New Mill New User

[impact]

I am native to drafting, but have almost no expierience machining what so ever. I have just bough a new Taig mill off of ebay and it has arrived at my house. I thought the best way to go through the learning process was to actually do it. Unfortunatly the mill came with ziltch for documentation. I have taken everything out of the boxes and inventoried everything and heres what I have. Keep in mind I have touched nothing assume I know nothing. Please help me out the best you can, I would really appreciate anything anyone wishes to contribute. Please forgive my lack of vocabulary I will describe things the best I can. Please direct me to anywhere, where I can pick up some basic knowledge.

Heres what I got.

Table - Everything bolted together ways slide smoothly and are tight, everything is oiled up
Head - Affixes to the back of the table with a big bolt. Ways tight and oiled. Rails where the headstock attaches are loose, headstock is clamped on. (I believe this is the stock taig spindle I have another ER16 spindle witch I want to use for the common collets, the pulleys are already on the stock taig headstock...)
Steppers - 1 270oz and 2 160oz
Motor - 1/4hp Pulley pressed on
Lead Screw Collars
Nylon Tubes
Motor Flange

I have mounted the stepper motors according to the documentation I have (three sheets of paper) and bolted on the head (not alligned or anything) Just generally sort of put everything together.

Some general questions I have are...
-Limit switchs, I am pretty sure I dont have any?
-I installed and ran mach3 with the driver attached to the laptop and there was ALOT of interference? Are laptops good at all for running mills? I have a desktop I can use but I am just wondering.
-I want to run coolant on my mill, how can I set it up so coolant doesn't go where I dont want it to? (steppers, lead screws...)
-I want to be able to run my mill for long periods of time without monitoring it

Topics I know A little about.
-Tramming

Thanks for reading I hope some one can help me.

[impact]

I found some great refrences for "tramming" my mill on www.industrialhobbies.com

[phil burman]

Try this web site. Also try Googling Taig. There’s an awful lot out there.

http://www.cartertools.com/

Phil

[cartertool]

I have the following article that may be of use:

Setting up the Taig Mill
Taig Mill CNC mounts
Adjusting backlash on the CNC mill nuts

Best thing is to get on the taigtools yahoogroup and ask questions there.

[impact]

For some reason I cannot access the Yahoo Group.

How can I go about removing the pulley from the taig spindle?

[cartertool]

For some reason the URL got mangled it should be:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/taigtools/

As for taking the pulley off, remove the setscrew.
Then heat the pulley with a heat gun or torch until relatively warm, to expand it, and it should come off. Take care not to get the bearings hot (which is why I prefer a heat gun, rather than a torch)

[cartertool]

Originally Posted by cartertool For some reason the URL got mangled it should be: http://groupyahoo.com/group/taigtools/

Jeepers, even when I just type it into the forum it gets mangled (passive agressive forum software that's jealous of ***********?)

The software substitited the asterisks for y a h o o g r o u p s...weird...works when I space between every letter....

h t t p : / / g r o u p s . y a h o o . c o m / g r o u p / t a i g t o o l s /

[impact]

I am getting some wierd vibration in my z axis when I get up near the top of my travel... The motors are all perfectly tuned. Any ideas?

[cartertool]

Originally Posted by impact I am getting some wierd vibration in my z axis when I get up near the top of my travel... The motors are all perfectly tuned. Any ideas?

Well, at the top of the travel the force on the column is maximized, so that could be part of it (long lever arm with vibration at the end would vibrate more than if the vibration is halfway up), could be the unsupported end of the leadscrew whipping, could be stick-slip as the slide encounters an area with less wear (thus thicker so slide clearances decrease) than lower down.

What speeds in ipm are you moving the z-axis at?

[impact]

I haven't calculated the the steps per inch yet. By the way thanks for the help. . Anywhere I can find out how to do that?

[cartertool]

Originally Posted by impact I haven't calculated the the steps per inch yet. By the way thanks for the help. . Anywhere I can find out how to do that?

Well, it depends on how many steps per one revolution your system produces. Each turn of the screw moves the axis .050" (20 tpi leadscrews), so for the stock Taig CNC system, which gives 400 steps per rev, you get .000125" per step, and 8000 steps per inch...I think....but that's outside my limited sphere of experience...

[impact]

Tell me if you think I got this right...

20 tpi, 360° per thread, 7200° per inch, 1.8° per step (taken of the label of my deepgrove 270oz stepper...), equals 4000 steps per inch?

Can I install limit switches?

If I want to run coolant do I need to shield the ways, steppers, and lead screws?

Can I pump coolant with any sort of pump?