I bought this Fisch wood lathe off Craigslist for $90 several years ago. I used it quite a bit at the beginning making bowls and other items for gifts. It has sat unused for awhile now so I thought it would get more use if I converted to CNC operation. Started the conversion couple weeks ago in January 2023. I didn’t want to purchase anything for the build and used what I already have in my “junk pile” of linear motion parts. The entire unit mounts to the lathe bed by two bolts. It can be easily removed in under 5 minutes if I want to use the lathe manually.
3″x1″ series10 80/20 aluminum extrusion
THK HSR25 linear rail with two bearing carriages
NSK ground ballscrew class2 grade for Z axis
THK KR26 linear actuator for X axis
two 3Nm stepper motors
The toolpost holder was borrowed from my CNC mini lathe
The controller box is a repurposed security alarm box. Was able to fit in
Two Geckodrives GM215 stepper drivers
Mach3 compatible RNRMOTION cnc controller board
48volt power supply
DIN fuse holder
large pushbutton emergency stop switch mounted to the front cover
The build was very simple with minimal machining of aluminum parts required.
This is the first cut test video
Made a woodworkers mallet.
Made a mount for a small trim router for rotary cutting.
Cutting a wand using the rotary and 1/4″ ballmill cutter.
Was told a positive rake TCGT carbide insert works better for wood lathe turning. Much smoother finish than my other inserts used.
Jim's Embeddedtronics 