Step by step method for upgrading a lathe cross slide to linear ball rails.

[tonyfoale]

I'm at it again, attacking my long suffering lathe. I previously made several posts about my electronic control conversions, here are some links to the previous posts.

Lathe cross slide conversion to a ball screw

Ball screw and electronic lathe conversion

More on my lathe conversion

Final?????? update to the lathe electronic control

Screwing without screwing up.

Now I want to turn my electronically controlled lathe into a cam grinding machine which requires the best possible accuracy. When you are chasing tenths slide friction is the enemy of precision so the ball slides are primarily to reduce sliding friction to gain accurate positioning. I have a distant friend who is planning something similar so I made a 14 min video to pass on ideas. I thought that it might be of interest to others so here it is.