Free 186 More Best Homemade Tools eBook:  
Get 2,000+ tool plans, full site access, and more.

User Tag List

Results 1 to 5 of 5

Thread: Variable Feed Speed Control for Mini-Lathe

  1. #1
    Supporting Member tmate3's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2021
    Posts
    110
    Thanks
    9
    Thanked 250 Times in 63 Posts

    tmate3's Tools

    Variable Feed Speed Control for Mini-Lathe

    A good while back I bought a Grizzly mini lathe, and like my old Atlas 6 incher, I had to switch the gears to adjust the feed rate. My solution for that is pictured below.

    I center drilled the lead screw with a 5/16" drill, then drilled and tapped a setscrew hole an inch or so from its end. I then made a female to male adaptor that slid into the end of the lead screw and fit on the shaft of a Grainger gearmotor. The male end of the adaptor had a flat milled into it. A drilled detent would have accomplished the same thing. I drilled and tapped a couple of holes in the end of the lathe and made a motor mounting bracket that bolted in place.

    A DC model railroad transformer controlled the feed rate in forward and reverse.

    Variable Feed Speed Control for Mini-Lathe-mini-lead-screw-drill.jpg Variable Feed Speed Control for Mini-Lathe-mini-tap-set-screw-hole.jpg Variable Feed Speed Control for Mini-Lathe-mini-lead-screw-mod.jpg Variable Feed Speed Control for Mini-Lathe-mini-finished.jpg

    186 More Best Homemade Tools eBook

  2. The Following 4 Users Say Thank You to tmate3 For This Useful Post:

    bruce.desertrat (Jan 26, 2021), DuayneI (Jan 31, 2021), Duke_of_URL (Jan 31, 2021), Home-PC (Jan 26, 2021)

  3. #2
    Content Editor
    Supporting Member
    DIYer's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Posts
    3,056
    Thanks
    772
    Thanked 1,850 Times in 1,652 Posts


    Thanks tmate3! We've added your Mini Lathe Variable Speed Feed Control to our Lathe Accessories category,
    as well as to your builder page: tmate3's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:




    2000 Tool Plans

  4. #3

    Join Date
    Jul 2019
    Posts
    4
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
    So, if you add a way to read RPM you "could" do rudimentary threading?

    Pretty cool idea. I have that same exact DC speed controller.

  5. #4
    Supporting Member tmate3's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2021
    Posts
    110
    Thanks
    9
    Thanked 250 Times in 63 Posts

    tmate3's Tools
    Quote Originally Posted by cementtruck View Post
    So, if you add a way to read RPM you "could" do rudimentary threading?

    Pretty cool idea. I have that same exact DC speed controller.
    I believe you would need a way to sync the spindle speed with the carriage movement.

  6. #5

    Join Date
    Jul 2019
    Posts
    4
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
    I guess a stepper motor moving the carriage and a hall effect sensor on the chuck end would be the only way to get that 99.98% to synch up. Back to the drawing board ... and the ELS forum (*sigh).

    Still a great project though if all you need is a quick way to get that carriage back and forth quickly.



    186 More Best Homemade Tools eBook

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •