Re: CNCing a small lathe

When I bought my lathe last summer the 8x was just $550, while the 7x
was $489 as I recall. Yes it does cost more to ship- that extra weight
hurts there, but once its on your bench its a real advantage in
rigidity. I understand shop size issues, but the 8x is only slightly
bigger in length and width, and offers much more work capability. If you
can make the stretch I strongly suggest it.

Mach only needs one pulse per rev, and it can do multi start threads
just fine. It cannot use a multi pulse encoder, since it cannot tell one
pulse from another. It works with the par port or smoothstepper, I used
a SS on my lathe.

I did not get any contact from the students that took photos of my
machine. I gave them my card so if they have trouble they can reach me.

I will try to get some photos of my lathe up soon.

My wizards are designed to work the way a manual machinist would
approach a job- you define your part in basic operations like facing,
turning, boring, tapering, threading etc. They let you do one op at a
time or combine many ops into one part program. It takes less than 2
minutes to program a job like a shoulder bolt, which I demoed frequently
at the CNC workshop.

I am looking for some software (that doesnt cost hundreds of dollars) to
do a web video of using the wizards. Ill post a demo when I find
something. Suggestions welcome.

ron ginger


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