Fellows 48-12 Gear Shaping Machine

We started work on this in house stock Fellows 48-12 machine rebuild with CNC conversion but got sidetracked in mid-2023 with too many other projects so it was placed on the side temporarily to be resumed when time permits. The machine is currently envisioned to have these axes of motion when completed. X (Radial), B (Cutter rotation), C (Worktable rotation) plus the stroking spindle under CNC control. Backoff remains with a mechanical cam system shifting the table assembly left and right in time with the stroke up/down. It is not too late to add additional axes and capability to make it fully CNC controlled. Adding the Z axis allows the stroke elevation and stroke length to become servo adjustable via the CNC. This added level of conversion involves adding a large torque motor and safety brake to the stroke rocker shaft and the complete removal of the crankshaft and all related gearing. The back off function can then be done via servo-controlled interpolation between X and Z eliminating the worktable shift left/right to facilitate the back off. This might also result a control shift away from Fanuc to the Siemens One Control platform. Which would allow us to reuse a lot of engineering and software already implemented on two other such machines. One Fellows 60-15 and one Fellows 70-15.