Heavily CNC converted Opti BF 20 Vario


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Thread: Heavily CNC converted Opti BF 20 Vario

  1. #1
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    Default Heavily CNC converted Opti BF 20 Vario

    Hi,

    My first post. I'm a CNC machinist from Finland. At work I use VMC and as an hobby I have converted Opti BF 20 Vario to CNC with my friend Andy55.

    Andy55 has built our Geckodrive stepper electronics and take' s care of the
    computer things also. We use EMC2 control. I take care of the mechanics.
    Few pics of the current state of the project below. There's actually only
    column and base left from the original machine anymore...

    You can watch a short video of the machine on action from here:

    http://www.anderswallin.net/2007/07/...f20-in-action/

    Put enough volume, sounds are good!!!
    I will post more videos later. Rapids are painfully slow, put with small steppers
    it's better to have low acceleration/ top speed and have good reliability.
    I have stalled steppers too many times with higher rapids.
    DC servo's are coming...

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    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Heavily CNC converted Opti BF 20 Vario-1-jpg   Heavily CNC converted Opti BF 20 Vario-2-jpg   Heavily CNC converted Opti BF 20 Vario-4-jpg   Heavily CNC converted Opti BF 20 Vario-5-jpg  

    Heavily CNC converted Opti BF 20 Vario-6-jpg   Heavily CNC converted Opti BF 20 Vario-11-jpg   Heavily CNC converted Opti BF 20 Vario-22-jpg   Heavily CNC converted Opti BF 20 Vario-33-jpg  

    Heavily CNC converted Opti BF 20 Vario-44-jpg   Heavily CNC converted Opti BF 20 Vario-55-jpg  


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    Little bit of history about this project:

    This project started about five years ago and was simple low cost CNC project
    at the beginning. Only handwheel' s were replaced with stepper motors at the
    beginning and I made wooden bench for the machine. We were looking for a
    machine with 500 mm X- travel, but Opti BF20L, Grizzly G0519 or similar low cost machines were not available then and we could not afford Wabeco F1210 E.

    When you learn more about CNC machining and want to drive faster and faster, you have to start tuning your machine! First part to replace was standard 600W DC spindle motor since I run out of spindle power all the time. I burned couple control board fuses and finally when the spindle speed control board itself burned instead of fuses, change had to be done. Standard spindle motor was replaced with 0,75 kW three-phase induction motor and variable-frequency drive (VFD).

    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Heavily CNC converted Opti BF 20 Vario-mounted-jpg  


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    Whow! Hobby use?

    Nice!



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    JMI will post more pictures later, but there are some pics and text about our efforts on my blog:

    the stock DC motor on the mill gave up quite early, so we replaced it with a standard AC motor:
    http://www.anderswallin.net/2005/11/...duction-motor/
    http://www.anderswallin.net/2005/11/...ew-opti-motor/

    Then we thought the stock spindle and spindle bearings weren't that great either. So we got an MK3 spindle from littlemachineshop and built some bearing holders and a spindle box around that:
    http://www.anderswallin.net/2006/10/...opti-cnc-mill/
    http://www.anderswallin.net/2006/12/...dle-installed/
    It's belt driven with 1:1 ratio. Much quieter than the stock spindle.

    Finally, the X-axis travel was a bit short, so we made a new table, and while at it replaced the dovetail ways with linear ways and the trapezoidal leadscrews with ballscrews:
    http://www.anderswallin.net/2007/02/x-axis-progress/
    http://www.anderswallin.net/2007/04/opti-bf20-on-rails/


    hopefully we can show some videos with the DC servos soon. Maximum rapids should be much better than with the current steppers.



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    Quote Originally Posted by Brunow View Post
    Whow! Hobby use?
    Nice!
    Yes, for hobby use. This mill has been used a lot to make plugs, moulds and rig parts for IOM RC yachts.

    I'm also interested to see how good performance it is possible to get out of small mill like this with "little tuning".



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    Dudes, perkele!!!
    That's a freakin good looking machine. Oh lucky I am, having a VFD waiting to be mounted.



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    Here's few pictures about column and base machining.

    I had a chance to use VMC and machine the new T- slot table, drill and tap IKO rails M3 and ballscrews bearing housings M8 attachment threads to column and base at school where I did my CNC machinist vocational examination.

    When we disassembled column from base, there came a big surprise: at factory they had "trimmed" column attachment
    place with angle grinder! I machined that straight at school.

    Column and base were first attached dovetail ways downwards against parallels, and attachment surfaces for
    drilling and tapping operation were facemilled.

