OmioCNC report

[Mmpie]

Great news lomax, glad you're happy with it.

The tool height sensor thing is easy: first go into offsets in Mach 3 and set your offset to the correct height, fix it down, plug it in, move your spindle over it and press auto z height.

Try to use the same part of the probe to zero off, I use the edge of it, neither the top or bottom of mine is flat (there's about 0.07mm variance on it) and if it's not fixed down or held down flat the wire pulls it up in the air slightly - if that makes sense.

I use mine fixed to the spoilboard at Y0 X max and set the height relative to the stock, it makes tool changing real quick and easy.


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[Arc-Light]

Finally received the X4-800L today, and I'm happy to report that it arrived unscathed and seemingly well assembled! After checking the frame carefully for loose bolts, obvious misalignments, and other oddities, I moved it to its dedicated place and proceeded to mount the steppers and the spindle. The only issue I encountered was that one of the M5 hex bolts for mounting the steppers was missing, and remained so even after searching through the packaging materials. Just a minor nuisance since 10x M5 50mm high-tensile bolts only cost a couple of quid. Everything is now plugged in and the machine is ready to go - I've made some dummy runs using demo G-Code files, first without the spindle installed, then with it mounted at a height where the tip of the tool won't touch the table even at min Z. I've checked the steps/unit adjustment and found it to be bang on for both X and Y (at least to within 0.2mm or so over the full run), but I haven't checked it on Z yet. Spindle sounds like it's running smoothly, nothing gets hot or makes any weird noises, and all axes are very easy to turn by hand (when the controller is powered off) - in fact the X and the Y are so easy to turn I could do it by grabbing the end of the ballscrews with my fingers (before the steppers were attached). There is no flex at all anywhere, in any direction, and the ballscrews appear perfectly straight while spinning. I think I'm good to go for a first cut - in something soft. Just need to mount a spoilboard, and figure out how to use the tool height sensor thing.

P.S. My initial impression is that it's a very solid machine. Everything seems quite beefy and reassuringly rigid - even the connectors and other hardware is of decent quality.

Fantastic Lomax! I too purchased the X4-800L. I've had mine now for a year and have absolutely loved it! It's a great little machine! Enjoy!

[RCaffin]

Can i make a very simple suggestion?
Before you put a real live (hard and sharp) milling cutter in the spindle, put a little thin soft plastic rod in. Then run your test programs.
If you (or me) have made a mistake, you get to break a bit of plastic and nothing else.
1/8" PVC welding rod is so cheap.

Cheers
Roger

[dharmic]

"Agreed" says the man who only yesterday was ducking as bits of a cutter flew out into the wild after it ploughed into a step clamp. Stupid MDI operator :-/

[Arc-Light]

I also like to set my X,Y,Z zeros then regen the view in Mach 3. Next I jog around my work piece watching the Mach 3 screen and keeping an eye on my work piece to see the outer limits of where my cut will be on the work piece. This allows me to see if my cutter will hit any clamps or run off my work piece. This has saved me cutters especially now that my wife is creating jewellery pieces for me to cut out for her.

[zeeflyboy]

So much win!

Glad it was that easy in the end, Mmpie. Shouldnae have had to do owt at all but, if there was a fault, nice to have an easy-ish fix. Plus I get to say to zeeflyboy "nyer nyer, told ya so"

You know that about 12 seconds after you've installed the bearing, Lance will reply to your email - right?

Hahah, fine - I owe you a beer!

Just glad he's got the issue sorted!

[Lomax1]

Thanks guys, some good suggestions there! I like the idea of a plastic "tool" for a dry run - just to see if I would crash into the spoil board or its fittings. Obviously this needs to be done without the spindle running I now have a spoil board installed - a bit small perhaps, but that was the MDF I had to hand, and I wanted it to be short on the Y axis so I can slide it out without undoing the screws completely (there's a cabinet behind the Y). Will make larger ones later. Here it is with a piece of packaging foam stuck to the spoil board with double sided tape:



Got many questions, but top of my list right now is what coolant to run through the spindle? I've done some test runs with tap water in a bucket, but need to get a proper closed system set up. For this purpose I have bought a 6 litre plastic keg, with a wide enough mouth to fit the pump through, and a couple of Rectus quick release fittings for the hoses (the Rectus 21 series connectors are great - I use them for pneumatics as well). The plan is to fill this with 5 litres of coolant, screw the lid on and be able to forget about it for at least a year, without it turning into a horrid microbial sludge, or silently corroding away the lining of the spindle. Surprisingly, despite plenty of time spent researching this, a clear answer as to exactly what coolant to use remains elusive.

