- Joined
- Mar 21, 2013
- Messages
- 4,064
Seems like putting a good VFD on a geared machine would offer the advantages of both. I'm still leery of Chinese electronic controls. So I wouldn't want a machine that relied on them to remain functional over many years. One thing that would be really nice, putting an additional gears on the quick change gear box that converted the lead screw to metric.
My 1340GT is a geared head with a VFD. The soft start, slow jog, and electronic braking are a big plus. Also, the lathe motor is 3-phase, so that means smoother running (less ISV) than a single-phase motor giving me mirror bright finishes if I do everything else correctly and no 'printing'. The variable speed really lets me fine tune the finish cuts.
I also have, courtesy of mksj, a electronic stop function that allows me to blind ID thread without having to disengage the threading lever or worry about crashing my tool in the part. It really helps as I don't do blind ID threading very often and I can get a bit tense while doing so.
I can run a geared head lathe just fine. I can even run it without a DRO on it. But I don't want to if I can help it.