Does anyone have / heard of / know of any kits, or ideas for placing limit switches on the ShopTask machine? I'd really like a home switch as well. Since I'm still in newby stage I'm a little nervous attempting it on my own.

I have a shoptask..without switches(yet). My plan is to make adjustable brackets to hold the switches for X(Z) on the bed. The positions constantly change because of different usage. i.e. swivel vice protrusions, tailstock on or off, lathe chuck still on when doing a small milling procedure. The z home/limit can be mounted just about wherever you want it that it fits well. The Y I plan to mount on the DRO slide I have installed....it has a short length at the extremes that the reader never reaches.
So far, I've had good luck without them.... but homing would be nice.
I'm not doing production though.

I'm not a production guy either, but homing is really what I'm after. Any pictures you have of yours or others?

Hey,

I bought the "Industrial Supplies", Opto-switches, they are very, very well made and heavy duty. My X Home/limit, has adjustable stops so you can change your limits/home, for things like when using the lathe function, and/or tailstock, or removing the lathe chuck for larger milling area.

I will take some pics tommorrow (Sat 4feb06), and I will try and get them up, that evening or on sunday.

My machine is currenlty in a state of transition, since I am re-doing my DRO's encoders mounts as well.

The homes are good to about 0.0002-0.0005 accuracy/repeatability.

later Amigo,

Scott

Any pics?

Yeah! Am still waiting for those pics, PoppaBear. We want to see your progress and generally pics of your setup.

Hey Bloy,

Sorry I have been so deliquent on getting my pics up. I have been running around like a mad-man. My machine is currently down. I am building a "fancy", controll cabnet for my 5 axis shoptask. I am trying to make it look real nice, doing all "industrial", type of parts and connectors.

Oh, BTW!!! Ed Gilbert, or GES designs, helped me to lay out and design my box, he also turned me on to a super cool way of getting a touch screen without taking out a morgage. Fujitsu makes a "Resistive touch pannel", that goes over your standard flat screen (CRT or LED). It has a USB hook up, and it allows you to "touch" the buttons on the screen just like your clicking a mouse. I have a 17" LED screen that I am putting the adaptor under the bezel and then I am going to try to fit it into the control cabnet/center.....

I am hoping to get some total pics up, of the: Control box and center, trunion table, Limits/homes and adjustable limits, DC drives/moter/mounts, (and eventually much later a moterized mill head like you did).

Oh, BTW2: I found a really affordable "coolent sytem" at harbor freight, it is only 2 gallons, but once I figure a way to contain my coolent for recycling. I am also considering enclosing the entire machine, like that guy that did the "shoptask under glass".

BTW3: I also found some really great prices on "Energy Chains", at Kable Shlep, that I am going to put on the X/Y axis for a cleaner look.

I am hoping to finish up, at least the control box/center, and get those pics and the limit/homes up in the next 1-2 weeks are so....depending on if the "fires", will die down enough to do my hobbie.

Scott

What do you know. I just finished my "fancy" control box. Contained within : Micro ITX motherboard, fanless, uses a 512meg CF card as a hard drive. Running my custom made embedded windows xp. I have a 18" touch screen as well. Industrial everything proof keyboard. I have a couple of three phase relays inside. On the outside you have all bradley allen switches. One two position switch is for "lathe / mill" mode. When in either mode the VFD and pulse index for that function is transfered. That way I have true rpm referance and control for each mode. All encoders, steppers, and external connections are on seperate 4 pin cannon type plugs. Heavy heat sinks, LCD display for temp readings on the Gecko's. Coolant, spindle, HVAC relays are all within the controller case. Modio is waiting for limit switches...... wish I had a picture.....Hint....

I'm sure you're already experiancing it, but this type of encloser sure isn't cheap. Nice though. I'm really excited to check out some of your pictures.

I'm curious though. I've got 4 axis on my shoptask. What is your 5th? Where did you get it, or how did you make it?

Idea I've been playing with:

Switching the X and Y axis in mill mode. Take the tail stock off and the system resembles and traditional mill. Then switch them back to original for lathe mode. What do you think?

Hey Borris,

Yea, (part of the delays for me, is I have to purchase a little at a time per check..)
I really like you idea on using relays to do the switching between lathe/mill functions, I was looking for a multi pole swith but wasnt finding much. I like you, am switching between my DC drives, tachs and spindle moter controls. I am using a DL06 for most of my non-critical I/O on usb modbus. One of the glitches I an currently working on is my DC controller need a +/- 10v for speed control and my card puts out 0 to +10v only. So, I am trying to figure out a relay combination to reverse the polarity when I switch moter direction. (found a good price on Din rail mount relays/mounts at Automation direct).

