I am planning a trip to Camaster to investigate and drool over a mini cobra. I plan to drive to either Trenton or La Fayette the afternoon of the 18th and be at Camaster the morning of the 19th. I am looking forward to meeting Joey and the guys. I have been reading the forum for a number of months.

Since my friend and I bought a used Shop Sabre (he has it in his shop) I have been thinking of either upgrading my home built router or buying one. The mini cobra has caught my eye. I am investigating the feasibility of buying after all I am just a hobbyist and not in business. My friend is the business one. I just like to play.

Jim, if you are available and are of a mind, it would nice to meet you.

Till the 19th,

Russ

a mini cobra is a ful blown camaster in smaller table format and there sure ain't no flies on it, i helped my friend joesph get one and he is cranking out some incredible stuff!! he is one of our support group and is on his way over here to help me run ground in the dust collection system. i'll post some pics of his machine or you can see them at

www.camheads.org

if you have trouble joining the site let me know, i'll get you in

jim

Hi Jim,

I registered for the camheads site a couple of weeks ago but still can't see the pictures.

I talked to Joey this morning and am looking forward to visiting on the 19th. Sounds like there may be a lot of possibilities with the options available.

We are having pretty good sucess with the shopsabre and wincnc. Wincnc is still an irritation on some things, Joey said he would help me out while I'm there.

Russ

joey can definantly help you with win cnc, i am learning more every day!!

we will get you into the site.

jim

you should be good to go on the site. If there are any questions that need to be taken care of with wincnc just drop me a e-mail. And if you can hook that pc up to the net if it is not and download a program called crossloop. I can look at your files if you would like. i am looking forward to the 19th

Joey

R3 = R cubed:cheers:

Good Morning Joey and Jim,

The more I think about WinCNC perceived problems the more I think the problem is my understanding of how it operates. The manual doesn't have a step by step operation section and since it operates different than what I am used to with Mach3 I get frustrated. I think the most helpful thing would be a quick demo of the basic operation and file handling. The program and router are working fine. I will be trying to figure out how to set up a 4th axis on it in the future but for now we will be just using a spinning wood lathe as the 4th axis and using the spindle as a lathe tool for making spindles and table legs. Nothing fancy other than the profile. Eventually we will be making a 4th axis with either a servo or stepper to be able to do much more detailed items.

I have my trip all planned out am getting anxious. I have been thinking about visiting since the spring. I had a Suzuki Burgman 650 scooter that I was going to ride up but a guy ran a red light in June and totaled it. My truck will have to do. It will just use a lot more fuel.

See you on the 19th.

R3
ha ha

Jim,

I have been looking for the pictures of Joseph's mini cobra. So far I haven't run across them. From what you said it doesn't sound like there is any difference between it and the big ones other than size. This is the stuff of which dreams are made.

Stepper on the 4th it has way more low end torque and thats what you need on a cnc lathe it is not going to be spinning fast. you need the holding power of the stepper
joey

here is a link to the pics of josephs machine on camheads

http://www.camheads.org/showthread.php?t=17

Joey,

You have my attention. The red one in the first post is what I am dreaming about.

Russ

Good Morning Joey,

What is the price of diesel fuel in your area? I will be filling up around there and was wondering about filling up either in Gadsden, Al or Trenton.

Marking off the days.

The yellow mini cobra that Jim posted the picture of is nice!! Now to maybe see one in person. Or at least something similar. Time is dragging by.

Russ

Paul said he just filled up at 2.25 but in most places it is 2.35. We are looking forward to your visit.

Joey

Thanks Joey,

That's about the same as here then.

I think that my friend Mike may be coming with me. He is the one that I helped buy the 4860 shop sabre. He has been learning WinCNC to run the SS. I still have a few glitches with it although it works fine. User difficulties I think. I have been using Mach3 for several years and so anything different takes a while to get used to.

Till Monday,

Russ

Servo controller & power supply for Russ's new machine. The servo motors are Nema 34 850oz/in.

I sure hope ya'll have a good heating system. I just looked at the weather for La Fayette and it was 23 degrees and falling:eek:.

Salt the roads and put out the smudge pots. I'll be heading your way. :)

I am looking forward to seeing you Monday morning.

Russ

hope you are ready for some country side as it is real pretty up there, the three times i went there wer leaves on the trees but it is full of horse farms,

oh and they build cnc's there too!!

jim

what is a smudge pot?

We are looking forward to it. and please bring one of your motors

smudge pot, a pot that hold smudge

smart butt (nuts)

yea that is whay i am

A smudge pot is an oil burning apparatus used in the orange orchards to help keep the temperature from getting too low and damaging the oranges.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smudge_pot

R3

Thanks Russ. i feel ege a ma cated

look at this

http://www.camheads.org/showthread.php?p=612#post612

We made it to LaFayette. We will be there about 8:30 tomorrow. So far the temperature isn't too bad. Hope it stays that way.

R3

oh yea we have all stayed in that little motel a time or two, enjoy your visit
jim

We are at the Key West Inn. It's not bad for the price. It is clean, warm, has a shower and wireless internet. What else could be asked for. I will be walking to the office for coffee in a couple of minutes.

Looking forward to seeing some machines at Camaster!!!!!

R3

Joey,
Here are the links for the suppliers Russ & I have used.
http://www.homeshopcnc.com/index.html
http://www.antekinc.com/
I don't want to post my address & I don't have an email for you. email me @ mpeters4414"at"mchsi.com

I am back home from my trip and want to thank Joey, Jim and Paul for their hospitality and patience for all my questions. I am hoping to have everything together to put a machine on order shortly. I am highly impressed with construction and quality of the machines.

