Re: Threading on a lathe with EMC

Tom,

It's already been done.

See this:

http://www.emachineshop.com/frog/index.htm

There's no LCD but everything else is basically what you're talking about.

Sorry to burst any balloons.

Gary

> Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2001 22:14:56 -0000
> From: thscarince@...
> Subject: 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
>
>