Lathe Electronic Leadscrew Part 9: Machining a Control Panel

[@BernhardHofmann]

I've watched this whole series and I have to say how impressed I am. This is so well made, from the code to the wiring, engineering, design through execution and videoing the entire process. My deepest respect. Thank you so much for the entertainment and education.

[@randysmith9715]

I get something out your videos every time. I had never seen using the caliper head to measure the height of a screw head like that. Bonus!

[@matheuswohl]

I saw him doing that, then looked at my caliper nearby and thought to myself "you can do that?"

[@rpavlik1]

Making it through the back catalog.... Wow, those painted engraved letters look great!

[@jasonm2477]

your range of skills is mind blowing, just to sum this up.. and forgive me if i miss something there's 1 CAD 2 CAM 3 Programming for embedded devices 4 all that math for threading and feed rates and stuff that i technically count as something above and beyond programming 5 manual milling 6 CNC machining 7 manual lathing 8 circuit design 9 PCB design rare to see one person do such a project from begging to end and do it all so well

[@Clough42]

Thanks! It's pretty much all self-taught. It comes from a lifetime of taking on projects that are just beyond my abilities and then learning what I need to learn to complete them.

[@jerrydemas2020]

James, I don't envy hardly anyone- you are the exception. Great job.

[@mattylarkspur9858]

DEFINITELY the right call to go with this rather than touchscreen! wow it looks sharp!

[@Neptune730]

It is probably to late to help you with this but it may help others. If you have screws with black oxide on them and you want silver. You can always just hit the head with 600 grit sand paper. You can also get a piece of round stock. Drill and tap a hole for the screw in the end on a lathe. Mount it in the lathe, insert the screw and polish with Scotch-brite. Hope this helps. That cover came out looking great.

[@dolvaran]

If you don't have access to self adhesive film, a very useful alternative is to use Quality Street wrappers stuck on with double-sided sticky tape. They are available outside the UK. Of course, they also have the advantage of giving you an excuse to eat chocolate! They give several colours (red, green, blue, brown etc). The only disadvantage is that the individual wrappers aren't very big.

[@tinfever]

I never knew you could measure with that end of the caliper! That blew my mind!

[@jeffreyhallam5517]

Standard printer paper can be used as a very mild abrasive that can be used to clean up paint. Stephen Gotteswinter uses it to clean up marks when he make colored indicator lines. That might work for use as an alternative to scotchbright.

[@Clough42]

That's not a bad idea. I have used brown paper bags to polish plastic before.

[@jojotiger55]

James, Once again you are knocking it out of the park.

[@tommyfisher1435]

Absolutely awesome job, really like your design and how this turned out, thanks for sharing this great project.

[@sansdecorum4600]

Always a pleasure to watch an educated perfectionist at work. Super cool project with a broad spectrum of disciplines incorporated and explained in a manner easy to comprehend. Kind of makes me want to invest in an inexpensive Chinese lathe and make the appropriate upgrades. Never would have thought such capable of what you've been able to accomplish. Well done.

[@paulmanhart4481]

Damn, you’re good. Always learn something from you James.

[@MrPatdeeee]

Unbelievably awesome. I can't get over how this has turned out. Wow! Thanks you kind Sir.

[@sblack48]

These cnc tools are so useful. I have a router made of mdf and I've made hundreds of different things on it. It has a bigger envelope than yours but is not nearly as rigid. Pros and cons. Great job!

[@robertward8794]

Thanks making this controller, its all very very impressive. The only suggestion I would make if you intend to offer them as a near complete kit or finished product is to also offer a PLUS SIZE version, about the size of a typical DRO. This would enable the buttons and/or function lights and/or labels to be larger and further apart, it would suit guys (I'm one)with big boofy fingers and no longer with 20/20 vision.

[@EverettsWorkshop]

That is one very cool control panel, looks very pro! I've come to like the Bud boxes too, never looked for them until seeing you use them.

[@ronniepirtlejr2606]

Wow that thing turned out absolutely gorgeous! Great job! I am happy to see it all come together for you!

[@slamlander3360]

A few points: With the diamond engraving: powder blasting and dark anodizing before engraving would have made the labels show better. The painted labels would be more durable once finished off with a 1200 grit sanding pass after 3-4 coats of label filling, followed by a clear coat.

