Hobby CNC, the rotor way

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HolHorsejob: Mar 14, 2020; Portrait of Cheems II of Spain by Jabona Neftman, olo pint on fird

Any other folks with a taig mill? Anyone done their own ballscrew conversion?

I was recently given a cnc-ready taig mill, and, apart from the motors and body, all the hardware was used/free cobbled-together crap. I tore off all the crap and made a linuxcnc box w/ geckodrive to control it. Everything works, and now I want to replace the lovely leadscrew (not even acme thread wtf) with ballscrews. I've been searching for a build blog or something, but I haven't been able to find any detailed info on a build, just before-and-afters with no details on anything that came in between.

Anyone done this themselves? Or does anyone have a lead on ballscrews and the requisite bearing blocks for mounting them?

# ¿ Mar 14, 2020 01:07

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 01:52

HolHorsejob: Mar 14, 2020; Portrait of Cheems II of Spain by Jabona Neftman, olo pint on fird

Hypnolobster posted:

I'm looking into building a small-ish cnc router soon, but ideally with enough rigidity to handle aluminum plate well. 24x24"-ish sort of capacity or maybe a little smaller. I'm looking at something derived from the openbuilds sphinx 55, maybe with linear rails instead of v-slot.

Maybe based on this, because being able to grab the plates off of eBay is a huge bonus.
https://openbuilds.com/builds/sphinx-55-on-mgn12-linear-rails.8790/
Is that as stiff as it looks to me? I'm trying to avoid the middle-ground of larger format CNC router that's best suited to wood/plastic to get my feet wet. I realize the move is probably just go buy a mill and do a CNC conversion, but I largely need to mill somewhat large flat plate rather than vice and fixture work.

It's hard to parse the range of "this $8000 cnc router is not stiff enough for aluminum" to "check out my MPCNC cutting aluminum" on the internet, so I'm sort of working on assumption here.

I'd be interested to see it if you succeed. I've cut a fair bit of aluminum on an othermill, but never a larger router. The table I did/kinda do have access to (arcpro 9600 plasma table w/ router kit) performed well on wood, but cutting aluminum on it sounds like a bad idea. Maybe I should give it a shot though, now that I have more time on my hands.

How do you avoid work hardening or burning up the tool/workpiece? A constant mist of isopropanol?

# ¿ Apr 24, 2020 01:01

HolHorsejob: Mar 14, 2020; Portrait of Cheems II of Spain by Jabona Neftman, olo pint on fird

Ambihelical Hexnut posted:

Did some more digging and paid some hard dollars to replacing wiring between the USB Smoothstepper and the G540, the G540 and steppers, and rewire the USB-SS for external 5V power. The mill has now gone through several hours of shakedown without a single estop poppin up. Can�t believe this took me so long to resolve.

I also have been trying to learn welding by sticking together some square tubing to construct a mill stand. It�s going...slowly.

How is the usb smoothstepper? What's the interface like for that? I have a friend that initially set up her taig with a TinyG and had generally poor results (buffer/throughput issues, non-rt control), which, from what I understand, were primarily a limitation of using USB to send steps.

E: she was also using Chilipeppr as the interface, which added its own little pocket hell to the experience.

EE: got pics? Would love to see it

HolHorsejob fucked around with this message at 20:00 on May 1, 2020

# ¿ May 1, 2020 19:58

HolHorsejob: Mar 14, 2020; Portrait of Cheems II of Spain by Jabona Neftman, olo pint on fird

CarForumPoster posted:

As a heads up using twisted shielded pair with a properly grounded shield and connector as well as separate power wires not run right next to your signal wires are a pretty standard "I'm getting anomalous triggers" EMI/EMC issue.
Particularly with CNC machines you have basically every factor for EMI/EMC issues:
-VFDs
-welders and plasma cutters nearby and sharing a common ground
-Physically running noisy wires with low voltage signal wires in the same loom.
-Long, sometimes beyond spec, digital signal wire cable runs.
-Rubbing of wires causing damage to shielding.
-Bad/No grounding of shields.
-Old or cheap high current motors with old/cheap wiring.
-Shoddy electronics with dubious impedance matching.

Here:s a laymans presentation of issues if you havent built the system yet, buying the right stuff goes a long way:
https://www.cnccookbook.com/cnc-electrical-noise-grounding-techniques-interference-filter/

Thanks for the link. So are you saying that the grounded shielding + separate power wires away from signal wires causes EMI issues, or alleviates them?

My Taig mill project is currently stalled while I get my space ready for mounting it, but once that's squared away, I'm going to set up/wire up the limit switches. I was originally thinking of wiring the switches to a DB9 socket mounted to the frame and just use a cable to connect them, but now I'm having second thoughts. I do have some 8-conductor double-shielded wiring I got surplus from some robotics work. Don't think it's twisted pair though.

# ¿ May 4, 2020 01:33

HolHorsejob: Mar 14, 2020; Portrait of Cheems II of Spain by Jabona Neftman, olo pint on fird

Ambrose Burnside posted:

Another Taig owner, nice. What sort of setup/CNC conversion are you going with?

