Pimping the mini-lathe

I used it to tune my servos, but I thought here that the encoder had no output, so it seemed easier to hook up the toy osci.

when your chasing threads on a lathe the first passes can be a little deeper but as more of the cutting tool makes more contact as you get deeper the depth of cuts should be smaller. something else too remember is with steel it takes more force to cut than softer material so going a bit slower on the RPM would have probably helped with these small lathes.

it looked like the shaft was sticking out quite a bit and with small shafts if it pushes to much the work wants to climb up over the tool like it did before the job got sideways on you. one thing you can do to avoid this is to center drill the end of the shaft and use a live or dead center to support the end of the shaft. this will keep the work from climbing over the tool and bad things from happening the next time around.

machine looks good though.

I am using a very old version of FeatureCam, and you can either tell it a fixed number of passes, or "calculated". I choose 10 passes, but could also hear each pass loading up more. The LinuxCNC G76 might have been a better choice as I think it has a constant load option, where the cuts get progressively lower depth increment.
The stock holding was too shallow in that collet.
Mark

i think with these small lathes the amount of part stick out is harder to gauge. what would be very little stick out on a much bigger machine seems to be quite a bit on these little lathes.

sounds like linux canned cycles would be a better choice for threading tool paths. on the first few passes only the tip of the tool is cutting but as you get deeper into the cut you end up with both sides of the threading tool acting like a wedge. i would probably say a spring pass on the final pass might not be a bad idea as well. What ends up happening is you have part deflection and the part pushes away from the tool out on the end of the part while the section closest to the chuck is more stable.

if you would get lucky and not have a part climb over the tool and you were to measure the threads you would probably see some difference in your measured sizes from the front of the thread to the back section. or if your using just a test nut you will notice tight and loose spots down the threads.

just some tips to think about for next time.

I think that Fanux6M post I used does 30° infeed, so it should only cut on one flank, but I'll try clamping stock more securely, only the thread as stick out, and the G76 and report back.

Ooops, looks like I never hit send on the post this morning.
I think you could connect your spare C button to halui.mode.teleop
so at the flick of a switch you would be able to jog regardless of the screen you are on..
You can the say the C = cunning feature