8L - Remove Tail Stock for Extra Z travel?

Lathe
1

Hello! I’m in the process of setting up and getting acquainted with my new 8L, and had a few questions about the limit switches and Z travel on this machine.

The drill chucks are quite long (I will eventually transition to ER collets, I think!) and I’m not turning anything that requires the tail stock so I’m wondering how I can get a bit more Z travel out of the thing. This will make it easier to use my centering indicator.

First, I know approximately where the limit switches are supposed to be, but when the instructions called to test the switches with a screw driver I could not for the life of me find them. The machine does stop at the magnetized screw in the bed when referencing, so they work. Where exactly are they?

Second, the magnetized screw used for setting the reference Z – can I move that to get extra Z travel? I just want 2 more inches.

Third, if that is possible and I can move the reference Z out a bit, I’m assuming I need to change the soft limit to reflect that as well?

Thanks for any help! Yes, I’m new. Yes, I’m taking it slow and learning!

2

I haven’t tried to move the prox sensors or the mag screws but I have disabled the limit switches in the settings tab then jogged the machine out in z before referencing the axes.
If you do this you should know a few things:

  • with the limit switches disabled the machine will ref where ever it is when you press the buttons.
  • there is an admin command to change the soft limits on the machine.
  • tread lightly with this new information.
3

I actually made a bracket that moved the screw that the z axis sensor reads back a couple inches. The problem with doing that is that you lose that two inches of travel at the headstock end. So would changing the softlimits cure this??? If so where do I find these softlimits so I can change them?

4

Have you seen this? Adjusting Lathe Soft Limits

5

There is one of the commands in the MDI drop down menu you can use to do this.

You can adjust the limits using the MDI command ADMIN_SET_Z_LIMIT [NUMBER] or view them with ADMIN_SHOW_SOFT_LIMITS.

6

Hey Scott…thank you so much!! This is exactly the information that I was needing. To be quite honest I didn’t even know what it was called…in other words, “softlimits” is actually a new word for my vocabulary. Thanks again.

1 Like
7

Hey Harrison…thank you as well. It’s really awesome to have this forum with you guys who understand the software side of things on these machines. Y’all are a fantastic resource for us old guys who know machining end of things but software is like a foreign language to us.

8

Larry have you set up a hub account? All I did was go into the hub, which is a PathPilot simulator available for free, and type Admin in the MDI line. I scrolled down through the options until I found something that seemed close, then googled the result and found the page I sent you a link to.

I really like using the simulator for this kind of stuff, I don’t have to be near the machine, and I can try stuff out from my recliner. hub.pathpilot.com, check it out sometime.