And...they're gone! One hour and 47 minutes. Thanks, everyone! If you missed out this time, don't worry. I'll get more coming. I'll post on the channel when they're available.
I've had a lot of requests for this, but I try not to promise something that I don't actually have in hand. I don't want to take someone's money and then have to back out if things outside of my control change. These went fast, so I'll do a bigger batch next time, with the goal of getting caught up so I have them in stock continuously.
As usual, a very professional build. I went one step further on my setup and that was to replace the LED's with longer lead LED's so the sat proud of the panel. I also changed the FWD , FEED, and IN LED's to green for easy visual confirmation of my settings.
I'm right folks. My kit has just arrived and the red lens DOES cover the red status LEDs. The cut out in the filter is clearance for the switches, not the LEDs. Let's put it down to a genuine mistake by my namesake because it is such a great idea. Maybe he is talking about his own build, not using the Clough42 kit. Guess I will have to punch some holes as suggested - or modify or not use the filter which is presumably what has happened here as the green LED"s are said to protrude. BobUK.
James, i have gone through all of your videos on the lead screw project.; Great idea and great execution. i have a comment and hope it isn't taken as a negative. i am of a belief that selling the control panel is a great idea, however, i am also of a belief that it needs to be complete. there are a lot of guys out here that do not have your skill set nor do they wish to get them. if you were to sell them ready to install, i believe that would be a lot better. Granted the price will be higher but i believe everyone would pay for it ready to install rather than try and figure out how to get everything done on their own. think on it
Through dumb luck, I happened to check James' channel and saw that the panels were done! Ordered even before watching the video because I didn't want to miss out - like I did on the first batch of the interface boards! While I have already made my own panel, yours is just so much cleaner. I just got done threading a 3/8 rod at 24 tpi using your ELS system and it worked flawlessly. I hope that the traffic here and your sales help pay for this and other projects!
I think it's cool that not only did you develop and make a marketable product out of this, you also make a detailed walk through for assembly on video. Sure beats the IKEA type directions that we get in electronics now, lol.
Thank you James, for all your effort at bringing a quality item to the average Joe, at a good price. We’re not all as clever or knowledgeable as you and your effort is much appreciated. I’ve purchased the kit. I have the encoder, motor and pretty much everything I need now. I’m upgrading my old Southbend Heavy 10L with a variable speed 4.25 hp treadmill motor and putting your EL on that. It looks so damn cool with the display and buttons. You did your due diligence for sure. Oh, I need the TI board. That’s what I’m missing. Thanks, Paul
Nice work. Bringing a product from idea to a sellable item is a very challenging endeavor and you pulled it off admirably. This has been very fun to watch, Thanks for bringing us along.
James, have watched the entire series. Your knowledge and execution is flawless. Everything you do, from video quality and editing through to in depth explanation of theory and procedure is mind-blowing. I know it's not your day job but I'm sure if you went into full scale production of kits like this you'd make a fortune.
James, For those without a pump I have found in the past that removing the plastic from the header first using a thin flat bladed screwdriver and patience can make desoldering easier. Great job on the kit, very professional looking and very reasonable shame it has sold out already!
@@Clough42 The whole problem could be workarounded. You should tell the manufacturer to not solder this part at all. The reason they mounted pins that way is probably the wave soldering method of through hole components. This method could not be used on the side with display, or even if they can do the pins first or somethig, pcb would get much more expensive.
Darn I was too slow getting to eBay. Next round I hope, I’ll be sure to drop what I’m doing at the time this time. ☺️. Your followers have a big appetite
James, I am almost ready for final assembly on my Chinese mini lathe (8.7 x 23.6). I've purchased all the parts, assembled the electronics, tested them and THEY ALL WORK!!! I've purchased a 428 oz-inch hybrid stepper motor (hopefully has enough torque). I'm going to run it 1:1 at the lead screw and connect the motor and screw with a zero backlash coupling, and I had to improvise the encoder as I bought one that has a 12mm bore and I turned a drive shaft to hold a gear for the spindle speed the gears are 56 teeth on the spindle and 52 teeth on the encoder so I adjusted the encoder pulses to 4411/rev to compensate. I've got to make the mounting bracket for the servo and ten I'm done. All I've got to say is Wow tats abunch. The change gears are such a pain on the mini lathes, and you solved it.
Hi. James! I watch all the posts and I don’t even own a lathe! But I don’t understand the yellow header problem. 1) Why not have the factory use the correct 90 degree header. 2) Or just leave the straight header off, at least it wouldn’t require desoldering. 3) Put the straight header on the bottom. It looks like the box has plenty of clearance. Keep up the great work, we all have a lot of respect for the knowledge you have taught yourself. Thanks
You can desolder multiple pins at once by using a piece of buss-wire across the pins, and then add a bit of solder while moving the iron back and forth across the wire to heat all of the pins at once. A little pressure pulling with pliers should pull the whole connector at once, and potentially be reusable if desired.
Can't wait for new stock to come in ! Hopefully I catch it in time before you sell out again as I've already got everything up and running using just a basic makeshift front plate . Waiting for this masterpiece
I am sooo pleased. It works and the chinese lathe loves it. The encoder and servo mounts we’re no big deal. I ran the system at 1800 rpm and the minimum thread rate and deliberately stalled the carriage. It just disconnected the servo and all was good again when I restarted everything. What a cool upgrade. When are you going to finish the firmware and provide a power function and settings capability. I’d be happy to forward photos of my installation if it would help everyone. Let me know
What I do with my micro tweezers. I use a short length of heat shrink squeezing the tweezer, I heat the tube shrink it let cool and slide it back releceing the hold and I just leave it there so when I need to hold tight slide up and it don't let go and to help it last I do about 2 to 3 tubes shrinking one at a time giveing you a long lasting tweezer clamp.
