Mini lathe carriage feed

[threesixesinarow]

I wonder if they’re purposefully made so gears can’t ever bind despite loose tolerances - in any case, I did a lot more to tighten up backlash in the gears than any of the feed screws on my 7xes.

For making only one it just takes careful measuring and planning to get the right center distances.


I do plan to replace the change gears with a simplified synchronized lead screw stepper system, but will keep the apron feed as well. A couple of those include a stepper for the cross slide in the more complete versions, to automate cutting threads and tapers, and probably facing as well. I still want to figure out a way to use this apron drive for that, too, though.


Speed control and new motor: