It’a a Jet 1642 2hp lathe that’s been converted into a back knife CNC lathe. There are two independent cutters, one pointy and one round. It’s an absolute monster.
The catch is, it’s a prototype and I have to figure out how to run it pretty much on my own. Whee! The controller is loaded with WinCNC and I already found a post for Fusion 360 so I think it’s doable. No guts, no glory I always say.
Just to put a pin in this. I was able to run a program from a card. The problem is there is way too much vertical slop in my setup. It needs stiffer aluminum runners and linear bearings. And a larger router. I still think this can be done.
Something about this just doesn’t seem right. To me, it feels like the equivalent of either 1) trying to run the router at insane feed rates, or 2) a very tiny lathe tool without a rest.
You’re probably right, but I did do this manually years ago. Spinning a blank with a drill and running a 1/2" router along the length to turn it round. It worked just fine. It certainly would have also worked by slowly spinning the blank but I never thought about since it worked. I never said it wasn’t nutty!
Love this Idea!!! I was wondering if anyone has thought to try and connect the X stepper to the to the material. Just like the original design of the lowrider 2. The feed rate and steps would be the same as the original config. My thought is that you could literaly carve a flat image on a curved surface. Instead of the material moving at high RPMs it would move at the standard feedrate allowing the endmill to do the work and design.
This has been done a few times a long time ago. It works just like you said. You need to work out the steps per mm. You can calculate it at one radius, or just fudge it. This is more of a 4th axis, although you are really doing 3 axis milling, which doesn’t require new software.
This machine, in contrast, is really more of a lathe. It can only do profiles that are equal across the entire turn. It also removes material really fast.
