Thread: New Machine - Work in Progress

Fairly impressive stuff Rod. Really good attention to detail. What I wonder if there is any sense getting a vertical mill fitting ballscrews and sensors and doing it that way?

There was one guy that asked Acme or Ballscrews earlier. For CNC it is not choice Ballscrews everytime. The reason being they have no backlash. The curves and so on you are describing on a CNC machine make it really important to have them. Start doing stuff like that with Acme and you are taking chances the machine will jump from the backlash and mucked up job.

Studley

Hi Studley,
I agree with you on ballscrews for the reasons you state as well as there is less friction with ballscrews.

However I have seen machines made with MDF and using allthread for screws and they have surprising accuracy and certainly good enough for woodwork so I keep an open mind.

Yes a vertical mill makes a great CNC machine with the added advantage of being able to do your CNC conversion parts while it is a manual mill.

I have converted two mills to CNC (X2 hybrid and X3) and compared to a grantry router they are fantastic. Very rigid and low noise but they lack the spindle speeds required for woodworking. I am also reluctant to use a metal mill for wooodworking as the sawdust can be a problem in the ways.

My job Rod is CNC machining. So of course the stuff you can make is a bit different to the incredible machines that they are making now. I think they are doing rapids of 100m/minute! Imagine that with 500 kg of steel on the table and it stops within one micron! Boggling stuff. Yours for a mere $350,000.

I don't think dust would be an issue with a good machine, something like a Mazak or Mori Seiki, as using carbide tools steel does tend to produce a fair bit of this grinding type dust sludge when you consider all the coolant we use when cutting steel.

Getting a convo done on a knee mill or something the speed would be an issue. Just like you say. The new expensive mills are doing spindle speeds of more than 30,000 RPM with variable speeds etc. There are some very sophisticated tool holding methods to give the tool holding with the perfect balance required.

The knee mills I have used, typically called Bridgeports although there are many copies of the same type handy light machines but without enough rigidity for really serious stuff have a motor mounted on the head with a belt drive. I suppose you could speed it up but to do it really neatly would be a hassle. I wonder if some other machine would be an easier thing to handle.

Studley

Hi Studley,
You are at a different end of the scale to where I am.
I am just a backyard hack and learning as I go and my dream is a Bridgeport so you can see our minds are at different ends of the scale.
I have seen a video of a Masserati (spelling??) V12 motor being milled from a solid billet on a six axis machine and that really impressed me.
One machine I built ran at 17metres a minute but it was a disaster for me. My reflexes where not quick enough to stop a crash so I ended up slowing it down. I bet they test their code thoroughly on the 100m/min machines as it would be expensive crashing one of those.

You are not kidding Rod. The common belief these days is that the Emergency stop button is a bit pointless because a crash is way over by the time you get your hand there.

Mind you 17 m/min isn't bad. Most machines around the place that cost serious money are in the 18 to 25 m/min.

The usual way to do stuff in a machine shop is to single block a program before you run it. On a mill you add on a bit say 100 mm so it is cutting air above the job and then just go through it one line at a time to see that it isn't going to crash into the job of a clamp whatever. The other one we use is two thumbs, one on cycle start and the other on the feed hold button. Press the feed hold when the tool is near the job and check the position screen to see where the machine thinks the tool is and how much further to go. It is slow but you get to be sure that the program is not going to do anything dangerous.

Mind you what I do is programming and machining which is a different thing to making a machine. I find what you have managed to do pretty impressive. Building the sort of machine that would go into a machine shop is way beyond a home shop. Has to be big really rigid be accurate to one micron. Million bucks for a machine like that. *G* Guys that do that sort of thing are shovelling scrap out that the scrap merchants pay them some thousands for each month. I know in Aerospace where they are working high grade aluminium such as 7075 they will get often $20,000 for a months scrap from one machine!

Studley

Originally Posted by Studley 2436

I know in Aerospace where they are working high grade aluminium such as 7075 they will get often $20,000 for a months scrap from one machine!

Studley

So gone are the days that the workers sell scrap on the way home for beer money. That is some serious waste there.

Hi Guys,
Last Thursday night was a stormy, rainy, cold, outright yucky night in Perth. I had a call from Rod saying he was coming over. I went into the shed, got the lpg heater going when suddenly the shed roller door started rolling up. Next this shiny box followed by Rod made its appearance! Well we got hankies, tissues, rags and the like out to dry this alien as it got wet from a leak in sofisticated gutter system of my lean to.
Rod arrived with all the cables and accessories to fire the box up. Well after admiring the "Alien" for about 30 minutes, I gave Rod the go ahead to fire it up. ( I did check my fire insurance policy was up to date before he got the OK tho). Well he threw the switch and the screen and lights all started doing their thing. Hit a button and it actually shows text on the screen. The touch pad lets one scroll up and down,one can plug a thumb drive in, play back a dvd or listen to one's music in stereo from a cd or an mp3 player! I believe the 7.1 surround sound mod is nearly ready. Oh and the touch screen works too! It has a mic input and an audio out and built in speakers. Doing the touch plate thing and it counts the pause period down in some hung over voice too. One can activate the RESET from the screen, the keyboard, the touch pad or one of the switches.......remarkable, especially as Rod claims he is not an electronic wizz. I'm sure he must have a copy of "Electronics for Dummies" in his arsenal.
Well the short of all this for those of you that haven't seen this "Alien" in real life: Its a lovely bit of kit , made in true Rod style and like everything else he makes, it works! Well done Rod, marvellous kit, job well done.

Now as you guys know that when the guys 'review' a tool or a machine, they usually get to keep the unit. Well Rod didn't want to leave that unit with me but he did promise that once he's done some more work on it, he'll send it over after he's built himself a Mark 2.

Thanks Rod, your kind offer is much appreciated!

Hi Joe,
Well I have been done over by a professional here.
The Boss and I had a good laugh at your rhetoric and you deserve to have the console after that effort – but you are not going to get it.

I got all the buttons programmed last night as well as the MPG and the new screens in Mach3.
After a mixed up day I did manage to put together a couple of tool trolleys I got three months ago and mounted the console on one of them. I put the drawers in the bottom compartment as it left the top shelf for the console and provided good drawer storage for my bits and pieces and cutters for the machine. Horrible photo but what do you expect at this time of the night.

Looking good there Rod and I guess the Boss is happy that you got all the buttons programmed and hopefully working too. May be a win!!!!!!!!!
Nite mate, its gone 1 am. What happened to the evening?
Cheers