Just wanna say I found your channel/ videos while doing some research for converting my Bridgeport J2 head to a VFD drive per your VFD series. That was 3-4 days ago.. Your videos are extremely well put together and your method of explaining technical details and working methodology rival any teachers I’ve had on similar subjects in the past. Subscribed and bought this and the pc link just now. Thank you for all your efforts and wealth of knowledge your spreading to my self and many others!! Can’t wait to see where this goes and get my hands dirty with this project! :D Hopefully I can make a passable video of it’s implementation on my Clausing 6913 14x48 ;) Thank you again!
For anyone interested in the UK the case is sold by Rapid Electronics as "R-TECH 304233 Diecast Aluminium Box 111x60x30mm" order code "30-4233". It's exactly the same box - even has the same part number moulded on the inside.
Noticed last night that a couple segments on the LED display have failed. No biggie, I can still read it and will just just order a replacement board to swap out at some point. Just love this ELS!
Will you be selling a complete kit including encoder and motor or ??? Or at least a bill of material of all the components which is exactly the same as yours i.e. for a Grizzly G0602 lathe?
James, your work on the ELS is amazing. I’ve ordered your interface board and control box. Do you have a list of All the parts needed you used including power supply, belts, pulleys, encoder, servo, etc.
5:14 "I have no idea why they do this..." I imagine a lot of hobbyists like to start out hooking things together on a work surface, and upward facing connectors facilitate this. I also imagine the assembly shop balances an obligation to populate the connector with the ease of having all the TH components on one side for a quick and easy single pass through the wave solder machine 15:26 Have you made a video about how you made those red buttons?
Greg Feneis Hi. I don't think so. I think it is a construction mistake. That's why they are so very cheap. They were intended for use in appliances, not for hobbyists. There's not enough money in that market to justify the production large runs. BobUK
Well done James very thorough fantastic vedios what are the chances of putting a package together for us that dont know much about electronics. I have a Chinese mini lathe and love to be able to impliment your system on it. (Mabe I should trie to do it my self you have been very thorough). Keep up the good work.
James is sitting by his printer sticking labels as fast as they print off...100 at a time was a good decision.. I would like to see postman's face... :-)
Yeah, for sure. For big days (like Monday, when these will go out) I have to make a trip to the post office. They provide large reinforced bags for bulk packages and they have a special location for dropping them off. I've been surprised how many sellers there are in my area. I see one or two every time I go to the post office.
Hi James - Thank you so much for your videos. They are excellent. I’ve built the ELS and installed it on my mini lathe using my own design of housing. It worked just fine except for the failure of the TM1638 Display module. I’ve had two units fail after a short time operating. Has anyone else reported failure of the TM1638 Display module or is it just my bad luck?
Amazing stuff. learnt more in 24 hours than in 40 years of working life. BUT - how do I buy this in UK - been on your ebay site but say's you wont ship to UK 😞. Please make this available - I'v bought all the other bits!!!!
Supper project I just ordered a kit. My used lathe was missing some of the more important change gears so this will solve that problem. Did you list somewhere a source for the timing belt gears and belts? Is there a affiliate link for the controller or a preferred source? Thanks for all the hard work making this available to the public. I currently working on a CNC index head using a 100 to 1 harmonic drive. Any chance you would be interested in adapting your controller to a project like this? Thanks again for amazing effort.
I am thinking of making up one of your kits and fitting it to a lathe I am restoring at the moment. I have a question on the control panel. It would be a lot more simple to use if the operation in the forward direction and stop and reverse was controlled by a 3 position switch attached to the Cross slide so direction would be more intuitive and could be operated watching the lathe running. Especially for threading this would make it much easier for me. Is it a simple matter to run these commands out from the control panel on a extension wire? John
The ELS buttons are not operated during a threading operation. They are just used to set up the pitch before you begin. In operation you use the lathe controls and the half nut.
@@Clough42 Thanks for your reply. I will have the lead screw permanently engaged as there are no half nuts. It is a very old Lorch lathe which uses the top slide screw as the leadscrew. This has a double universal joint that transfers the drive from the gears on the left side of the lathe to the top slide screw. I am missing some of the gears and have only limited threads that can be cut. Your electric drive just seems the answer. The double jointed universal drive is a bit clumsy and I was thinking about maybe driving the top slide screw from the handle end with a small stepper rather than a larger one driving from the original gear banjo. Perhaps you can understand my interest in controlling the drive in a slightly different way. I guess I would need to be able to stop the stepper drive so the shaft could be turned manually occasionally, though I guess it could be under electric drive most of the time. Do you think I could get away with a 1.5NM stepper motor? If I understand correctly on your system the action of starting the spindle activates the screw turning by virtue of the electronic link between the spindle and the lead screw, the set up on the panel? I need to give this all some thought. John
Hi I'm watching your videos in February of 2022 and have great interest in this project so much so I purchased 2 of your kits just to find out that the TI f280049c board is no longer available, is there a alternate board that is available? Or is there a source for the f280049c I am not aware of. Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated. Brian
This isn't related to this project but are you working on more videos on the upgraded spindle for your CNC. It looks really interesting and would love to see it all getting put together.
