Carriage stops for Chinese 12x36 metal lathe

thingiverse

I share a lathe with my brother, he was a machinist for years and doesn't bat an eye while turning or threading small parts close to the chuck. Me, I am paranoid about crashing the carriage into the chuck when threading. Partly this fear is due to a finicky engagement lever and detent on the lathe, trying to take the carriage out of gear easily results in shifting the lever too far allowing the carriage to continue to travel. So I have made carriage stops to shut off the lathe motor almost instantly in conjunction with DC braking found on the VFD. I made two that can be used simultaneously to switch off the forward and reverse carriage travel when threading to make this process easier for me. The two main bodies have mirrored holes to allow for left and right facing switches. The stops have micro-switches attached that are connected using the normally closed terminals in line with the 12 volt forward and reverse inputs for the VFD. These same stops can be wired into the conventional Chinese lathe spindle direction control switches to interrupt the 24V safety circuit of these lathes as well. With the single phase motor the lathe is just slower to stop and the carriage will travel a bit after hitting the switch as a result.