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In the fall of 2007 I bought a much-used Feeler FSM-59 lathe on Craigslist. I wanted a lathe that
was stiffer than my Sherline, and I really wanted a lathe that used 5C collets, which would allow
working with up to 1" barstock through the spindle. The Hardinge DV/DSM-59 2nd-operation lathes
seemed to fit the bill, but even used tend to be expensive. The Feeler was a Taiwanese clone, and I
bought it specifically for the bed and headstock. It didn't have a carriage or leadscrew, which was
fine with me because I planned to make an X-Y (or more properly for a lathe, X-Z) CNC bolt-on mechanism.
The lathe was filthy with grime, and the built-in coolant tank was filled with foul-smelling sludge.
The lathe was 220V, 3-phase which was not really a problem, since I could use a VFD to generate 3-phase
from 208V 1-phase. The lathe came with the collet closer but no collets, and was operationally in good
condition.
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Much elbow grease and rubbing alcohol(!) later, the lathe was acceptably clean. I currently have no
plans to strip it down and repaint it.
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I had two nice THK KR20 ballscrew-driven linear slides and a bunch of small preloaded Thomson 10mm
linear bearings, and I built them into a stiff little X-Z mechanism that mounts onto the dovetail bed.
Each axis has 3 points of support--the THK carriage and two trucks on the Thomson rails.
The toolplate has one truck directly under the front (parting) and rear (turning) toolposts.
The center toolpost (which I still need to bore and slit) will hold a drill chuck on a 3/8" diameter
arbor. I still need to work out chip protection--bellows or some other kind of cover that will
flex in two directions.
The travel is small, 41mm (1.6") in Z and 91mm (3.6") in X, but that is plenty for the initial
work I plan to do with the lathe--machining finescale N model railroad wheels from nickel silver barstock.
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Here is the right-hand electronics cabinet I added. It contains the TECO FM50-203-C 3HP VFD I use to generate the
3-phase for the spindle (nominal 2 HP), speed change and coolant motors, and the Xylotex driver box for the X-Z mechanism.
I keep the VFD at 60Hz and use the lathe's mechanical variable-speed transmission.
The Xylotex, along with all the control circuitry, uses 120V taken off one leg of the incoming 208V
line voltage. It is a duplicate of the driver boxes I made for my Sherline mill and lathe.
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Based on my positive experience with the Tormach's control software, I am using a trial version of Mach3
to operate the X-Z. I reworked the lathe's control head, adding a Tachulator digital tach with a 1-pulse-per-revolution
sensor on the spindle handwheel. This will eventually allow me to pull off the spindle index pulse and
let me do CNC threading.
Because I'm still using the Feeler's contactors for high/low and forward/reverse switching, and
because switching the output load of a VFD will blow its drive transistors, I must stop the spindle
to change H/L and F/R and then restart the spindle.
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I have a set of Shars 5C collets from 1/16" to 1-1/8" in 1/32" increments, and Hardinge 3-
and 4-jaw chucks. Eventually I will build or buy an Accuslide-class CNC mechanism for the lathe, which
will allow me to do larger-diameter work. But for now this is (to borrow a railroading term...) my "wheel lathe".
The collet racks are of my own fabrication, to replace the one trashed rack that came on the lathe.
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CNCzone link with description and discussion of my Feeler conversion.
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