sherline mill/lathe combo to cnc

[Drools]

My buddy has a Sherline with a DRO. He wants to go with a pendant and motors but not the full CNC. Is there a kit that will give him the solution he is after?

Thanks for the help.

[Fixittt]

well, there is and there isnt.....

For motors you need drivers, so if you install motors and drives..... your 99% done with the cnc..... interface with a computer and bam... you have onscreen DRO`s and Pendant control along with all the other cool stuff that goes with it!

I think sherline has a single stepper control unit that went with their motorized 4th axis rotary table. Still wont get him where he wants.

[Drools]

For some reason he does not want the mill under computer control. I told him Mach3 is only $150.00. Anyway since he already has a 3 axis DRO installed on the machine, he just wants motors/drivers and a pendant. I'm guessing the pendant would have to generate the step/direction signals. Maybe he will add a PC later.

[rpovey]

All the pendants I've seen connect to the PC running either EMC2 or Mach, so he'd have everything to be running CNC already.

CNC conversion for the sherline is simple and several vendors offer parts kits. If he has a CNC ready version of the mill it's just bolt on. If not it involves drilling and tapping the ends of the axis for the stepper mounts.