cnc'ing a taper shaper

pescadoman

pescadoman

Randy
Silver Member
I was wondering if anyone has done this.....It would be just for tapering.

I contacted Unique and they said basically only the frame and parts of router mount could be used...
 
Well, here is a design I have been working on. You build a CNC X-Y table alongside your lathe. I have a slide actuator table mounted on linear rails for on the Y-axis that can be attached to my Taig cross-slide. It moves the cutting tool in and out as the cross-slide moves down the ways. Two leadscrews drive the X-axis. One leadscrew drives the carriage and cross-slide and the other ballscrew drives the slide actuator table so that they move in unison. The two leadscrews and the stepper motor are all connected by a timing belt.

The cross-slide and the slide actuator table can be decoupled so I can go back to manual lathe operation.

You'll have to excuse the lack of detail, as I just wanted to use SketchUp to show the basic design.

I don't intend to sell this or try to support this contraption, so anyone is welcome to copy pieces and parts of this design. I'd be interested to hear about any project like this that someone takes on.

FYI

Gary
 

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many differant methods for doing tapers, and using CNC is one of them.two anchor points and a moving cutter will pretty much get the outside taper of a shaft.

bill
 
There are many ways to do this, some simpler than others.
I appreciate Gary's effort but I think you only need to be concerned with one axis. Which axis depends on how you design the machine.

About the simplest that immediately comes to mind is to replace your cross-slide lead-screw with a ball-screw set-up for greater accuracy.
Mount a servo or stepper motor to that ball-screw to tell the cutter where to be in relation to the work.

You would also need a 'reader-rail' mounted along the length of your bed to tell the controller where the carriage is. That controller would tell the cutter how far in or out it needs to be (or up/down depending on your design), in relation to carriage position. You'll probably want to incorporate some limit switches to avoid crashes.

The 'reader-rail' (probably not the correct word) is similar to the glass scales that are used in conjunction with DROs.

Jim Babcock (MC2) is quite knowledgeable in this area. He's a nice guy and easy to work with. Problem is, he's usually very busy (and he ain't cheap, jk). Drop him a PM, he may be able to help.
 
I once had a taper shaper and thought of making it cnc.
But, did not pursue and co-built another one instead out of THK actuators and alum extrusion.
Taper Shaper has one big fault for me.
It's tough to see the cutter when cutting wood.
The X-axis leadscrew is very lightweight for a cnc too imo.
 
just curious:

from the price I have seen for accurate glass slide rails, would it not be close to the same price, and in the future, more versatile, to just make a 2 axis CNC lathe out of the taper shaper? I have no experience making a cnc, but I have both a Taper Shaper and a CueMonster. They look, and measure, identical to me. I noticed a few tapped holes are added to the CNC machine and a few pieces are bolted on. Perhaps you should talk with the nice people at Unique? They offer an upgrade kit for the cuemonster, and possibly about half that kit and a few plates of aluminum predrilled and tapped by Unique will do the trick? Of course a controller and computer also, with appropriate software. Yes it is possible to do IMHO.
I would be very interested to hear how that works for you. I want to try the same thing, not because the Taper Shaper is not a good machine, I just see how much easier I can turn shafts with my Monster no matter what taper I have a whim to cut. And results with the CNC are so much more dependable. Best Wishes!
 
Jim at Unique replied to my inquiry and said plainly that it wouldn't be worth the cost to convert.

I would like to thank everyone who took time to reply and give advice, it is greatly appreciated.

Maybe I'll just try to make a simple one from scratch.
 
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Here's one made by MT, he posted a long time ago.
 

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zx24 said:
I wonder what it would cost to build that machine? Any guesses?
Click to expand...

The parts probably cost around 3K ( spindle, controller, spinner, linear rails/trucks , expensive flat aluminum, stepper motor ... ).
As like everything else, it's a lot cheaper if you can make your own parts.
 
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