[@bronze1319]

You are a very talented person. The way you pay attention to small details leaves me baffeled. I´m adicted now to your channel. The best of the best on youtube until now, congratulations man.

[@jimmccorison]

For future reference, when joining dissimilar metals Tef-Gel by Ultra Safety Systems is an excellent choice. In the marine electronics world it is common to need to put stainless steel fasteners into aluminum, for example, when mounting a radar on a mast. A thin coat of Tef-Gel on the fastener before installing it and you'll be able to remove that fastener years later without any difficulty.

[@jasonh3109]

Yup. That is a work of art. Well done.

[@Blue.4t2]

Wow, that red film really made a difference.

[@MoraFermi]

That drag diamond would work wonders on an anodised piece of aluminium!

[@billfollis762]

Or painted first!!

[@DrFiero]

@@billfollis762 - I thought of this some time ago and tried it. Problem is you end up with 'ragged' edges since the paint tends to chip away. That's why I recommended the anodizing and engraving (a few hours before this post did.... cough... ;) )

[@andriosz]

@@DrFiero How about powder coating ? Or something like Cerakote ? :)

[@DrFiero]

@@andriosz - I wasn't set up to do powder coating the last time I was experimenting. It's pretty tough stuff. But it does still go on fairly thick, so might be prone to chipping edges as well (I'm guessing of course). I can see it working well with the v-nose engraving if you did it at high rotational speed. Never touched Cerakote (?) at all.

[@Clough42]

I think it would be beautiful with black lacquer, but probably pretty delicate.

[@JohnK8]

Looking great! I'm almost done with my control panel. Glad I saw this before starting the engraving. Going to play around with some V-bit engraving. I used 1/16 transparent red plexiglass for the filter. Thanks again great work and video production.

[@RRINTHESHOP]

Wonderful job. Looks fantastic.

[@ryanrosser8520]

If you're using a 90° countersink you measure the diameter of the countersink subtract it from the diameter of your screw head and divide by 2 or multiply by .5 and that will give you your depth. I spot drill all of my pipe plug holes at work and set my tap depth by the spot drill diameter. Example: In order to be -1 thread on my 1/2-14NPT my spot drill diameter needs to be .7", if it measures .5 then (.7-.5)*.5= .1. So I need to go -.1 on my Z axis work shift. For engraving I always use a fly cutter to get the surface flat before I engrave with a V-bit. Drag cutters are spring loaded so flatness isn't as big a deal.

[@georgestone1282]

In my work I have to machine stem nuts for existing acme left hand threads. Sometimes a 4 pitch thread is cut on a machine with a worn lead screw giving a pitch that is short by as much as. 015" inch. Now I have to modify my threading process to account for something less than a 4 pitch thread. Your system would help to adjust for the exact pitch needed. I'm interested in obtaining one of your units if and when you have them available. Great job.

[@chadkrause6574]

I love this build, I think it’s so clever. I have another idea for a project that’s somewhat similar: force feedback, jog by wire. At 18:00 when you’re jogging your machine with the computer or Pendant, you can’t feel how hard the machine is working. If you use servos, you know how much torque it’s putting out (if you are using a data communication, not step/dir). You could put another servo connected to a handle and use force feedback to “feel” the part when you cut it, even though it’s all electronic

[@burningdinosaurs]

Red Lens-repair tape (like for broken tail lights) on transparency has worked for me as filters too. Might need a few layers of the red tape. Awesome series! This leadscrew project is what made me a subscriber! Thanks for the video!

[@a0cdhd]

As stated by my countryman AussieMatt. Great work.

[@lowelllogerwell5146]

Nice Job! I was really impressed when you added the paint, rubbed it off and it worked so well!!!

[@howesinc]

That’s incredible, the faceplate is very clean! Thanks for sharing.

[@mike2yis]

I've never seen anyone use the caliper like that at 11:14, that's great, thanks!

[@akfarmboy49]

very functional control box.

[@KingZeusCLE]

Dude.. forget the vbit. Grab a .062 or .078 or .093 flute carbide ball mill. Max the RPM, go only .003-.005, and just fly. I slow down when feeding straight down and sometimes run a spring pass, but rarely does an engraving take more than a couple minutes. I'm running 10k on the spindle (max), with my down feed at F4. (4ipm) down to Z-.004 and then go up to F20. (20ipm) for lateral moves in aluminum with coolant. Once you see a burr start, swap the tool out. Run a spring pass or play with the RPM if you see chatter. Hell I was doing a paragraph for a decorative diving piece in brass that only took four minutes or so. I know you're limited on rigidity, but crank that RPM! Well done on whole electronic lead screw project. Truly .. bravo. I can't wait to try one myself. Thank you for all your efforts! Don't take this comment too critically.

