What is it please?

[ImanCarrot]

I've got a lot of experience doing single point diamond turning, but little conventional CNC machining experience.

I have, however, found a lathe, turret mill and various other goodies in a machine shop to the rear of my lab... so (as any curious person would do) I play about, oops learn myself, with the Mill (the lathe has a bent leadscrew and so is useless)- I managed to program the mill and cut some nice bits of ally but want to get better.

Is there a forum for the beast I should be looking in please? Is it known as something else instead of what's written on it. Seems a shame it's not being used.

Info=
-Control Screen says "Pro Trak A.G.E 2" on it.
-Actual mill has "ACRO CHEER ENTERPRISES" on a brass plate to the side.
-Mill also has a big plate up the top with "XYZ1500" embossed on it.
-The things that turn the big XY handles also have "XYZ Machine Tools Limited Pro 1500". There seems to be no CNC control of the Z axis- you need to turn a big crank thing (that sometimes falls off) to move this.


Have done a forum search, but I suspect it may be called something else?

I'm exporting ACAD files to Dolphin CAM then transferring it to the control thingy by floppy- seems to do what I want (after breaking a few end mills). I post process with an M_MX2 option if that means anything.

Any advice greatly appreciated. Many thanks in advance!

Iain.

[tpres500]

http://www.xyzmachinetools.com/

Tracy

[ImanCarrot]

Thanks TPres! I know how to drive the machine, but I don't know what it's called so dun know what forum to trawl, so that helps. Two of them look like my machine, although mines has long black boxes- about 1.5 foot by 6 inches long/ wide on the X and Y axis-= I supose it might have been retrofitted.

Thanks again.

[FranH]

Machinist 101

The long 3/4 inch hex to tighten the end mill is the 'drawbar' squeezing a 'r8' collet. The thing that falls is the handle to raise/lower the 'quill'.

The short handle above and behind the handle....disengage and rotate down 20 degrees puts the head in neutral......continue down and toward the rear puts you in 'backgears'.....to machine you need to run the motor in reverse BE SURE THE MOTOR IS STOPPED when engaging / disengaging back gears.

google 'ME Consultant'........good program to get you in the ballpark for speeds and feeds.

I have a MX2 ....about the same readout for the z (quill), x and y...xy under power.

Southwestern Industries is the mfr.

Most popular retro here in the northeast.

You should have lots of fun.

Let me know if I can help..........

Fran H

[ImanCarrot]

Cheers for the info! the hex bolt thing at the top on the machine I got sussed! you loosen it and the whole thing that holds your end mill 3 feet below falls out and hits your nicely machined part, snaps the 2mm end mill and ends up in the coolant tray lmao. Oh well, prevents rust I spose

I sussed this when trying to put a big circular thing in there, like about 3" diameter with 4 big chunky looking teeth in it- but it didn't seem to cut too well so I went back to a 1/2" end mill, but I think I've blunted that though and am a bit scared to sharpen it on the angle grinder cos whatever I seem to grind gets bloody hot dead quick (dun want to wear gloves in case it grabs them).

Found a good use for the big handle thing that falls off- you can batter the spanner that tightens the hex thing on top to make sure it's tight with it- nice of them to think of that lol, you don't need to stand on the edge of the coolant tray to tighten it!

I am not even considering messing about with the other handles n levers n stuff yet... not till I check my medical insurance hehe.

I need to read up on fixturing though, cos my double sided tape seemed to disolve in WD40 and the part fell off and would have shot across the shop if I hadn't heard something wrong and kicked the E-Stop (which is falling off- need to fix that too).

Hours of fun and lots of chips! weeeee!

Iain.

[slideleft]

Iain,
As it happens I am also a Diamond Turning machinist (microstructure research with 3M). There aren't too many of us. I am trying to get back to my machinist roots, CNC and manual, after becoming VERY specialized over the last 12 years. I bought a Benchman 4000 mill that I intend to make jewelry on, but have found it can be hard to do work after a full day of doing work. I'm going little by little using Mechanical Desktop into BobCAD for NC code.
Where do you do your diamond turning?
Jeff

[CNCEDMDUDE]

Sounds To Me Like You Really Should Check Your Medical Insurance.
You Are Acting Like A Dope Around This Mill. I Suggest You Stop Treating This Mill Like A Toy Before You Hurt Yourself, And Maybe Someone Else. Honestly, Learn More About This Machine With The Power Turned Off.

[ImanCarrot]

Ahh I'm only having a laugh. I take safety extremely seriously- apologies if I gave the wrong impression.

The first time I powered this beast up I'd spent a week reading the manual, racked the speed right down, and used a big inky pen as a tool instead of those sharp things. The material I was "cutting" was cardboard in case anything went wrong, I had guards all over the place, hand hovering over the E-Stop. I wore short sleeves, safety glasses, no jewelry etc. I even took off my watch and placed big notices on all entrances to the shop- "Caution: Machining in Progress". I cut air for the first hour to make sure I understood what it was doing, it's not that difficult if you know how to program and I DO know that. Feeds and speeds still give me trouble- the books just seem wrong so I cut at minimum depth, feed and high spindle speed and racked the depth and feed up until it sounded wrong then backed off a bit.

It had been a long day and I was just happy at the progress I'd made actualy cutting metal. It was, perhaps, an innapropriate post.


Jeff- Another Diamong Machinst? *blink blink* seriously!? wow! you're the only one apart from me that I've seen on these boards! I thought we were extinct! Very nice to meet you!

Like you, I've become very specialised in optics and single point diamond turning over the past *counts his fingers* 20 plus years- we've only got a small facility here and I'm the only person who does it so it gets a bit lonely.

I'm using the conventional CNC stuff (like you) as a learning experience after doing a lonnnng day's diamond machining

What diamond turning machine you using? what do you measure with? do you get the same problems over there with designers not having a clue about the aspheric formula and sticking minuses where positives should be? lol

Sorry for all the questions! don't get to meet too many people in our field