Below is video and pictures of a "passive CNC" technique we used to get the proper profile for our nosecone out of a normal manual lathe. The results turned out quite nice, especially with the router on there. Made for a very smooth contour, which we will still sand down. We used popler wood for this, glued together from multiple blocks with (insert type of glue here). You'll notice that on one end is a nice long diagional gouge, that's from trying to use an 1/4" endmill during testing. Bad, the flutes are too tight and the helix tends to screw itself into the wood. Instead, use a normal straight edge router bit. We removed the cross slide nut from under the cross slide and mounted a piece of flat bar where the cross slide nut screwed into, then there was a bearing on the other end that fit snugly into the slot of the guide. The route was a cheepie harbor freight laminate trim router, so it was fast, but didn't have much torque. We had to keep the power feed kind of slow and our plunge at less then 0.100", other wise you could hear the router start to get loaded. Also of interest, there are to thick wall square tubes mounted to the lathe, going to the back side, with 1/2" holes in them. Above that is a cross square tube with some plates welded to them (you could easily use counter sunk screws if you wanted). Anyways, you'll notice the 1/2" threaded rod, with 1/2" nuts on top/bottom of the lower square tube, and top/bottom nuts on the side plates. This gives you the ability to adjust the height of the whole assembly and level the plate. Kind of important if you want to reproduce this setup.
Video
Pictures
- ?WoodNosecone16t.jpg
