Well I finished up enough to start making chips.

I still have the speed pickup to install, start forward & reverse relay and limitswitches to do, and a cover for the Z axis pulley.

The axis are both very fast,  I haven't gotten the guts to run them as fast as they will go.   I slowed the X down to 50"/min and the Z down to 100"/min.

Can't detect any backlash in the X,  the Z has 3 mils, but it is all in the mounting block for the thrust bearing,  I think I need to pin it with a dowel.

Looks real nice. If you had it to do over again, what would you do differently?

Ahh......now you can make chips. Isn't it a nice feeling. Hopefully all will work to your expectations.
I have a few things to do on my conversion but have been testing it out and making chips.
Must be nice to have some space in the machine to mount the screws. I like the shock covers.
RICH

I have had a chance to use it a little more and it seems to be working out real well. 
Still need to get the speed pickup, limits and start/stop controls.

Not sure if I can think of much to do differently,  maybe make the guard cover for the X axis smaller.

The Z axis screw is very nice, extremely accurate, probably a little overkill but it fit just fine.
The X axis screw is pretty small but had to be in order to get it into such a small space.

Looks real good Arnie............... so your makeing chips. Show us your bits!!!! 

Brett

Hey Zarzul,
 How about joining in on some thread testing?
Give her a test or two!
RICH

Right after I get a speed pickup made.

As long as you have a rack in the back window for the 12 GA sawed off shotgun.
Like they used to say in the boonies of Tennessee, "She's sittin there in case you need to shed some daylight"
but in the mean time "Think I 'll just watch the nail in the tree rust some".   

RICH

Zarzul:

I am about to purchase the motors for my 12X36 lathe conversion and was wanting to know about the motor sizes you chose and the pulley ratio. It sounds like they have the speed that you need.

The Z axis stepper looks like about a NEMA 23 stepper with 600 oz/in torque and a 3 to 1 pulley ratio?

The X axis looks like a NEMA 34 with 600 oz/in torque with a 2 to 1 pulley ratio?

Bill

Bill,

The Z axis is a servo motor, Kollomorgen, with about 3 to 1 reduction driving a 3tpi ballscrew.  The X axis is a 1125oz/in nema 34 with a 2/1 ratio, driving a 5tpi ballscrew.  I was a little worried about the reduction on the servo but it drives it just fine,  great resolution and speed much faster than I would allow.   The X axis has good resolution also, not as fine as the servo, but very good,  I use a 1/8 microstepping controller.
The speed of the stepper is not nearly as fast as the servo but more than fast enough for good rapids. 

Arnie