This is one of the most recent additions to my shop. Actually it's two things. An addition and a project. My desire to work not only collect and use hand tools but make them drove me to this. Damn you, tool addiction, damn you! It's a 1942 South Bend Heavy 10 lathe. A model 10R to be exact. The main difference is in the spindle, both the nose threads and the bore. While the 10R has a 1 inch spindle bore and 1-7/8X8 nose threads, the 10L is much larger. The 10L bore is approximately 1 3/8 inches, with nose threads that are 1-1/2X8. The 10R lathes seem to be more uncommon than the 'big mouthed' brothers. (Couldn't resist). Downsides? Stock size is limited when it extends through the bore. Accessories like chucks are harder to find and don't even get me started on collets. Most 10R owners have either made their own collet adapters to use the more common sizes like 4C or ER32/42 collets or spent a pile of cash (and time) collecting the South Bend 2A collet equipment. I haven't seen any and I've been looking high and low!
For now, here are a couple of pictures. The first is the 'old gal' on the day she came home. The second is the same lathe exactly 1 month to the day later. I still have work to do, such as completing the chip pan, tailstock, and saddle/apron, assemblies. So, she's looking good.
Welcome to The Workshop Garage. I started this blog for all of you who have to share space with the family car. This particular space is 'sometimes' shared with a 2006 Black Ford Escape. During the bad weather, wheels on most everything, allow me to quickly make room for the 'overnight guest'.
I finished a major renovation of the shop in the Spring of 2008, which included insulation, drywall, paint, lights, and a 100amp subpanel. Each row of outlets have their own circuits, as well as the lights and overhead outlets. Since the renovation I've added a couple of 240v circuits to run the larger compressor and other things.
Feel free to drop me a line or leave a comment anytime!
Here are some pictures of the shop right after the overhaul. Since then, I've added several more things to it. It doesn't look as clean now.
A lot of folks have been emailing me about how to use Keygrabber to program the Logitech USB Gamepad for use in Mach3. Rather than waste your time and, to a lesser extent, mine, I am providing the links to the site I used to figure it out. It's really quite simple but Daniel Kemp at Hossmachine.info has a neat article and wired two USB devices up in a slick enclosure with a bunch of other stuff. It's the first article on the page, "Control Panel". At the bottom of his article and pictures are 3 screen shots and a video showing you how it's done. Enjoy!
I had been hearing about a lot of folks using an X-box 360 controller to jog their CNC machines. About the cheapest price I could find on an X-box controller at Wal-Mart was around $20.00. I happened to have a Logitech Dual Action USB Gamepad (that I got on Ebay a few months ago) lying around and decided to give it a try.
Using 'Keygrabber' supplied with my installation of Mach3, I was able to get this little controller up and running in about 15 minutes. It required installing the drivers from the Logitech site and then simply running Keygrabber and configuring a few keys. (More on how to configure Keygrabber later). In a nutshell, I mapped the left joystick to the X and Y axis. The right joystick (up and down) is mapped to the Z axis. A video is embeded below showing me jogging the spindle around with the gamepad. Video is a little jumpy but that is what happens when you have an 8 year old 'camera person'. Thanks Abby!
What I like best about this method is that is offers exponential control over all three axis. I have Mach3 configured for 300 inches/minute and, as you can see, I can make very minute adjustments or rapidly move the spindle to another area just by moving the sticks.
There are plenty of buttons on this gamepad you can configure for various things. You can adjust the feed rate and jog rate with two buttons. You can also add cycle start, feed hold, rewind program, load G-code, etc. to the buttons. I think this thing offers a whole lot of flexibility and precise control for less than $10.00.
The 'Pride and Joy' of my shop was added this past Christmas. I have been having so much fun learning to use it. You really need to be a programmer/engineer to operate one of these things. I control it with a P4 2.4 Ghz desktop and Logitech Dual Action controller. Basically, a PC game pad with dual sticks. I use it for starting/stopping jobs, feedhold, and jogging the spindle into position. The thing I like most is the 'exponential control' I have with the sticks. Move the stick a little and the machine jogs slowly. Cram the stick to the left and it moves at full speed. This allows for very nice control of my machine.
Having spent the past 3 or 4 months learning to use it, I'm now planning my first real project. A set of gears to be incorporated into a coffee table I'm currently sketching up. The gears will be used to slide out a tray when a door is raised on the top of the table. I still have a few details to work out but I plan to start cutting some prototypes in the next week or so. Stay tuned.
Below is a picture of the little beauty and a video of her doing her thing. Yes, I've named her but I'll reveal that in another post!