Hello James, I would like to discuss another application of this electronic leadscrew kit of yours. I wish to fit mine to a small Vintage Kent and Owens manual horizontal mill of mine. So the control will still read out RPM as present and the Feed/TPI readout would have some tweaked code to read out IPM. I’m using the same everything as in your design covered in your series (other than I used a 4:1 instead of 3:1 gear ratio with the Nema23 Hybrid servo. My 40 tooth sprocket is mounted to a ball screw with pitch of 5mm/rev. The ball nut is coupled to the mill table. Think this is a nice alternate application of your design. Please let me know if I can discuss this application in greater detail with you. Thank you for your consideration.
yaaaay...thanks james...two ordered...prolly smart including the board...thanks again for all the research and development of this...i really need to get mine installed...working on three cnc projects at once...1 cnc plasma cutter...was cnc 9x6 spindle cnc..1 cnc mill drill lathe...:) busy times at minskmade...can you put link to the board vise? i have one fo those hakko desoldering guns..best purchase ever. good tip on the screws for the Bud box.
Just found 2 parts on Ebay, the panel and a circuit board. Do You have any links to the servo motor and the encoder Your design uses? That tells me some about the costs. Handling cables and mounts will be no problem. Working on a simple DC motor driven lead screw.....
James, was there an intentional reason for extending the left side of the 7seg display cutout window on the face plate so that the SMD LED on the board shows though down in the lower left corner? I just got my kit Friday and I noticed last night after putting it all together and thought at first that maybe the face plate was messed up but noticed in this and other video's that have this silkscreened PCB board for the cover that they are all like that. To the best of my knowledge, that is just a power indicator LED on the button board and I am considering removing it (personally, that LED is annoying to me... no clue way, but it is...) but wanted to make sure that there wasn't some reason that you intentionally extended the cutout to have it show though to where me removing it might create a problem that I'm unaware of. -Also, does the brightness setting for the regular display in the code not work? Looking though the code and making some changes for my intended use (not using this on a lathe but thats irrelevant) I noticed that there is a code line ControlPanel.h for brightness but no matter what I set it to, the brightness doesn't change.- *EDIT:* Disregard the last part about the brightness. I figured out what I was doing wrong (changing wrong setting at wrong location of the code).
There are several versions of the LED&Key board out there, and the one I measured for the original design had the display in a very slightly different position.
Hey, I'm sorry to bother you, but I am going to set up your els design on my M1099 lathe, I've already done the vfd, and I have 3-phase power in my shop so it's not the same one you used and I put a 3hp 3 phase motor on it, and now I have plenty of power and low-speed torque, just want to add the els, is there somewhere to find an accurate list of parts needed? I have looked online at your site, and on your eBay, I have several of the necessary items in my cart such as this interface, servo motor, etc, but would be very helpful to have an accurate accounting of what is needed to complete the project... Is there any chance you could point me in the right direction?
Hey James, great work, I've been following this series purely out of interest but now that the kits are becoming available maybe my little Myford ML7 needs one ;) Are you at some point going to put together a complete package (motor, mounts, controller, cables, connectors, etc.) or if not all the parts (due to variability of all the lathes out there) at least a single video that clearly outlines all the parts required with affiliate links? I realize I'm asking you to do the work for us .. but I'm just asking :)
Mats World Hi. James has said he is unlikely to do that as it has no value add - it's cheaper to buy the heavy bits locally. Have a look at his Wikipedia on Github - just search for 'ELS' for a fairly good summary of what you are asking for. I've built one using mainly UK sourced components and it works great. Just ordered the front panel kit off e-bay - got in quick - and the Bud box direct from Amazon.com as it will get here quicker than via the UK based US importer. Motors, drivers and PSU are all available locally in UK. You do need to put some effort into this, it is not just 'plug and play' despite James' efforts but it is well worth while. Would be a great addition to a Myford Instrument lathe, you are very lucky to have one. You would need to design and manufacture your own motor and rotary encoder mounts for your specific set up as I did for mine. Cheers. BobUK.
@@bobuk5722 Hey Bob, thanks so much for your reply. Yeah I was fully aware of the off-the-shelf pieces - that makes a lot of sense to just buy locally but thanks so much for the tip towards his wikipedia .. just the shopping list I was after :) Re. the Myford, I found it on usedvictoria here in Victoria, BC, Canada .. amazing find, and love it .. just picked up a Colchester Student too, appears I favour the UK brands for some reason (pure coincidence) .. I'm still thinking of maybe getting the Hemingway Gearbox kit and go old school .. we'll see ;) thanks again
HI, this is Alex from Italy. i already buy the kit, but the alluminium box was not inside. Where i can buy your same external box? thank's a lot Very good project
Hi James I am looking to update the electronic lead screw (currently using Arduino, which is not very good) and looking to buy your CLOUGH42 Electronic Leadscrew (ELS) Combo Interface and Control Panel Kit. However it looks like you do not ship to the UK. Is there a way I can get this kit to the UK?
eBay is now blocking entire categories of products due to the new new post-Brexit compliance marking requirements for GB and NI. I have had some people tell me they have used package forwarding services, but I don't know anything about your local rules around that.
Question for all you folks. I am still in my quest to purchase my first (and likely final) lathe. This type of kit has me thinking that maybe my money should be going towards raw machine, instead of fancy gearing, etc. I had been looking at Precision Matthews, and I live in Atlanta, so the used market for metalworking equipment is pretty thin. Can someone advise? What would be a perfect forever hobby lathe for someone looking to add a DRO, and ELS? Power feed both directions and cross slide, with separate lead screw is my minimum want.
"Forever" and "Hobby" are a tough combo, if hobby means small and inexpensive. The heavier the lathe, the more rigid it will be. A Hardinge HLV-H is in the "forever" category, but whether you have the space and can find one are big considerations.
