Maximat conversion

Hi all,
I have an old Maximat V10P lathe with a vertical mill attachment.
I've been looking at it to see what would be required to convert it
to CNC.

The mill head is driven up and down via a 32 pitch screw. This part
would be easy to convert...just replace the top bracket with a custom
made one that would allow direct drive (or belt drive) mounting for a
stepper motor. I would still be able to use the drilling feature as
well as the angular offset independently. If desired, I could drive
the drill spindle with an additional motor....a handy feature if I
wanted to do peck drilling on an angle.

The standard cross slide bracket (for the Y feed) could be replaced
with another special bracket allowing installation of a ball
screw/motor assembly (direct or belt drive as well).

I envision mounting the X feed ball screw in the rear. A bracket can
be mounted on the back of the saddle with the ball screw FIXED to the
bracket so it won't turn. On the end of the lathe bed I'd install
another bracket which would contain some sort of assembly that would
allow me to drive (rotate) the ball screw. Obviously, the screw
itself would then travel back and forth with the lathe saddle. No
problem...just allow travel clearance outboard of the lathe bed.
Since I can "disconnect" the standard threading and lead screws via a
lever on the machine, changing back to a manual lathe would be a
simple matter of unbolting the bracket used to mount the lead screw
to the saddle.

Sounds like a pretty easy conversion. All I'd need is a few custom
brackets, a couple of lead screws and some method of driving the ball
nut on the X axis. I'm considering doing this via a worm drive.

since I'm already in the process of making casting patterns for motor
mounts for my Bridgeport clone, parts for the DreamMachine prototype,
and numerous other projects, it would be a simple matter to add a few
more patterns for this conversion so I can cast everything at the
same time.

The help I'd really need would be in the area of controllers, what
size motors to use, etc. Anyone ever done something similar?

Suggestions anyone?

Smoke