Looking for recommendations

Ebay is your place to look for such an item.

search for cnc 4th axis

A simple taig headstock and tailstock mounted to a taig dovetail. You can spin it with whatever motor you choose. If you need one let me know

I went with Sherline.

Because of the compactness, interchangeability, and tooling versatility, i love old Hardinge components. Plenty of that stuff was used in MA, Springfield and east (My wifes from there), & rusty parts of VT, CT & RI.
However, resisted commenting earlier because looking at eBay these days, guess i was lucky getting in under the curve starting 25-30 years ago. Actually bought my first fully tooled Hardinge 2nd op lathe at a yard sale.
If you get out to live factory auctions, it can be an option still. Nobody wants simple old manual machines without threading.

This set up was actually converted from a Hardinge indexer. I built a live center/ live chuck set up for the TS. For rotary work, the index head has a lever added to hold the factory lever pawl open. For 24 space indexing, it is moved out of the way so the factory lever can function. Low speed - say 500 rpm or less, these were not designed to rotate continuously. I just keep light spindle oil in it and it works fine. Should add a drip oiler. Takes chucks, 5c collets, and collet centers.

Just to be clear, I did a fair amount of butchery to the original headstock, and built and added the pulley, etc. It had a broken ear on the casting & had the collet drawtube but was missing the level closer. That made it cheap and i never felt bad about "creative adapting" it.

But yeah, the sensible thing these days without a backlog of spindle and workholding tooling already on hand, would be to go with one of the chinese offerings.

good luck.

smt

MVPCues said:

I went with Sherline.

Click to expand...

That was my first thought (as a non-cuemaker), a Sherline rotary table (just add a motor) with tailstock.

https://www.sherline.com/product/3700-cnc-cnc-ready-4-rotary-table/

Dave

Dave38 said:

Look for some recommendations for a small headstock and tailstock to put on my CNC table. Not able to spend the farm, and not looking for anything that will be controlled by Mach3, looking for stand-alone and small, just for turning shafts and or butts. Would like to have the ability to put a chuck on it or a drive center, and a live center on the tailstock. Any help is appreciated.
Thanks
Dave

Click to expand...

Hey Dave,
I've been in the same boat for the last three weeks or so. I'm leaning towards what Todd calls his Workstation since it's around $400 and seems to be able to get the job done. It has a 4 foot Taig style bed. May need the motor upgrade as I don't know whether the stock one is rated for continous. Also would need the speed control. Been meaning to give Todd a call but am too busy with the day job. Nothing else I've looked at is near that inexpensive.

I've got a 4th axis on my 6090 so ideally I'd like to have a spindle that could adapt to either the standard motor for tapers or with the swap of a belt go to the stepper motor for cutting inlays and point grooves. Right now I can only do the inlays and point grooves with the stepper-driven 4th axis. Unfortunately the spindle and (crappy) tailstock are separate with no way to easily index. Having it on a proper bed would reduce set up time by a bunch! If I had a full machine shop I'd just build something but unfortunately I work out of my garage.

So I'm still on the fence as to which direction I want to go. If Todd thinks the belt swap thing is doable I'm probably going to go that direction.

Anyway, I'd appreciate it if you'd keep me in the loop as to how you get on with it and I'll do the same since it seems we're on parallel paths. If you'd like to discuss more detail we can take it to PM's if you'd rather.

Stay safe and be well!
Ken

What I came up with.

In case you haven't already came up with something, I decided to go with Todd's workstation and it is working out perfectly.

My biggest concern was the limited Z clearance on my Chinese 6090. Turns out this has plenty of clearance for the
tailstock without having to remove the dovetail bed from the board Todd supplies. The headstock (chuck) is a little
high but the gantry won't interfere how it's mounted.

I would have went a completely different direction if I had more room but I work out of a double garage and need room for the bikes
so I'm limited to my 4X8 bench shown here. (The hightower deluxe is on the other side).


Here's a few shots of the workstation mounted to the 6090 bed.






Finally, this is what I decided to do with the 4th axis. I'll design a dovetail standoff similar to the 1" deluxe to mount the 4th axis motor assembly to. Then when I need to switch from tapers to ring billets, points, and or inlays, I'll simply swap the rotating motor assembly with the stepper assembly.



All in all I think it will work great cosidering my contraints. I did a test straight cut on some scrap and it all works as expected.
Where there's a will there's a way!

Also I should mention that mounting it clear over to the side makes it a bit of a pain to mount workpieces however on the plus side
the gantry is much more rigid that close to the upright and it still allows me to do other larger carving projects on the cnc.

Hope this gives others in a similar situation some ideas...

Dave38 said:

looks great, I haven't had time to do anything yet. Where did you get the stepper unit? All I really need is a headstock right now as I already have dovetail, and the tailstock, and would probably end up making an indexing plate for the head stock down the road.
Dave

Click to expand...

Thanks, I think it's going to work well. The 4th axis came with the 6090, ebay. I think you can get them separately there as well. The stepper is accurate to a thou or two, but the tailstock is complete garbage and I've never used it.

Those taig headstocks are pretty cheap from my searches.

Stay safe and be well!

Sherline MT1 headstock and MT0 tailstock.

Dave, for cutting my points I set up a Taig headstock and tailstock in my milling machine. I made my own indexer and it works great. For your application it would also work. For turning wood, I use a low RPM motor from ebay which is about $35. This is set up on a lathe similar to a cueman lathe. If u need pictures for ideas let me know.