ELS Conversion on Weiss 1127

[ivel03]

Buttoned up most of the ELS project today - the big thing was sliding the lathe back into place, getting the cover back on, and cleaning up the huge mess i made in the shed. The way things look i'll be mowing lawn soon and my lathe and mill workspace is a shared space so some cleaning was in order.

I needed to cut a hole in the side cover so i figured i'd remove the studs in the headstock and replace them with longer rods, mark the stepper motor with grease then carefully slide the cover on the rods carefully lined up leave the grease imprint on the inside of the cover. Worked great. Cut the smallest hole i could and still have some room around the stepper. I suppose if you cut a square hole with a wiz wheel it could be a bit tighter but i think it has the perfect amount of clearance.





I cut a smaller hole in the back on the angled section for the 2 stepper motor cables and the encoder cable. This is what it looks like with the original studs installed and the cover installed:




Performed some cable organization of the DRO cables; i like the loop for taking up the slack but time will tell if i like the mgmt on the back of the carriage. It's only a few zip ties to cut if i decide to change it but i need to run it for a while to see how well it works.



Here's a pic showing how the entire installation looks; i didn't want the stepper sticking out too far as there's a door right there. This is all done in a 14' x 28' shed - with about 14' x 14' with the lathe, mill, tooling, tools, and some other stuff. I wish i had more room, something more like a pole barn with a concrete floor but honestly this is super easy to heat with an electric heater and lets me tinker on stuff without too many compromises.



The ELS is working great. I hope those following along have enjoyed reading the progress updates.

 

[lesrhorer]

I have started the conversion of adding an ELS onto my lathe. Here are some pics of the progress:

View attachment 431757 View attachment 431756

I'm happy with the stepper motor mount - it is very rigid.

Are you certain of that? The stepper can be under a lot of lateral force, and it doesn't take much flexure to cause a timing belt to skip a notch. I think I would have used a little longer belt with some sort of tensioning mechanism and supported the motor on all four sides. Fortunately, my lathe is undercut below the faceplate, and by sheer luck the motor fits perfectly underneath the lathe body. I mounted an idler gear directly on the motor mount with a tensioning screw.

In your case, you really did not have a whole lot of options other than to mount the motor sticking out the side of the lathe, so your overall design makes perfect sense.

I plan on doing a bit more fit and finish on the stepper mount. The encoder mount i'm redoing b/c the bracket kicks slightly sideways, the bracket is way larger than it needs to be and i don't like it - oh and i thought of a much easier way to build it after i completed it.

What kicks it sideways? The encoder belt should be under virtually zero tension. I understand why you used the timing belt - clearly the timing gear was already in place, but a timing gear is way overkill for an encoder. Thge encoder shaft isx definitely not designed to endure a lot of force in any direction.

Excuse the mess - i'm sure many have been in this situation mid-project.

There is never any sort of mess in my shop.

 

[ivel03]

Are you certain of that? The stepper can be under a lot of lateral force, and it doesn't take much flexure to cause a timing belt to skip a notch. I think I would have used a little longer belt with some sort of tensioning mechanism and supported the motor on all four sides. Fortunately, my lathe is undercut below the faceplate, and by sheer luck the motor fits perfectly underneath the lathe body. I mounted an idler gear directly on the motor mount with a tensioning screw.

I've ran it for months since this conversion was completed with no hint of issues. The stepper motor is rock solid. There are slots to adjust the motor and tension the belt which is simple and works well.

In your case, you really did not have a whole lot of options other than to mount the motor sticking out the side of the lathe, so your overall design makes perfect sense.

I had inquired about another member who was using bevel cut gears to tuck the motor under the cover. They said they scrapped that plan and ended up being able to tuck it similar to where yours is between the motor and the webbing of the frame.

What kicks it sideways? The encoder belt should be under virtually zero tension. I understand why you used the timing belt - clearly the timing gear was already in place, but a timing gear is way overkill for an encoder. Thge encoder shaft isx definitely not designed to endure a lot of force in any direction.

In the first pic i had used 2 standoffs for spacing the encoder away from the frame of the lathe. I redid that by mounting a block to the lathe then slotting the plate the motor is mounted to, connecting the two of them together - see post #10. The timing gear is way overkill for the encoder but it was easy to get a cog belt that matched what the change gear pitch was and so far the encoder is holding up well.

I appreciate your feedback. It was a very satisfying project to complete and i'm hoping it encourages others to do a similar project.

 

[markba633csi]

I might have tried to stuff the stepper in this spot and cut a hole in the side:
I assume you might have considered that idea? Not enough room maybe?

 

[ivel03]

The stepper motor was too long to stuff in there. I did consider it when i was doing the conversion.