Recently I've been seeking solutions that would allow a small, limited production run of kits to be produced and am trying to keep costs down (who isn't?). The biggest expense seems to be nosecones, and unless I turn them myself, I'm limited to what's available currently. To that end, I've toyed with the idea of somehow converting my el-cheapo Harbor Freight mini wood lathe into a CNC-capable lathe. This would allow repeat accuracy of turned cones vs. what I can do by hand. Even if I never make a single kit, I still would like to do this.
I've seen this done but regrettably, did not pay closer attention to the setup at the time. I know the unit I saw was being successfully used in a production environment and was a "homebrew" conversion of a small wood lathe and a stepper-controlled carriage which mounted a small trim router. All appeared to be controlled by Mach 3.
I've been looking all over the interwebs and have found a few leads on more info, but not quite what I'm looking for, which is something that says, "Here's what you 'll need, this is how it works together, now go forth and turn." If such resources do exist, can anyone point me in the right direction? I'm looking to go the DIY route here since I've seen the commercial CNC wood lathes available but they are priced well outside the ballpark I'm playing in.
Alternately, a good, workable homebrew fourth axis setup for my Shapeoko 3 XL CNC router would be a good possibility. I just figured that the HF wood lathes are so inexpensive that someone must have come up with a workable, affordable DIY solution or even a conversion kit. Or maybe not!
I've seen this done but regrettably, did not pay closer attention to the setup at the time. I know the unit I saw was being successfully used in a production environment and was a "homebrew" conversion of a small wood lathe and a stepper-controlled carriage which mounted a small trim router. All appeared to be controlled by Mach 3.
I've been looking all over the interwebs and have found a few leads on more info, but not quite what I'm looking for, which is something that says, "Here's what you 'll need, this is how it works together, now go forth and turn." If such resources do exist, can anyone point me in the right direction? I'm looking to go the DIY route here since I've seen the commercial CNC wood lathes available but they are priced well outside the ballpark I'm playing in.
Alternately, a good, workable homebrew fourth axis setup for my Shapeoko 3 XL CNC router would be a good possibility. I just figured that the HF wood lathes are so inexpensive that someone must have come up with a workable, affordable DIY solution or even a conversion kit. Or maybe not!
