Mini Lathe CNC Upgrade

We convert a 7x16 Mini Lathe to CNC in minutes by adding the MultiForm System - a CNC slide tool.
There will be a "soft launch" of this product on 12/8/21.
For more info: www.berylcnc.com

[@chrismcgowan3520]

Awesome video and I look forward to more

[@timgoodliffe]

theres some cnc conversion kits for mini lathes as well, itd be cool to see esentialy a multi tool one.

[@nealkrueger6097]

Good video. But have a concern about it. I have a concern for safety reasons when you with your fingers remove the chips from the part. As a gunsmith and a machinist, I was always told and through experience as well know this. "You never ever remove the chips and curls of material from a part with your digits ." The simple fact that those chips are likely to be razor sharp and fragile. You remove them from the part with your chip brush. Lest you walk around with cut-up digits and picking out metal bits from festering wounds for weeks later.

[@berylcnc]

Can't argue with that! Especially Copper strings... in the R&D world sometimes we need reminded of this.

[@HM-Projects]

Interesting idea, thanks for sharing.

[@johannriedlberger4390]

Just imagine the MultiForm System mounted on a CNCed Mini Lathe. Mount one tool upside down and they could work simultanious.

[@berylcnc]

Yes... I believe they call this pinch turning? You could do a CNC conversion on the mini lathe and mount this on the back side too. The trick would be figuring out how to do this all with GRBL control or at least with one GUI. Might be easier than it sounds.

[@johannriedlberger4390]

@@berylcnc I was used to write G-code for an Index G300 without this fancy stuff

[@edupuertasfruns]

It is cool, not sure how rigid it is. Would be fun to test it out

[@berylcnc]

Thank you! It's rigid enough for light CNC cuts, but of course it's not as rigid as a Hardinge DV-59 turret lathe cross-slide setup, which is the originally intended machine. So on the mini lathe you might want to take 0.020" passes in plastics, 0.015" passes in Brass and leaded steel, and 0.005" passes in harder steel. Definitely peck parting at these small passes, where on a Hardinge you might get away with not pecking some parting cuts. All of these suggestions are based on the VersaGroove 0.030" wide #5 cutter, so other off the shelf tooling would need to be very sharp. Also if you don't have mist coolant or a dripper, be sure to brush cutting fluid on the part for each pass. Other than that, it gives a tremendous advantage to a bench lathe as you'll see in these YT vids. - Jason

[@smallcnclathes]

CNC that can't cut threads seems a little pointless to me. If you add an encoder to the spindle could your controller and software handle threading? A QC toolpost might be a sensible thing too. I am all for using a parting tool to do as much as it can, but it does have limitations.

[@berylcnc]

Hi there! There are many fine lathes that can do CNC threads; we have no issue using Geometric die heads on the turret lathe, or manual threading on the mini lathe. We'll be doing a stepper on the spindle at some point that will allow GRBL threading, but it's not the urgent priority right now.

[@smallcnclathes]

@@berylcnc I thought you were selling this as a commercial conversion, which I still think is pretty useless without threading. How many of your customers will have a turret lathe to use for threading? There are not many small cnc lathes out there these days a few from China and that is it, old ones like mine almost never come up for sale. There seems to be an endless army of owners of mini lathes from China, I thought that was your market.

[@theotherclyde]

Sweet. Very sweet.

[@berylcnc]

Thank you sir!

[@ruitavares6543]

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👍

[@chrisnothnagel4910]

Cool....but nothing on website. What material is the attachment made of?

[@berylcnc]

Hi Chris... website should be done within a few days...The MultiForm and the mini-lathe mount are both hard-anodized 6061 AL.

[@alzeeraworks]

Could I know the approximate price of the machine please

[@berylcnc]

Hi! Sorry for the late response.. base price is currently $2,800 USD for the MultiForm System. This package will hold +/-0.0002", has ballscrews and closed loop steppers, control box, and the full / latest Beryllium software package.

[@rengankrishnaiyer6912]

What controller are u using?

[@berylcnc]

Controller is GRBL, but above that layer everything is controlled by Beryllium or BerylliumPRO in Python language for the GUI and mathematics / geometry stuff.

[@rengankrishnaiyer6912]

@@berylcnc cool thank you.

[@alzeeraworks]

I need to cut amber beads

[@berylcnc]

Hi there... the 2-axis add on is $2,800 MSRP as of 6/29/22. Depending on your accuracy requirements for cutting Amber beads, you might not need the preloaded ballscrews and closed loop stepper motors. So if you wanted to do this for low cost I suggest a DIY build using the free Beryllium software at www.berylcnc.com. Then your beads can be created using some simple line moves and a G3 finishing arc. Check out the BerylCNC bead video for more.

[@hinz1]

Can it cut Inconel? ;-DD

[@berylcnc]

Well now that you've asked, I'm going to look into it. Last year we attempted a bunch of challenge materials, including Tungsten, A2 + other tool steels, 316, 303, 304 stainless, 4130 Alloy, 4140 Alloy, and Titanium. We got through all of those, so we'll see what happens on Inconel. I would recommend all of these material on a Hardinge Turret Lathe and not a mini lathe, however. Thanks for watching!

[@beachboardfan9544]

5:00 WTF kinda cutter is that!? I cant even plunge cut with a parting tool on my mill without it sounding like its gunna break how are you profiling with that skinny ass tool?!?!?

[@berylcnc]

Haha... ah yes, that's the VG125-030-004-L260-U, aka, an insanely long and thin carbide cutter. It's hard to believe, but the magic happens when you add CNC control and small passes, pecking, etc. As long as the chips can clear away ok and the forces on the carbide don't exceed its break point (about 25 lbs of loading for these tools) the tools will run just fine. So if you take 25 lbs and direct it all to a super sharp cutting edge, the material you're cutting will yield under the immense point pressure. Of course it takes a lot of experimentation, and it's difficult to achieve by hand. So these tools are not for everyone and should only really be used under CNC control. But if you want to try some, send me a form submission and ask for a sample. I owe a few others some samples and will try to send out a sample run at some point soon. This is all still a very new product line, but we use this stuff every day to make online parts. www.berylcnc.com/versagroove/