Digital Ornamental Lathe

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Many moons ago I built what I called a Digital Ornamental Lathe (DOL) using an old wood lathe, ancient CNCRouterParts linear motion and some controllers / motors I had laying around from other projects. It was intended to be a prototype / proof of concept, but it worked so well than I never got around to building the next version. After my last move, I’ve been trying to figure out how I could incorporate the capability (14" diameter rotary) into my Pro 6096 so I could avoid having duplicate spindles and controllers on a stand alone machine. I haven’t come up with a good solution that doesn’t overly compromise the functionality of my Pro 6096. Here’s a picture of the prototype.

DOL1
DOL11053×400 105 KB

Anyone have any pictures of large capacity rotary you’ve incorporated into your machines?

Ed

1 Like
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That’s super interesting… So you’re using a stepper to spin the lathe. I assume you’re not “turning” with it, but just spinning it around and using a router bit to remove material?

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Hi Eric - You got it. Here’s some examples:

Bronze Bowl_Web
Bronze Bowl_Web800×710 63 KB

Copper Goblet W
Copper Goblet W725×1200 71.2 KB

Copper Ornament 1375 Vectric
Copper Ornament 1375 Vectric615×1866 168 KB

ED

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Excellent pieces. Really awesome finishes too. I’m working on a 4th axis for my machine, but the trouble is always the maximum swing. That build looks great for swing. I think might have already optimized since you need a lot of spindle travel on a lathe.