[@markthome4225]

That is beautiful, love this project! Of course no project is complete without some late feature requests. Don’t know if anyone has mentioned it yet but sure would be nice to have a carriage stop via a micro switch that could clamp to the bed. This would allow accurately turning to a shoulder or threading with much less worry about overrunning the gutter. It would be especially helpful in the case of metric threading where the half-nut isn’t disengaged and you have to account for the time for the lathe to spin down when you turn it off. Since you are using a stepper instead of servo maybe the alarm pin could be reassigned?

[@DrFiero]

Looks killer!! What about anodizing dark, then diamond engraving? Gets you your contrast.

[@onlooker251]

Hi DrFiero - Diecast alloy boxes don’t take well to anodisation (anodiziation) I was told this by a guy in our Plating Shop years ago when I talked about finishes to the boxes we were using in an R&D military environment. We had them etched primed then painted to a Def. spec aircraft black. 👍 John 🇬🇧

[@turgin9098]

That looks fantastic. Great work and attention to detail as always. This sort of thing fascinates me even though I know nothing about machining and could never do any of this myself. One of my favorite channels and I always look forward to your videos.

[@kaziyakun1]

@Clough42 Amazing work!! I need to build or buy one of these for my lathe!! I wish it had a cnc option, lock half nut, attach cross feed stepper motor, and basic cnc lathe!!

[@Clough42]

Yeah. Lots of people have used these lathes as a base for a CNC conversion. I'm not looking to take this project that far. I still like turning the handles.

[@danielmorrison7579]

It is beautiful. I was thinking; if you could have used studs on the back of that front cover, you could have avoided the screws all together.

[@SailingYachtDreamcatcher]

Nice work. The box is just in the way when tightening/ loosening the chuck.

[@Clough42]

I don't think so, but if that's the case, it can easily be mounted on the left side of the headstock.

[@tobiasripper4124]

here we go here we go! we are getting there! its looking amazing. can't wait to see it fully installed. the mounts for the pulleys and the encoder are also going to make some interesting videos. congrats! also. next project: laser engraver :P

[@gadjetsvideo]

Very professional looking result.

[@CCCfeinman55]

In a machining environment, I wonder if you’re thinking about covering or filling the holes and machining with some clear material to eliminate or at least reduce the risk of particles getting into the box. I know the mounting is inherently pretty protective, but it still leaves me feeling....unsettled. Having great CNC capability, you could cover the LEDs with acrylic rod glued in and enjoy the added advantage of having the indicators appear to be at the surface (no parallax). Same for the numeric display cut-out, but using sheet acrylic....or you could do what my buddy does and put clear packing tape over the whole face (less the buttons, of course!). Very nice project, great workmanship and I like your approach to experimentation! Intentional, even bold without being overbearing. Looking forward to your next release.

[@ericbeckers2673]

Master of details. We learn a lot from you. Thanks for that. Greetings from the Netherlands

[@samuelschwager]

Looks very nice! Better than most professional stuff.

[@jessebimbo6361]

Love your channel it’s great You need to build yourself a vacuum plate for your Mill and you can use it on your grinder. Harbor freight‘s got a great vacuum pump for HVAC. Pretty simple surgical hoses for your gaskets and machine and grooves in the plate to put your surgical hose in around your part used them for years in a machine shop.

[@rafawooszyn3923]

Good job. It looks very nice and professional as it should be!

[@johnwhitmore3956]

Nice! Esthetically, that's a great labeling and presentation. How wipe-down tolerant is that red film? It's a tad disturbing, though, how close to the wall that connector is mounted: how will the retaining ring nut be tightened? Does it use a spring clip for retention? For what it's worth, a fixture that clamps the blank faceplate from below, to a cutout plate with some locating pins, would remove a lot of the doubt about vise positioning and slanted box walls. and casting tolerances.

[@BigIron_06]

In the past I have painted the face plate first, then engraved it. Spray painting is a lot faster and you don't have to fiddle with not wiping the paint out of your letters.

