Electronic Leadscrews?

All discussion about lathes including but not limited to: South Bend, Hardinge, Logan, Monarch, Clausing and other HSM lathes, including imports

Moderators: GlennW, Harold_V

pete
Posts: 2518
Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2009 6:04 am

Electronic Leadscrews?

Post by pete »

Just so I don't throw Mauro's Threading Without the End Groove off topic I thought I'd mention a company and product I just ran across last month. https://www,rocketronics.de Seems to be possibly a home based? start up company and located in Germany. He's offering what looks to be a fairly comprehensive building block style of almost cnc but not quite kits at a fair price for what they are. Stefan Gotteswinter and a guy with a user name of Jan Sverre Haugjord on Youtube are supposed to be doing a review of the kits and the capabilitys in the near future. Both of those YT posters I'd judge to be extremely talented and more than knowledgeable. The 2 axis kit allows some limited part shaping beyond the ability to cut any thread metric or imperial without change gears. Rocketronics and at least a few others have some YT videos up showing some pretty impressive results in my opinion. I know of one other Electronic leadscrew manufacturer at Babin Machine Tool with a design mostly meant for the Hardinge HLV lathes and at industrial quality it's in the $3,000 - $4,000 range. Rocketronic's is at least 1/4 of that price or less.
stephenc
Posts: 311
Joined: Sat Jul 05, 2014 6:13 pm
Location: youngstown ohio

Re: Electronic Leadscrews?

Post by stephenc »

Way back when I first got my grizzly g0602 I remember reading somewhere about a fellow who had converted his to an electronic lead screw with some sort of tone ring
On the spindle and a stepper motor on the lead screw .
I tried to find it again but came up with nothing , my memory doesn't go so far as to remember how he was controlling it unfortunately.
pete
Posts: 2518
Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2009 6:04 am

Re: Electronic Leadscrews?

Post by pete »

There's some more than clever people who are far better with computers and electronics than I can ever hope to be. It's my understanding that a full cnc conversion on any lathe and running Mach 3 for the CAM program doesn't work well while threading since Mach 3 apparently does a poor job of tracking the spindles exact position. A few of those videos of that Rocketronics system show some extremely good tracking results. An Arduino and spindle encoder with some good understanding of what else is needed is supposed to be capable of doing the same job. Way outside something I'd try to attempt though. :-( Other than figuring out the mechanicals of mounting the encoder and steppers on whatever lathe a person has that Rocketronics system looks pretty simple.
User avatar
SteveHGraham
Posts: 7788
Joined: Sat Jan 17, 2009 7:55 pm
Location: Florida

Re: Electronic Leadscrews?

Post by SteveHGraham »

There used to be an ELS group on Yahoo. Might still be there.
Every hard-fried egg began life sunny-side up.
User avatar
Will's 2882
Posts: 63
Joined: Thu Jan 03, 2013 9:31 pm
Location: Oakhurst,Ca.

Re: Electronic Leadscrews?

Post by Will's 2882 »

There is a typo in the web address. It is https://www.rocketronics.de
And it is in German
pete
Posts: 2518
Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2009 6:04 am

Re: Electronic Leadscrews?

Post by pete »

Thanks Will
WJH
Posts: 1417
Joined: Sat Jan 16, 2010 9:29 pm
Location: Florida

Re: Electronic Leadscrews?

Post by WJH »

Why do an ELS? It’s most of the way to CNC, might as well do CNC.
Magicniner
Posts: 532
Joined: Thu May 30, 2013 4:40 am

Re: Electronic Leadscrews?

Post by Magicniner »

WJH wrote: Sat Mar 31, 2018 5:38 pm Why do an ELS? It’s most of the way to CNC, might as well do CNC.
Exactly my thoughts too, I suppose if you had no gearbox and a lathe that didn't take change wheels......
John Hasler
Posts: 1852
Joined: Tue Dec 06, 2016 4:05 pm
Location: Elmwood, Wisconsin

Re: Electronic Leadscrews?

Post by John Hasler »

Change gears are a major reason I'm considering an ELS. I can't see it as most of the way to CNC, though.
WJH
Posts: 1417
Joined: Sat Jan 16, 2010 9:29 pm
Location: Florida

Re: Electronic Leadscrews?

Post by WJH »

John Hasler wrote:Change gears are a major reason I'm considering an ELS. I can't see it as most of the way to CNC, though.
You can 3D print change gears, or just machine your own


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
John Hasler
Posts: 1852
Joined: Tue Dec 06, 2016 4:05 pm
Location: Elmwood, Wisconsin

Re: Electronic Leadscrews?

Post by John Hasler »

I have a full set of gears. It's changing them that makes me want ELS.
User avatar
Will's 2882
Posts: 63
Joined: Thu Jan 03, 2013 9:31 pm
Location: Oakhurst,Ca.

Re: Electronic Leadscrews?

Post by Will's 2882 »

I sent a request about getting a unit that would cut in inches. This is their reply.


Hello,
unfortunately, the ELS can only work in metric units, as Inches would take up too much room and would also be not precise enough.
The common used 0,001 inch is only 0.0254 mm. The ELS now works with 0.001mm precision. So we would need at least be able to enter 0,00001 inch to use the current internal precision, which are 3 digits more needed. The display does not have that much space.
Also, the calculation is much easier in metrics, as I would need to recalculate every number before display. Not to mention rounding errors etc.
I am sorry, but it is not possible at the moment. If I ever rebuild one with a larger display, I would maybe able to do it.
Post Reply