Stepperhead

I would like to tell you about a metal cutting machine I have designed and built. It is designed with the model maker/ home work shopper in mind. It uses stepper motors to move and rotate the operating axes either by operator controlled power drive or CNC control or manual control via the hand wheels or combinations of all three modes. As a stepper motor is used to index the headstock I have named it "Stepperhead". The stepper motors can be engaged or disengaged as desired so that the axes can be either manually operated via the hand wheels or when the stepper motors are engaged they can be used to power the axes controlled by the operator or CNC controlled by the computer. The stepper motor used to control the lathe headstock spindle enables indexing or spiral milling etc. The spindle can be driven by the main motor as in a regular lathe or by the stepper motor. Another feature of the machine is that the headstock and tailstock can be elevated relative to the lathe bed, enabling the machine (with various attachments) to be used as a vertical/horizontal milling/boring machine in manual, power or, CNC modes. Raising the headstock also enables large diameters to be machined on a small lathe. These attributes allow a large variety of machining operations to be performed on one versatile machine. I can supply a complete set of drawings and construction descriptions for £80.00 plus post and packing. Email: alan@jackary.plus.com