Motorising the feed screw

[jon hill 3Participant @jonhill3]

[jon hill 3Participant @jonhill3]

I am sure this topic has been covered before, however I will ask it.. Has anyone added a motor to the feed screw on an old manual lathe?

I have a speed 10 and am too lazy to fiddle about with change wheels, unless I am looking to cut some screws. Hence a variable speed motor setup would be very handy.

[Roger ClarkParticipant @rogerclark]

Hi Jon try Electronic lead screw or This one, also search youtube for ELS, these links might help.

Roger

[jon hill 3Participant @jonhill3]

Thanks Roger,

I thought there might be an off the shelf solution, I will investigate further!

[Mike Henderson 1Participant @mikehenderson1]

Nearest I can find to an off-the-shelf solution is the ELS4 from rocketronics.de

It's an option I'm giving serious consideration. Virtually unlimited thread pitches and fine feeds at a fraction of the cost of a retrofit gearbox.

Has anyone else experience of this?

Mike

 

Edited By Mike Henderson 1 on 15/08/2020 23:28:02

[Paul LousickParticipant @paullousick59116]

You could adapt a power feed unit for a milling machine. Mains powered, forward and reverse function and variable speed. Do a Google search on the web and ebay for suppliers.

Paul.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Easy to fit a stepper motor, driving through toothed belt.

**LINK**

This is on my VMB mill but principle the same.

[Alan CharlestonParticipant @alancharleston78882]

Hi,

I'd like to do the same. I have a couple of stepper motors but I can't figure out how to control their speeds using a potentiometer. I'm sure it's a trivial matter using an arduino to someone who understands these things, so trivial in fact that I can't find anywhere on the interweb which explains completely how to do it.

Deleted see Code of Conduct.

It looks like what I'm after but I'm not sure what else is required. Can anyone help, or give an idiots guide on how to achieve it with an Arduino. Don't worry about insulting me by stating the obvious, you can't underestimate how rubbish I am at getting anything useful out of an Arduino.

Regards,

Alan

Edited By JasonB on 16/08/2020 07:31:47

[DC31kParticipant @dc31k]

Posted by Alan Charleston on 16/08/2020 07:29:37:

I'd like to do the same. I have a couple of stepper motors but I can't figure out how to control their speeds using a potentiometer.

Using a stepper motor for this is rather overkill, especially as you say your Arduino skills are developing.

The whole point of a stepper is that it gives you positional/angular control. All you need is variable speed. This is more simply achieved using a DC motor (coupled to a reduction gearbox as necessary) and the ubiquitous PWM speed controller.

If you really want to go Arduino, take it in small bites. Put a potentiometer on the analogue inputs to the chip and work out how to send from 0 to 255 to your screen.

Then investigate how to drive a stepper motor at a fixed speed from the Arduino (there are pre-written libraries that do this – all you have to do is give them two numbers: direction and speed).

Then glue the first and second together.

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

DC31k Use the Arduino 'map' function ? It seems to be an ideal function to map the ratio of one input to a required range.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

I did the whole job and the only code problem I had was for setting up the baud rate on the Bluetooth chip, which I solved with some off-the-web code. GRBL runs on the Arduino – it's free – and GRBL Controller on my phone – that's free too. Microcontrollers change the way you think about what is "overkill". I used an Arduino Uno, a CNC Shield, PSU from RS, Bluetooth module from Amazon, box cobbled together myself. No need for custom PCBs etc. Stepper driver is a Polulu DRV8825 on a little carrier PCB that plugs onto the Shield.

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