Forever in my sense would mean at 50 years old, it will outlast me. Would love to be able to find something in the 3k-4K range that has good bones, be it new like grizzly or PM or used.
OK, so I missed them this time... I'll be looking.... Off subject: I sure do like that little utility knife you have. Would you be so kind as to tell me where you got it?? I've looked on Amazon and ebay and can't find one like it....
As this video is about 2 years old I would prophecy that with the advantages of the ELS system you might find those mini lathes coming out even cheaper with an ELS in place of the threading gears........but knowing the pathetic design builds of those lathes the ELS that they would come with would be a nightmare......probably better to retrofit the Clough one as yet another very necessary after market improvement.
Have a problem threading , run the first pass, reset for 2nd pass and it does not line up. 3rd pass out of alignment again by about the same amount . About .030 each time , 8tpi is this a encoder a problem? Or something I have wrong on a setting., you have500 on the motor I had to turn down to 346 to get 8 tpi
You really need to know and enter the correct ratios for the encoder and the motor/drive gearing. Guessing and trying different values is a good way to create the kind of problem you describe. A good first check is to make sure the RPM is showing properly on the display. If it's correct, you probably have the encoder set up correctly.
That would be a different application, but the same hardware should work with different software. I've also had questions about using it as a gear hob, which would be interesting.
I know this is old but maybe somebody here can help me... I've ordered one of the kits with the keypad and board from eBay and looked at the wiring diagram on the Github but I don't know what cable to order to hook the control box to the Texas Instruments board? It looks like it has 5 wires but when I look at DigiKey it looks like you have to know what the pin spacing is and I don't see that anywhere. Oh, and does anyone know what size box the Launch board fits?
The control panel connects to the PCB in the kit. The encoder connects to the LaunchPad. It's a LaunchXL-F208849C. All of the headers are 0.1" (2.54mm) pin spacing.
Might be, but for example what's available here in Finland the biggest resellers take something like 20 to 25€ in shipping fees for 5€ box... So what is in beginning a 25 USD part will become something like 100 USD in total after the shipping fees and taxes. So I really understand people who would like to purchase the box together with the rest of the kit.
i have a Non led screw Colchester lath one 100 yes old the uses the rack to cut thread's it a six Tip nut , that drives the rack. & a 62 To 12 " chuck , i hop this information help's
![ELS Software Updates and Troubleshooting Tips [Electronic Leadscrew Part 20]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/84O8iWemqxY/mqdefault.jpg)
![ELS Software Updates and Troubleshooting Tips [Electronic Leadscrew Part 20]](/img/tr.png)
And...they're gone! One hour and 47 minutes. Thanks, everyone!
If you missed out this time, don't worry. I'll get more coming. I'll post on the channel when they're available.
Clough42 Can we back order?
Thanks
Mike
I must have got the last one thanks
I've had a lot of requests for this, but I try not to promise something that I don't actually have in hand. I don't want to take someone's money and then have to back out if things outside of my control change. These went fast, so I'll do a bigger batch next time, with the goal of getting caught up so I have them in stock continuously.
You’re the man, as always- thank you for keeping these affordable for everyone.
You should allow preorder... You would know how Many to make... Also i'm from Portugal and i would purchase it if i could ahahha
As usual, a very professional build. I went one step further on my setup and that was to replace the LED's with longer lead LED's so the sat proud of the panel. I also changed the FWD , FEED, and IN LED's to green for easy visual confirmation of my settings.
Robert Sakowski Hey, changing the leds is a great idea but you'll need a clear 'filter' screen. BobUK.
@@bobuk5722 or a hole punch
@@bobuk5722 I changed the status LED, not the seven segment displays. The red lens only covers the digital display.
On my setup. My status LEDs are above the surface of the panel
I'm right folks. My kit has just arrived and the red lens DOES cover the red status LEDs. The cut out in the filter is clearance for the switches, not the LEDs. Let's put it down to a genuine mistake by my namesake because it is such a great idea. Maybe he is talking about his own build, not using the Clough42 kit. Guess I will have to punch some holes as suggested - or modify or not use the filter which is presumably what has happened here as the green LED"s are said to protrude. BobUK.
James, i have gone through all of your videos on the lead screw project.; Great idea and great execution. i have a comment and hope it isn't taken as a negative. i am of a belief that selling the control panel is a great idea, however, i am also of a belief that it needs to be complete. there are a lot of guys out here that do not have your skill set nor do they wish to get them. if you were to sell them ready to install, i believe that would be a lot better. Granted the price will be higher but i believe everyone would pay for it ready to install rather than try and figure out how to get everything done on their own. think on it
Through dumb luck, I happened to check James' channel and saw that the panels were done! Ordered even before watching the video because I didn't want to miss out - like I did on the first batch of the interface boards! While I have already made my own panel, yours is just so much cleaner. I just got done threading a 3/8 rod at 24 tpi using your ELS system and it worked flawlessly. I hope that the traffic here and your sales help pay for this and other projects!
I think it's cool that not only did you develop and make a marketable product out of this, you also make a detailed walk through for assembly on video. Sure beats the IKEA type directions that we get in electronics now, lol.
Thank you James, for all your effort at bringing a quality item to the average Joe, at a good price.
We’re not all as clever or knowledgeable as you and your effort is much appreciated.
I’ve purchased the kit. I have the encoder, motor and pretty much everything I need now.
I’m upgrading my old Southbend Heavy 10L with a variable speed 4.25 hp treadmill motor and putting your EL on that.
