tool wear indicater

[Vern Smith]

My new TM-1P has load indicators on the spindle and feed servos, a luxury I never had with my old hand crankers. Can these be used to track the condition of a tool?

Let say you ran a simple test with a new EM at a set axial and radial depth and set speed and feed recording the load numbers. Somewhere down the road you run the same test all setting the same (same piece of test stock as well) I would assume you would see the load numbers go up for both the spindle and the feed servo you chose.

I realize you might have data with no correlation between the two sets but that is something you would have to establish for yourself over time.

Maybe there is a lot easier way to tell when a tool should be discarded or sharpened. I'm all ears.

I have a neat spelling checker by ieSpell that works on all the forums but this one. Anybody found one that works here? Or better yet, a way to get ieSpell to work here.

Vern

[1ctoolfool]

it is a feature but i don't think you would find that it works reliably, especially on small diameter tools. time in cut is more reliable following manf. recommended tool life, they spend lots of time and money estimating tool life.
A better way is automatic part probing or machine vibration monitoring like montronix.
montronix works but it has to be the same part over and over and it is really for tool breakage not wear.
neither is practical or cost effective for the small shop.
joe V.

[joecnc1234]

The older haas machines I have experience with up to 2002 have an alarm page you can set. So when the load reaches a certain level which you can monitor normal loads than set it say 10% higher it will alarm it worked great of course your not going to get the same results with an 1/8" em but for roughing it worked really well.

[joecnc1234]

And another thing I have never in my 20 years of machining seen a manufacturer that had any idea how long their tool would last or how fast you could turn it realisticly

[1ctoolfool]

Yes I agree the numbers are rarely accurate. I have broken lots of tools at the recommended settings and have run tools much faster and harder than recommended settings. But they do spend bug bucks testing and estimating tool life, just too many variables to predict accurately. Estimates are always made in a lab under ideal conditions.
That's why Montronix has made millions detecting real time tool breakage.

[Vern Smith]

Thanks for the input, I think I'll set up a few experiments on a couple of my larger EM's and see what I get over time. I'm way to small to afford the monitoring systems and do lots of small jobs using many different tools. As a result, keeping track of usage time per tool would be a real administrative head ache.

Vern

[gar]

070315-0735 EST USA

Vern:

Small tools will not show much load relative to the background level so load monitoring is of no value here. Acceleration conditions on a lathe can also make load monitoring useless (constant surface speed for example).

If you monitor large tools at heavy load then you can get some useful information. However, you need to know the background level (friction, windage, and motor and control losses) at the particular spindle speed to subtract from the total.

Your can use DPRNT to send the load values to an RS232 recording program. This might be easier than manually recording values.

.

[big_mak]

Vern,

Hit current commands, the page up twice, and you should see a screen with spindle loads for a particular tool. These can all be reset, and allows you to set a maximum for each tool number. Then in settings go to parameter 84, and you can set different actions for the machine to take when you reach the preset limits(beep, autofeed, feedhold, alarm). If everything is set to zero maximum nothing will happen. I've used it a few times it it's not too bad. Worked for what I needed it for.

Hope this answers your question.

[Geof]

Originally Posted by big_mak Vern, Hit current commands, the page up twice, and you should see a screen with spindle loads for a particular tool. These can all be reset, and allows you to set a maximum for each tool number. Then in settings go to parameter 84, and you can set different actions for the machine to take when you reach the preset limits(beep, autofeed, feedhold, alarm). If everything is set to zero maximum nothing will happen. I've used it a few times it it's not too bad. Worked for what I needed it for. Hope this answers your question.

Big mak has a minor error; in Settings go to Setting 84, not Parameter 84. Parameters are different.

I have found it useful to use either Autofeed or Feedhold because these keep the machine running. Beep is a bit pointless unless you are hovering over the machine and Alarm shuts everything down so you have to start from scratch. Also with alarm if your tool is in a heavy cut sometimes it is tricky to extricate it.

[Vern Smith]

Thanks fellows, I'll run through your suggestions tomorrow.

Vern

[cnc east]

This is my first post, so I'm sorry if this is not the proper way to do this. I am interested in hearing what you think of the tm-1p Vern. I would like to start my own shop one day, and this a machine I have been reading about. Any advice would be great.

cnc east

[Vern Smith]

I’m sure there are others on this forum who would do a better job of recommending the TM-1P than I. It’s my first CNC machine and I have only had it three weeks. So far it has run flawlessly.

I have learned a few things on this site as well as others that you might want to look at the mini mills if you will be doing a lot of small aluminum parts. The long bed travel on the TM-1P is nice if you need it but an 8 or 10 thousand RPM spindle is real nice for aluminum.

I would make two recommendations. The enclosure leaks like a sieve. Before you run coolant and oil in it calk up every seam below the table level. The 5 gallon coolant sump is a joke. After 30 seconds of running the sump is half full and the resulting reduction of head pressure for the pump changes the output from a nice stream to a trickle. I’m having a 20 gallon sump fabricated now and will post information on it if anyone is interested.

The thing eats air, there is a constant flow through the spindle ( keeps chips out ). Be prepared to hear your compressor run a lot. I would recommend you disable the fastest rapid when using the manual controls. I’m old but my reaction time 50 years ago was no match for the fastest rapid if things are going the wrong way.

Vern