[@exhempknight]

Phenomenal work. This whole thing is just too cool.

[@grahameblankley3813]

Hi James, You are a wizard! Enjoyed your videos on this project, from Coventry UK.

[@TheRemo176]

It looks really professional, top-notch build here

[@richards6452]

Lovely work james. Could I frevail on you for the dimensioned drawing for the front panel. I have completed the project and cut my first thread. I am more than pleased with the outcome , thank you, Richard

[@gwharton68]

Beautiful job! Its always fun when a plan comes together.

[@paulameloot9380]

Mind-blowing !!! How about anodising the box ?

[@Clough42]

I haven't taken the plunge into anodizing--mostly because I don't want to deal with storing the acids.

[@somebodyelse6673]

Lean and clean, that's how I like my controls. 😁

[@robertfenney]

The project is looking really great!

[@JaakkoF]

Regarding diamond engraving on aluminum, it doesn't require any coolant as aluminum does not weld itself to diamond at all. That's why they use diamond tools to machine aluminum when fine surfaces are required.

[@StevePrior]

Beautiful and functional - if I had a metal lathe I'd buy this in a heartbeat. I was curious if you had considered spraying with a coat of clear lacquer after painting the lettering.

[@radbot1]

I think it's awesome, hopefully you can sell a lot of these as kits.

[@roddersauify]

Would like to seethis as a kit...please keep us all informed on your decision...regards from Rodney in Melb Australia

[@RVJimD]

Does anyone want to guess how much a kit would cost, if he does decide to do that? Knowing an estimated cost might help me move on... I'm serious, on the cost question. $150, 400, 600? I don't really have any idea. I wouldn't want to buy a short kit and then have to go source the remaining items. don't get me wrong, I would love to put this on my Lathe!

[@damsaddles9911]

roddersauify I’m in Bathurst, also keen on this!

[@hectorcasas2113]

@@RVJimD did you ever get a esteemed cost on the kit?

[@TAWPTool]

Stunningly beautiful! Thanks for sharing.

[@glennedward2201]

Where did you find that engraver bit? I really like this tech for a manual machine versus a full CNC conversion. You get everything in between and can manipulate the equipment rather quickly for various projects. An individually powered y axis would be another great addition. There are several applications I can see being done with this type of setup you’d typically not be able to do without CNC. A manual turn mill if you wanted. Very nice.

[@928Livio]

This is Great stuff! Although I still have questions on some of your processes. I am assuming that you are going back and forth revisiting the same holes on the CNC to minimize heat build up? It seems slightly inefficient, otherwise. I have a large CNC (5' x 12' c/w vaccuum bed) used for Woodworking purposes so I am curious on how the metal CNC system works. TBH, i haven't watched all of your videos and there were times I sped through this project. Please don't flame me if i missed an important part.

[@lucianobellebono9748]

Sei un grande James!!! Molto interessante questo progetto.

[@hideyourcables]

firstly, that is awesome!!! Secondly my ocd says that the right edge of the box should have level with the edge of the lathe. Love your work dude, thanks for sharing with us. Peace

[@nevermindyaddie2272]

This is an excellent addition to your lathe and a brilliant idea. Kudos all around. I have almost all the parts on you list except the encoder. Literally, it's on the slow boat from China. I do have three questions though. First, the breadboard set-up during the proofing seemed to be highly populated. But the instructions that came with the code does not mention many of the other components such as resistors, transistors etc. What do I actually need to complete my project at this time? Or should I wait till I receive your add-on board? Second, the final debug instruction mentions timing of the ISR routines. Will I need to do this or is it done within your add-on board? And third, my lathe has one lead/feed screw but two different levers and gearing, one for feeding and the other for threading via half nut. Will I need to choose one method for both feed turning and threading, or can the program be modified to use both linkages/gear ratios? Again, great project.

[@routercnc9517]

Great work thanks for sharing. I was die threading on my lathe recently as part of a project on my humble channel building an electric go kart for my daughter (episode 6). It reminded me of your ELS project so I gave your video series a shout out ! I’m in the UK so may have pronounced you channel differently (apologies in advance 🤭)

[@jimcroyle7249]

It looks very clean

[@ATrustInThrust]

Looking forward to kits of these if possible!

[@srmofoable]

You should do a quick test of the drag engraver on a painted surface.