It looks so damn cool with the display and buttons. You did your due diligence for sure.
Oh, I need the TI board. That’s what I’m missing.
Thanks,
Paul
Hey, somebody's got my kit! In the comments to the part 18 video, I said "dibs…" :)
Oh well, I'll keep an eye out. Great looking product, James.
yeah 3 years later. still a great watch. you really were proud of this one
Nice work. Bringing a product from idea to a sellable item is a very challenging endeavor and you pulled it off admirably. This has been very fun to watch, Thanks for bringing us along.
James, have watched the entire series. Your knowledge and execution is flawless. Everything you do, from video quality and editing through to in depth explanation of theory and procedure is mind-blowing. I know it's not your day job but I'm sure if you went into full scale production of kits like this you'd make a fortune.
James,
For those without a pump I have found in the past that removing the plastic from the header first using a thin flat bladed screwdriver and patience can make desoldering easier. Great job on the kit, very professional looking and very reasonable shame it has sold out already!
Great tip. I usually heat the pins and pull them out, but the plastic should come off the header cold, too.
@@Clough42 The whole problem could be workarounded. You should tell the manufacturer to not solder this part at all. The reason they mounted pins that way is probably the wave soldering method of through hole components. This method could not be used on the side with display, or even if they can do the pins first or somethig, pcb would get much more expensive.
Didn't watched it yet but already love it!
It works! TI Lauchpad, daughter board, control panel all working! Need to wait for the right encoder to turn up, but so far so very good!!
Darn I was too slow getting to eBay. Next round I hope, I’ll be sure to drop what I’m doing at the time this time. ☺️. Your followers have a big appetite
Hi James
Received the the kit a few days ago.
Already assembled and installed.
Love it...
Thanks heaps
James,
I am almost ready for final assembly on my Chinese mini lathe (8.7 x 23.6). I've purchased all the parts, assembled the electronics, tested them and THEY ALL WORK!!! I've purchased a 428 oz-inch hybrid stepper motor (hopefully has enough torque). I'm going to run it 1:1 at the lead screw and connect the motor and screw with a zero backlash coupling, and I had to improvise the encoder as I bought one that has a 12mm bore and I turned a drive shaft to hold a gear for the spindle speed the gears are 56 teeth on the spindle and 52 teeth on the encoder so I adjusted the encoder pulses to 4411/rev to compensate. I've got to make the mounting bracket for the servo and ten I'm done. All I've got to say is Wow tats abunch. The change gears are such a pain on the mini lathes, and you solved it.
Hi. James! I watch all the posts and I don’t even own a lathe! But I don’t understand the yellow header problem. 1) Why not have the factory use the correct 90 degree header. 2) Or just leave the straight header off, at least it wouldn’t require desoldering. 3) Put the straight header on the bottom. It looks like the box has plenty of clearance. Keep up the great work, we all have a lot of respect for the knowledge you have taught yourself. Thanks
2:51 and the magic fix of the yellow connector ;)
You can desolder multiple pins at once by using a piece of buss-wire across the pins, and then add a bit of solder while moving the iron back and forth across the wire to heat all of the pins at once. A little pressure pulling with pliers should pull the whole connector at once, and potentially be reusable if desired.
Absolutely Brilliant. Thank you James.
Can't wait for new stock to come in ! Hopefully I catch it in time before you sell out again as I've already got everything up and running using just a basic makeshift front plate . Waiting for this masterpiece
I am sooo pleased. It works and the chinese lathe loves it. The encoder and servo mounts we’re no big deal. I ran the system at 1800 rpm and the minimum thread rate and deliberately stalled the carriage. It just disconnected the servo and all was good again when I restarted everything. What a cool upgrade. When are you going to finish the firmware and provide a power function and settings capability. I’d be happy to forward photos of my installation if it would help everyone. Let me know
I got mine. Thank you very much.
I can't wait to get this on my lathe.
It looks great and I can’t wait for more.!!!
I've never been so early buying anything without even watching the video yet 😄
Thanks, James!
Same, paused the video and ordered before watching the rest.
@@rennkafer13 I just got my order in.
+1 - an hour after posting this vid and I just purchased #90. Only 10 left guys..
@@digus I think I was #5
Excellent, as usual! Thanks for the words about mixing solder types!
I don't even have a lathe, but would like one of these kits.
David Kennedy Why?
@@bobuk5722 Mostly to support a channel that I have enjoyed. I would also really enjoy putting one of these on a lathe and getting it to work.
What I do with my micro tweezers. I use a short length of heat shrink squeezing the tweezer, I heat the tube shrink it let cool and slide it back releceing the hold and I just leave it there so when I need to hold tight slide up and it don't let go and to help it last I do about 2 to 3 tubes shrinking one at a time giveing you a long lasting tweezer clamp.
Just wanna say I found your channel/ videos while doing some research for converting my Bridgeport J2 head to a VFD drive per your VFD series.
That was 3-4 days ago..
Your videos are extremely well put together and your method of explaining technical details and working methodology rival any teachers I’ve had on similar subjects in the past.
Subscribed and bought this and the pc link just now.
Thank you for all your efforts and wealth of knowledge your spreading to my self and many others!!
Can’t wait to see where this goes and get my hands dirty with this project! :D
Hopefully I can make a passable video of it’s implementation on my Clausing 6913 14x48 ;)
Thank you again!
P.S.
You should be charging more for these!
I know the components are cheap but the work you have put into this deserve it.
