Shopping List

[DarkSabre]

Trying to make sure I'm not missing anything obvious or if people have any recommendations!

I'm going to be starting with wood, but I'll eventually be doing aluminum and some steel. I'll worry about getting coolant when the times comes.

Of course:

• 2019CR-ER (CNC ready Taig with ER spindle)

Electronics:

• Safety Charge Pump
• C10 - Bidirectional Breakout Board
• 3x G251
• KL- 5020, Unregulated Power Supply 1000W, 50VDC/20A
• 3x NEMA 23 BIPOLAR STEPPER MOTOR 270 oz-in
• Already have switches for homing and emergency stop
• Already have parallel cables

Collets and Cutting:

• ER 16 COLLET 12 PIECE ENGLISH SET
• Drill Chuck Arbor and 1/8" to 1/2" Jacobs drill chuck
• Drill Set, 115 Piece Screw Machine Length HSS
• Selection of HSS 2-flute endmills and a few 4-flute carbides to try
• Center Drills, Set of 5 (Numbers 1-5)

Measuring:

• Machinist Square Set, PEC
• Edge and Center Finder, Fisher
• Axial Support Holder
• .030" Dial Test Indicator to fit in the above...I hope
• Inspection Kit, 6-Piece
• Electronic Digital Indicator, 0.5" Starrett
• Already have digital calipers

Fixturing:

• 1-2-3 Blocks
• V-blocks
• Thin Parallels, 3" Long 10 Pairs
• Vise, 3" Screwless with Clamping Slots
• Precision Toolmakers Vise 5"
  
• Clamping kit, 6 mm T-Slot, 36-Piece
• Assorted M5 cap screws + nuts
• T-Slot Nut (6 mm)

Software:

• Mach3
• Already have SolidWorks and other CAD packages at my disposal

Misc:

• Deburring Tool
• Enclosure once I have machine
• Any recommendation for a source for rubber mat to put between the table and the taig?

*Revised: Changed vise, added drill chuck arbor + chuck, and parallel cable
*Revised: Removes measuring kit and dial test indicator, replaced with Starrett digital test indicator, and already have digital calipers.

[DarkSabre]

Initial post changed a little...to actual mention what I'm trying to do and what I'm asking. Oops.

[Hirudin]

Wow, that's got to be one of the most complete lists I've seen!

Let's see...

The inspection kit has a dial test indicator, but as it's only a small portion of the $60 kit it probably isn't too good. I figure that's why you're buying another.

You're buying drill bits but I don't think you have a drill chuck. You can get them from Taig dealers like cartertools.com .

The clamping kit looks nice, too bad it's M5 threads instead of 10-32 (the Taig uses 10-32 bolts for a lot of stuff). I unfortunately don't know where you can get 10-32 T-nuts, much less a whole kit like that.

The 3" screwless vise might be a little small (specially if you're looking to do 2x4s). If I were buying a vise right now I'd get this one...
http://www.shars.com/products/view/1...ers_Vise_5quot
I'm short on time now but check my posts here for my reasoning...
Vises on a Taig Bed
There's some more Taig/vise talk here...
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/taig_mills_lathes/80461-newb_intro_few_questions-post610242.html

Those parallels look fine, but you might want to check out the parallels Shars has for sale.

I'll come back when I gots more times.

[DarkSabre]

Heh, maybe it will be useful to other people later.

Yeah, I've not put a whole lot of faith in the looks of the kit. I already have a respectable set of digital calipers and from reading Carter's instructions for setting up the mill, it looks like my table's evenness is only going to be as good as my dial test indicator, hence the hopefully better quality one as a separate purchase. I guess the kit is kinda up in the air right now, but it seems like it would be nice to play around with.

Ah...I had been hoping to just stick my bits in the collets. That's what I'm used to doing, but that's also because someone must have thrown our chuck against the wall a couple times...the bits wobble like crazy. I saw a Drill chuck Arbor (top right) and 1/8" to 1/2" Jacobs drill chuck (about half way down) on dearmond. I'll take a closer look at Carter's listings too I guess.

Yeah, I couldn't for the life of me find a 10-32 kit.
I did find 10-32 T-nuts, Steel nuts, and Bolts in my wanderings over at HTS.
Should I really try to go 10-32? Is there 10-32 on the stock Taig bed? M5 is so much easier to get

I'll take your advice on that vise . Getting something that couldn't hold a 2x4 would have made me feel dumb.

I had been eyeing the parallels from LittleMachineShop because they were 3"ers, which matched my vise at that moment...but I guess that just changed.

I Magenta'ed the additions and white'ed the old vise. Thanks!

[Hirudin]

I'd prolly scratch the inspection kit. You've got calipers and don't think the DTI is going to be very good. The magnetic base isn't very useful in my experience since the Taig bed is aluminum. I'm sure people get use out of their dial indicators, but personally I haven't yet, I'd wait until the need arises before buying one. So, with the $80 that would have been put toward the kit and the extra DTI get a nice DTI (maybe a used Starrett?) and a cheap micrometer.

