- Joined
- Feb 26, 2014
- Messages
- 275
I’d like to share some of the mods I’ve made to my Craftsman 12x36.
First is an electric lead screw. There are many examples of this online, Mr Pete 222 has one on YouTube specifically for the Craftsman/Atlas, but the design I copied was from Evan Williams http://ixian.ca/gallery/pwm/pwm.htm The motor I used is an automotive wiper motor that is controlled by a PWM to give me a nice wide range of feeds, the PWM also has a forward, stop, reverse switch. There are several benefits in using an electric lead screw; first, on the Craftsman lathe it gives a much finer feed rate than is available with standard gearing (less than .0005” vs. .004”). Second, it saves some wear on the drive train, when in use the reverse tumbler is in neutral and the gear selectors are disengaged, the main QCGB shaft is turning, but none of the gears are meshing. Next, several possibilities open up, for instance while facing a large diameter with the power cross feed you can easily maintain your SFM feed by incrementally speeding up the feed while the diameter decreases. Another one I use is when I want to take a final spring cut I can stop, reverse and slow down the feed to get a nice finish. Last, as an added bonus it’s much quieter with out the drive train engaged. Overall it’s a very worthwhile project.
The tool post was inspired by and copied from Mike at http://mikesworkshop.weebly.com/
It’s a very simple Norman style tool post and works a treat. Mikes use of a wedge in an expanding post is inspired and makes using it very simple and a joy to use. Although one drawback is the lack of indexing, this for now hasn’t been an issue.
Bill
First is an electric lead screw. There are many examples of this online, Mr Pete 222 has one on YouTube specifically for the Craftsman/Atlas, but the design I copied was from Evan Williams http://ixian.ca/gallery/pwm/pwm.htm The motor I used is an automotive wiper motor that is controlled by a PWM to give me a nice wide range of feeds, the PWM also has a forward, stop, reverse switch. There are several benefits in using an electric lead screw; first, on the Craftsman lathe it gives a much finer feed rate than is available with standard gearing (less than .0005” vs. .004”). Second, it saves some wear on the drive train, when in use the reverse tumbler is in neutral and the gear selectors are disengaged, the main QCGB shaft is turning, but none of the gears are meshing. Next, several possibilities open up, for instance while facing a large diameter with the power cross feed you can easily maintain your SFM feed by incrementally speeding up the feed while the diameter decreases. Another one I use is when I want to take a final spring cut I can stop, reverse and slow down the feed to get a nice finish. Last, as an added bonus it’s much quieter with out the drive train engaged. Overall it’s a very worthwhile project.
The tool post was inspired by and copied from Mike at http://mikesworkshop.weebly.com/
It’s a very simple Norman style tool post and works a treat. Mikes use of a wedge in an expanding post is inspired and makes using it very simple and a joy to use. Although one drawback is the lack of indexing, this for now hasn’t been an issue.
Bill