C6 Lathe QCTP

[john_t_h]

I visited Frans from Toolmach Aust today to have a look at how he mounted his QCTP on his C6 lathe.

As the cross slide that comes with the lathe is redundant for CNC I am removing it and machining up a block of steel to replace it. The QCTP will be mounted on to of the block.

Frans was kind enough to donate a block of steel for me to use and I squared it off and machined the bottom on the X4+ so it will mate with the cross slide base (which I am re-using).

Photos are a bit blurry as they are from my phone.

[PEU]

Interesting, but whats the point of keeping the crosslide base? Why not make a larger tooltable to allow some gangtooling?
I've been thinking about doing this for a long time.


Pablo

[ToolMach_Aust]

Hello Pablo.

I agree the Cross slide is redundant as it is just another thing that makes the C6 less rigid.

The only problem with using a Gang Tool arrangement is the travel is very limited therefore suing multiple tool arrangements would limited you to either 1. small parts.. 2. only face lathe operations.

If the X motor was mounted on the rear of the slide you would gain additional travel. Problem with doing that is the mounting on the rear would require additional machining of the mountings etc.

Another option to consider would be get rid of the current X axis slide and mount a Linear Bearing arrangement and a new table etc... better rigidity and more travel.

In reality a Larger lathe would be a better candidate for conversion to CNC. We are going to look at that for future sales. Easy to do.

some food for thought.

cheers

Frans

Originally Posted by peu Interesting, but whats the point of keeping the crosslide base? Why not make a larger tooltable to allow some gangtooling? I've been thinking about doing this for a long time. Pablo

[john_t_h]

I finally got around to finishing the riser block and now it is all mounted and ready to go

[PEU]

Very nice!

It looks better this way. Now I think I understand why you left the cross-slide base: to keep the QCTP detent mechanism in place. Am I correct?


Pablo