hunter27
Pete
- Messages
- 837
- Location
- Lancashire UK
I have had a Metric Boxford BUD for a few years now running on an invertor and apart from one attempt have never used it to cut single point threads due to not having a full set of gears and the hassle of setting it up, my son is more into electronics than me and offered to help me convert my lathe to an electronic lead screw having already converted his Harrison L5 following the excellent series by Clough42 on youtube. Using an encoder linked to the spindle gear and a stepper motor linked to the leadscrew, using timing belts and pulleys.
We completed the job a few days ago and it works brilliantly making it easy to set up to cut threads with the press of a button to set Metric pitch or Imperial TPI or set the feed rate instead of threadding.
I made a cover to protect the stepper motor from swarf just need the correct colour of paint for it now, I didn't want to cut the lathe panel for the stepper motor spindle and flange but luckily that piece is removable on the Boxfords so I made a new one and cut the hole in to that so I can convert it back to original if I ever wanted to.
We completed the job a few days ago and it works brilliantly making it easy to set up to cut threads with the press of a button to set Metric pitch or Imperial TPI or set the feed rate instead of threadding.
I made a cover to protect the stepper motor from swarf just need the correct colour of paint for it now, I didn't want to cut the lathe panel for the stepper motor spindle and flange but luckily that piece is removable on the Boxfords so I made a new one and cut the hole in to that so I can convert it back to original if I ever wanted to.