Yeah, I get that comment a lot. If you'd like to give me more money, we might be able to work something out. :)
Well I know your working on more features in the firmware...
maybe a patreon supporters exclusive firmware update ;)
Still. Really awesome work! :D
@@adv-rider7368 I think one or two people are working on their own branches of the original code. This could get messy.
For anyone interested in the UK the case is sold by Rapid Electronics as "R-TECH 304233 Diecast Aluminium Box 111x60x30mm" order code "30-4233".
It's exactly the same box - even has the same part number moulded on the inside.
The panel looks great! I was annoyed by the power LED on the board -- the surface mount one just above the Vcc pin -- so I eliminated it.
pleased to see you are like me ... the encoder is still "temporarily" mounted on the magnet!
Noticed last night that a couple segments on the LED display have failed. No biggie, I can still read it and will just just order a replacement board to swap out at some point. Just love this ELS!
The LED&Key boards are really inexpensive to buy individually on eBay. There are a couple of different versions, so look closely at the photos.
@@Clough42 cool, will do
Placed my order today !
Thanks James
Liked-Subscribed-Notified! I definitely want to put one of these on my Sherline, and possibly my DynaMyte Lathe
Will you be selling a complete kit including encoder and motor or ??? Or at least a bill of material of all the components which is exactly the same as yours i.e. for a Grizzly G0602 lathe?
I can't believe I missed this sale, yet again!
Missed out on the kit this time but I will get one from the next batch. Thanks
I just found this and I’m intrigued. I have a Jet BD920n,what all would I need for this,if I already have a stepper motor and driver?
James, your work on the ELS is amazing. I’ve ordered your interface board and control box. Do you have a list of All the parts needed you used including power supply, belts, pulleys, encoder, servo, etc.
5:14 "I have no idea why they do this..."
I imagine a lot of hobbyists like to start out hooking things together on a work surface, and upward facing connectors facilitate this. I also imagine the assembly shop balances an obligation to populate the connector with the ease of having all the TH components on one side for a quick and easy single pass through the wave solder machine
15:26
Have you made a video about how you made those red buttons?
Greg Feneis Hi. I don't think so. I think it is a construction mistake. That's why they are so very cheap. They were intended for use in appliances, not for hobbyists. There's not enough money in that market to justify the production large runs. BobUK
@@bobuk5722 But, they're always like this, which makes it being a mistake less likely, the longer they keep being made like this.
Well done James very thorough fantastic vedios what are the chances of putting a package together for us that dont know much about electronics. I have a Chinese mini lathe and love to be able to impliment your system on it. (Mabe I should trie to do it my self you have been very thorough). Keep up the good work.
James is sitting by his printer sticking labels as fast as they print off...100 at a time was a good decision.. I would like to see postman's face... :-)
Yeah, for sure. For big days (like Monday, when these will go out) I have to make a trip to the post office. They provide large reinforced bags for bulk packages and they have a special location for dropping them off. I've been surprised how many sellers there are in my area. I see one or two every time I go to the post office.
Hi James - Thank you so much for your videos. They are excellent. I’ve built the ELS and installed it on my mini lathe using my own design of housing. It worked just fine except for the failure of the TM1638 Display module. I’ve had two units fail after a short time operating. Has anyone else reported failure of the TM1638 Display module or is it just my bad luck?
Since you purchase 100 display boards , I would think you could get the supplier to make them with right angle connector.
Amundsen Nope! Not at the very low price these things sell for.
These are off-the-shelf boards that he is buying 100 at a time. I doubt the supplier is going to do a custom order, and it wouldn't be at that price
Amazing stuff. learnt more in 24 hours than in 40 years of working life. BUT - how do I buy this in UK - been on your ebay site but say's you wont ship to UK 😞. Please make this available - I'v bought all the other bits!!!!
Supper project I just ordered a kit. My used lathe was missing some of the more important change gears so this will solve that problem. Did you list somewhere a source for the timing belt gears and belts? Is there a affiliate link for the controller or a preferred source? Thanks for all the hard work making this available to the public. I currently working on a CNC index head using a 100 to 1 harmonic drive. Any chance you would be interested in adapting your controller to a project like this? Thanks again for amazing effort.
Very nicely done.
"But they're like 6 ft away from me"
I'm happy to see your nut drivers are also social distancing :)
Hi folks. Another marketing success! I wonder what treats James will get for his workshop this time. BobUK.
Are the buttons ninjaflex? I'd like to learn how to 3D print buttons like that. Nice!
They're a similar material from NinjaTek called "Cheetah". It's slightly firmer than NinjaFlex, but much it can be printed much faster.
Is it possible to use this on a large lathe that would require a much larger servo motor?
I am thinking of making up one of your kits and fitting it to a lathe I am restoring at the moment. I have a question on the control panel. It would be a lot more simple to use if the operation in the forward direction and stop and reverse was controlled by a 3 position switch attached to the Cross slide so direction would be more intuitive and could be operated watching the lathe running. Especially for threading this would make it much easier for me. Is it a simple matter to run these commands out from the control panel on a extension wire? John
The ELS buttons are not operated during a threading operation. They are just used to set up the pitch before you begin. In operation you use the lathe controls and the half nut.
@@Clough42 Thanks for your reply. I will have the lead screw permanently engaged as there are no half nuts. It is a very old Lorch lathe which uses the top slide screw as the leadscrew. This has a double universal joint that transfers the drive from the gears on the left side of the lathe to the top slide screw. I am missing some of the gears and have only limited threads that can be cut. Your electric drive just seems the answer. The double jointed universal drive is a bit clumsy and I was thinking about maybe driving the top slide screw from the handle end with a small stepper rather than a larger one driving from the original gear banjo. Perhaps you can understand my interest in controlling the drive in a slightly different way. I guess I would need to be able to stop the stepper drive so the shaft could be turned manually occasionally, though I guess it could be under electric drive most of the time. Do you think I could get away with a 1.5NM stepper motor?
