Boss 8 CNC retrofit and 5 HP upgrade - Build thread

[mactec54]

Mactec, after wrestling with the bijur oil pump for 2 days im ready to concede and purchase this pump you recommend.. any idea if it is the 4mm or 6mm model ? it will be coming from china so i want to be sure i order the correct one also i am going to pull the table to check the oilers is there any info or schematic on what metering orifices will be needed?

thanks

Joe

I think if you measure your system it is using either 5/32 or 4mm tubing, you almost always have to make an adaptor where the pressurized oil comes out of the unit, so I would use the 6mm unit and just make what ever adaptor you need to connect your fitting

[mactec54]

So its been a while since an update. I have mounted and made all the parts for x y and the knee for the servos. The Chinese timing belt pulleys I machined to fit my servos were total crap and I had to machine the teeth profile off of them and do a press fit with the original Boss pulleys I bored out. Now I am in the process of designing the actual parts to make the chip pan and enclosure I mocked up in previous post.

That pulley looks small how may teeth is it there is a minimum size for that H profile pulley

[mongoose]

looks good ! are you powering the knee to be your z axis ?

[dbsharp]

That pulley looks small how may teeth is it there is a minimum size for that H profile pulley

I kept it the same as the OEM pulleys. 12 for the x and y, 13 for the quill i think.

[dbsharp]

The quill will be the main source of motion, but when you compare a large drill in a holder to a smaller end mill, the quill travel gets used up quite fast. The Knee will be used to give me some more room when needed without having to crank the handle. I've read some have driven the knee to be whatever the current tool offset is. Seems like a cool trick, but I could also see it getting me in trouble. The way im looking to do it, I wouldnt do it all the time and then I could be extra cautious when I do require it. Of course if the knee is adjusting to all tool offsets the behavior would become "normal".

[mactec54]

The quill will be the main source of motion, but when you compare a large drill in a holder to a smaller end mill, the quill travel gets used up quite fast. The Knee will be used to give me some more room when needed without having to crank the handle. I've read some have driven the knee to be whatever the current tool offset is. Seems like a cool trick, but I could also see it getting me in trouble. The way im looking to do it, I wouldnt do it all the time and then I could be extra cautious when I do require it. Of course if the knee is adjusting to all tool offsets the behavior would become "normal".

Using the knee like that is fine for offset positioning, it also can be used for machining if the feed rate is kept low, for machining to be accurate though you need a Ballscrew in the Jack with a rotating nut, as there is to much backlash in the bevel gears driving it by the crank

[mactec54]

I kept it the same as the OEM pulleys. 12 for the x and y, 13 for the quill i think.

Did not think the timing pulleys went that low for the H section belt 14 teeth is the normal minimum, but good to know that they can go to 12 teeth, I made one that was 13 teeth that did work ok, thought that was pushing it though for number of teeth engaged

[dbsharp]

Did not think the timing pulleys went that low for the H section belt 14 teeth is the normal minimum, but good to know that they can go to 12 teeth, I made one that was 13 teeth that did work ok, thought that was pushing it though for number of teeth engaged

Hey man those are looking sharp!
You have to keep in mind also that the engineers at Bridgeport also were probably derating the pulley drive some. The oem servos on this machine were under 300 watts!

[dbsharp]

Using the knee like that is fine for offset positioning, it also can be used for machining if the feed rate is kept low, for machining to be accurate though you need a Ballscrew in the Jack with a rotating nut, as there is to much backlash in the bevel gears driving it by the crank

On this one the assembly seems heavy/ smooth enough that it does a good job of keeping up with positioning. Even so I would probably go down and then back up for re positioning for long bits.

[dbsharp]

Looking for some opinions on this enclosure design. Yes I have not drawn in all the back panels yet, they will be there.
1. how far in should someone have to reach to put a part on the table? I just drew what looks proportional and right.


2. Is the enclosure high enough to contain splashes, its 38" above the vice in the position as shown? I am using a 1/2 hp greymills inline coolant pump and have been considering adding another 1/2 hp one made for the sump before a filter. There will be no shortage of coolant!
-I thought about adding a top panel that would mostly seal off the enclosure not sure if it would just make it a moisture trap though.
- current plan is to add some bars to triangulate the top corners back to the tube structure.


