LatheMaster 9 X30 CNC Adventure

[Ron111]

It arrives, a LatheMaster 9 X 30, and is ready to enter the world of CNC. I begin immediately converting this lathe to CNC, for a friend, but already, I wish it were mine!!! This is really a nice lathe and will make a good project. The shipping weight is around 370lbs. and we had to use a tractor and trailer to get it to the shop, because of the recent rain fall and the low path to the shop.

The first step is to uncrate, and setup the lathe on the steady bench and give it a good cleaning to remove all of the protective grease, so this is what she looks like.


My last cnc project was the Harbor Freight 9 X 20, but I will assure you that this 9 X 30 lathe is a lot beefier, as far as the cross slide ways and the table than the 9 X 20. Don’t get me wrong, the 9 X 20 makes a good cnc machine.)

[Ron111]

Our objective is to use double ball nuts loaded on each axis, using standard rolled ball screws, and provide spindle synchronization for automated threading capabilities. I will start at the X-Axis (the cross slide).

A quick check showed about .005 backlash on the X axis from the factory, and the screw and the acme nut seemed to tighten at a couple of locations during the X-axis travel (something to consider for those considering using existing X-axis screw and nut).

First, I will spot and drill a couple of mounting holes on the front and rear of the table. To accurate place these holes I will do it on my lathe (this is showing a drill bit, but I spotted the holes first and the front holes are symmetrical with the back. (Ignore the drill chuck at the top of the picture, it is not being used here).

[Ron111]

There is enough room to place double nuts parallel to the table, so I chose to place the ball screw assembly to the rear of the table. A couple of considerations are to leave access to the gib adjustments, the lubrication points and to protect the screw from both swarf and collision. So, I chose to mount both front and rear brackets and to include a protective rear collision beam, just incase things get out of control.

Also, you can also see the four mounting bolt locations, for the apron brackets.

This is a picture of the X-axis screw cover; access to the lube points and the gib screws are taken into account.

[Ron111]

Here is a quick shot of the X-Axis mounting brackets. (The table cloth is just there for visual enhancement, hehe!!)

Now for the apron machining, we will remove a good bit of material to give clearance for the double ball nuts, and will also remove material to allow for a ball screw cover for swarf protection. (At this point the lathe can not be converted back to the manual configuration, (the point of no return)).

We had an old Oliver 550 tractor which was painted that color orange!!

[Ron111]

Milling away, (actually just cutting it out by making parameter cuts), just take your time.

So, this is what we end up with. (I taped the split ball nut ways with masking tape, prior to painting, because I did not want to cover the indention marks made by the half-nuts, so I can get a fairly accurate positioning of the ball-nut flange)

I cut three inline .500" notches 1 inch deep to allow a sheet metal cover wit a drip edge to shield the screw. All of this is for nothing, it you let the screw get covered with swarf and collant.

[Ron111]

This is the original Z-Axis screw and the split nut. I use a clamp to place it in the working configuration. I can now accurately measure from where the machined surface of the nut (which mates to the machined surface of the apron) to the center of the screw, this is needed where I can mill the ballnut mount, which will mount where the slit nut had been.

Here is our apron (freshly painted), with the ballscrew coming in from the right side. The mounting holes are countersunk for clearance from the screw.

So, with the remaining space, between the 1st ballnut and the right side of the apron, the second ballnut and the spring must fit. The spring that I picked out will be approximately 2" long and will compress down to 1ö to give me around the 85 lbs. recommended preload.

[Ron111]

The motor bracket will be positioned under the drive cover which covers the pulleys and belts at the shown location.

As you can see, this is a good place for the Z-axis stepper motor. (Part of the flat cover was removed, in fact the single bolt hole in the lathe end was for that bolt.)

I removed the front bearing mount. I will use this mount and bore out the hole to accept dual angular bearings. The mount uses two screws and two dial pins and bolts in the four holes which are shown here. I drill out the dial holes and tapped 1/4" holes to ensure the bearing mount is rigid.

[Ron111]

Here are the angular bearings and the bearing mount.

Here is the bearing mount mounted and the holes for the Z-axis motor bracket. This end of the lathe is machined, but the distal end is not machined. This is the primary reason that I chose to place the stepper motor here. But, this is the best location, because the owner of this lathe will be making smaller units and the majority of the work will be done at this end.

[Ron111]

Here is the Z-axis main bracket, stand offs will mount the stepper motor and Oldham couplers will coupler to the Z-axis screw. This will make for a clean installation. (Note that the belt has plenty of clearance, contrary to the visual effect of this picture.)

Now, I am waiting for additional metal, ball nuts, springs, ball screws, couplers, minor electronics and Gecko drives, then I can continue this adventure.

Ron

[S_J_H]

Excellent work Ron! I look forward to reading the rest of this project. Steve

[Bowman]

looking good.. I will be following this thread myself.. Is this the lathemaster from the Distributor in BR La.? Just curious since I live in BR and may get one that I can pickup to save shipping. Keep up the good work.


Bo

[Al_The_Man]

Originally Posted by Bowman looking good.. I will be following this thread myself.. Is this the lathemaster from the Distributor in BR La.?

You can't beat Bob at Lathemaster for excellent service, I highly recommend them.
I am helping a friend retro-fit his 9x30.
There is also a Yahoo N.G. for the lathes.
He also has them on Ebay sometimes for $100 less if you can get them for the opening price.
Al.