If I understand correctly on your system the action of starting the spindle activates the screw turning by virtue of the electronic link between the spindle and the lead screw, the set up on the panel? I need to give this all some thought.
John
@@john2478 correct. The lead screw tracks the spindle at the configured ratio. It simulates a mechanical gearbox.
Hi
I'm watching your videos in February of 2022 and have great interest in this project so much so I purchased 2 of your kits just to find out that the TI f280049c board is no longer available, is there a alternate board that is available? Or is there a source for the f280049c I am not aware of. Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Brian
any plans for a full kit with all required components?
Do use a 5 core shield cable for the connection to the aviation plug? I can use not shield cables?
This isn't related to this project but are you working on more videos on the upgraded spindle for your CNC. It looks really interesting and would love to see it all getting put together.
When they are available again, please put me down for one.
Hello James, I would like to discuss another application of this electronic leadscrew kit of yours.
I wish to fit mine to a small Vintage Kent and Owens manual horizontal mill of mine. So the control will still read out RPM as present and the Feed/TPI readout would have some tweaked code to read out IPM. I’m using the same everything as in your design covered in your series (other than I used a 4:1 instead of 3:1 gear ratio with the Nema23 Hybrid servo. My 40 tooth sprocket is mounted to a ball screw with pitch of 5mm/rev. The ball nut is coupled to the mill table. Think this is a nice alternate application of your design. Please let me know if I can discuss this application in greater detail with you. Thank you for your consideration.
Dang... y’all are fast
yaaaay...thanks james...two ordered...prolly smart including the board...thanks again for all the research and development of this...i really need to get mine installed...working on three cnc projects at once...1 cnc plasma cutter...was cnc 9x6 spindle cnc..1 cnc mill drill lathe...:) busy times at minskmade...can you put link to the board vise? i have one fo those hakko desoldering guns..best purchase ever. good tip on the screws for the Bud box.
Thanks! Looks like I missed the vise link. Here you go: Panavise Junior Miniature Vise (Amazon*): amzn.to/2WaHXer
Just found 2 parts on Ebay, the panel and a circuit board. Do You have any links to the servo motor and the encoder Your design uses? That tells me some about the costs.
Handling cables and mounts will be no problem.
Working on a simple DC motor driven lead screw.....
James, was there an intentional reason for extending the left side of the 7seg display cutout window on the face plate so that the SMD LED on the board shows though down in the lower left corner?
I just got my kit Friday and I noticed last night after putting it all together and thought at first that maybe the face plate was messed up but noticed in this and other video's that have this silkscreened PCB board for the cover that they are all like that.
To the best of my knowledge, that is just a power indicator LED on the button board and I am considering removing it (personally, that LED is annoying to me... no clue way, but it is...) but wanted to make sure that there wasn't some reason that you intentionally extended the cutout to have it show though to where me removing it might create a problem that I'm unaware of.
-Also, does the brightness setting for the regular display in the code not work? Looking though the code and making some changes for my intended use (not using this on a lathe but thats irrelevant) I noticed that there is a code line ControlPanel.h for brightness but no matter what I set it to, the brightness doesn't change.-
*EDIT:* Disregard the last part about the brightness. I figured out what I was doing wrong (changing wrong setting at wrong location of the code).
There are several versions of the LED&Key board out there, and the one I measured for the original design had the display in a very slightly different position.
Took almost 8 weeks for the keyboard PCB to get here from China. Won't hurt to have another one from the kit.
I've been getting them a little faster than that, but it totally depends when you ordered. 2020 has seen a lot of global trade disruptions.
Hey, I'm sorry to bother you, but I am going to set up your els design on my M1099 lathe, I've already done the vfd, and I have 3-phase power in my shop so it's not the same one you used and I put a 3hp 3 phase motor on it, and now I have plenty of power and low-speed torque, just want to add the els, is there somewhere to find an accurate list of parts needed? I have looked online at your site, and on your eBay, I have several of the necessary items in my cart such as this interface, servo motor, etc, but would be very helpful to have an accurate accounting of what is needed to complete the project... Is there any chance you could point me in the right direction?
Hey James, great work, I've been following this series purely out of interest but now that the kits are becoming available maybe my little Myford ML7 needs one ;) Are you at some point going to put together a complete package (motor, mounts, controller, cables, connectors, etc.) or if not all the parts (due to variability of all the lathes out there) at least a single video that clearly outlines all the parts required with affiliate links? I realize I'm asking you to do the work for us .. but I'm just asking :)
Mats World Hi. James has said he is unlikely to do that as it has no value add - it's cheaper to buy the heavy bits locally. Have a look at his Wikipedia on Github - just search for 'ELS' for a fairly good summary of what you are asking for. I've built one using mainly UK sourced components and it works great. Just ordered the front panel kit off e-bay - got in quick - and the Bud box direct from Amazon.com as it will get here quicker than via the UK based US importer. Motors, drivers and PSU are all available locally in UK. You do need to put some effort into this, it is not just 'plug and play' despite James' efforts but it is well worth while. Would be a great addition to a Myford Instrument lathe, you are very lucky to have one. You would need to design and manufacture your own motor and rotary encoder mounts for your specific set up as I did for mine. Cheers. BobUK.
