I was in the shop tonight staring at my CNC lathe and started thinking about an easy way to convert it to a CNC mill until I get the funds to build a dedicated mill.
Grizzly is selling a milling attachment for the 9X20 lathe for $159.00 which would give me a Y travel of 4 5/8"
I can pull off my tool changer by simply removing two bolts and one wire connector and then bolt on the milling attachment. Add a stepper motor to the milling attachment and wire it so you can just plug it into the tool changer connector.
Then set up a profile in Mach 3 Mill to use the Z, X and now new Y axis as a milling machine and make chips!
My lathe already has three stepper drives and could easily run the new Y axis by just changing the driver profile. The total project cost would be around $225.00 for the milling attachment and extra stepper motor. The travels wouldn't be the best and I would have to be careful on the amount of weight I add to the X axis, but I think it would work.
What do you think?
Dale P.