- Joined
- Nov 20, 2010
- Messages
- 76
OK, I'll give you the threading capability, but in that bizarre scenario I'd still take a mill. Why? Because I've no interest in making a lathe headstock or tailstock or ways using a lathe. I'd build my lathe, sans leadscrew. I'd then turn a leadscrew freehand (how did you think the first threads got made?) and install it on the lathe. My guess is by making a few generations, maybe with some lapping, I could get to an accurate leadscrew quite quickly. Another path would be to make the geared carriage drive/handwheel on the mill, then turn the initial leadscrew using geared drive. Yet a third path would be to make a friction drive using angled rollers on a shaft as the initial leadscrew- that's probably the best method; they sell them commercially and they're very good.