R3

Thanks for comming by today. we were pleased to meet both of you. We hope we will be able to serve you with your router needs. Its always great to expand our family we do all learn from one another. Thanks again for the visit I sent Mike a e-mail so ill send a dvd soon

joey

Hi Joey,

It's a go:D:. I will contact you by phone to make arrangements.:)

R3

The deed is done!!:D:D:D

Welcome to the camheads!!

jim

Thanks Jim:)

Rumor has it that a frame has formed. Progress is being made. The gestation is on schedule. At least it doesn't take 9 months.:)

Barring unforeseen occurrences I will be there on the 16th. I wonder if I should bring cigars.

R3

Only 10 days and I will be in Lafayette again. This time to pickup my Mini Cobra.:D I am busily arranging the shop for the new machine. I am taking a class at the local junior college to get pointers on the best way to use the machine. I am also getting overwhelmed with ideas of things to make on the machine. What a problem to have.

Russ

(nuts)
Thanks to Russ we found all (2) my wiring mistakes(chair), which I would have never found by myself. It's really good to have really smart friends. We were able to bench run the motors & they ran like stripped butt apes. I wounder what 2700 ipm looks like.

Every thing is on track and ready. The truck is prepped, the shop is prepped and I am chaffing at the bit to get the new mini Cobra with recoil lathe. I will be in Lafayette Sunday night for an early morning foray to Camaster Monday morning.:)

Russ

Pescado_loco and I are in La Fayette at the Key West Inn. :)I am looking forward to seeing my new Mini Cobra tomorrow morning. :D I have the electronics and servos ready to go. I also have the stepper for the 4th axis recoil lathe. I hope the weather stays the way it is until I get home tomorrow night. I would hate to have to unload in bad weather. The weather guessers predict sunshine, for once I hope they are right.

Russ

hang i am looking forward to seeing it! !

jim

I intend to take pictures. Once home I will post some of them.

I had a good visit at CAMaster today and spent a good bit of time with Bill, Paul and Jim. Very enjoyable time. My new Mini cobra with recoil lathe is in my shop now. Tomorrow night I will start assembling the final wiring and getting it up and running.

Here are some photos from today.

Joey get well soon,

R3

excellent looking piece of machinery!!

jim

I completed the cables today and ran the machine with gcode. I didn't cut anything , I will do that tomorrow. So far looks like it will work fine. I still have to tune the servos. That is something I have to figure out. I'm not that familiar with servos yet.

Russ

I have run the X and Y axes at a rapid of 1000 ipm and they are smooth as silk. My table is only 30 x 50 inches so that is moving around pretty quick. I don't expect to ever run gcode using that kind of speed but it is nice to know it is there if needed. Sort of like a 300 hp city car.

Russ

More like a 300hp Sparrow(flame2).

1000 ipm on a 30x50 table is like a slingshot are you kidding me:bat:

jim :rainfro::drowning:(flame2)

where are all the icons coming from?

In my playing around I actually had it run diagonal test from one corner to the far corner and back a number of times at various speeds from 500 to 1500 ipm. The machine handled the speed with no problem. It started getting a little scary at the high speed. I upped the acceleration to see what it would do and I don't think I need that kind of speed. I have it set for 800ipm and 25 acceleration. That seems pretty quick.

I have been playing around with the numbers and can cut a 5 inch square within about .003.

I think I will let that be for a while.

Russ

I was testing the movement of the axes and took a short video of the test. The machine is moving from one corner to the diagonal corner with z moving about 3 inches up. On the way back z returns to the original position. The movement is about 48 inches x and 26 inches y.

YouTube - Camaster 1500ipm movement test

Russ

I ran the 4th axis for the first time yesterday. I still don't have the controller box wired for the 4th axis so I used the box from my Taig mill which has stepper drives in it. I have the axis configured so that it rotates one full revolution as a 1 inch setting in Mach3. I am still playing with the numbers and trying to figure out how the rotational axis is supposed to be configured. I am reading and trying to get that straight in my head.

I guess at the moment I could make an oscillator with a 555 timer chip and run the stepper as a motor. Then all I would have to program would be the x and z axes to use the lathe. It wouldn't be a real 4th axis but I could make spindles and table legs.

Russ

I put together an oscillator with a 555 timer and connected it to a breakout board and gecko 201 to drive the stepper on my 4th axis lathe. It isn't a real 4th axis at this point but the lathe turned and I used the router spindle to cut a cylinder. It works! The spin rate is rather slow (there is a 4.8 to 1 reduction) but with the spindle of the router doing the cutting that isn't a problem. I can now turn spindles with the router lathe combination until I can get my controller box rewired to include the 4th axis driver. My current controller box is too small to fit the driver in it.

Russ

Here are some pictures of some of the items I have experimented and played with since I got the MC3050-R. The nosecone is for a friend's air rocket. The spindle is experimentation for making table legs. The Engraving is for a box (coffin) a friend made for his dog.

The Mini Cobra is a fine addition to the "Playhouse". It is the most used machine in the shop.

Russ

My controller has been reworked to include the 4th axis driver.:banana: I think I am getting close to the final configuration and can concentrate on playing instead of setup and installation. Now to learn how to use the new 4th axis control.:)

Russ