One of the main issues I've seen discussed in lengthening the 7X10 lathe beds is taking the headstock off the machine- more specifically, trying to get them back on and square with the entire setup. If you have some way of accurately measuring the squareness of the setup at its full length and don't mind screwing with shifting things up/dn/l/r on all 4 corners (assuming your head isn't perfectly square and flat) and have all the machinery needed to drill accurate and perfectly (or nearly so) square and straight holes, its doable, but its not going to be an afternoon project. Also, when dealing with machines no longer in production, you could likely buy and build a '90% machine' and be waiting for damn-near ever for the last few parts to become available to put it together.
Craftsman lathes look very CNCable, but doing it as a parting-together project looks alot more like a labor of love than a serious run at CNC turning. If I were you, I'd keep an eye out on eBay for a full machine and buy it, replace or reworking any worn parts on it that need it rather than start from the (literal) ground up.
Just my 2b.
-Farasien  |