Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Rope turnings in wood.

There is a older gentleman who shows up at craft shows with wooden canes
and other wood crafts. They all have a spiral or twisted design. From
his description the machine is a cross between a lathe and a router.
It has like a lathe bed with a "?X?" axis over head. Then the Z AXIS
above the center line of the lathe bed. The machine was made in China
and cost him about $27,000 ready to run. That included 2 trips out East
of a week each visit to learn to run the machine. It uses MACH3 for CNC
electronics control. He has to change tool bits quite often to fit the
cut. We were supposed to get together to see the unit but never could
get our schedules together. He is down in southern Texas for the winter.

The lathe head is powered with a stepper. It will handle about a 48"
piece between centers.

OLD BOB

Roland Jollivet wrote:

>
>
> I must say, this does sound confusing to me too. You need to use the
> correct
> terms for the axes. Lathe spindle or router spindle. Is there a router?
>
> Are you saying you want to turn the wood Slowly.. in the lathe chuck,
> and do
> a cut? And so you need a high power motor?
>
> That's crazy.(if I understand it correctly) because the cutter will simply
> bite and the finish will be terrible.
>
> Always use a router at 90deg to the Z axis. Now you could feed it with a
> smallish stepper.
> If the Z and X are stepper driven, a G01 X100 Z5000, which is a 'straight
> line' will give you a spiral.
>
> I apologise if it all sounds like an insult. I'm just describing different
> scenarios trying to figure it out.
> Also, if you are using a router, the forces involved are so small that it
> may be better to knock up your own machine instead of dusting up the metal
> lathe.
>
> Regards
> Roland
>