LATHE CONTROL BOX
(ago to jan 2007)
JOB SUPER DONE , MAN
All the professional lathes have a lever on the right bottom side of the carriage to turn on or off the spindle, also to choose if turn forward or reverse the lathe. Basically if the lever is moved downward the lathes turns on reversing, if the lever is moved upwards the lathe spins normal. In between the two positions there is a neutral position.
this lever is useful because allows the machinist to be concentrated on the workpiece all the time, the hands remain in contact with the carriage all the times, where all the controls are located.
Now, the sieg lathe C6b is a good lathe but has (like all the small lathes) a power switch on the headstock, this means that every time is needed to turn of or on the lathe the machinist has to move himself to find the switch on the headstock.
I am gonna make a lever for my sieg, then!
the project, as always..... just a scratch on a piece of paper, 1:1 scale.
now is turn of start making the aluminum box... same stuff as the mill control unit box, just bigger and more complicated.
Starting material is a sheet of 10mm aluminum, from which I cut a 40mm wide piece, long enough to create the 7 bits necessaries as shown in the project
and this is how to get one bit...
smaller cuts are made with the slitting saw...
after few hours all the parts are ready...
now it is time to make the two sides, starting from a 6mm alu sheet
few machined and manual cuts were necessaries to get these two 175mm * 85 mm plates...
these plates were made true with a 20mm end mill..
and machined with the seco octomill on one side..(the internal side)
once ready , I have done the first cut to get the irregular shape that the lathe carriage require...to mach.
hand cut.. and machined cut....
and last one... a mill action to get the perfection..
wow.... my box is getting the shape!!!
November 25 to 29......
make the handle is really easy, just turn the handle at 12.00 mm with the lathe starting from a 16mm 316 stainless steel rod. Showed is the thread for the top ball.
this is after having completed the axle sitting and the spring compound hole, threaded M10.
making the sitting for the 8mm axle.
slotting the front slot for the lever movement. dormer slotmill 8mm
making the 19mm hole for the emergency switch..
machining the sides at 45 of the safe switch ensemble...
drilling with a small drillbit , to prepare the threading....
and this is the threading
countersink'ing the screws holes...
this is a nice step making a thread onto a small part
and this is a M5 thread onto the front side piece.
after having created about 10 - 12 threads to hold together the many parts of the box, I am now doing a final flattening action before close the box with the left lid.
the box is now close and each side is made flat with the seco octomill....
this is a nice image drilling 18 mm, note the full high used of the X3 column... this job can't be done with a X2 or smaller mill, the X3 is just tall enough!!!
I am glad to have choose the X3, instead X2 !!!!!
back on the small jobs, these two are supports for the microswitches (showed one)
and back also on the lathe , to make two spacers.....
after few hours, I have almost done 90% of parts....
showed are the main box (bottom right), the handle with spring ensemble (top left) the micrswitches, the axle, the plastic spacers, and mounted into the main box there is the stainless steel sitting for the spring ensemble.
the 18mm alu tube is also welded to keep it in place, strong build thing!!
(I haven't weld it, Richard from Inverness have done it, he is a MASTER welder thanks man)
unfortunately this whole project require to remove the carriage from the lathe... so this is the "empty" baby without the carriage compound...
(note the nice 160mm 4 jaws chuck...)
the carriage is positioned on the mill, to get a wee touch of end mill machining.....a DTI is used to clamp flat the carriage on the vice.
few minutes later (22 min), the carriage is trimmed as wish...
time to mount the aluminum self made box on the carriage....
before painting the whole carriage included the aluminum new part, everything is sanded down with a 300 grit sandpaper....
the rest of the carriage compound parts are on the table ready to be mounted together again...
next photo is during the first layer of paint witch is the acid primer , adhesion promoter....
then, first coat of white (cream) with paintbrush...
in the mean time the enamel was drying in my painting oven (the shed), I worked on the electrical circuit of the lathe, because two relays must be fitted into the lathe frontal main box. first step for me was to create a wee clamping system (base) to position the relays onto.
the relays bases are here installed in a good position, really accessible.
all the wirings are made with no diagrams, only a "brain draw" in my head.... I was really "hot" about this really wiring because I just have mounted the same circuit onto the mill.
Sieg X3 and C6B have exactly same circuits and electronics. the only difference is the motor that is 800w on the lathe and 600w (crap motor) on the mill. I thought to upgrade the mill one with a 1kw motor.....maybe in future!
yo, no the relays cores are pugged in.
since I was still waiting for the paint drying, I chose to make a new lathe box cover.... the job starts making few cuts on a 250 * 200mm 6 mm thick AL plate.
Next step (shown) is a flattening action at 4.10mm using the seco octomill..
for a good results, the plate is clamped directly on the mill table. the plate is about 20mm each side wider, so I can clamp it easly.
The X3 is not a good machine for the 80mm facecutter because the power is not enough,... I had many stops (over amp protections stops).
after the flattening action I removed (cut) the two sides with the band saw and in the next photos I am flattening the sides, obtaining the exactly dimensions needed for the lathe box cover.
about 30 minutes spent with the sand paper and the plate is ready...
I started with 320grit, then 600, 800, 1200, 2000 .....
I am really thinking to paint the plate with same color as the lathe head... I don't know if that is better not not!
Lathe wiring is done,front cover is done, now I go to have a look at the carriage... shit, it is still wet, ok I am gonna make the lever ball then...
8.2 mm drill, and then a M10 thread... this material (the ball material) stinks a lot, I think is glassresin!
I used a respirator and googles during this step.
ohh yes, the painting is done.. now it is time to mount the carriage on the lathe and it is a good opportunity to put new grease on the screws...
cross slide too..
Update jan 2007.
Time to complete the project... after few weeks off for the move Scotland to italy... now it is time to make the control box alive!
The switches are installed and wired in the box....
the safe button moves a black plastic rod that push down the microswitch..!! that crazy thing is planned and made this way because there is no space for a switch close to the safe switch button!!! my finger is indicating the black rod.....
The original project have a wiring trough the lathe backshield, but today I have thought and made a better wire routing that use a coil flexible elastic cable.....the photo shows the MIDI connector installed in the aluminum tube and the male MIDI connector ready to be plugged in.....To hold the cable on the carriage I have made a small plastic clamp with a M6 screw all in one....
cable installed and joint protected with shrink cable....
left view... carriage on the left.. and right view.. carriage extended on the right...
the whole cable is protected by the original leadscrew cover..... what a nice place to hide cables!!!!
this shot is the competed carriage with cable coil....
the unit is working perfectly, the action on the spindle is fast and precise. the relays are quite and makes this lathe more professional....
check out the video, I can easly turn on and of the lathe , both directions, plus I can stop the spindle going from FWD to RWD quickly and then back to stop.... using the lever as a brake!!!!
