Southbend 9 - motorised manual feed modification

[chester179]

Pretty simple modification to remove the manual hand wheel and fit a stepper motor. The stepper motor is manually controlled by a pulse generator with speed dial, off/on and forward/reverse.
From what ive seen the conventional way of motorising drive is by motorising the applicable leadscrew but my lathe hasnt got a dedicated leadscrew for driving the carriage and i wanted to get away from piggybacking on the leadscrew meant for screw-cutting so opted for rigging it via the existing manual feed (handwheel connected to rack).
Disadvantages - losing the immediacy and simplicity of manual control. And the motor needs to be disconnected when engaging the lead screw for screw cutting.
Advantages - gives a smooth feed and widest range of feedrates. Removes the temptation to use the leadscrew for driving the carriage.
I initially bought a nema 24 566oz motor to use but seeing the weight and size of it i decided to first of try a nema 23 180oz and this moves the carriage fine , it does stall when the cut gets to big but works ok within its limitations.
And now ive got used to it and am confident the electronic controls arnt going to crash everything i like it.
Used with M542T driver and 36v and 5v power supplies.

 

[MRA]

Nice. If the lack of a hand wheel ends up bugging you, maybe you could press on a gear around the boss at the rear of the wheel (if it's like my Boxford) and drive the wheel using a pinion on the motor. The motor could pivot in and out of mesh, depending on if you want manual or auto feed. Or even drive it with a small belt and use a tensioner to engage and disengage.

But maybe it won't bug you