Blight's CNC lathe

[The Blight]

I will try to remember it tomorrow.

I stumbled upon a problem today while running the machine. Some times it will just start the toolchanger when I start the spindle or stop it. I guess the motor can cause some pretty serious spikes on the data line, so I will have to change a couple things in the controller. I will just make it so that the toolchange line has to be active for at least 0,5sec for the toolchanger to start.

I also tried the cutoff tool on stainless, and it works quite well. There are some vibrations, but as long as I cut 1mm at a time, it stays quiet.

I still have to figure out where the 0 of the machine is. I forget to set this up whenever I'm on the machine. Maybe tomorrow.

I also had enough time to machine some pieces I was supposed to make. The lathe sure does make things easier for me.

[The Blight]

I have spent the last couple days debugging the controller for the ATC. I added a few new features, and a some bugges popped up. Took some time figuring out what was causing them, but now it's working again. I have been thinking about adding a rotary sensor on one of the motors to check if the correct tool is in place. This will come later.

The video I promised was a bit delayed because of the bug-hunting, but here it is. Just shows a simple part that I made. Got to resharpen the tools as I have been using them on steel for testing, but they still cut ok.

The part I'm making is made from 8mm brass rod, and the smallest diameter is 1mm. After making 15 of these I measured them and all dimensions are within 0.01mm / 0.0004". Thats okey for what I'm doing.



Now I will be focusing on lubrication. I will seal all the thrust bearings and fill them with grease. I will also add a central lubrication tank and valves/tubes to all the slides and ball screws. I don't know if I will let this be controlled by the computer, by a timer or just manual.

[idtkid]

such a "clean" lathe, really looks like something from a factory. Love the video as function over form is always what matters. If I can ask what do you do for a living, are you a machinist or designer?

[The Blight]

I'm almost done with my machinist education, but I'm going to continue studying to become an engineer.

Thanks for the comment. I will try to shoot a better video when I have time. A fried suggests more light and a tripod, so I will try to do that if I can get my hands on one.

[Khalid]

very good.. its not a flattery at all...
can u tell us what software u are using for lathe?...i afraid i missed if u right somewhere

[The Blight]

Thanks

I'm using TurboCNC. Easy to use, and it has lots of functions.

[BillTodd]

Thanks

I'm using TurboCNC. Easy to use, and it has lots of functions.

I fiddled with TurboCNC for a while but development of the software seems to have stopped. Have you looked at EMC2 for linux ? It's very good.

Beautiful work BTW

[The Blight]

Dave is working on TCNC again, so there is some progress. 4.2 should have been out just before christmas, but it got delayed. I guess he thought that V5 for windows would give him some more room to fix bugs or continue working on it. I just hope he releases it soon.

I have looked into EMC2 and mach, but I always come running back to TCNC. It does what I want it to do. Don't need a fast computer to run it either. I can't really think of any extra functions that I just have to have in TCNC. So in the end, I can't really see why I should switch. Any extra functions that I want, I usually fix by adding a dedicated microcontroller. And as I have said earlier, I have been working on a dedicated G-Code interpreter for my CNC machines. I have read through the FAT specification, the CF specification and I have figured out the algorithms for G1, G2 and G3. I'm also done with the math routines, so now I have to make a dev. board for the project. Before I can do that, I will have to complete my PCB engraver and get a copy of Sprint. Don't know when I will have time to do that, but until then I will be working on the programming.

Thanks for your comment Bill! It's always nice to hear

[SpeedsCustom]

Amazing Lathe, looks like it is a production model. Amazing work!

-Jason

[The Blight]

I finally got a nice place to upload my pictures.

So heres a picture of the controller. I have added a few extra cards and cables, but it looks pretty much the same.

The bottom holds the power supplies and the fuses, the middle holds the drivers and motor controllers along with the breakout boards and other logics, and the top holds the spindle motor driver, the relays and the I/O connections.

[zephyr9900]

Blight, your controller is a work of art, as is your lathe. Please do, if you find the time, upload some high-res pictures of your lathe also. It is a beautiful build.

Randy

[The Blight]

A couple days ago I started thinking (just before I fell asleep.. 2 hours in the dark lost in thought) about tool holders for drill bits. So today I added room for 4 more tools on the ATC. Don't know when I will be able to make this, but hopefully it will be done within a month.

Now the ATC has room for 4 turning tools, and 4 boring tools.



I have uploaded some higher res. pictures, but they are the same as the ones in this thread. I will see about uploading some more.