Thread: Your latest project

Originally Posted by Stustoys

Ok you've talked me out of it for the minute lol. Knowing onthing about it I was thinking it would be much more plug and play. Better get a few other jobs finished first.



Stuart

pin1 high or low for direction
pin 2 pulses for steps

that simple

cheers
Harty

Originally Posted by Stustoys

Hi mahgnia,

Nicely done.
I dont understand how the gauge is going to help?
Why did you relieve the base of the body?


Stuart

The gauge is just a quick method of testing when I have milled the dovetails wide enough on the toolholders. The gauge plate has been machined/fitted to just fit into the toolholder dovetail at the correct size. This should be accurate enough to provide a good fit to the toolpost body without testing the toolholders directly onto the body each time I make a new one.
I am a little short of the necessary measuring equipment at this time.

The base of the body is relieved to provide clearance from the sticking pawl/pin on the compound slide mounting face. It removes the need to continually free up the pin as it tends to jam in the upwards engaged position, interfering with the seating of the body. Chinese build quality....

Originally Posted by Stustoys

Ok you've talked me out of it for the minute lol. Knowing onthing about it I was thinking it would be much more plug and play. Better get a few other jobs finished first.

I'm reliably informed thrust bearings have an inner and an outer(incase you didnt know)


Hi mahgnia,

Nicely done.
I dont understand how the gauge is going to help?
Why did you relieve the base of the body?


Stuart

As harty points out. It's not that technical, I just had not used steppers before. I bought the stepper motor and the controller (the cheapest I could find that I thought would do the job) to marry up to the indexer, not knowing if i was buying compatible components. Turns out that it all worked extremely well! I just assumed it was by good luck rather than good management. Perhaps it's all plug and play as you say?

I think my stepper is a unipolar but I have seen mentioned Hybrid steppers and controllers, I have no idea what they are!

The controller can be configured to move the stepper in full steps (1.8 degrees), 1/2 steps, 1/8 steps, 1/16 steps. How it can do this with a stepper of only 2 phases/windings I am yet to understand. I can understand maybe 1/2 steps since you energise both windings at the same time but not the others.

I don't get your comment on the thrust bearings though!

Cheers,

Simon

You make it sound so easy Harty....I'll have a look around.

Hi mahgnia,
Got it, Thanks

Hi Simon,

Originally Posted by simonl

I don't get your comment on the thrust bearings though!

The bore isnt the same in both races.
As an e.g. I just measured the thrust bearings on my lathe cross-slide, one has a 15mm bore the other 16mm(roughly). A lot more than I was expecting.
Now if I recall correctly, the big bore goes to the housing, the small bore on the shaft???May not even matter much in your app dependong on how close a fit thinngs are?? What I know about bearings couldnt fill even a small book

Stuart

Originally Posted by Stustoys

You make it sound so easy Harty....I'll have a look around.

Hi mahgnia,
Got it, Thanks

Hi Simon,


The bore isnt the same in both races.
As an e.g. I just measured the thrust bearings on my lathe cross-slide, one has a 15mm bore the other 16mm(roughly). A lot more than I was expecting.
Now if I recall correctly, the big bore goes to the housing, the small bore on the shaft???May not even matter much in your app dependong on how close a fit thinngs are?? What I know about bearings couldnt fill even a small book

Stuart

Ok yes I understand what you mean now. I have noticed the small dimensional differences in inner bore with the two races. However, in my application it is of little use or consequence since the outer is not supported inside a housing as such. No different to the bush that it replaced. I assume it's not necessarily imperative that this condition be met since it's a similar setup to the thrust bearing in my norton style gearbox for the leadscrew, nut and washer each side.

The needle thrust bearing has same size washers on each side.

My knowledge of bearings would not fill the first page of your "small book"!

Cheers,
Simon

Originally Posted by simonl

I have been working on a couple of projects...... Both related. I have just finished my rotary indexer

What size rotary table is it?

Originally Posted by .RC.

What size rotary table is it?

Hi RC, It's an 8 inch Vertex. I should have mentioned this in my initial post.

Simon

Thanks, I have an identical model, that i also would like to add power rotation to....

No worries RC. Once I have it all complete and turning the table I will report back. I think all should work really well. My only gamble was the choice of stepper, the NEMA23 may be a little light on but it's a 425 oz In so I think I should be OK. I don't really do very heavy cuts and I'm always very modest with my feed rates. In any case, the motor is rated to 3A and the power supply I'm using is only rated to 2.5A @ 31V so there is room for improvement there before a replacement stepper. I figure worst case will be slowing the stepper down if machining on the outer edges of the RT. I'm not keen to go bigger on the motor as I'm trying to keep things reasonably neat and not so cumbersome.

