Re: turning center retrofit for home shop?

Jon,

I have a large Monarch manual lathe 21x72. Since you have worked on
a large manual lathe, what do you think about the possibility of
making my Monarch CNC? I wouldn't know where to start, but have
wondered what it would take to retrofit a large manual lathe.

Keith

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com, Jon Elson <elson@p...> wrote:
> skykotech wrote:
>
> >I know I and others have retrofitted larger cnc mills to pc
control
> >(mine is a Shizuoka B-3V VMC running EMC), but I haven't heard
much
> >in the way of retrofitting a turning center, like a mori seiki or
> >similar. Have any of you considered this or have done it? They
go
> >pretty cheap for older machines with like a Fanuc 6T control. Is
it
> >just too much machine for a home shop? Curious to hear other's
> >experiences...
> >
> >
> I looked very seriously at a couple of CNC turning centers which
had
> abominably out of date controls before buying a big manual lathe
> project. One of the reasons behind my decision was that most
turning
> centers,
> especially the ones that came up on eBay, had very short beds. I
don't
> believe I EVER saw one with more than 24" of Z travel, and most
were in the
> 10 - 12" range. Now, MOST of my turning would fit those machines,
but
> every once in a while I have something longer to turn, and I
really
> didn't want
> that limitation.
>
> I assume you know that EMC has a problem with lathe turning.
>
> Jon