Mill/Lathe combo cnc?

[JSU]

Hey everyone, this is my first post here. I recently purchased a 7x12 lathe (chinese kind but has a great conrtroller). Basically I would like replace the spindle of my drill press with a larger beafier one. I would change the bearing aswell and use that for a milling head. I would then position that over the cross slide and have a mill/lathe. The question is would I be able to switch between a cnc lathe and mill quickly or does the programming/progams make that difficult? Thanks!

[RotarySMP]

Hi JSU,

I have CNC 'd a 7x12. If you use TurboCNC, you can create two different .INI files and call them Mill and Lathe, and then just load whichever one you want to use at the time.

What are you planning to use your machine for? The 7x lathe is never going to be a very satisfactory mill bed. By the time you go to all the effort to convert a cheap drill into a mill head, you would be better off putting that effort into an evening job at the gas station for a couple of months then just buy a mini mill. It will take less time and give better results.

[JSU]

thanks for the advice. this would be a temperary place fo rthe mill head. I would eventually make a xy table with a rotary table attached to it. in the meantime however I could get rid of the current quill and spindle and replace that with a much beafier one and a bunch of bearing. I would then just need the z axis slide. So im looking at around $50 for the spindle and $70 for the slide. I hope. that seems like a pretty reasonable way to enter the milling world. I also dont have any set purpose to justify buying one at the moment.