Re: Threading on a lathe with EMC

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@y..., ccs@m... wrote:
<snip>
> as I think it is a gating issue to being able to design an
inxepensive
> home-shop cnc/manual lathe that does not need an expensive set of
> threading gears.
<snip>

Just an idea, but what would you folks think of a little black box
that would take encoder input from the spindle and output step pulses
for the lathe feed accordingly? The target would be those little
hobby lathes with no or limited change gears. Call it "Virtual
Change Gears"

I'm thinking a PICmicro, LCD display, and a user input knob or
buttons. The spindle encoder could be single channel. The rest is
software. Dial in your feed/rev and hit start, away you go threading
with no change gears. Optionally, enter the length of the feed,
return to zero and start in the same place for the next cut.
Mechanically disengage the stepper for normal work or use a servo and
turn it off. Yeah, you could do more, but then you're back to a PC
w/ cnc software.

Tom Scarince