.... what should he do about a mini-lathe?

Oh, and "workshop" is a VERY loose term.

ya know... i've asked myself the very same question...

I would think that the y and z of a RoGR, or micRo, would be suitable on "some sort" of rotating platform...

You could get a small lathe and sit the frame of ROGR over it. Jog the axis parallel and perpendicular to the stock to be milled and tell your software not to move that motor then just use the other two axes to control the shape.

To do it right, you'd want to add two more axes to the milling head, then build a lathe head. A lathe head could be created fairly easily; create some brackets, use a treadmill motor, but a mounting plate and chuck (from LittleMachineShop.com). With your 5-axis gantry robot and lathe head, you can now mill or turn absolutely anything, except threads. If you wanted to do threading, then you'd best hack up your minilathe and graft it onto the work stage of the gantry robot.

-Brian

That's what I suggested. The bottom of RoGR is open so you could build a table to bolt the mini-lathe and RoGR to.

I was actually thinking more of a lathe to turn small parts than modding a micRO. I.e., an additional machine to compliment the micRO.

No, scratch that last post. If I got a lathe head and mounted it so that the axis was at the bed height of the micRO, I could attach a stationary tool to the Z-axis and have it be a CNC lathe, right? With a 5" diameter capability, (assuming 2.5" Z travel), by 12" long. Way f-ing cool!

Where do I get such a lathe head and motor?

ETA: Oh, I think that's what quadmasta suggested. Sorry. And BrianC gave a link. Sorry again.

Hmmm. Well I see a 7"x10" mini lathe is only $370 which surprises me. Adding on to the micRO though would add the CNC thing.

If you have a mini-lathe, you have most of the "parts" for a CNC lathe. Just add a few steppers, some drivers, program EMC2 and you're good to go. Be sure to get a "thread cutting" lathe though. I was actually putting together a kit of NEMA23 steppers for mods like this..it won't cost much, maybe a couple hundred...you see where this is going....

Once you've successfully applied CNC robotics to a project, the world of automation opens up to you, and you start seeing what you can automate in everything...

One thing though, for the machining applications of CNC, you still have an ocean of machining knowledge, tools, techniques etc to absorb before you can really get a grip on making robot-mills. If your robot is simply making drawings, gravature etc, you don't really need to know these things.

A great book covering the basics of machining is sold in the LL store (not an ad, I love this book!):

http://www.lumenlab.com/estore/product.php...=266&page=3

We have trouble keeping it in stock, but we always get more!

I would be interested in a mod of this sort. It would instantly double the utility of the bot.