Lathemaster/Industrial Hobbies CNC Retrofit Complete!

[MetDetect]

It's done!!! If I drank beer I guess it would be miller time, well maybe I'll just go metal detecting instead. Man-o-man what a project. I resolved the last issues tonight and she's running SMOOOOOOTH, can't wait to start cutting parts on this beast now.

Here you see the low voltage (relatively speaking) enclosure, a cheap household service panel from Lowes packed with the gecko's and only 10 cables coming in from the bottom. Lots of wires but if taken a step at a time its not bad.

[MetDetect]

Here's the high voltage enclosure, a nice $100 nema with a couple fans. 220 and 110 vac coming into this box, 220 leaving to the mill motor. Couple relays, couple power supplies, big red panic button, the usual. Not being anything near an electrcian I cleared a path to run before throwing the 220 on.

[MetDetect]

Here's a wider shot of the electronic side.

http://www.coilbuilders.com/pics/mill3.jpg

[MetDetect]

Here's the source of considerable frustration. After reading about problems some people have had with their PC's I shelled out for a brand new unit, very standard boring parts, Intel motherboard, Intel cpu, I figured I'd keep it simple and avoid any issues with some of the more colorful motherboards out there have. Yeah that worked real well, the parallel port on this motherboard turned out to be a nightmare, 5 vdc on pin 13, one of the input pins I needed to use for the limit switches and as I found out tonight, it was giving the z axis stepper motor fits, it pretty much didn't work at all. So tonight I dumped in a 10 cent cheap china parallel port card and presto all the weird stuff vanished and whoa all 250 pounds of z axis is moving up/down quite nicely. My limit switches work now also.

Tech note, thats a 4 pin Mic plug out the back taking 5vdc and 12vdc to the enclosures. A bunch of stuff uses 5vdc, I'm running the big enclosure fans on the 12vdc feed.

http://www.coilbuilders.com/pics/mill4.jpg

[MetDetect]

All the electrical buttoned up and running.

http://www.coilbuilders.com/pics/mill6.jpg

[MetDetect]

Here's a side view of the mill, with that 3 inch spacer out front I have nearly 10 inches of Y cross travel. Thats my cool green power on light upper right on the electrical enclosure, I thought at the time its probably a waste of money (only about $14) but now I think its a good safety feature.

[MetDetect]

Here's another view. Gone are the cheap china on/off and forward/reverse switches which were only rated for 110. I took the wire cutters to that mess and replaced them with industrial grade switches from Grainger and rewired the mill for 220vac. Thanks again to Industrial Hobbies for helping me figure out the china wiring diagram, thats probably why it didn't catch fire when I threw the switch!

[MetDetect]

Finally some comments...what a project whew!!! I'm taking a break now and do some serious metal detecting I think. In the end I have an awesome new tool to use in my coil building hobby and I'm thinking about machining some waterproof enclosures. In fact I'm thinking about quite a number of uses that were not practical without a cnc machine. I might also mount a 25k rpm router on this beast in the near future.

It was a lot of work and frustration but in the end it was worth it. I can't even imagine how you guys scratch build these things, my hats off to you. Thanks again to Lathemaster and especially Industrial Hobbies for coming out on site and giving this thing a swift kick.

If you are on the fence on maybe buying the Industrial Hobbies kit, my honest assessment is you will not be disappointed once its tuned and running properly, watching this thing move is something you just have to experience to appreciate, its awesome! Will it be an easy project? I might be, its certainly possible. My advice is hope for the best but plan for the worst because it could be a royal PITA as mine was. Variances in the mill IH hadn't seen before (he took lots of pics so I think he's going to make some adjustments for lathemaster retros), completely whacked out parallel port on a brand new pc, hey thats the way it goes sometimes. Plans are nothing, planning is everything. Hey look at it this way, I already flushed out every possible problem so the next guy should have smooth sailing!

Next up - Learning OneCNC

[marvinstov]

MetDetect,
That is one of the nices conversions I have seen. I am planning on doing one myself in the future (using IH and Lathemaster) as soon as I get through playing with the other CNC stuff I already have. Yours is just fantastic, a real example of what the rest of us should be aiming for. I'm sure it will be an inspiration to many old hat guys and newcomers.

Marv

[foamcutter]

Metdetect,
Excellant, Very Nice job! Just think of the fun you will have showing your buddies. Many happy chips to you! Ron

[Klox]

MetDetect,
You have accomplished a daunting task! It's well excecuted and oh so neat! May you have many happy hours of playing with this new toy! LOL!
I hope you will enjoy learning OneCNC! I look forward to see some stuff made on this machine of yours.....

Klox

[IndHobby]

Amateur Telescope Makers note the day and time when their scope sees “first light” and quite often they have a star already picked out for the occasion.

Since this too is a milestone occasion maybe home CNC’ers should note the day, time, first project and put it on a small plaque on the side of the mill.

Maybe the first project can be the plaque