Hello, New here, first post. I am looking to build a cnc x y bed for my wood lathe to turn pens consistently. I never built a cnc before but saw a video on a cnc x y table openbuilds put on YouTube. I will post more info about the size of my lathe and plan specs, but wanted to introduce myself in the mean time and ask if there is a direction to be pointed in. Thanks!
I would buy a smaller chuck than I did. I bought a 100mm chuck, but if I were to do it again, I would purchase a 4 jaw 65mm if one could be found. It would be much cheaper and square stock would be easier to work with. LEAD Lathe
I don't know about 65mm but wood lathes use 3" chucks which is about 75mm and I think my mini metal lathe has a 3" chuck too, but I don't remember 100% right now.
My wood lathe has a mandrel that fits a pen blank with a brass tube in the middle of it. I want to try to build a x y table to cut the blank while its spinning on the lathe. By the way, nice build you made! How much $$ did it all take?
I don't know the exact amount. I purchased the High Z modification for the Lead 1010 then purchased extra extrusions and screws. However, I purchased other items for other machines I am working on at the same time.
Do you mean an arm the holds the knife that does the carving? I think the easiest is to do one similar to mine. Then you are not limited to just round pens. You can carve other profiles as well. This is more intricate that what you need for a pen, but here is a beer tap handle I just carved for someone. There are limits to what it can carve, but once you figure those out, you create your models to fit within those limits. Vectric's Vcarve makes it easy. If you want to use a CNC arm to move a knife, this guy built a cool one. However, I was never able to find his software.
The arm in the video would be great for me, just need to figure out a way to built it on my lathe. I also like your idea with the z axis arm because it would help align the bit onto the wood and also can carve 3d pens too. How much would a small version of your build be to make in a ball park $$ range?
The most expensive part was the rotary axis. But, If a person went with a smaller one like a 65mm chuck, that waould knock about $100 off the price. Mine was about $230. This would be the easiest way to get the main components. I started with the High Z mod and then bought the other components. Had I been smart, I would have done the High Z and then linear actuator bundles. This is approximately what you would need. Plus about 40 angled connectors and 80 8mm screws to connect them. There are other screws necessary as well, but I bought most of my stuff separately other than the High Z. If you go the linear actuator route, the screws to build two of the three actuators are included. The other two Cbeam plates and 8 wheel kits are for the Z axis. You get the 500mm Cbeam for the Z in the High Z mod kit. I used the high torque steppers. But, those will get moved to my main CNC machine when I do a bunch of upgrades to it. Currently it has some 270 oz (or 269,I can't remember) Nema 23s on it that were sold prior to the High torque motor availability. Those will get moved to the lathe. At one point, I was writing down every component I was using as I was installing it to keep a good BOM. However, I can't find that piece of paper at this time.
thanks for the detailed list! I wonder if I take the zx apparatus you have and just put it on my lathe, or turn it 90 degress and use it as a xy instead of a xz. I really want to try and use the wood lathe I just spend $400 bucks on. This one Seems a waste to build a rotary axis when all I want to do is pens and this one already has enough power and I just also spend the $$$ for the mandrels, chucks and bits. LOL and they say Golf is a rich mans sport. I think I am going to work on my turning skills abit and think of how to best approach the way to go about doing this. By the way, this forum is great!
