Friday, April 26, 2024
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Craftsman 101 6″ Metal Lathe

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Craftsman 101 6" Metal Lathe

Over the summer I acquired a Craftsman 101 6" lathe.  As no tooling came with it and later I found it to be missing a couple of other items, I decided to take it apart and restore it before giving it a whirl.  Sounds crazy right?  What can I say I'm a glutton for punishment...

Only time will tell how this project turns out as first I must source the needed parts without paying a fortune for them.  For that, I must be very patient and continually watch both Ebay and Craigslist in hopes of finding a good deal.  

Z Axis Improvements on the homemade CNC

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Z Axis Improvements on the homemade CNC

For some time now I have been wanting to change the X Axis on my homebuilt CNC machine.  The original plans for my CNC came from fellow YouTuber Dave Gatton.  I took the original plans and modified them just a bit to produce the size and shape machine I wanted.  Everything else I took as-is into my new machine.

While there is nothing wrong with Dave' original design, there are always improvements that can be made.  Just look back over Dave's channel and you'll see several iterations of the various CNC designs that Dave has come up with.  For my new design I wasn't planning on straying too far from the things that already were working for me.

I set out to solve 3 main issues with my current setup.

  • Dust shoe venting only had one slot causing the motor to run hot
  • Orientation of the dust shoe and vacuum hose jetting out the side was inline with the front v-groove bearing mount on the carriage or my Y Axis.
  • Z Axis motor mount and leadscrew hanging out from the Z Axis plate have a tendency to take hits from work clamping means causing issues and premature wear on wooden parts.

After a bit of trial and error on the parts requiring a bit more precision... I think the final results are as good as I thought they would be!