The little locating stud is the original one not modified.

Thanks, it was really simple and I left all but one gear in the gearbox. They are not driven after the conversion is complete. Have a look at my belt drive conversion. John

@@john2478 Thanks John, my question is answered in part 2 of Md65 videos👍 I look forward to do the same as you have done 😉

Can you tell me what power supply you Are using g for the 500 w motor?

I use a 20amp 500w 24v transformer off ebay www.ebay.co.uk/itm/374371106905

Hi John, One more question from my side. How have you made the wiring so that you can change to manual control of the lead screew. If I understand are you using two pulse generators, One for automatic control and one for manual.

Sorry I don't have that information now. I suggest that you make a new backplate for an ER32 collet chuck and use these collets instead. The parts for the Excel lathe do not come up very often. John

Thanks John, I will probably end up doing something like that.

No the lathe has not been made for many years. If you buy one you will have to follow what I did in accessing new rod and bronze rod to make new leadscrews and bronze nuts. John

@john2478 Thanks for replying John. Your videos will be a great help and thank you for posting them. My one looks like it's short the graduated dial on the compound slide.With any luck it might just be off the lathe and still around,regards.

John, glad that my efforts have interested the 2 of you. I didn’t do drawings as I had to tailor them to fit. Things like the plastic plate at the rear of the lathe that secures the lead screw is a good example. The plastic has large holes in it that are counterbored oversized. It was not easy to come up with an accurate part without doing the same thing and making them a sloppy fit. It is also possible that the lead screw is not aligned accurately. I will give it some thought though. The rear plate should never have been plastic in the first place. I will post something in the next few days. John

Hi John, thanks for responding so quickly, I need to start somewhere, so up the front end we have a DC motor, the type you have mentioned, what size pulley and belts, assuming that you are using the original main shaft pulley. The use of a stepper motor to drive the lead screw is ideal, mainly because the lead screw is a right hand thread and therefore the handle turns 'the wrong way' so to speak. your adding of the CNC controller adds a new dimension, importantly the fact that you can switch this out and control it 'manually' through the powered stepper is so versatile, your encoder set up is of interest, I did look at the site, most interesting. I am not either a computer whizz nor am I electrically minded so this is an adventure for me. trust you don't mind me asking too many question. Best regards, John. @@john2478

@@johngreathead5733 John I can help with a few details now.I used the standard spindle pulley with its securing collar and key. For the motor I made up a pulley from 40mm rod. The inside of the recess for the belt is 27mm. The motor came with a sprocket on it on a short stubby shaft. The motor shaft had a 8mm thread on it and there was just enough length to fit the recess for the belt as well as a short length on the outside of the pulley through which I drilled and tapped m3 to help secure the pulley. I also fitted a lock nut tightened well up using the outer 40mm of the pulley to hold the shaft. I made my pulley from mild steel but you could use aluminium. The resulting speed with the smaller leadscrew pulley is 250rpm to 1285 rpm. I just checked and the larger diameter pulley on the spindle. The motor uses the supplied mount and I fitted it to a 6mm aluminium plate. This plate has 8mm stand off collars between the old mount position and the new engine mount. I chose to fit the front end of the motor with a hinge so I could loosen just 2 bolts to remove the belt. The belt I use is 8mm 375mm optibelt. If you wanted to use the large spindle pulley then it would need 355mm belt. However that raises the lower end speed as the range is now 400-1700 rpm. Personally I would opt for the smaller pulley as I did, or even make up a new pulley for the spindle of slightly smaller size. John

Thanks John, some parts on order, a little confused that if you use the large spindle pulley then the belt would be shorter by 20mm, its been a long day and I might be missing something! I thinks that I will use your suggested set up, any form of belt tensioner? Ta John. @@john2478

John I didn't fit a belt tensioner I felt unnecessary complication plus there is not a lot of room. The 2 securing screws have stand offs and the belt could be tensioned by turning a little off these if necessary. You need a shorter belt with the smaller pulley option hence it is 355mm and for the larger one it is 375mm. I will have a go at measuring some of the parts. I shall have to make up a new video. Not sure if I will do cnc drawings or just sketch them with dimensions.John

Yes they can like a number of Chinese products can run on either AC or DC voltage. The AC voltage can be supplied conveniently with unregulated voltage from a transformer which I did. The only issue, which I found and solved, was the inrush current causing the house contactors to trip.

Mervyn I was curious to see what this lathe was capable of. I would probably stick to 0.4mm in daily use as the lathe could cope with this quite comfortably. I do not like to drive things to the point where a tip digs in and it stops that lathe or mill. Frankly this little lathe has impressed me with what it is capable of. John

Jeremiah I have listed the principle parts if you click on more on my comments at the head of the video. ohn

Richard The software electronically synchs the stepper motor speed/leadscrew to the spindle by using an encoder on the spindle. It is amazing that it does it all electronically and just does not loose the link as long as there is power. John

Thats cool, How is it done manually? @@john2478

I also noticed that it slows down a bit after it starts the cut, I assume that would also be taken into account by the software, because that would affect the tolerance also, right?@@john2478

@richardjohnson8009 Exactly it knows the speed of the spindle and adjusts the speed of the leadscrew accordingly if it varies.

Nice, good to know, thanks for the info@@john2478

Dave Yes it will cut imperial threads and also BA threads. John

Well, that's even a more impressive bit of kit, I have an Imperial quick change gearbox on my Boxford, and I need to find a way to cut metric pitches.

Dave I also have a Boxford with imperial quick change gearbox. I use the 100/127 gear conversion to cut metric gears. It can be a bit of a pain to set up for metric if you leave the imperial set normally fitted. However it is a fine lathe especially with the gearbox. @@daveharriman2756

Mark The drawbar that links the collet to the top of the spindle is just a length of threaded rod cut to the required length. Super simple and cheap. The Belleville washers I bought from various suppliers but had some difficulties in getting the appropriate strength. In the end I went for the ones used byTormach and bought from them. Incidentally the system is now a few years old and still works very well. John

Perfect and thanks for gettting back to me John. @@john2478

Ken I have used 3 different 180v dc treadmill motors over the years. The original one I used was painted blue and had a built in plastic fan on the rear end. The flywheel is easily removed but remember it will be left hand thread. I replaced this blue motor with a much heavier built one but they do not come up very often. The most common one is a gold plated colour but is lighter and thinner. The exact specs are not a lot of help as 2.5 hp commonly quoted does not correspond to the real world kw figure. They are often a bit low torque at low speed. However as they are often used at 1500 rpm it is not so much of a problem. I suggest that you seek as low top rpm figure as you can, maybe 4000 rpm. You can adjust it with different pulley dimensions. The current draw will likely be 8 amps for the large size motors. Now plenty of info is available on drives for them. You have 3 basic choices, a KB or a Chinese cheap controller with modifications or a treadmilll motor controller. All this has been gone into in depth by KZfaq video series. DazeCars and others. John

Dave, glad that my description was useful. Yes a good point about the variable stroke. I didn't discover it until I reassembled it and didn't post about it. You are right that there is very little info about these scrapers and no manuals available. John

@@john2478 an update: I've just now successfully dismantled and reassembled the Biax, albeit not totally, but enough to clean and grease what I can, I'll make those tools to take it apart further, but I'm confident to do so now, the big thing was the pin to hold the shaft to undo the reciprocater, one more thing, the plates that the slider block runs on, are on tapers, and you can undo the screws, move them to take up play, but you probably knew that! thanks again.

Bob thanks for the kind remarks. I am making less videos and have sold some of my workshop equipment. Taken and interest recently in old transistor radios. John