[NFC]

Got many questions, but top of my list right now is what coolant to run through the spindle? I've done some test runs with tap water in a bucket, but need to get a proper closed system set up. For this purpose I have bought a 6 litre plastic keg, with a wide enough mouth to fit the pump through, and a couple of Rectus quick release fittings for the hoses (the Rectus 21 series connectors are great - I use them for pneumatics as well). The plan is to fill this with 5 litres of coolant, screw the lid on and be able to forget about it for at least a year, without it turning into a horrid microbial sludge, or silently corroding away the lining of the spindle. Surprisingly, despite plenty of time spent researching this, a clear answer as to exactly what coolant to use remains elusive.

YAY! I can help with something. I know next to nothing (other than what I am trying to piece together from this amazing forum thread) about CNC stuff, but industrial liquid cooling is my jam.

There are many aspects to getting this flavor of liquid cooling right, but as a basic start:


For coolant you have two good choices.




1. A _CLEAR_ industrial coolant like Koolance's LIQ-702. You want clear for this as dyes separate over time and can cause gumming (702 doesn't break down easy, but still no point risking it). Secondly the color and clarity of your coolant lets you know what is going on and it is hard to diagnose if it isn't clear. I run dyes for stuff I know I will change often.


ADVANTAGE:


Corrosion inhibition! Some lubrication properties for your pump. Strong anti-microbial.


DISADVANTAGE:


Expensive. Can foam if you don't get your pump speed right. Does not perform as well as water (though for CNC application is is overkill already).


2. DISTILLED water + a biocide like PTNUKE.




ADVANTAGES:


Cheap! Good anti-microbial. No risk of fluid separation. Foaming minimum. Best performance (but doesn't matter for CNC application)


DISADVANTAGES:


No corrosion inhibition (who knows how many metals are inside these spindles), lasts much shorter before needing a fluid exchange (6-8 months as opposed to 1.5-3 years).




---------------------------------------------------


Finally, I recommend fabbing a reservoir or simply buying a pump+reservoir combo or a more expensive radiator+reservoir combo for PC liquid cooling. You really want to keep your fluid from outside contaminents, and this will also let you run less fluid (important if you are going with an industrial coolant).


There are dozens of manufacturers but I do recommend Koolance. They have really nice fittings which you can use to convert the 1/4" tubing these spindles use G1/4 BSPP which is the dominant standard in the PC liquid cooling industry. The part number is FIT-V06X10.


If you have any specific question, please ask! I liquid cool stuff on a weekly basis.

[aarggh]

Got many questions, but top of my list right now is what coolant to run through the spindle? I've done some test runs with tap water in a bucket, but need to get a proper closed system set up. For this purpose I have bought a 6 litre plastic keg, with a wide enough mouth to fit the pump through, and a couple of Rectus quick release fittings for the hoses (the Rectus 21 series connectors are great - I use them for pneumatics as well). The plan is to fill this with 5 litres of coolant, screw the lid on and be able to forget about it for at least a year, without it turning into a horrid microbial sludge, or silently corroding away the lining of the spindle. Surprisingly, despite plenty of time spent researching this, a clear answer as to exactly what coolant to use remains elusive.

This part is almost always overthought and seems to needlessly worry people when setting up a CNC.

A non-see through, good sealing lidded tub of any sort and size, and at least 6 litres of plain undiluted good quality car radiator coolant, a submerged pump, and a dark and contaminant free spot for it all is all you'll need to run for many years trouble free and with no bloom or crap growing. No fans or radiator required!

The trick is always to keep it from being exposed to light to help stop much growing, and keep it sealed so no contaminants or dust gets in. My sealed tub of coolant (with a submerged pump) sits on the ground at the rear of my machine, and I keep a thick bath towel over the top just to completely stop any dust from possibly entering it. It's been running like this for around 6 or so years I think, and each year or so I check it and it's still like new!

