Thread: Show us your mill

Originally Posted by Dave J

Hi Ray,
It looks to me like the quill motor is running to the fine down feed shaft, that has had the standard hand wheel removed.

Dave

Hi dave

yep you are corrrect
this does have its downsides like you get all the backlash from the original machine but with nearly all the stuff I mill it isnt a problem
I do have a ballscrew for the z but dont want to put it on as the way I have it set up now you can disengage the quill and drill manually or retract very easily
I will drive the knee at some stage but not a priority at the moment and will need more than 500inoz

cheers harty

Hi Dave,

Using the quill fine feed makes a lot of sense, I guess it depends on how much backlash is in the quill feed mechanism, but maybe you could program around that..

Hi Harty,
I see the VFD front panel has been relocated to the head, do you interface to that with EMC? if so, are you using the Mesa IO cards? Software spindle speed control?

The switch panel on the right, under the DRO, is that just for jogging? Do you use a pendant?

Sorry, too many questions, I know...

Regards
Ray

PS Looks like we cross-posted again

Hi ray

I dont have the vfd run from emc but i can if i want i like to tweek the spindle speeds a bit when machining i was going to set up for rigid tapping until i found out how easy helical milling was and i have 2 tapping heads anyway

the switch panel is for coolant, power to the stepper drives, dro power and spindle power
I use a gamepad as a pendant but am looking at making a mpg pendant soon

cheers
Harty

Thanks Harty,

I think I'm going to have to make a field trip to the the south-west...

I did a PCB for spindle control, with auto-off-manual fwd-rev switching, but haven't got around to finishing it..

It's three seperate things, the tacho is a standard air-core movement with 270 degrees, the spindle interface in auto is driven by opto-isolated outputs from the Mesa IO board. and the rest of the board is a little speed & feed computer with LCD display.. with pots for entering cutter diameter, material, cutter-type etc..



It will (eventually) mount on the front of the mill, pretty much the same place on the HM52 as where you have the VFD panel on the beaver.

Regards
Ray

PS.. the cpu is a PIC16LF1519, which I think might appeal to Jason Jayson..

Your are most welcome to come up to the center of the known universe (horsham) and pay us a visit any time you like

Jayson is working hard on his mill project at the moment he is starting to asemble it
I think he is using the same servos as you have just bigger
so plenty of cnc fun for all I have aslo been playing around with a centering camera setup on the cnc lathe which I may put on the mill also

the spindle control looks good

cheers
Harty

Harty,
if ai can co-ordinate it with Ray and meet him en route, would you mind if I came along?

Ray,
if Harty agrees, might that suit you too?
Joe

Hi Joe,

All good with me, just need for Harty to sort out what would be a good day to visit the center of the universe. we won't need fuel, gravity should do the work..

Hi Harty,
The centering camera sounds interesting, I've got an imaging application on the go at the moment. (I'm using an Leuze LSIS 412i M43-W1-01 camera) It would be good to compare notes.

If you are interested in the spindle control PCB, I could let you have a spare pcb, and a few parts.

Regards
Ray

Well my mill is still in the process of a little sprucing up but here are a few pics anyway...

This is my beaver when Harty and I first picked it up

Attachment 193787

and this is where I am at so far

Attachment 193788

Still a bit to do but getting there. Some more pics of the process so far can be found here : Gallery | Beaver Milling Machine

Your board is looking good RayG. Can't wait to see it mounted and running.

Jayson.

Hi Ray

any weekend in jan at this stage is free

Joe the more the merrier

cheers
Harty

Originally Posted by Jayson

Your board is looking good RayG. Can't wait to see it mounted and running.

I can't wait until he is taking orders

Looks like a handy piece of kit Ray. Does it have some sort of multiplier so the rpm scale switches to x10 below 800rpm?

Stuart

Well my mill is still in the process of a little sprucing up but here are a few pics anyway...

This is my beaver when Harty and I first picked it up

003.jpg

and this is where I am at so far

KICX1924.jpg

Still a bit to do but getting there. Some more pics of the process so far can be found here : Gallery | Beaver Milling Machine

Your board is looking good RayG. Can't wait to see it mounted and running.

Jayson.

Nice looking very sexy

Hope to see it finshed soon and Maybe a video

Cooper

Originally Posted by Stustoys

I can't wait until he is taking orders

Looks like a handy piece of kit Ray. Does it have some sort of multiplier so the rpm scale switches to x10 below 800rpm?

Stuart

Hi Stuart,

Don't hold you breath waiting for boards, it's taken me longer than I care to think just to get this far..

On the Tacho scaling I'm just going with 0-2000 rpm, maybe 0-4000, not sure yet.

Regards
Ray

Hi Jayson,

The beaver is looking good, looks like the heavy lifting is done, and it's starting to come back together.
I seem to remember you got the 750W 240V AC servos. Those should make it zip along nicely.

Regards
Ray

Hi Ray,
That would work to I guess lol

Stuart