When I started typing about 10-32 screws and stuff I was trying to decide if it really makes any difference what the Taig uses. The only thing I could come up with is that the Taig comes with a few 10-32 T-nuts and screws. So never mind about that I guess, get the clamping set.

[Mini Beast]

It looks like you have all the basics. I just went through this myself a few weeks ago. The only thing I might suggest is to scratch the collet set off your list. Right now, if you order a Taig, you will get a set of 6 collets for free. They have the details on their website.

[Jeff-Birt]

I would have a few suggestions/changes...

>Safety Charge Pump
>C10 - Bidirectional Breakout Board
>3x G251

Instead of all the above I would suggest a Gecko G540. The 540 has four G250s inside of it, they are the same as the 251 with headers instead of terminal strips. The G540 also has built in optical isolation and the charge pump circuit as well.


>KL- 5020, Unregulated Power Supply 1000W, 50VDC/20A

That is serious over kill. I have been selling these 320W (6.7A @ 48V) MeanWell power supplies: http://cnczone.com/CNCParts.aspx. While doing some load testing and thermal testing of a new case design I had four 2.8A / phase steppers running all out and I still had to add in a 2.5A or so resistive load to get the current drawn from the supply up to the 5.25A range. This size of power supply is more than you will ever need on the Taig (really.) If you go with a good unregulated linear supply something around 10~12 amps is good. I would NOT recommend a cheap, generic, switch type power supply. Stay with a dependable name brand no matter where you buy from.


>3x NEMA 23 BIPOLAR STEPPER MOTOR 270 oz-in

Depending on the inductance/phase current of the motor that is a decent choice. My own experience shows that there is actually little to be gained on a Taig once you go above the 160~170 oz-in mark. The reduction is sufficient that you have more than enough torque so the extra inductance of the larger motor just reduces acceleration. One of my customers pointed me to this article: http://www.jeffree.co.uk/pages/taigcncpt2.htm , that he found after he bought a set of 166 oz-in steppers from me. The author is the guy who wrote the Taig lathe book. He basically concludes that there was little benefit above the 140 oz-in mark.



>Already have switches for homing and emergency stop

Great, I'm glad to see you are using an E-Stop switch. Make sure it is a real E-Stop with NC contacts.


>Already have parallel cables, make sure that they are true parallel cables not DB25 serial cables (as they might not have all the wires inside.)

[MechanoMan]

Originally Posted by Jeff-Birt >KL- 5020, Unregulated Power Supply 1000W, 50VDC/20A That is serious over kill. I have been selling these 320W (6.7A @ 48V) MeanWell power supplies: http://cnczone.com/CNCParts.aspx. While doing some load testing and thermal testing of a new case design I had four 2.8A / phase steppers running all out and I still had to add in a 2.5A or so resistive load to get the current drawn from the supply up to the 5.25A range. This size of power supply is more than you will ever need on the Taig (really.) If you go with a good unregulated linear supply something around 10~12 amps is good. I would NOT recommend a cheap, generic, switch type power supply. Stay with a dependable name brand no matter where you buy from.

It's not just "overkill". As an unregulated supply, it is a very poor choice.

The actual source voltage will change with load, and with line voltage. It creates a lot of harsh power line harmonics and there will be output ripple present. Even if you were to add a voltage regulator after a linear supply, it's an absurdly crappy solution for a mill, the heat created can be enormous and there's a bunch of reasons why this still isn't a good idea.

I don't know where the rumor got started that linear power supplies were more reliable or more consistent. They're not better. Electrically, they're notably inferior on every technical front and cost 4x more. The industry uses switching power supplies for a reason!

The KL-350-48 48V/7.3A should be a great supply. I use one off eBay which is probably the exact same thing (7.3A rating would be quite a coincidence). Works great.

[Jeff-Birt]

I like using switchers for smaller machines too. Antek (sp?), who is somewhere on the east cost of the US also makes good torridal unregulated linear supplies. I have a big Bridgeport VMC that I converted to Mach and it uses a large unregulated supply for the servos. That is what you'll find on that age of machine. There has been a great advancement in high-power solid state devices over the last 20 years which makes it possible to produce switch type power supplies delivering hundreds of amps. You just have to looks at the cost/performance of both options.

I would suggest to anyone looking at any power supply (or any CNC part for that matter): ask for the MANUFACTURER'S data sheet. The data sheet should tell you what type of overload protection there is, how it is tripped and reset, what the regulation is over the rated range, ripple voltage, ripple current, etc. There may also be a separate data sheet showing how the units are tested. If you can't get a reliable data sheet for any CNC component your considering spending your hard earned money on then I would suggest passing on it.

[DarkSabre]

It has almost been a year since you guys helped me pick out what I wanted to order, so I figured I would bump and say thanks again! Most of the parts seem to have worked out nicely

I've got enough projects on my picture blog thing that I figured I could share it now:
http://www.ecceecce.com/wordpress/

Thanks for all the advice, I obviously don't post too much here, but I like reading about what other people are doing.