The 4/5th axis is a "trunion table", (I also made some 5th axis Mach3 Mill screen sets under the Mach thread under the: screen sets/post processor sub-threads).

I run 2 parrallel ports, (I use two CNC4PC BB boards, the boards are configurable where you can reverset the inputs/outputs so I set one in reverst to get more inputs.
at any rate, I added a 5th Gecko 320. The trunion table I am currently putting together is a "temp" model, you take you 4th axis table and then mount another CNC rotary onto it, where the 5th axis platter rotates perpendicular to the 4th axis platter, and the top of the 5th axis platter is on the center of axis rotation of the 4th axis. The temp trunion will be for small complex parts, until I can get a larger table built (read that a saying much more time consuming/pain in the a$$/and not cheap.

I will be hanging the rotating part off the left side of the mill table towards the lathe spindle so the 4th axis is inline with the X of the mill table. The Software I use for my CAM is OneCNC XR2 Mill Expert with 4th/5th and that orientation is currently the only one supported. I could line the table up with my Y axis so I could support it better, but then I would have to reverse my X and Y. Don't know if I wanna do that as yet, also OneCNC said they will be coming out shortly with a "Fix" that will allow you to change your trunion table to a Y axis orientation shortly...... The software is for 3+2 positioning, not constant motion 5th axis and that is ok with me as well.

On what you said above: "Switching the X and Y axis in mill mode. Take the tail stock off and the system resembles and traditional mill. Then switch them back to original for lathe mode. What do you think?"

that would work I guess, the easy way would be just switch servo control wires.

I am currently building the door to my cabnet, I still have to drill the holes on the side and do the wiring for the connectors...... I suspect another week or two, as time permits, since there never seams to be enough time in the day, for the hobbie I love. I will be getting up pics as soon as I get stuff finnsished. I am NOT looking forward to soldering all those connectors to the wiring for the plugs....

BTW: where did you mount your Mill head Tack wheel? I am thinkin of putting my wheel on top of the mill head spindle. Are you considering enclosing your shoptask to contain the mess?? How are you recycling your fluids??

Oh, since I am enlosing my Geckos in my cabnet, how would you recommend a way to have the Fault light be readable, on the outside of the box? I really didn't want to open up the drive and tap off the Led......

scott

"the easy way would be just switch servo control wires"

I was just going to switch the pins in MACH. Have one config for mill, another for lathe.

"how would you recommend a way to have the Fault light be readable"

Never tried it, but I would think fiber optics would be the way to go. Mounting some strands of fiber facing the light and then to some place on the exterior.

Wow! Your shoptask sounds nice. I'm currently building a 18" y axis table. Giving me a little more travel. Since I've never used a 4th axis (going to shortly), it's hard to say what benefit it would be.

"where did you mount your Mill head Tack wheel"

Haven't mounted it yet. But it's going to be really easy. Here is a pic of my wheel. Using one of CNC4PCs' index pulse triggers mounted to an L bracket of the head. The wheel is mounted to 4 small tapped holes on the underside of the spindle pulley. Pulse requires 1 or more holes or indents on the circle to referance a "pulse". The disc is made of 6061 and can be milled in no time.


Very excited to see some limit switches.

Ok,

A little side note on the tack disk, I use CNC4PC rpm board as well. Here is what I noted, (at least on the lathe). I did all the fancey calculations to get the correct "gap" in the wheel. After doing that, it still was missing signal, once I got it where it would read from 0-3500rpm, I noted that the gap was about 30 degrees (or about 3" along the circumference, with the lathe wheel being 6.5" O.D.

So I am suspecting that when I do put a wheel on the mill, the gap will need to be bigger than expected as well, I have noted about a 3X increase from what it is supposed to be using the little formulas.

The Limits pics........ Ok, ok, I hear you, I will take them now but I want you to relize that they are currently NOT hooked up, since I took down my old controller, and I am currently making my new box. (I will see if I can get my old, old digital camera to work).

I will post here on this thread, if I can get my camera to work, if not, I will have to go buy a new cheap camera.

Scott

So the little 1/8" hole isn't going to cut it huh? Dang... and I thought something would be easy.

So 30 degrees of sweep.... 3" huh. That's alot. What about higher rpms then? Say 4500 or 6000? Have you tested anything above the 3500?

I know how to run wire, so doesn't matter if they are hooked up. Even a picture of you holding them in place would be nice. Just make sure your smiling in the photo.

Thanks

Borris,

I put all my pics in the PoppaBear10's thread in the shoptask forum here, AND, I also posted more pics in the users gallery, again under poppabear10.

I ended up taking alot more pics than I had planned, so I just started a new thread.

Scott