Nice catch, John. I've dreamed of finding two identical such speed lathes. My plan would be to have both headstocks on a real beefy linear rail (think size 45 or 55), with two X axes on another rail. The headstocks would give me Z motion, and I could do part transfer and back side work, as well as pinch turning. Each X would have a gang tool slide, although turrets would be more versatile. I would set up my two X's so that tha gang tools on one face the one headstock, and the gang tools on the other face the second one.
What does your lathe have for a collet closer? I have an old Dunham headstock with a pneumatic closer that I picked up years ago (for more than you paid :-(). Now I just need a second one. Mine isn't nearly as nice condition either. -- Ralph ________________________________________ From: John Kasunich [jmkasun...@fastmail.fm] Sent: Monday, May 20, 2013 7:13 PM To: Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: [Emc-users] two X axes on a lathe? OK, I admit that this post is partly just a tool gloat, but I do wonder if anyone has done a lathe with two independent X axes? The gloat: I just bought a Dunham Tool Co, "Optimatic Lensmaker" for $115 plus tax. It was originally used to make contact lenses. It has a normal Z axis, but no X. Instead there was a rotary axis with manual adjustments for tool tip radius (like a ball turning attachment). I took off all the contact lens stuff, and found a gem of a small lathe hiding underneath: Photos: http://jmkasunich.com/pics/lathe-front.jpg http://jmkasunich.com/pics/lathe-top.jpg http://jmkasunich.com/pics/lathe-saddle.jpg Features: 5C spindle taper. Dunham spindles are supposed to be on par with Hardinge. Ways are hardened/ground steel bolted to the cast iron. Saddle has turcite or similar anti-stiction material. Saddle has tapered gibs. Sturdy - it is only about 18" long overall, but it weighs 140 lbs (bed, headstock, and saddle). As the last picture shows, the saddle is very long in the Z direction - about 8.5 inches. But there is only about 4 inches of Z travel. Doing collet work with no tailstock means I won't be running very long workpieces. But normally it would need a lot of Z travel to turn the full length of a part, and then attack the end with a drill or boring bar. Here is my idea - I put one X axis at the headstock end of the saddle, with a turning/facing tool on it. Maybe put a parting tool on the back side. Then put another X axis at the right end of the saddle, and equip it with several tool blocks, each set up to hold a drill chuck, collet chuck, or boring bar. Both X axes would be linear rails. There is about 2.5 inches from the top of the saddle to the spindle centerline - should be enough. Given the quality of the rest of the machine I would probably be using ground and preloaded ballscrews - there are some good deals on ebay. Any thoughts on the dual-X-axis idea? -- John Kasunich jmkasun...@fastmail.fm ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Try New Relic Now & We'll Send You this Cool Shirt New Relic is the only SaaS-based application performance monitoring service that delivers powerful full stack analytics. Optimize and monitor your browser, app, & servers with just a few lines of code. Try New Relic and get this awesome Nerd Life shirt! http://p.sf.net/sfu/newrelic_d2d_may _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Try New Relic Now & We'll Send You this Cool Shirt New Relic is the only SaaS-based application performance monitoring service that delivers powerful full stack analytics. Optimize and monitor your browser, app, & servers with just a few lines of code. Try New Relic and get this awesome Nerd Life shirt! http://p.sf.net/sfu/newrelic_d2d_may _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
