Warco WM290V and ELS

[Steven ShandParticipant @stevenshand77617]

Hi all,

 

I’m about to order some kit from https://electronicleadscrew.eu/ to set up an electronic leadscrew for my Warco WM290V. I was just interested to see if anyone has done this on a similar lathe and has any good info that might be relevant to my specific machine. Specifically, that machine has a feedshaft as well as a leadscrew and I’m not sure what impact that might have on the project. I’m making the assumption I can just use the leadscrew and ignore the feedshaft but it would be great to hear from anyone that’s done this on a similar machine.

 

Thanks

 

Steven

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

If you just use the lead screw you will loose power cross feed as that like longitudinal feed comes from the shaft.

May be better to put the ELS motor on the righthand end of the leadscrew for easy screw pitch change and then keep the feed shaft for feeds, possibley with a belt rather than gears

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

I’ve not heard of this one before and it looks quite comprehensive. Are you UK based? Please keep us informed of your progress, any catches on importing complications, duty vat etc.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Thinking some more it may be possible to fit the motor to the input shaft of the gearbox and then you can drive both the leadscrew and feedshaft. Leave box in the A position for 1:1.

[JasonB]

On JasonB Said:

If you just use the lead screw you will loose power cross feed as that like longitudinal feed comes from the shaft.

May be better to put the ELS motor on the righthand end of the leadscrew for easy screw pitch change and then keep the feed shaft for feeds, possibley with a belt rather than gears

Ah yes of course, I was totally forgetting about the power crossfeed! I was hoping to ditch the gears altogether. I think fitting it to the RHS of the leadscrew might be the best bet then just keep the gears for the cross slide. Perhaps with a system to disengage the gears if I’m not using the power cross feed.

[Steven ShandParticipant @stevenshand77617]

Actually, there’s a 2 axis version of that ELS so maybe that is the way to go. I haven’t even considered the possibility of mounting a motor to drive the cross feed though. I’ll need to investigate that.

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

Steven,

I have recently fitted the single axis version to my mini lathe, and it performs faultlessly and is highly customisable with respect to the various parameters. I’ve mounted the lead screw stepper motor on the left-hand end of the machine , using a 3D printed bracket in PLA-CF for rigidity and utilising the original gear train mounting boltholes. You can see my installation here on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT7u3xoC3Vc

Since making that video, I’ve 3D printed a new front with an extended top to cover the unsightly connections and wires exiting the top of the box.  As you say, the 2-axis version is now available, and must surely be the one to choose if you can use the power cross feed as the second (X-axis) motion provider.

John

 

[Tony Pratt 1Participant @tonypratt1]

I have the Clough42 version fitted to my 290V and it is fitted to the LH side just replacing the change gears and then feeds through the gearbox, I can’t really see why anyone would not do it this way and utilise both the feed shaft and lead screw?

I’m seeing a few more capable lathe ELS systems but looks like I will have to stick with my basic system which is fine.

Tony

 

[thisdesignedthatParticipant @thisdesignedthat]

Hi Tony, I’m about to buy a 290V lathe and plan to do this mod right away, would love to see some pics of how you set yours up. Not sure how much space I’m going to need to accommodate this mod (my shed is pretty tight already with this size lathe)

[tony1949Participant @tony1949]

I have a Warco 280V lathe and have fitted the Kachurovsky ELS (sadly no longer available). I wanted to try it out without losing the ability to control the lathe manually and therefore it was fitted as a quick and dirty lash-up, thinking that I would do a “proper” installation if it worked. It works very well and, no surprise, I have not found the time or inclination to improve the installation.

One stepper motor drives the right hand end of the leadscrew by a toothed belt and the other is attached to the cross-slide with a toothed belt drive in place of the original handwheel . The rotary encoder is driven from one of the intermediate change gears which I found has an exact relationship to the chuck rotation. To avoid any damage to the stepper drive electronics, an isolating switch disconnects the stepper motors when the lathe is used manually.

While I wouldn’t suggest my installation is the best way of doing it, it has been in use for a couple of years now without fault and I have found it useful to have retained manual operation alongside the benefits of ELS.

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

Hi Steven, I have just fitted the ELS you are looking at to a 9″ BOXFORD lathe. My advice is to buy the ELS control and encoder together, buy the Stepper control, Stepper motor and power supply from the same supplier (Not ELS as they don’t sell them).  The only bit missing from the ELS downloadable instructions is to set the Stepper controller to 5volts. Send me your e-mail address by this forum messaging system and I will send you a PDF warts and all as to how I fitted it to my lathe

Take advice from others about motor size and as to wether you have a motor with feedback control or cheaper “open loop” .

My total cost with a Nema23 4.2 amp motor was about £205 plus postage costs. That included pulleys and belts, motor, controller etc.

Bob

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

And, did you see this link?

https://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/electronic-lead-screw-on-an-bernardo-profi-700-pro.113068/

Bob

[Robert Atkinson 2Participant @robertatkinson2]

Interesting in that link that people were using worm drive gearboxes on the leadscrew. This of course makes it difficult if not impossible to turn the leadscrew manually. I don’t know the lathes they are using but possibly they don’t have manual handwheels or have clutches.

Robert.

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