Don't know what the mill was purchased as, but it was halfway through a CNC conversion when I got it. It was most likely shipped CNC-ready at least 5 years ago.

I'm doing a gecko/LinuxCNC setup. It's currently languishing at my place while I try to figure out how to make space for it and build a stand. I've got the control & electronics built and tested, current to-do list is:

1. Clear some space and build a bench to attach it to
2. Mount/hook up limit switches
3. Tweak/tune all of the hardware & software

Was gonna do a ballscrew conversion but have found myself newly unemployed, so maybe another time. I guess 40 in/min will have to do for the time being.

# ¿ May 5, 2020 22:00

HolHorsejob: Mar 14, 2020; Portrait of Cheems II of Spain by Jabona Neftman, olo pint on fird

gonadic io posted:

I have a weird shaped table and so need a custom bracket plate. It's basically just a metal rectangle on half inch steel, with some holes drilled, and a 90 degree horizontal fold half way down.

I was thinking about buying a 1-off cnc job for it, what program would people recommend for basic programs to put something together that I could send to a company? Most of them seem to cost 2k+ and sadly I am not a student.

I mean, or I could buy my first drill press and router and start down the slippery slope...

What's your experience level? Fusion 360 is a reasonable option. I was able to model parts, generate drawings and get parts manufactured (as long as the shop does not require GD&T for drawings).

What kind of tolerances does this part require? If it's half-mm tolerances and mill finish flatness, then a drill press, angle grinder/hacksaw, and bench grinder would get you there, as long as you have nice things like calipers and Dykem. I think I was able to get 0.015" tolerances on drill placement with these tools without too much trouble (over short lengths, anyways).

# ¿ May 15, 2020 22:54

HolHorsejob: Mar 14, 2020; Portrait of Cheems II of Spain by Jabona Neftman, olo pint on fird

gonadic io posted:

It's for a monitor arm stand, so it potentially has to hold a good amount of weight in a reasonably small area. I got my calipers that I bought for this out and turns out that the part I want to recreate but bigger is actually quarter-inch, NOT half-inch and I'm just bad at estimating sizes from memory.

Doing it myself with a grinder and a drill press is probably absolutely possible too, but seems easier and cheaper overall to just get it made once instead of buying a bunch of gear.

So something like a 6x6 or 8x8 steel plate with a pattern of holes drilled into it, bolted to a tabletop? If it were me, I'd use probably 12-14 gauge steel, mark everything out with calipers, and do everything with a hand drill, angle grinder, and a few cheap hand files to debur and clean up the edges. If I had more projects lined up and thought I'd realistically get use out of them, I'd get a drill press and bench grinder.

I don't know much about getting small jobs done by a shop, but it sounds like it'd either be too expensive to be worth your while, or too cheap to be worth their while.

# ¿ May 15, 2020 23:21

HolHorsejob: Mar 14, 2020; Portrait of Cheems II of Spain by Jabona Neftman, olo pint on fird

Ambihelical Hexnut posted:

After several further modifications my plate ended up being used for all the remaining steel plates for 45 degree brackets and table feet:

Four legs, more sloppy rear end stick welding, and some screw-in adjustable feet. I need to add a second 3/8 nut on each foot to act as a jam nut for holding the height setting in position.

Time to start making the plates that will tie two linear carriages together and hold the gantry uprights:

I got some 5"x0.75" 6061 stock for this. It's almost maxing out ol' reliable.

Setting in pockets for the screw slots on the first side. These pieces are too big to mill in a single setup on my flyweight machine.

Since plasma tables are typically splashy I wanted a nicer electronics enclosure to protect everything. I got an Altelix (I think?) brand ABS enclosure with a metal mounting plate. This is my meanwell psu and leadshine mx4660 controller inside, should be just enough room for wiring and a THC.

Ooo cut me off a slice of that bar.

Nothing like the thrill of hoping all your electronics fit in the enclosure!

# ¿ Jun 7, 2020 04:33

HolHorsejob: Mar 14, 2020; Portrait of Cheems II of Spain by Jabona Neftman, olo pint on fird

Ambihelical Hexnut posted:

Aluminum wool. These bolt slots will allow each side's linear carriage to screw to the common plate, holding them together around the linear rail. I'll put an upright plate on top of this plate, into which the gantry beam will screw.

Something I realized while working on this is that, because it's bigger than my travels, I can't locate my wcs origin from the edges which are only bandsaw cut. If I do, then when I flip the plate around to do the opposite side, I'll be indicating off the opposite cut end which might be many thousands different distance from the original four slots than the new one, since it's not exactly 8.500" long. No worries, I milled a 1"x1"x.125" pocket in the top center of the plate to establish a common reference which can be reached by both setups. This is an inelegant solution, but it'll work.

Unfortunately I'm getting a weird USB Smoothstepper error about once an hour while running, so this is slow as gently caress. I am half done with the first of three plates.

Does the smoothstepper send steps in realtime, or does it keep a buffer?

