Gallery, Projects and General > The Design Shop
Redesign of my Grizzly G4000 9" X 19" lathe
Bernd:
Bogs,
As I said it was something I always wanted. Stemed from my model railroad interest in scratch building. A versitile machine where you could carry out may different operations.
You know it could be done with the lathe you have. See if you come across a mini-mill like my Grizzly and bolt that to the back of the lathe. Now mind you this is just a thought.
I did a bit of a search in the net and couldn't find a good picture of where this idea came from. If you have ever heard of Kozo Hiraoka, the Japanese that wrote the three books on how to build the geared engines, he has an Emco Mat lathe. Aparently they were the for runners of our small lathes produced today. They were either build in Germany or Switzerland, so you can guess the price tag. From what I can gather by going to the Emco company site these samll lathes are no longer made. Although they can be found on the used market.
Here's a picture of one of those lathes. I believe they had a couple of different sizes also.
Bernd
John Hill:
Bernd, Bogs, do I see two different configurations being discussed here? A horizontal spindle to do work on pieces held in the chuck and a vertical spindle for work held on the carriage?
I have considered making a horizontal auxiliary spindle to mount on the carriage, mainly because I need to make a spindle for my copy router project and I thought it might be neat to make a dual purpose device. My copy router requires high spindle speeds but I am unsure what speeds would be useful for the lathe auxiliary spindle, much slower I presume.
Then I tell myself that the easiest auxiliary spindle would be a common or garden electric hand drill mounted on the carriage, but I never see anyone doing this.....? :scratch:
bogstandard:
John,
Really a normal electric drill hasn't got the accuracy and robustness to cope in a machining environment (just wobble the chuck about to find out what I mean). It is much easier to make up your own ball raced spindle and drive it from a small electric or air motor (as I am doing with the precision drill I will be making).
I know where you are coming from Bernd, about using my normal lathe, but that isn't my interest at all. I would much prefer a dedicated 'machining' centre, where all the jobs on the mill or lathe which are a PITA to set up and strip down, are all done on a dedicated 'bitsa' machine, which is equipped, over time, with all the home made bolt on goodies you can think of.
But all that is pie in the sky for me now. After a short but great visit by our John Stevenson this morning, the last bit of unallocated space in my shop has been earmarked, when funds allow, for the fitting of a small CNC mill, to assist me in the production of small commercial items.
He put my mind at rest about whether it was the way for me to proceed, or not. Thank you John.
Bogs
Darren:
I believe it's been done with a car engine block, there is a forum out there somewhere, called a multimachine I think
John, you almost had it when the mini was bolted to your mill....now that would be interesting... :)
Bernd:
I came across the item that started my original thinking along this line of machine. It is in The Shop Wisdom of Rudy Kouhoupt book number 1 by Village press. When he started machining he started with a Unimat and a Perris Lathe. The Perris lathe is/was manufactured by Perris Engineering (Brighton) Ltd. Hove Sussex England. He used the Unimat headstock to make a milling spindle attached to the Perris lathe.
And this is the base he made to attach it.
These pictures that I have posted of Kozo Hiraoka and Rudy Kouhoupt are actually more of a lathe/milling machine since both mill heads are not moveable. Were as mine is because I will have it mounted on the cross slide.
Bogs
I was just putting out a suggestion and as I said above they are more of a lathe/mill combo than what I plan on doing. That's also why I had to wait till I got another lathe so I can turn the Grizzly into a dedicated multi machine.
Darren,
I remember seeing that some place too where an engine block was used.
Bernd
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