Hey Ozzie,
The only time the DRO shows a variation with Mach 3 is when the stepper
bogs down and loses steps like when I force the Z to drill a .5 in drill bit in steel.
The DRO shows what it actually moved. I hope a new bigger Z stepper will fix that.
The digital calipers or scales would have to be encased with silicone RTV to keep them completely dry, I might try that too. Then I would consider a
coolant system.
Hoss
Sell those steppers on Ebay and go with servos. Believe me you will be soooooo happy. With servos, it's nearly impossible to lose steps. It might even be possible to feed your DRO signals to Geckos rather than using the usual rotary encoders. That would be a hot setup.
Ozzie
yeah servos would be sweeeeet.
Maybe someday.
Hoss
Got my eye on this from Keling for my Z Axis.
NEMA 23 BIPOLAR STEPPER MOTOR 425 oz-in, 1/4” Diameter shaft with a flat
KL23H286-20-8B (Dual Shaft) Specification Price: $54
Hoss
Made a couple test pieces with the Lathe attachment.
The fancy one is from Cad2Lathe.
Hoss
I really love your lathe setup - I had planned to do exactly the same thing on my new machine, but I hadn't a clue if it'd work at all! Thanks for pioneering it for us all
Yeah, I was looking for a little Sherline or Taig lathe headstock but couldn't find any cheap on Ebay. Little Machine Shop sells the 7x10 headstock for $100. Still would need the Motor$120 and electronics
$110.
You can almost buy the whole lathe for the same price.
Glad I was planning on overhauling the one I had and had the spare parts.
Hoss
Yep, I bought that headstock and a cross-slide. I am planning to use a servo motor to drive it so that I can have a go at screw cutting.
For me, it's more a question of space than cost of the lathe bits, but I couldn't have afforded to CNC both a lathe and my new mill, so, like you, I was planning to share the CNC'ed X and Z of my mill with the lathe head
Here's the first test video of the lathe attachment.
I manually cut the part by jogging the axis'.
It's small, 3.6 Megs 1:27.
Hoss
http://www.hossmachine.com
Watch the Videos here on Youtube.com.
Hoss
http://www.hossmachine.com
Last edited by hoss2006; 05-06-2007 at 08:07 AM.
Made a bracket to support the rear of the column just like skmetal7 did.
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36403
Really noticed a difference in the stiffness of the column afterwards.
Once I saw his bracket, it was a must do. All the weight of the head is supported by the column bolted to the cast iron angle bracket but only on one side. This fixes that problem.
Nearly finished with the counter balance. Found I still had a timing chain and sprocket from an old motorcycle engine in box from 16 years ago, and my ex
called me a packrat. See I new it would come in handy someday.
Still have to finish welding up a bunch of rebar pieces for the weight, couldn't
bring myself to waste perfectly good stock on it.
Should be operational soon.
Later Hoss
that looks really good. i have put a counter balance on my mill to, but mine hangs from the celing. i use a ~15lb paint can full of large bolts, haha. the only thing i could find. its a 2:1 pulley arrangement so instead of 30 lbs of counter weight i only need 15. this works better than the gas shock because they have a damper when they extend and it would slow down the stepper when raising the head, and it would be in the way of the z axis stepper mount.
oh and i think u should seriously look into getting a belt drive kit for your mill, it is soooooooo much better that thoes gears!! http://www.littlemachineshop.com/pro...ory=1687114045
Found a great Links page for just about everything related to converting a mill to cnc.
Check it out.
http://www.computersculpture.com/Pages/Index_Links.html
Later Hoss
Looking to upgrade my motors and was wondering what size ballast resistors to get.
Found this calculator to make it easy to figure out.
Get the Stepper Resistor Calculator at Eftech.
Later Hoss
Quick question?
Hoss,
I got the parts you made for me, thank you.
Quick question, on your X and Y axis you are using pretty standard Ball Screws and nuts. What kind of back lash are you getting from your set up?
Thanks
Smitty
yeah i was wondering the same what kind of precision, repetability of the axis in its full travel
about .001 -.002 backlash on the x and y in 4.0 in. travel
rip danielle
I've been asked about controlling the spindle on/off through mach 3 before and
I found this board that looks like it will do the job pretty easily.
CNC PLASMA ROUTER RELAY CONTROL4 STEPPER MOTOR SYSTEMS
at http://stores.ebay.com/HUBBARD-CNC-INC
It still won't solve the problem of having to reset the speed control back to zero before it comes back on again but it will certainly turn it on then off after a first run. Shouldn't be much of a hassle anyway unless you have a tool changer, ha.
later Hoss
Originally Posted by hoss2006
You have so many cool addons on your mill Hoss, I can't believe you don't want a toolchanger!
I picked up a 2kW DC motor controller on eBay a while back - I plan to get motor speed and start/stop under computer control. I have a couple of High-Tech Systems quick-changers that I plan to turn in to an ATC, but even doing tool changes by hand, I find it rather frustrating to have to reset the speed knob to zero, and then try to guess what to set it to for the next tool. Having found the correct RPM for chatter free use of each of my tools by trial and error, I want to be able to just file that away in my CAM software and have the computer remember it every time I install that tool.
Cheers.
Have you seen this guys plans for a tool changer?
Looks pretty nice and should fit an X2.
http://home.insightbb.com/~joevicar3...nger_Plans.htm
You could keep an eye on this site from campbell design.
They have a new spindle speed board for Mach2/3 in the works.
In the process of updating my steppers and controller right now so the mill is down. Want more torque and speed along with 4th axis control.
Hoss
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