# ¿ Jun 8, 2020 06:34

HolHorsejob: Mar 14, 2020; Portrait of Cheems II of Spain by Jabona Neftman, olo pint on fird

rad daddy o posted:

tbf, I hade a journeyman machinist that liked to smoke weed on his lunch breaks sometimes. I wouldn't care if he did it in his off time, but he'd come back totally fried and make expensive or unsafe mistakes. I told the owners about it, but he'd been there for years and they just looked the other way and told me to "make do".

I had to strategically schedule jobs around his mid day weed intake until we finally let him go during the 2008 crash.

It makes me wonder how many concessions worse than that are made now, since covid has made it that much harder to find good employee let alone trained machinists.

It would be a lot easier to find good machinists if the profession paid decently. The story of the trades, really.

The lab I work at hired a refrigeration service company to do some brazing side-by-side with me the other week, and during the course of talking, the dude mentioned he was a "beer at lunch" kind of guy, and then proceeded to go for lunch at the place he said had good beer. Afterwards, I requested we contract with a different company if we do this again...

# ¿ Oct 28, 2021 03:16

HolHorsejob: Mar 14, 2020; Portrait of Cheems II of Spain by Jabona Neftman, olo pint on fird

Question: how do you keep records of the jobs you run? Speeds, feeds, workholding, tooling, toolpath nitty-gritty, pitfalls, mistakes...

I learn so much every job I run and forget so much in between, I'd love some way to keep track of it all. I'm curious what folks here do about this.

# ¿ Nov 29, 2021 07:14

HolHorsejob: Mar 14, 2020; Portrait of Cheems II of Spain by Jabona Neftman, olo pint on fird

Anyone have experience with Solidworks CAM? I finally found a post-processor for my machine and started using it yesterday. So far, I would describe it as usable but extremely frustrating. Anyone know some especially good tutorials or guides to using it?

# ¿ Dec 29, 2021 02:53

HolHorsejob: Mar 14, 2020; Portrait of Cheems II of Spain by Jabona Neftman, olo pint on fird

biracial bear for uncut posted:

I've been forced to use Solidworks CAM/CAMWorks exclusively since 2018 at my full-time job.

Solidworks CAM/CAMWorks being described as "usable but extremely frustrating" is about as charitable as it gets, yeah.

Lol yeah I was reining it in when I typed this. GoEng tutorials it is, then.

NewFatMike posted:

I�m presenting on it for WORLD, so hit me up lmao.

Biracial is generally correct on the tutorials, and that sucks about the training experience.

The big thing for SW CAM is that is trying to be set up so you keep saving your strategies and operation modifiers so you don�t have to do them again the next time you set a part up.

This means that every job you�re setting up in there is kinda doing the programmer �why spend X minutes doing something when I could spend 10X minutes automating it!� - albeit a little less every time if you�re saving your strategies.

Grim, but that encapsulates most of the gears grinding as I go through this process.

NewFatMike posted:

Unfortunately what that means is the worst thing you can be is experienced with a different CAM package like HSMworks or MasterCAM because they�re set up wildly differently.

You really know how to make a woman cry, don't you.

NewFatMike posted:

I�ve got a few videos I�ve shared around, this is one of them that I like as an introduction:

https://youtu.be/00TqO1pBEro

Inshallah I�ll be doing stuff with DELMIA CAM this year

I'll check it out, thanks.

# ¿ Dec 30, 2021 07:31

HolHorsejob: Mar 14, 2020; Portrait of Cheems II of Spain by Jabona Neftman, olo pint on fird

Rescue Toaster posted:

Thank you, carbide create, for randomly inserting gcode commands to lower RPM for no loving reason and breaking a bit. You hunk of poo poo.

I think it's almost time to spend real money on CAM software.

We had a 4x8 plasma/router table at my last job, and the control box came with Sheetcam installed. I found it to be a very good bare-bones CAM package. No frills, quick & easy to use for 2.5D work.

The gcode it spat out worked well with LinuxCNC with very few fuckups. Whether it would do the same for your machine, who knows.

# ¿ May 16, 2022 01:28

HolHorsejob: Mar 14, 2020; Portrait of Cheems II of Spain by Jabona Neftman, olo pint on fird

Zero VGS posted:

Different question, if I have a photo of something, and I took at least one measurement with calipers, is the a program or website that can take a look at it and trace out the rest of the outline to be dimensionally accurate? Sort of like how people pixel-count leaked screenshots of phones and stuff?

I know what the vertical height of this keyboard is in millimeters (the red arrow), for example, but want an outline that gets all those U-shaped indents at the bottom, and all the other stuff like the PCB coming off it.

I've done this in fusion 360. Take a photo with as little distortion as possible, take one key measurement for scaling. Start a sketch, import the photo as an attached canvas, and build your sketch geometry on top of your features of interest. If it's got curves without exact geometry, use splines to approximate them.

This assumes, of course, that you're familiar with fusion 360

# ¿ Apr 6, 2023 08:44

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 01:52

HolHorsejob: Mar 14, 2020; Portrait of Cheems II of Spain by Jabona Neftman, olo pint on fird

Death to VideoDRO! Long live the new carbide!

# ¿ Feb 26, 2024 03:28

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