Messages

671

General Mach Discussion / Re: Advice Needed- retrofitting lathe to CNC

« on: January 19, 2017, 04:56:08 AM »

any thoughts or suggestions for ideal speeds for these materials?

Nope, look them up and see what is recommended.

I would suggest you do some design for the retrofit and to arrive at what you will need first.
A 3/8" thk precision ground steel plate would provide for easy attachment to the current bed and allow size options
for creating what ever you come up with for the X and Z axis.
As a starter, may want to consider using assembling purchased parts from current produced small lathes.

Lay it all out!

RICH

672

General Mach Discussion / Re: Advice Needed- retrofitting lathe to CNC

« on: January 17, 2017, 06:56:50 AM »

Suggest the following:

Get an idea of retro fit total cost for what you idealy want in the end.
Seems you can't do the work yourself so be practical on having machining work done by others. You may come to the conclusion that it's financialy smarter to
get something else.

Only your operation and number of parts to be done will define the level of automation required. I assume you will be selling the parts so do some number crunching.

Gang tooling can become restrictive ( my opinion ). Flexibility is gained with a small turret or even quick change. Just someting to consider.

Intent is to machine plastics and wood. Determine the rpm operating range required for you want to do. What is rated spindle operating range? BTW,
may as well consider spindle bearing replacement.

Just some thoughts,

RICH

673

General Mach Discussion / Re: Lathe Wizard question

« on: January 15, 2017, 05:16:24 AM »

How can I change this?

Config>System Hotkeys Setup
Click the jog hotkey of choice and then touch the associated key on the keyboard.

RICH

674

General Mach Discussion / Re: Homing switch concerns

« on: January 12, 2017, 08:16:17 AM »

Tim,

Accuracy and repeatability will only be as good as the machines "system".
So the "system" is made up of each mechanical and electronic item.
Variations of system items add up to some general capability / tolerance.
Keep the above in mind.


So your question.......
If so how can I guarantee that 0,0,0 will be in the same place after each 'homing'??

The only way would be to test, but,be carefull about what your testing since one needs to isolate a system part. That can be difficult.


May want to try the follwing:

Probe ( single probe touch off at a very slow feed rate ) the same tool to the same reference point / surfaces from a manually created  home position while in machine coordinates and no work offset.  ( your not going to use the switches) Do it ten times and use the mean square average as the probing tolerance.

Now probe using the switches similar to the above.The setter used in touch off should be roughly located similar in distance and location as was used when not using the switches. Find tolerance.

When you compare the above tolerences that gives an good idea of what you can
expect relative to the any switch.  

Just a thought,

RICH

BTW, 1" square gage block ( can find them for cheap!) provides 5 probing surfaes and can be easily mounted to suite your needs.  

675

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Parabolic Dish

« on: January 10, 2017, 09:48:28 PM »

Brian,
No disrespect intended on your advise.
My reply was intended to offer an alternative to suggested ways of accomplishing something. I also said where I was coming from in suggesting it.

Take Care,
RICH

676

General Mach Discussion / Re: Auto stop on spindle overload.

« on: January 10, 2017, 07:33:19 AM »

Who needs limit switches? I don't have  one machine that uses them. 

RICH

677

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Parabolic Dish

« on: January 10, 2017, 07:27:25 AM »

Mike,
Is this for a mill or lathe?

RICH

678

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Parabolic Dish

« on: January 10, 2017, 07:25:38 AM »

I think you're problem is better solved using a 3d cad program to construct the surface and then a CAM programme to generate the gcode

.

A easier way would be to use the calculator, get the points, put into 2d CAD and it have it drawn.
Even that  requires some level of experience.

CamBam can do it all and there is info in the manual on how it's done.

A number of ways, but, my thoughts are what is free and needs the least amount of know how to do.

Rich

679

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Parabolic Dish

« on: January 10, 2017, 07:17:42 AM »

Tweakie,
Good reply and it  will help for sure, but it utilizes MeshCam for the pathing and there is learning curve with MeshCam and to get the file  there.
The parabolic  calculator is worth downloading also.

Don't recall if  there is a wizard for a parabola using the mill.
There is one for the lathe though.

RICH

680

General Mach Discussion / Re: Auto stop on spindle overload.

« on: January 10, 2017, 06:51:58 AM »

It would be much better to know what you can and can't do with your lathe than creating something to address bad programing.
A few minutes of hobby time to do something when using CNC is nothing!

Just a thought,

RICH