New guy..with a used mill has a question.

[Kenny Duval]

I like it too, Kenny.
I am new at it as well. Free for personal use? I haven't heard that. I did jump on the Ultimate deal they have going on. You can't beat that price either.

Oh, BTW, what are you using for your screen shots?
I have Corel Capture and it fails more times than it works.

It's in their licensing model.


I certainly don't have a problem with $300 a year but if they allow it in the licensing then I'll certainly take advantage of it. I'll have to renew the license every year but if they remove that option than I'll just flop over to paying them. The mill I bought came with a copy of Rhino 3D and Rhinocam but I'm pretty sure the previous owner didn't pay for them so I have been looking for options and jumped on this when it came along. I'm pretty sure they had a bogus copy of Mach 3 as well but I took care of that shortly after getting the machine.

I use nothing more than tools built into Windows. CTL+ALT+PRTSCN always works. Crop and save out of paint as needed. The Snipping tool in Windows 7 is great as well.

[LeeWay]

I don't blame you at all there. I will be using it for my products and future products. I did get SolidWorks recently for basically zero. It is the student version and I got it because i am a Vet. Between the two I should not have many issues going forward. Thanks for the info.

[Kenny Duval]

Good progress today. The fixture plate turned out great and the milling of the bracket is going according to plan.

[Kenny Duval]

Mental note...create enough clearance plane to get over your clamp as you traverse back across the part.

[Fastest1]

I used to accuse people of having different tooling for videos, because everything looked perfect. Watch my videos and see what NOT to do. I showed endmills eating clamps, parts, vises and even the table once! Ok that last one I might not have published, but it happened. I am about to probe it and create a reference point for the future.

[aarggh]

I used to accuse people of having different tooling for videos, because everything looked perfect. Watch my videos and see what NOT to do. I showed endmills eating clamps, parts, vises and even the table once! Ok that last one I might not have published, but it happened. I am about to probe it and create a reference point for the future.

Pheww! And here I was thinking I was doing something abnormal all these years running the cutter into everything by accident! So it's not just me!

cheers, Ian

[Kenny Duval]

Well the alignment of the part on the flip process wasn't good enough. We'll call this the first prototype and run a second one with some longer end mills to avoid the flip.

Definitely needs some refinement.

[Fastest1]

What was wrong with it? I see the waterline mark where the 2 paths met. No issues that we can see. Most parts need a little love by hand. Scotchbrite would make that look perfect, quick.

[Kenny Duval]

If I took a picture of it flipped over you could see how far the pocket alignment is out as move towards the narrow end. More practice required before trying to flip a part again. It's almost .060's out at the short end. I know where some of it came from and could probably get it closer but the next one will just be milled through from the top.

[Fastest1]

The skill set is good to acquire. There are times when tool length wont compensate. Or maybe an existing part you need to modify or locate correctly. Plus you want to chamfer the pockets and profile on both sides.

[Kenny Duval]

Well crap. I am so bummed. It fits.



Gotta make some minor drawing adjustments and run the final part.

[Kenny Duval]

Looks like I may get a chance to try a different motor and controller as I know I killed the Gecko today just waiting to see if I killed the speed controller as well.

[Kenny Duval]

New motor has been mounted. I had to make an adaptor and luckily my very good friend has just purchased a Lathe/Mill combo so I had somewhere to go to make it.



I sits nicely on the head. Luckily the output shaft is longer than the stock motor so I had plenty of room for an adaptor and didn't have to make a whole new top plate.

[photomankc]

Yes, part flipping is fraught with issues. I've always worked to avoid flipping if I can for anything more than removing the footing left in the vice. Sometimes though you just are stuck with no way to avoid it. I'd noodle on where it went wrong and what you could do to correct it. As mentioned above it's a good skill to hone and long endmills present their own challenges. I had a 1/2" EM I loved and went to get a long version of that same brand. It was insane. The instant it contacted metal it screamed like that little girl from Aliens. I tried all manor of different feeds/RPMs. It was having none of it. Eventually I gave up and it's in my scrap cutters bucket. I even get issues with extended reach carbide EMs sometimes.

You had a reasonably good plan there and it seems like two tight pins should have been enough but perhaps a third pin to locate against near the narrow end may have provided a more dead-on reference. I've also used an interpolated hole in the spoil stock and a flat to indicate against for this purpose to when it was hard to devise a good fixture for something. The hole locates the X/Y very well and the flat insures the part is correctly oriented on the table.

[Kenny Duval]

Yeah. I know where part of it came from on that one. When I started making the part the first op was to drill the 2 location holes which are also the holes used to mount it on the bike. When I set the stock I had a little too much over hang of the vice and the bit pushed it out of place. I reset and continued and could see the deflection and by the time it popped out the other side of the 1 inch stock that was enough deflection to put it out of alignment. I'm going to run it again with a 1/4 carbide that can reach down through the piece it I can. If not I'll try the flip again and see what happens. It's still a usable part as it only has to hold up a dashboard and part of the front bodywork but I'd like the second to come out better.

[photomankc]

Cool, sounds like you got it figured then.

I was reading back through your thread and this line is quote worthy:
"This is entertaining when it's not entirely frustrating" - I just laughed out loud in the office! That's something my wife never seems to get because I'm either like a little kid saying "look what I did", or I sound like a demon possessed madman raving in some horror movie at it when, invariably I ruin something that I've got days of work into. Still I enjoy it enough to keep on trucking along learning more as I go.


Really love the enclosure. I need to do something similar with mine.

[Kenny Duval]

She's breathing again. Drive gear still hasn't gotten here but the new motor control is all wired in and working. Spindle stop/start, forward and reverse all under Mach 3 control.

[Kenny Duval]

Todays test project for the new spindle. Much nicer having the spindle under machine control.

Roughed in


Finished..


Testing....


Test fit to the mill...


Nothing left but to wire it in...

The new motor is fantastic. The closed loop pid control in Mach does a reasonable job. Takes a moment for it to find the rpm and settle but once there it's pretty solid.

[photomankc]

What motor and controller did you end up using?

[Kenny Duval]

What motor and controller did you end up using?

It's 1.1kw from Automation Technologies. What was once the Sangmutan but is now being built by someone else. Grizzly updated the G0704 with a newer motor that has a 14mm shaft so they had a 14mm 20 tooth pulley that's a direct fit. I picked up about 1200 rpm with the stock gearing over the stock motor and controller. Lost some low speed rpm. Instead of 90 the minimum spindle speed in low gear is now 250 rpm.