Greetings from perth

[aspringv]

Well, it's been a little while but I figured I'd throw a few more pics up ().

For now, the rig has been placed on a coupla sheets of 18mm mdf (total thickness 36mm; and heavy) with an intention to move it on to something a bit more manageable and level when we can.

The spindle is currently a knock off brand dremel; we do have a nice spindle set ready to go, but we're attempting to cut the mountings for it for now with the dremel. Essentially we'll cut supports for the spindle in perspex with the dremel in the rig, and then mount the spindle, and cut fresh ones in 5mm ally plate.

It's a bit of a bootstrapping process up to a finished rig, but the idea's to do it ourself without 'cheating' and getting someone in the community to cnc our parts for us...

Anywho, the design is working perfectly (knock on wood). Mach 3 is configured nicely (although i'd like to build it's profile from scratch instead of editing the mill one already there), she seems to be able to adequately describe arcs and circles, and the only thing holding us back is the spindle.

Only drama is the y axis has the two guide rails and the ballscrew in a vertical line. This means that there is a small amount of flex in the y direction. I don't think there's much we can do about it now - if I were to do this again i would have oriented the three of them in a triangle, but it's a bit late now!

Anywho there's one or two questions.

One - the spindle was one we sourced from linearmotionbearings and i'm a bit uncertain on wiging to hook it up. I've got the manual, but any comments from folk who've bought the same would be appreciated. I've no desire to cook it because i was only mostly sure about the wiring...

Two - bits. If anyones got a reasonably priced supplier, let me know! I've seen crazy expensive through to sane, but advice appreciated.

Cheers all - linky for pic going up shortly...

[vanhelli]

Hey guys WELL DONE!

its not the wireing of the spindle so much that will blow up..it more the programming of the VFD thats important! if you have the same VFD that I have then i will give you my setups...its quite a lot of info and is easy if you know how!

Cheers

haydn

[aspringv]

Hi there Hayden,

Yeah mate, that'd be handy. Having read details of folk getting smoke out of their spindles, I'll take whatever setup details that anyone has! I'm reasonably sure i've the same spindle as your self, so i'll be looking forward to seeing your setup details.

Cheers!

[woodguy60]

Hi Garychief.
i am curious about your chiniese spindle.
how is it standing up?
paul

[aspringv]

Hi all,

bit of a random question. We've been playing around with one of thpse chinese spindles, and we seem to have hit a snag.

Essentially, we're only able to get it up to ~12000pm; well short of the rated 24k. Now I've read a pile of the guides online, but the issue we seem to be having is getting into the programming mode of the vfd to change some settings. My suspicion is that it needs to be delivering a higher amperage to the spindle, but i won't know until I can experiment a bit

Now I do have a manual for it, but our vfd panel is a little different in orientation to the one pictured in the manual, and it certainly doesnt seem to work the same way in terms of programming settings.

Does anyone have a similar experience? or ways to enter the programming mode of the vfd?

[routercnc]

Hi there,

I bought a water cooled Chinese Spindle some time ago and am now researching water cooling options. Mine is the 1.5Kw version. I came across post#25 whereby a ThermalTake 850i unit was being used. Mind if I ask a few questions?

How is that going generally, is it still a recommended solution?
What do you cut with it and for how long?
What sort of temperatures does it maintain?
Did you mod the inlet and outlet ports on the spindle which are a tiny ~2.75mm ?

p.s you can see my build log here, where I normally post stuff:
http://www.mycncuk.com/forums/showth...or-mk2-upgrade!

Many thanks

[aspringv]

Hi there,

We're using that same spindle, and I'm very happy with it.

To answer your questions, we used a number of pc water cooling solutions, and basically, it didn't really matter. The spindle does not run particularly hot, so you don't need to overdo the cooling (ie no massive pumps, radiators etc).

In terms of the connectors to the spindle, we used tygon surgical tubing which could be fitted onto the spidle nicely. It doesn't kink easily, and we got it for free via a nursing link... : when you get to the rad/pump the nipple there will be to big, so the tygon outer diameter is 3/8 an inch, and will fit tightly inside a 3/8 inner diamet bit of tubing, which should fit neatly onto the nipple.

Finally, what have we cut? Well, ally for the most part. The spindle tears through ply and perspex, and cutting ally. We've used sewing machine oil as a lubricant (apparently kerosene would be a better choice but I've not tried it).

To be honest, we're more held back by the flex we get in the head than we are by the spindle. Get yourself some good bits (tungsten carbide, and by in bulk and cheap off ebay till you work out your machines limits) as the spindle will not be your limit on cutting speeds and depths.

Finally, setting up the vfd took a while. I'll repost the link to the guide I used when I get home, but we were limited th 12k rpm for a while till we sussed it out. I'll post that asap.

Sorry if the formatting is rough, I've written this on bberry, but I hope it helps. Cheers, and don't be shy if you've a query.

[vanhelli]

My spindle runs ice cold all day long...the little pc cooler thing was the best choice ever....PERFECT!

I cut aliminium all day long ..building helicopter parts here are some links to the hlei flying..My design just smashed the unnoficail world it was 248...now its 257kms yeehaaa


YouTube- MegaVolt 800 approx 250kmh speed pass YouTube- MegaVolt 800 At Ircha

but anyway back to the spindle...runs cold! with the setup I have...

Nice

Well done on ya upgrade and go for it!

[vanhelli]

Howdee Folks...

been over a year now since ive started down this winding path of knowlede...hehehe just took another years worth of education fron the usa for mastercamx5 so thats going to be very interesting...finnished designing 5 helicopters and thay are all good and fly well..have sold a few to mates all over the world and they love them too..but now moving onto 4 axis stuff..just finnished retrofitting my x2 minimill and also building the 4 th axis so her is a little shot of all the stuff working so will need to get my education hat on and get the neccessary info into the skull so i can get creative with the 4th axis....!yea baby!

ive designed a simple switching system that allows me to use 1 controller setup to run both machines.....VERY NICE PEOPLE!!!...works great...

look here...

YouTube - 1 controller 2 machines.MOV
and now the minimill retrofit....


YouTube - 4axis retrofit.MOV
and some things ive made on BLADERUNNER the home designed and built router....

YouTube - 3D cnc first test run YouTube - AvA 1000 FBL swash lock design complete YouTube - AVA 1000 E YouTube - 2AxisGimble.MTS
so all in all having a lot of fun!!

cheers

haydn

[vanhelli]

Hey guys
some news on carbide cutters...
After being robbed blind by dealers here in Australia..I decided to search overseas for better deals and found these guys...

www.waw-tech.com

they have chinese carbide and german carbide in equal sizes..
have ordered and paid and recieved the goods without hickups....speek to a guy called John..he speaks english and will help you with whatever you need no problem..

big savings in money for quaility cutters...
will be shopping there now for my cutters....great service

cheers

Haydn