    I could use the VMC only four days for this project, so it was not possible to do all parts needed to get the new table and IKO rails in use. After I had drilled and tapped the column and base, I took them back to my workshop and assembled Opti to original configuration. Then I machined ballscrews bearing housings, XY axis saddle plates etc. during weekends.

    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Heavily CNC converted Opti BF 20 Vario-555-jpg   Heavily CNC converted Opti BF 20 Vario-111-jpg   Heavily CNC converted Opti BF 20 Vario-222-jpg   Heavily CNC converted Opti BF 20 Vario-333-jpg  

    Heavily CNC converted Opti BF 20 Vario-444-jpg   Heavily CNC converted Opti BF 20 Vario-1111-jpg   Heavily CNC converted Opti BF 20 Vario-2222-jpg   Heavily CNC converted Opti BF 20 Vario-3333-jpg  

    Heavily CNC converted Opti BF 20 Vario-4444-jpg   Heavily CNC converted Opti BF 20 Vario-5555-jpg   Heavily CNC converted Opti BF 20 Vario-p8170025-jpg   Heavily CNC converted Opti BF 20 Vario-p8170032-jpg  

    Heavily CNC converted Opti BF 20 Vario-screw-jpg   Heavily CNC converted Opti BF 20 Vario-servo-jpg   Heavily CNC converted Opti BF 20 Vario-table-jpg  


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    Next tuning part for the mill was new spindle:

    MT3 spindle itself is from littlemachineshop:
    http://www.littlemachineshop.com/pro...2027&category=

    25 mm aluminium plates holding the bearings are machined with opti. I would have wanted to make those from steel as well as ballscrews bearing housings, but that was just too tough steel milling project for Opti at original configuration. It would have been possible with small cutters like 6 mm end mill, but it would have take so long time that I decided to use aluminium and bigger cutters.

    There is 1:1 AT5 Belt drive. Bearings are FAG standard accuracy
    angular contact bearings. Spindle radial runout is around 0.015 mm.

    Yesterday 0.75 kW spindle motor was replaced with 1,5 kW motor.
    It's the biggest motor that will fit in this spindle housing. Omron Varispeed V7 Vector VFD was also purchased about a week ago. With VFD we have used RPM' s up to 5000. Three-phase induction motor torgue start's to drop pretty
    much after 3000 rpm/ 50 Hz, but at 5000 rpm there's still enough torgue to do light finish milling or drilling with small drills.

    First tests showed that there's pretty much increase in torque and power with 1,5 kW motor:

    I can now take 1,5 mm deep cut in aluminium with 40 mm face mill (40 mm wide cut) and it goes very well with 1200 mm/ min feed. RPM was 3000. That cut take's about 55% spindle power. 2 mm deep cut goes somehow with 900 mm/ min feed, but it doesn' t sound good anymore and machine doesn' t like it.

    I would be interested to know how big cuts and what kind of feedrates it is possible to use in aluminium with with bigger mills like Grizzly G0519,
    OPTI F 45 or Enco SQ COL MILL/DRILL???

    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Heavily CNC converted Opti BF 20 Vario-p3100020-jpg   Heavily CNC converted Opti BF 20 Vario-p3100021-jpg  


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    JMI80, are you A. Wallin at the EMC mailing list?
    Hmm... I just checked your website, yes you are Mr. Wallin.



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    Quote Originally Posted by svenakela View Post
    JMI80, are you A. Wallin at the EMC mailing list?
    Hmm... I just checked your website, yes you are Mr. Wallin.
    that would be me...

    so now the question is who are you really? 'Lernaean Hydra", "anonimasu", "jymm" ?



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    Wow - that is a great 'conversion', or should I say rebuild!

    I am realy envyous of your enclosure though - it's lovely

    Is that cutting video with your 0.75kw or 1.5kw motor - you can really hear it bogging down as the cut begins, but it sounds completely chatter free to me



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    Quote Originally Posted by andy55 View Post
    that would be me...

    so now the question is who are you really? 'Lernaean Hydra", "anonimasu", "jymm" ?
    Nope, just Sven. But it was a looong time since I posted. I'm mostly reading.



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    Quote Originally Posted by JMI80 View Post
    I can now take 1,5 mm deep cut in aluminium with 40 mm face mill (40 mm wide cut) and it goes very well with 1200 mm/ min feed. RPM was 3000.
    That's an extremely impressive removal rate for a machine of that size, in my opinion. Machine sounds very comfortable in the video, too. Nice work! There is no way my X2 would do that without a huge amount of chatter, if at all.