3. doors not drawn yet (and the opening I show isn't as tall as I want) but I was thinking of having them slide back into the enclosure like the HAAS doors. This way I dont have to have great seals to keep water and chips in. Just have a lip above the door and its track and then have the bottom of the door on the inside of the outer body panel. Doing it this way, I get limited to the opening width to be roughly half the enclosure width so that would be about 3ft wide opening at best. IS THIS WIDE ENOUGH? If I got fancy and made a telescoping set on each side for the doors I could make it wider by maybe a foot or so.


4. How to get heavy objects on the table? With the Haas enclosure it looks like they have the top open when the doors are slid back and a gantry crane could drop parts on the table, I have a gantry crane but wont have room once this machine is installed in its final location to use it for this. I thought about designing in a structure to mount a 1/2 or 1/4 ton hoist to but this is not that easy to do.
- thought about something like a truck crane but larger

[Muzzer]

I'm guessing this will be a pretty wide enclosure. If you have a long table and a decent range of movement, you'd be able to climb inside and sleep in there. I had a similar concern on my Shizuoka where the table is long enough to lay someone out and it has over 2' of movement. I wanted a high flow rate coolant system and a good air blast nozzle (using a HVLP compressor) without messing up the entire vicinity.

My solution was to have an enclosure over the knee with the table poking out each side through curtains. The curtain opening moved with the Y axis using verticals fitted to the saddle. I used sliders, hinges and polycarbonate panels for the front doors. The framework was fixed to the knee (not the base), as it's a knee mill

I got it 90% completed, then we decided we would be moving house soon (new job), so I put it on hold. Then the virus thing happened. Bottom line is, there is no video (so it never happened...) but it was looking like a workable enclosure that didn't take up all my space.

[dbsharp]

Interesting, thanks for sharing. I'm used to dealing with the mister blowing chips all around on my router i think this enclosure would do well for that, but im not sure on the coolant. This pump assembly should have good pressure. Guess I'll go for gold and add a top.

I'm guessing this will be a pretty wide enclosure. If you have a long table and a decent range of movement, you'd be able to climb inside and sleep in there. I had a similar concern on my Shizuoka where the table is long enough to lay someone out and it has over 2' of movement. I wanted a high flow rate coolant system and a good air blast nozzle (using a HVLP compressor) without messing up the entire vicinity.

My solution was to have an enclosure over the knee with the table poking out each side through curtains. The curtain opening moved with the Y axis using verticals fitted to the saddle. I used sliders, hinges and polycarbonate panels for the front doors. The framework was fixed to the knee (not the base), as it's a knee mill

I got it 90% completed, then we decided we would be moving house soon (new job), so I put it on hold. Then the virus thing happened. Bottom line is, there is no video (so it never happened...) but it was looking like a workable enclosure that didn't take up all my space.

[dbsharp]

Slowly but surely I will finish.

[mactec54]

Slowly but surely I will finish.

Looks good, yes it all takes time I have my Horizontal Boss 5 mod running now and it working very well, anything is posable

[mongoose]

Looks good, yes it all takes time I have my Horizontal Boss 5 mod running now and it working very well, anything is posable

Would love to see some pictures Mac !!

[mactec54]

Would love to see some pictures Mac !!

Basic pictures are above

I will do a Video once I have the spindle lock and rigid tapping finished

[mongoose]

very nice Mac !

[dbsharp]

Looks good, yes it all takes time I have my Horizontal Boss 5 mod running now and it working very well, anything is posable

Cool man! Do you have a build thread on here?

[mactec54]

Cool man! Do you have a build thread on here?

No Not as yet but may do something once I do a video all the machining of the column was done by it's self with a head mounted on the table and just milled bored, drilled and taped the holes using the CNC control for the X / Y axis and Knee use, the hole is 4.750 Diameter the main plate mounting holes are 1/2" UNC, Drive is 2:1 Poly-V-Belt, I have done some of these Horizontal builds before, but this is a first on a Boss machine most likely the only Bridgeport Boss in the world to have this Mod