Hi, I have a FLA-300 4X4 3 axis wood router cnc, I would like to add a wood lathe. I know I will have to add another axis, what I would like to know, is there a company that sells an attachment to do this.
Rotary axis:
Slow Speed
Precise angular resolution
Able to do text, carving, or almost any other shape.
Lathe spindle:
High speed
Poor or no angular resolution
Can only do round things of various profiles.
The two are quite different in both hardware and software/Gcode. Of course you could make a rotary axis that serves both purposes but they are not even close to the same thing in general.
What you described is a rotary axis. The OP asked for a "wood lathe". I think we can all agree that if he actually wants wood lathe functionality it would require a certain list of hardware, while if he wants rotary axis functionality the list would be quite different. Now if both functionalities are required, the lists will be combined and several components would serve the role in both cases.
Lathe functionality:
spindle
tailstock
drive motor (AC motor)
drive belt and pullies
motor speed control
tool holder to hold a stationary tool
can generate gcode even with CAM meant for a router
Rotary functionality:
spindle
tailstock
stepper or servo
stepper or servo drive
drive belt and pullies
need CAM with support for rotary axis to generate Gcode
I actually have a machine in testing that has been designed from the ground up to do both. Something that hopefully will work for guys that make a product where both lathe (high speed rotation) and indexing (slow, precise rotary motion) are both needed. Hope to sell it one day. Here are a few short vids:
I have received a number of emails thru my YouTube page regarding plans or kits for this unit, which are not available. In the near future I am developing a kit that fits smaller machines, similar to the Jet 1221VS. This kit will be able to be adapted to most smaller lathes and will not include control software. It will use the standard 25 pin interface that is direct connect for LinuxCNC, Mach or WinCNC CNC control softwares. Adapter available for ShopBot.