i'm reading in this forum for a few years now, always with the interest to built a lathe myself. I love building things by myself, cause then i always now how it really works. I know that's not easy with building a lathe, but i'm confident that it will work. I studied one year electrical engineering and i also run a soundsystem and a little studio for quite a while now, and it was always a dream to cut my own dubplates. A Friend of mine who is also crazy about stuff like this will help me too, he's got some big 5 axis cnc maschine and also a lof of knowledge with material. So i started reading the "basic disc recording" book and also learning really a lot from this forum (thanks for that!). I already bought some stuff for the lathe over the last few month, like a mono grampian head, an arm for the suspension, technics 1210, a lot different amps, a motor for the feed screw and some of the cheap russian saphire styli for experimenting.
So i still have a few questions, that i couldn't find any answers for. Would be really happy, if someone could help me
1. linear guide
I don't know if that's the right term for what i mean, but i'll try to explain.
I just mean the guide where the arm with suspension+cutterhead is mounted on. i would like to buy a linear guide with a ball screw inside, on which the arm is mounted. So i saw a lof of different types and would like to know lead is best. Is it better when it's very small like 1mm or is it better to have one like 5mm? I ask that beauce the arm is really heavy and weights about 7kg and i'm sure the suspension + cutterhead will also weight 1-2kg.
Another question i have is, how to integrate a handwheel. When i use a linear guide like this: http://www.scope-online.de/upload_weka/9563621_big_1006346.jpg and mount the motor with a toothed belt and two gear wheels on the one side then i don't know how to use a handwheel, cause i think i can't turn it when the motor is running. Am i right? Are there any possibilities to mount a handwheel?
2. Suspension
For me that's the most complicated thing. I just draw a little picture (attachment) and try to explain. Would be nice, if someone check, if it could work.
First of all the Stepper motor which pulls the motor up and down. Then there is counterweight to the cutterhead which is adjustable. And there is the dashpot which is also height adjustable. i Would build a the things in a box and this box would also be adjustable in x and y axis with some little screws and i also want to change the degree of the x axis of the box.
In the end i'll try to controll everything via adruino and build in some sensors for temperature,height controll and stuff like this.
Thanks a lot in advance! I will post some pictures when i start building.
Cheers
jo
PS: Sorry for my very bad english...