My machine can run for 8-12 hours continuously on fairly intricate 3D machining with very small diameter cutters, and the spindle never, ever goes much above warm, even in the warm summers we have here in OZ!

cheers, Ian

[RCaffin]

good quality car radiator coolant, a submerged pump, and a dark and contaminant free spot
Sounds just like a car radiator ...
OK, good idea. I am thinking about it.

even in the warm summers we have here in OZ!
For non-Australians: there is a bit of a tendency here in Oz to 'understate' things at times. This can be confusing.
In this case, 'warm' can mean 45 C.

Cheers
Roger

[dharmic]

My coolant is standard automative radiator fluid. It's been in there a year or more now, still looks/smells/flows fine. There's ten litres of it in a bucket with the supplied pump sitting at the bottom, the return pipe draped across the top and an offcut bit of board across the top just to slow down the evaporation over time and stop the shed stinking of coolant.

Five hours into a run of aluminium cutting on a 39ºC day it's still happy as a clam (ie quite happy).

No need to overcomplicate it.

[cincron]

I used Zerex Asian vehicle formula, 50/50. I had about 3 quarts of it left after using 1 quart in my Subaru. I added about 2 quarts of water just to fill up my 5 gallon bucket enough so it was over the pump. The bucket has a top to it and I just drilled holes and used fittings from the local hardware store. It's pink fluid but I don't care, It seems to do the job. I don't ever smell anything until I pop the top to look at it.


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[Lomax1]

Thanks guys! Having looked at automotive coolants ("antifreeze") in my local Halfords and seen that the cost is not far off dedicated PC water cooling liquids, I decided to go for Mayhems' X1 pre-mixed, 5L @ £30 delivered. A somewhat unexpected additional expense - though I fully expect there will be more of these.

[aarggh]

5L @ £30 seems awful expensive unless you don't have much coolant choice there?

Seriously any half decent quality car radiator coolant that is designed to suit the majority of engines and radiators will be more than adequate.

I think I paid about $20 per 6L for the stuff I use, and has been in use for over 6 years now with no issues.

cheers, Ian

[zeeflyboy]

It does seem a tad excessive...

I ended up using that same stuff but mine is a small closed loop PC water cooling system so I used less than 1L of it.

If you were looking at going the anti-freeze route then this would have done the trick at less than half the cost https://www.amazon.co.uk/Silverhook-...rds=antifreeze


Do watch out that animals and children can't get any access to antifreeze though!

[Mmpie]

I know this isn't the thread for it but that's Halfrauds for you.

I once needed brake discs that my local motor factors didn't have in stock so I tried Halfords, they just rang the same motor factors (I heard them on the phone) and offered me the same discs with near 70% markup.

Never buy anything from halfrauds.

Edit: wasn't a clutch it was discs.

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[Lomax1]

5L @ £30 seems awful expensive unless you don't have much coolant choice there?

Seemed to be ~£20 for 5L in Halfords.

• Questionable compatibility w. aluminium.
• Questionable galvanic properties.
• Questionable toxicity.
• Questionable environmental impact.
• Questionable retailer.

[Lomax1]

This what I did for the coolant in the end:





I took a piece of 100mm dia pvc pipe, cut it so it's just the right length to fit inside the keg, cut wide slits down the length from the bottom end, so that the pump could be slid part way into the pipe and secured in place with cable ties. I changed the barb on the pump's output to a JG/Push-In connector and ran a length of nylon tubing to the output nipple on the lid - with a shorter length of tubing on the return. The PVC pipe was then glued to the underside of the lid, to form an extractable unit which spins with the lid when unscrewing it - this solves the problem of the tubing and mains cable becoming twisted when opening the keg - though you still need to disconnect the tubes running to the spindle (I used Rectus 21 quick connects for this) and unplug the mains cable. The five litres of coolant I purchased was the perfect amount for a 6L keg with the pump installed, leaving a gap of just a few centimetres.

[aarggh]

That's pretty in line with what most people seem to do and what works well. I would however strongly recommend a cloth or towel draped over the whole top of the keg, as in no time it will be covered with an increasingly dirty and fine dust that will be a real pain.

cheers, Ian

[Mmpie]

I'm eventually going to go PC cooling with radiator and what not, but only because space is an issue and the bucket is getting in the way.


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