Tonsen - eBay ReadyToRun Mill

[mr_westie]

I am happy

About the smallest component I can hand solder.



Milled with a 60deg bit from T&T
http://www.precisebits.com/products/...oreengrave.asp

[Valisk]

Thanks very much for posting this info!

I take it that you agree with Ray - you would reccommend the Tonsen?

[mr_westie]

Definitely.

There is a small issue I have yet to deal with, spindle control.
At the moment I have to manually turn it on and off.
Probably something simple.

The limit of how small you can go will be the tools and materials you use.
The machine can work down to 4mil , 0.1mm, 0.004" easily as seen in my pics.

I am thinking of getting the 0.1mm router bits from T&T so board flatness is not so critical.
At that size they would feel pretty fragile so I had better get the feed rate right.
http://www.precisebits.com/products/...sebit-stub.asp


With all the info I have now I could have gotten it to this stage in 1 hour from unpacking it

[Dougal]

What are your impressions of the spindle and motor?
Would it make a worth addition to an X2 mill as a high-speed spindle?

Good to see some more kiwis here.

[mr_westie]

Hi Dougal, the set feels like a quality product

Definitly value for money.

[cpurious]

First, thanks for all the info everyone has posted, it makes it way easier for the rest of us.

I'm looking into getting a CNC to cut PCB's with, and so far the Tonsen has drawn my interest the most. I like the accuracy I'm seeing in the pictures and the price. I have a few questions:

How noisy is the drill motor? Is it still nosy and annoying in the next room? (I assume you got the 220V, some of the questions in the eBay auction say there is a 110V available, maybe slower and quieter?)

Why does the machines table in the pictures for the eBay auction only have 4 sections while mr_westie's pictures have many sections? The photos in rayellam hosted data show both styles. I guess I should ask the seller which he currently has.


If you get a chance, I wouldn't mind seeing more pictures of circuits with small SMD parts. Maybe a 603 pad? What you put up already is awesome though. Thanks!

[mr_westie]

Hi cpurious,
It's noisy but once you close the door it is fine.
High frequencies don't penetrate well.



The speed is adjustable.

Voltage shouldn't make a difference to top speed, motor is just wound for that voltage.

I have a 100w 35k rpm Ryobi multi tool I might try to use.
We don't really need 200w for PCBs and it's quieter.


Table, can't help there sorry.


I had some space on my current board so put in some test markers.
The 3 sets of pads under the C, R0402 - R0603 - R0805 in eagle.
My lower profile holders.
The novelty of the dust extractor will wear off soon after a few more boards.



As I said before, the limit of how small you can go will be the tools and materials you use.

Some more fine tuning in PCB-GCODE required.
The lower trace width limit is probably the thickness of the copper on the board.

I milled the left one first.
On the right one I fine tuned the height to just enough.
You can see the table is not completely flat


It's home on the garage

[Valisk]

Thanks for the updates! I think I'll be buying the Tonsen.

A quick question - what setup information is supplied with the machine?

[cpurious]

Awesome. Thanks for the response. I like the dust extractor too, I was thinking about something like that.

The 402 pad cuts are really impressive, those suckers are small.

I thought of another question, is the spindle motor's speed controlled through the control box or is it independent and built into the motor or something?

I asked the seller if I could spend less by not getting the control box. I've had previous experience building stepper motor controllers and could do that on my own if it's worth the money. I'll post the info when he replies.

I also asked him about the machines table layout. (4 sections or more)

[mr_westie]

Valisk,
the important stuff.
But if you are completely new to cnc like I was some things may not be obvious.
I will assemble a document if you guys like.
It is quite easy once you know how.
Info compiled by rayellam including the supplied doc.
http://www.island-instruments.com/stuff/TonsonCNC/


cpurious
Speed, via the box I am guessing? You can control it via MACH3.
I would get the control box as well so you have a running machine quickly.

Here are some pics of the box
-

[cpurious]

Ah, yea, it must use the control box if you can control it through MACH3. I will probably end up getting the box, unless there's a large price difference, which I doubt, if he even will sell the machine without the box.

Out of curiosity, how does the spindle motor attach to the control box? I see there's an outlet plug on the box, is that where the motor plugs in? If the control box has a transformer to output the motors 220V that would be nice, since I don't have access to 220V in my place right now. Or did you have to connect it to 220V yourself and there's just some control line from the box that adjust the motor speed?

[cpurious]

Also, the seller hasn't responded to my questions yet, but he did just update his page on eBay with more pictures of the unit that look like the ones mr_westie has posted. Though he didn't take the old different looking ones off the page... It looks like an updated version to me.

http://cgi.ebay.com/CNC-router-engra...d=p3911.c0.m14