Not sure if your set up to make PCB or not, I used an adapted PBC design that Joe Hovel and another forum member (from CNCZone) made that is a little more user friendly to make as it has thicker tracks that are easier to etch and solder.


Cheers,
Simon

Hi simon

I would not be worried about the stepper being strong enough My beaver cnc mill conversion runs 500 in oz steppers with a 1:1 drive and 5 tpi thread
I can machine at 35 inches a min
here is a not very interesting video of it facing part of a aluminium intake manafold


so if your stepper is 450 in oz your endmills will break before you stall the motor on the rotary table

cheers
Harty

I've just come off 3 weeks of Christmas shut down, re-levelling a handfull of machines. I had Stu over there giving me a hand, Sunday a few weeks back.

Thought I'd share this Granite Square with you blokes. Its not mine, I talked the customer into buying this. They have a dozen machines it can be used on,
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Its 4" x 3' x 4 foot. AA Grade Standridge. It took a little bit of getting. They ordered the first one about a year ago. When the first one arrived, it was in 4 pieces. About $8k's worth down the drain. The Yanks had packed it on a base, just with some styrene foam under it, and one piece of timber under the long and the pointy end.

It must have got other freight put on top of it, and it exploded. There's one piece in the right angle corner, if I cut the cracked bit off to clean up, I'd get about a 6 inch x 14 inch corner out of.

Phil.

Originally Posted by Machtool

I've just come off 3 weeks of Christmas shut down, re-levelling a handfull of machines. I had Stu over there giving me a hand, Sunday a few weeks back.

Thought I'd share this Granite Square with you blokes. Its not mine, I talked the customer into buying this. They have a dozen machines it can be used on,
P1000153.JPG

P1000152.JPG

Its 4" x 3' x 4 foot. AA Grade Standridge. It took a little bit of getting. They ordered the first one about a year ago. When the first one arrived, it was in 4 pieces. About $8k's worth down the drain. The Yanks had packed it on a base, just with some styrene foam under it, and one piece of timber under the long and the pointy end.

It must have got other freight put on top of it, and it exploded. There's one piece in the right angle corner, if I cut the cracked bit off to clean up, I'd get about a 6 inch x 14 inch corner out of.

Phil.

It looks like an awkward thing to move about Phil. Slung, it's going to drag the out board corner. Maybe a 3 man job?

BT

I thought I'd show you these levels. A new brand on me. Japanese RSK brand. (Niigata Riken Sokuhan).

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P1000156.JPG


P1000154.JPG

There's a crew of guys out from South Korea, installing 3 new machines. They had these with them. I've had a bit to do with them, finding them things they need. Giving them directions to the Casino etc. So I taxed these for a few days.

The Triangular ones have a magnet in the face, much like the Swiss Wyler / Tesa styles I lust for. Unlike the Wyler, these can have the magnet turned on / off with a flip of the lever on top. Makes them much nicer to use. The permanent ones take some skill to get them on with out bumping them. 0.02/metre resolution. Man are they nice.

They also had 2 conventional style flat levels. 200mm long. All hardened, ground & lapped. Not a scrape mark in sight.

Never seen or heard of them before. I found the web site. ¿·³ãÍý¸¦Â¬Èϳô¼°²ñ¼Ò¡ÃÀºÌ©¿å½à´ï¡¢Ä¾³ÑÄ구¡¢Êп´¸¡ºº´ï¡¢Ê¬ÅÙ´ï ¥¹¥È¥ì¡¼¥È¥¨¥Ã¥Â¡¢¤½¤Î¾¡¢Ì깩¶ñÀ½Â¤ÈÎÇä

Mostly in Japanese, but you can see them by following the "Products English" link.

There's a technical translator on site. He seems to think he can pick them up in Korea, for around $1600, which would make then far cheaper than a Wyler Version.

Regards Phil.

Originally Posted by Anorak Bob

It looks like an awkward thing to move about Phil. Slung, it's going to drag the out board corner. Maybe a 3 man job?

BT

No 3 man job, I've been locked in there by myself since new year.It has a steel insert in the back sloped face. But the rotten thing is 3/4 UNC being Yanky. (Sorry Bruce). I didn't feel like stopping to buy an odd ball eye bolt.

A rag sling through the top litening hole, is close, but it does hang a few degrees off plumb. You can see the white mark from that top hole going up. I must have cleaned the rest of it while I had it hanging on the crane.

I've since made a 3/4 to M16 stand off that screws into the back, M16 eye bolts I have plenty of.

Regards Phil.

Just on that first granite. The manufacturer denied any responsibility. Claimed they ship them like that all the time, and never had a problem. 4 foot of granite, and only supported at each end, with a thin layer of foam in between the span.

The sent the second one exactly the same way, but my customer had it sent to one of their offices in the States and had it repacked before sending it on. They did come to the party eventually. The second one was half price. So that's only worth about $12 - $13k now.