Adding a leadscrew to a lathe ?

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Adding a leadscrew to a lathe ?

This topic has 9 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 9 May 2022 at 19:25 by Steviegtr.

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9 May 2022 at 14:15 #20689
Rich2502
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@rich2502
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9 May 2022 at 14:15 #597585
Rich2502
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@rich2502
Any one retro fitted a leadscrew to a small lathe? ( 15-20" between centres )

There are now motor controlled set ups withh off the shelf ballscrews that require no gear train so that would cut out a lot of the work.

Is this a practical project or a rabbit hole ?
9 May 2022 at 14:20 #597586
Clive Foster
Participant
@clivefoster55965
In principle pretty practical but, as you will only do it once, bound to be 5 times the work and general futzing about than you expected.

Lots of careful measuring beforehand will be essential. This is the sort of job that really makes you wish for decent 3D CAD skills.

Clive
9 May 2022 at 14:51 #597589
John P
Participant
@johnp77052
Posted by Rich2502 09/05/2022 14:15:41

Any one retro fitted a leadscrew to a small lathe? ( 15-20" between centres )

There are now motor controlled set ups withh off the shelf ballscrews that require
no gear train so that would cut out a lot of the work.

Is this a practical project or a rabbit hole ?

————————————————————

Warco cnc conversion Mew 207 through to 212,
a bit bigger than your machine but the principle much the same.
John
9 May 2022 at 14:59 #597590
Martin Connelly
Participant
@martinconnelly55370
Are you starting off with a lathe with no leadscrew? Often people with electronic leadscrews just add a stepper drive to an existing leadscrew. This allows the half nuts to be engaged and disengaged as required. Adding a ballscrew and nut would require a different way of working as there are no half nuts that work with ballscrews. You may have to come up with a way to disengage the carriage drive and move the ball nut away from the carriage if you wanted to do something that required moving the carriage manually. Back driving the ballscrew may not work.

A permanently fitted ballscrew drive is halfway to having a CNC lathe, is this your aim?

Martin C
9 May 2022 at 15:58 #597597
JasonB
Moderator
@jasonb
If it is a small watchmakers type lathe with a clamp on saddle and no existing leadscrew then the saddle will probably not be designed to slide up and down the bed like on a larger lathe so you may get problems with twist and racking of the carriage.
9 May 2022 at 16:20 #597599
Frances IoM
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@francesiom58905
The Taig/Peatol small lathe has no leadscrew – there is, or was, a commercial addon package tho my lathe came with a jury rigged leadscrew using a threaded rod and a nut formed by bit of thin plate, the original rack + gear having been removed – I re-installed the rack as it felt more comfortable but if it were my only lathe think I would look towards a leadscrew of some form.
9 May 2022 at 17:06 #597607
bernard towers
Participant
@bernardtowers37738
Look at deansphotgrafia site this shows Taig leadscrew fitting.
9 May 2022 at 19:19 #597621
Peter Cook 6
Participant
@petercook6
There is an example of a leadscrew setup I fitted to a Taig here.

Taig Lathe V3 | Model Engineer (model-engineer.co.uk)
9 May 2022 at 19:25 #597622
Steviegtr
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@steviegtr
Have a look at Ades workshop on Youtube . He is doing one now. Along with a lot of other upgrades.

Steve.
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