explorer 9 supports standards for HTML5, CSS3, SVG 1.1, ECMAScript5, and DOM L2 & L3. Spend less time writing and rewriting code and more time creating great experiences on the web. Be a part of the beta today http://p.sf.net/sfu/msIE9-sfdev2dev _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
