Quick and Dirty X3 Coolant enclosure..cheap too!

[KOS]

ok just another update..although not sure how many actually like my idea..lol..oh well, it works for the tight space i have!

Once i get the lathe installed right and my fixture plate built I will start on the ATC for this mill too..

[project5k]

sweet! i was wondering tho, how much of your x travel was taken up by the lathe headstock?

[KOS]

I am not 100% sure as i havent measured it yet. It will also depend where I mount it too. Probably looking at about 7" right now though. Not sure what I can get that down to we will see, I can measure it up tomorrow when I get some time in the shop to play.

Got a surprise in the mail yesterday, I ordered 2 of those surplus air cylinders and the solenoid. Not sure if I am going to use these for my ATC project of the one I already have.....But I thought for that price I couldnt pass up having a few in the shop anyways.

I am hoping tomorrow I can get the lathe attachment finished, and then hopefully the joystick done as well. Then from there I will see if I add on the stepper motor to the lathe or start on the ATC..I need to see where the money is at before I start anything though..

[KOS]

well got a little distracted in the shop today, but I did get a few things done. Bent a small enclosure to cover the lathe motor. On the left hand side you will see the motor control for the lathe there, I guess I could have mounted it to the side of the lathe head but I like the idea of having it away from the coolant spray and sticking my hands where they dont belong.

[KOS]

I also stated to mess around with some ideas for an ATC as well. Right now I have just started to mock things up and get some better ideas for what I want to do. I would much rather just have the piston over the drawbar than a whole lever set up, but I will see how it all goes...

[KOS]

also too a few pics of the shop to share and to give you an idea why i built my enclosure like I did..you can see table space is at a premium...so a couple lathes, the polishing and rubber molding table, anodizing table, sheet metal table and the one table that is falling down that has the blast cabinet and powder coating cabinet...

[KOS]

oh yeah one more...I used to have two of the HF 7x10 lathes, but since I sacrificed on for the mill, I decided to cut the other one down and extend the bed on the other one, so make it much larger...still have some work to do and order in a new lead screw but you get the idea where I am at with it...

[ataxy]

how did you do the connection between the two bed

[KOS]

well I ended my day before I mounted them together. RIght now the tail stock is holding them together. After messing around on different projects all day, I really didnt get that far into how I will mount them together. A couple Pieces of metal and some screws should make it rigid enough.

[ataxy]

ah ok i tought you used some kind of pin location

[project5k]

either way you mount the extension, thats still a pretty cool idea... i do like the idea of using the pins to hold the location, but i dont know that i could get them drilled so that they would line up...

[KOS]

ok went to measure it up and here is what I got for the lathe..

So from the front of the headstock to the end of the bed is 28.25", and from the front of chuck to the end of the bed is 25.5".

With my live center in the tail stock and positioned all the way at the back of the bed, I measured 19.5" from the front of the chuck to the tip of the live center.

So for the sake of argument it can turn a 19" length pice. So 7x19 would be an acurate usable description of the lathe.