[@hansvanderveer6167]

Great project and I am impressed with the results! Are you planning to make a blog with a step by step guide on how to access your software on Github and how to subsequently get it on the TI board? If you're not planning this, can you give a clue as to where to find such information?

[@EcoMouseChannel]

My lathe finally arrived. So, I'm hoping you have this ready to sell soon! Take My Money!!!

[@TheChemicalRobot]

James, great work. Your channel has quickly become one of my favorites for the meticulous nature with which you approach projects. I've been going through your earlier videos and was wondering, do you have any that show a tour of your shop?

[@TheBlueDomino]

Looks great, you should definitely try some sort or height mapping setup and probe each countersink location, It's pretty common for 3018 cnc to use Grbl controller height mapping for milling PCBs that aren't completely flat (or using Gcode ripper) so your Mach program should have something similar

[@KevinBox-xt4ei]

Very impressed with your work. Did you do a series on converting your mill to CNC???

[@roylucas1027]

Stumbled into your site this morning. Really enjoyed content and presentation. I'm a new subscriber now. Thank you.

[@garymcfall3564]

NICE JOB ......LOOKING TO PUT MY OWN TOGETHER

[@Gomerpyro]

Not taking anything away from the awesome job you did .....as an alternative, you could direct print onto the cover with a flatbed printer. It would look every bit as good - but “production” time would be greatly enhanced...

[@Clough42]

Are such printers really available to consumers? Can you point me to one?

[@Gomerpyro]

Clough42 Mimaki makes some UV flat-bed printers. (www.mimakiusa.com). They are available to consumers but probably at a much steeper price than would be warranted for a single project. My thoughts were that you could outsource that portion if you are looking to manufacture these. I have a larger 4 foot x 8 foot machine and have had some amazing results printing on aluminum. They do make some much smaller machines as well.

[@captainhgreen]

I would really like to dump my change gears for your electronic leadscrew control. Thanks for your hard work .

[@hemasundars668]

Kindly do more on electronics connected to Machine Shop.Thanks.

[@jaredp4478]

I've got my Atlas 618 prepped for this project! I've got places for the stepper and encoder marked out. I would love to buy one of the shield boards for the TI microcontroller from you. But would be happy to build one myself too.

[@jmtx.]

Awesome faceplate! Taking your time and having patience really paid off!

[@sblack48]

Your lathe must be really safe with all those warnings on it! 😜

[@TheRetiredtech]

Really impressed. Could you engrave over the drag.

[@bostedtap8399]

Excellent Sir. Best regards from the UK.

[@SEEMERIDECOM]

Awesome project!! It came together very nicely and looks very cool.

[@pittsford2]

Beautiful job. Well done.

[@GunPilot64]

Very very nice. Going to build one of these.

[@robertapgar7184]

Fantastic Job! I love what you are doing. I second the thought about putting together a kit.

[@jhinze]

Loving the series... i'm really hoping your planning on offering a kit... I'd be in for a couple:)

[@jamesjinks8080]

I have been watching this build and enjoying it thoroughly. Haven't had any intention to make one myself, fiddling with the change gears gives me a chance to do several 'sanity checks'. Had a question, tho... wondered if you have accidentally built in a nifty capability. Occasionally, on commercially made machine bearings, the oil groove is (forgetting the correct term here) is a spiral back and forth pattern (Lissajous?) and I am wondering if this is possible?

[@ttabbal]

Great job! Can I get a PCB? Even a bare one with a BOM would be fine. I need to get some parts ordered.

[@joed2392]

OK ! I'm ready to buy two !! Are you going to sell the whole shoot'n match or just the controller...? Is that TI board a current stock item ? I'm planning on using one on my Atlas 12 and 6 ! Thanks for another great video !!

[@Clough42]

I don't think there's any way I could make the control panels economically. I designed the project to be built with inexpensive, off-the-shelf parts. The one part you can't buy elsewhere is the interface PC board I built in a previous video. I'm still planning to make those available, once all the bugs are worked out.

[@jonnafry]

Has the look of a 'thing well made' - take my money!

[@mickyc4003]

Keep up the fantastic series!

[@JoshIlles]

Very clean!! Very interesting to follow along on all your videos. I'd be interested to know what your profession is, since you have skills in many different engineering disciplines.

[@Clough42]

Cloud software. Everything else is self-taught.

[@bronze1319]

It´s like as if he was born doing this type of things, WOW.