I designed the spindle to take ER32 collets directly and wanted it to be capable of up to 10,000 rpm. The face was machined square to the arm in the lathe. From a distance the welding looks OK but it's only after milling off the lumps and filling in the holes with Plastic Padding! I could do with attending the Rob Wilson School of Welding! (Keeping the y-axis screw protected from swarf was a major issue.) Unfortunately I didn't take any photos during the conversion but this is the finsished machine: The spindle is home made and is supported on an arm fabricated from 4' thick wall square tube with a piece of 4' x 1' mild steel welded to the end. I spent a lot of time drawing out parts of the engraver and eventually found a convoluted way of using them. The mounting of the nuts wasn't conventional but they were too good not to use. Some time last year I decided to unsheet the machines which had been stored outside and drag the best one into my workshop.īefore I retired I managed to acquire a good assortment of very high accuracy ballscrews off redundant equipment. I replied and was offered £100! The spindle was despatched and thus the machines were free! The pantographs and copy tables were taking up too much space and went to the tip. Even better was that, a matter of weeks after acquiring them, I saw an ad on for a spindle for an Alexander engraver. They looked like a suitable basis for a CNC conversion and, at the price, I couldn't resist them. Some years ago I acquired 2 Alexander manual engraving machines for the princely sum of £100.

Having been mainly an observer on the site for some months I have been coerced into doing a post of my own. The International Cheese Board project features a handy integrated cracker holder. The wooden wheeled toy meets Vectric’s VCarve. › ► ► Vectric Cut2d Crackers ► ►Ģ017 free projects.

Vectric cut2d cracker