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    Quote Originally Posted by digits View Post
    Wow - that is a great 'conversion', or should I say rebuild!

    I am realy envyous of your enclosure though - it's lovely

    Is that cutting video with your 0.75kw or 1.5kw motor - you can really hear it bogging down as the cut begins, but it sounds completely chatter free to me
    Hi,

    I can strongly recommend to everyone to do the enclosure if you are going
    to CNC convert a mill or lathe! About five years ago we had absolutely
    no idea how much chips and coolant there will be splashing around
    and we learned it through the hard way...Efficient coolant system is
    also a must.

    That cutting video was shoot with 0.75 kW motor.
    Motor almost stall when cut begins and lower feed rate
    would have been good idea when cutter goes into material,
    but idea of that video was to show what it sounds and looks like
    when small mill and 0,75 kW motor is pushed to the limit!
    Yes, that cut is chatter free.

    I have now shoot few videos more with 1,5 kW motor.
    I will have to transfer those to computer and upload to You Tube or to Google video, and I will post link here when those are ready to watch.



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    Default Machining videos

    Hi all,

    I shot few videos while machining those parts at the pictures below.

    First phase roughing video link is:



    This video was shot after new 1,5 kW spindle motor
    was installed. Face mill feed rate is 1200 mm/ min
    and deph of cut is 1 mm. Two last cuts with face mill
    are 2,5 mm deep and feed is 700 mm/ min.

    8 mm 4 flute roughing HSS end mill takes 5 mm deep
    cuts, and programmed feed rate is 600 mm/ min.
    I set steppers acceleration pretty low to improve
    reliability. Machine is not now pushed so close
    to it's spindle power limits as it was in that first
    video at google video server. I didn't want
    take risk of steppers to lose steps when I'm shooting videos.

    First phase finish operations are at:


    Second phase drilling operations are at:

    There is 5000 RPM and 600 mm/min feed.
    Second and third phase videos were shot
    when 0,75 kW spindle motor was in use.

    And finally third phase videos:


    Parts attachment at this phase is not very sturdy,
    so it's good idea to use little lower feed rates
    with face mill. It would have been possible to
    make jig/ fixture for the parts and get better
    attachment for face milling, but it seemed
    to work out like this so I decided to not
    bother to make a fixture.

    5 mm end mill makes 5,8 mm hole
    for the reamer since that needed to be flat bottom hole.
    5.99 mm reamer makes H7 tolerance hole for small
    6 mm stainless steel bearing.

    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Heavily CNC converted Opti BF 20 Vario-p3120011-jpg   Heavily CNC converted Opti BF 20 Vario-p3120004-jpg   Heavily CNC converted Opti BF 20 Vario-060707_1-jpg  


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    I only just saw this post - nice videos and great looking parts. What are they though - they look a bit like individual turbine blades?



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    Quote Originally Posted by digits View Post
    I only just saw this post - nice videos and great looking parts. What are they though - they look a bit like individual turbine blades?
    Hi,

    Those are IOM RC yacht ball-raced gooseneck bearing housing parts.

    Prototype 2 looked like this:
    http://www.anderswallin.net/2007/05/...k-prototype-2/

    And this third version idea was to make parts which will
    fit to different mast diameter's from 10.9 to 12.7 mm.



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    Great Machine!

    Top Notch.

    I am quickly learning your advise about the requirements of good enclosure.



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    Hi everyone,

    some serious re-building of the machine has just happened and we have installed DC Servo motors which are direct coupled to the 2.5mm/rev ballscrews. There are a couple of blog posts and a couple of videos out there for you guys to look at:

    first test with servo-driven X-axis:
    http://www.anderswallin.net/2008/04/x-axis-test/

    first cut with a 40mm face mill:
    http://www.anderswallin.net/2008/04/...th-servo-mill/

    first serious job, a steel keel bulb for a model yacht:
    http://www.anderswallin.net/2008/05/bulbs-of-steel/

    more steel milling videos:
    http://www.anderswallin.net/2008/05/...illing-videos/

    The machine also now has a home-built jog-pendant:
    http://www.anderswallin.net/2006/11/jogging-emc2/

    Next we hope to install a spindle encoder which will enable rigid tapping. Any questions on the EMC2 / m5i20 control electronics or on the mechanics of the machine just ask and I will try to answer.

    Next we'd like to build a lathe from scratch but I'm not sure when we'll have time for that...

    have fun,

    Anders



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    I should add that the rapid feedrate is now set to 5000 mm/min. That's around 197 IPM for those of you who like to divide everything by 25.4



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