@@bobuk5722 Hey Bob, thanks so much for your reply. Yeah I was fully aware of the off-the-shelf pieces - that makes a lot of sense to just buy locally but thanks so much for the tip towards his wikipedia .. just the shopping list I was after :)
Re. the Myford, I found it on usedvictoria here in Victoria, BC, Canada .. amazing find, and love it .. just picked up a Colchester Student too, appears I favour the UK brands for some reason (pure coincidence) .. I'm still thinking of maybe getting the Hemingway Gearbox kit and go old school .. we'll see ;)
thanks again
The problem is that every lathe is different and will require different brackets, servo motor, gears, and belts.
HI, this is Alex from Italy.
i already buy the kit, but the alluminium box was not inside. Where i can buy your same external box?
thank's a lot
Very good project
It's a BUD industries CU-124
I didn't want to Waite so I machined one out of a scrap piece of aluminum, now I want to anodize it.
When will the kits be available again?
Get the bud boxed and mark it up !!
Hi James
I am looking to update the electronic lead screw (currently using Arduino, which is not very good) and looking to buy your CLOUGH42 Electronic Leadscrew (ELS) Combo Interface and Control Panel Kit. However it looks like you do not ship to the UK.
Is there a way I can get this kit to the UK?
eBay is now blocking entire categories of products due to the new new post-Brexit compliance marking requirements for GB and NI. I have had some people tell me they have used package forwarding services, but I don't know anything about your local rules around that.
Question for all you folks. I am still in my quest to purchase my first (and likely final) lathe. This type of kit has me thinking that maybe my money should be going towards raw machine, instead of fancy gearing, etc. I had been looking at Precision Matthews, and I live in Atlanta, so the used market for metalworking equipment is pretty thin. Can someone advise? What would be a perfect forever hobby lathe for someone looking to add a DRO, and ELS? Power feed both directions and cross slide, with separate lead screw is my minimum want.
"Forever" and "Hobby" are a tough combo, if hobby means small and inexpensive. The heavier the lathe, the more rigid it will be. A Hardinge HLV-H is in the "forever" category, but whether you have the space and can find one are big considerations.
Forever in my sense would mean at 50 years old, it will outlast me. Would love to be able to find something in the 3k-4K range that has good bones, be it new like grizzly or PM or used.
OK, so I missed them this time... I'll be looking....
Off subject: I sure do like that little utility knife you have. Would you be so kind as to tell me where you got it?? I've looked on Amazon and ebay and can't find one like it....
giaco.com/
@@Clough42 Thanks... Unfortunately, sold out.... I'll keep an eye out for that too...
As this video is about 2 years old I would prophecy that with the advantages of the ELS system you might find those mini lathes coming out even cheaper with an ELS in place of the threading gears........but knowing the pathetic design builds of those lathes the ELS that they would come with would be a nightmare......probably better to retrofit the Clough one as yet another very necessary after market improvement.
would you also make a set with pc board included? so some people can save from the shipping cost?
If you put both in your shopping cart and then check out, it should reduce the shipping cost.
Which soldering vice is that please
Cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Have a problem threading , run the first pass, reset for 2nd pass and it does not line up. 3rd pass out of alignment again by about the same amount . About .030 each time , 8tpi is this a encoder a problem? Or something I have wrong on a setting., you have500 on the motor I had to turn down to 346 to get 8 tpi
You really need to know and enter the correct ratios for the encoder and the motor/drive gearing. Guessing and trying different values is a good way to create the kind of problem you describe.
A good first check is to make sure the RPM is showing properly on the display. If it's correct, you probably have the encoder set up correctly.
That was really good. Do you think you can turn a 4th axis into an electronic indexer?
That would be a different application, but the same hardware should work with different software. I've also had questions about using it as a gear hob, which would be interesting.
I know this is old but maybe somebody here can help me... I've ordered one of the kits with the keypad and board from eBay and looked at the wiring diagram on the Github but I don't know what cable to order to hook the control box to the Texas Instruments board? It looks like it has 5 wires but when I look at DigiKey it looks like you have to know what the pin spacing is and I don't see that anywhere.
Oh, and does anyone know what size box the Launch board fits?
The control panel connects to the PCB in the kit. The encoder connects to the LaunchPad. It's a LaunchXL-F208849C. All of the headers are 0.1" (2.54mm) pin spacing.
@@Clough42 Thank you for all your help with this! The mechanical side I can understand but the computer / electrical is all new to me!
What size bud box and where can I one?
CU-124
Purchased!
I missed the kit , darned
Not to worry. I'll make more. :)
I got an email from eBay about your listing. When I clicked the link eBay couldn't find it any more.
Better hurry only 50 left......@ 12:50 EST
I missed out this time, but hopefully I can get one later, thanks.
where's all the doc's, on the asem.
What's that red film's name?
Acetate
I believe it's PVC.
Can invest with you?
Missed out
Those Hammond boxes are available EVERYWHERE in the world. Anyone who says they're not available where they are, are just too lazy to look.
Might be, but for example what's available here in Finland the biggest resellers take something like 20 to 25€ in shipping fees for 5€ box... So what is in beginning a 25 USD part will become something like 100 USD in total after the shipping fees and taxes. So I really understand people who would like to purchase the box together with the rest of the kit.
Getting a box the 'correct' size is a challenge. Most are 1-2 mm difference and in this case (pun intended) that is a BIG difference
yes i won't one of the kit's i am in England how do i pay you normally. i ues a pro former invoice. les . I dont ues credit cards .
i have a Non led screw Colchester lath one 100 yes old the uses the rack to cut thread's it a six Tip nut , that drives the rack. & a 62 To 12 " chuck , i hop this information help's