Hello from Michigan. I am presently designing a 4' x 4' 3 axis cnc router, I'm building this for cutting tapers on pool cue butts and shafts that I will be building. My thought was to mount my lathe bed to the table of the router for spinning the wood low speeds for roughing and high speeds for finishing. I also need a dedicated 4th axis for cutting inlays, pockets, butterfly joints and other work. The lathe is a custom fabricated unit using all Taig lathe components and will have a 3/4hp DC motor belt driven to give me adjustable speed while maintaining maximum torque at low rpm for times I have to do coring work on cues. My question is, am I better off with 2 lathe beds on the one table, 1 for indexing and one for 2000 rpm, or can i incorporate them both into one unit? I assume I could mount a stepper motor with a pulley opposite of the dc drive motor and switch belts from one to the other depending on the process I need to do. This is all very new to me so I apologize if I'm am using improper terminology or not describing what I need as good as I should. I appreciate any input you guys can offer me. This will be constructed predominantly of 80/20 for all structural components, a MDF bed for a sacrificial surface yet added strength. I am still on the fence about the linear components but I am leaning towards 20mm round slides with ball screws for both X and Y, and undecided yet on the X carriage yet. I have no idea on electronic yet and I am very open to suggestions. I know working with wood does not usually compare to working with metal as far as the tolerances or precision factor, but high end fully spliced and half spliced cue sticks are the exception as everything has to be perfect or better. Thanks in advance! I will post a nice build log with pictures once I am done with the design and start working on it.
Any cutting tool works by moving a cutting edge against material. On a lathe, the material spins against a fixed tool. On a mill, the tool spins against a fixed material. With that said, putting both on the same table in pointless. You only end up with more positioning issues and an entirely extra step that. A lathe is 2 axis. A mill will a rotary axis is a 4 axis. At least, that's my thought process. Kev
You might start by looking at these two builds and figure out exactly what they won't do that you need to happen. Rotary CNC Rotary Axis OX Derivitive
I looked at both of those builds and I commend thier efforts and construction, and i bet they both do what is required of them. That said I seems to me they are both fixed gantry with only 2 axis. If that is the case it is just an inverted cnc operated compound cross slide like you would find on a metal lathe. It seems like a rather expensive approach to just adding a simple duplicator or a set of taper bars to a standard wood lathe, but I could be wrong as I usually am. I need the ability to do full 4 axis work when it comes to cutting a full splice in a butt and forearm, cutting intricate inlay pockets into the butt around the circumference and also cut the female portion of the inlay from flat stock to go into the pockets. I also need it to run high rpms for standard square to round and round to taper. I am asking a lot of one machine and could build a few, and down the road I will, but for now the need for the machine is there, the budget for only 1 machine for now is also there. Im sure what I need can be made, I'm not sure if my concept of it will work.
Here is Align-rite $10,000.00 solution for what I need but with many many flaws and downsides. Also, it still will not perform all of the functions that I need.
It is a retrofitted wood lathe with a 3 axis router mounted on top of the lathe with 2 belt driven motors to run the lathe. 1 for high speed rounding and tapering and a stepper motor for when indexing is needed for inlays and cutting an array of splices. It is to large, to hard to access the material being worked on with the orientation of the machine constantly over the lathe. Also no working area for cutting out the inlays from ivory or what ever material I need to cut. I need a wood lathe, a metal lathe, a 3 axis router and a 4 axis machine, but all incorporated into one unit. It will not be an easy build, but in the end can be done, will be unique and fun. Fully functional for exotic full splice cue construction and have a ton of other capabilities. I just have to decide what to design, design it, order a lot of stuff and incorporate my very unique custom cue building lathe onto it. Sounds like a challenge.
Duplicating is a function of having a CNC. I think you are seriously overthinking it. Just put a rotary axis on any 3 axis machine. If you only want it for rotary work, then just build a skinny and long machine. Something like a 250x1000.
For my cue building needs I built a 1000mm x 500mm x 250mm 3 axis cnc with nema 23 motors. I have a Mid American cue lathe that sits in it with a indexable lathe head. Professional Large bore headstock - Midamericapool When turning butts or shafts I run the lathe motor slow with very light pressure between the dead center and live center. When cutting inlay pockets I manually use the indexing holes on the lathe head. Cutting all inlays on that plane and then indexing to the next position and doing it all over again. When cutting the inlays I have a small table that qwickly clamps in place on the cue lathe bed with Destaco clamps. I use Mach3 software and have the ability to run the machine as either a CNC Mill or CNC Lathe but I have found it to be easier to do everything as a CNC Mill. The code for tapering is very short and simple. After a pass I open the code and edit one or two positions to ease my way to the desired diameters. I found out early on that fire wood is pretty easy to make if you hog it to fast.
im planing to do same with my mid america/tiag pool lathe and im wondering but instead of building it to sit on the top of the lathe im planning on placing it as a add on that means adding nema 23 steep motor on my carriage for the x and y axis and hopefully i can build some attachment for the z axis so with this plan in mind would the nema 23 3000z motor will be enough or too much? thank you on your feed back and god bless always
