Machsupport Forum
General CNC Chat => Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) => Topic started by: Chaoticone on October 09, 2006, 06:04:08 PM
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Here are some pics of my little Frankenstein. Not much, but I sure do love it being controlled by Mach.
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Looks good, takes me back to my first conversion of a manual Bridgeport. How do you find it with the knee being the Z Axis? Is the weight enough to take the backlash out of it or have you fitted a ballscrew?
I was like you and decided to keep the handles on the X and Y as I was adamant that I would use them quite a bit for simple jobs, I was wrong and a nine inch angle grinder came into play as I was too lazy to make up spacer ;)
BTW whats got your coolant hose so excited ;)
Hood
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Yes it does look good.
Could you please do me a favour and make the pictures a bit smaller so they can fit on others screens. Bigger is not necessarily better !
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Hood,
It's the Mach. What can I say, he's in love!!!!!! :o He's changed so much since he meet Mach. They are just dancing around, all the time, doing frivolous things. Maybe the infatuation will wear off one day and they can put their heads together and do something productive. They sure are having allot of fun now though. I'm pretty sure this is going to be a long lasting love!!!!! ;D
Yes, the knee is heavy enough to remove any backlash it may have had. No drift,no counter weights, no break and no d_ _ _ speed. >:( 8 in. minute is all I can get on the knee, 130+ on the x and y. I don't think this will be to big a problem though, most stuff I'll be cutting will have a low feed anyway. Spindle is to slow to feed too fast.I'm using 1780 oz.in. steppers on all three axis. The finial drive for the knee is 6-1. I replaced the lead screw and nut, with high precision ones. I also replaced all the bearings and gears. It is pretty tight. I have .0015 backlash in the knee, .0015 in the y, and .002 in the x.
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Here are a few cuts.
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I have a similar machine, I used retrofit components from Elrod machine. He makes a VERY nice quill drive. It is cool in the fact that it can be manually disengaged so you can still use the quill handle when you need to. It is a great company to work with. This would really help with the speed problem in the z. I can get over 300 ipm on all three axis but I have it limited to about half of that as it is just scary at those speeds.
You can see some pictures of our machine here (towards the bottom) http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=627.0
Here is the link to the elrod site. http://www.elrodmachine.com/CNC_Z_Axis_Quill_Drive.htm
Chad
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Oh yea, I saw those pics. I want to see that 5 axis monster run. You do good work. I'll have to keep an eye on you. Thanks for the link, I will check it out.
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I thought about doing the knee at first but decided to go with the quill as I thought I would probably have speed issues. I ended up using a tiny wee stepper on the quill (260oz/in) with a 3:1 reduction and 5mm pitch ballscrew, it worked great. Tool changes could be a PITA with the R8 collets being so long and thats where the knee being the Z would be good.
Hood
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I do like the knee because it has like 15in. of travel. One 1780oz.in. motor would move the knee with a 2-1 gearing, but that was all it would do. I've gotta try to put another stepper on it, Stack or 3 pulley set up just to see. I've never got the torque curve for these motors yet. That will help me make a decision.
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Is that a connecting rod for a harley?
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No, believe it or not it is for a hotrod tractor. They run it in tractor pulls.
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BRETT,
I THOUGHT YOU WERE KIDDING,YOUR NOT COOL HARLEY ROD ,I LIKE THE IDEA OF STEPPERS FOR SIMPLICITY,HOW FAST CAN IT GO WITH STEPPERS AND WHAT VOLTAGE IS YOURS.
TUNING THE SERVO DRIVES WAS THE TOUGHEST PART OF MINE,ATLEAST WITH THE RUTEX DRIVES THE PID TUNING THE I INCORPERATES THE FOLLOWING ERROR,SO WHEN MACH SAYS MOVE .100 IT MAY MOVE .097 OR A LITTLE OFF
THE MAKES IT STAY AT .100 UNDER CUTTING LOAD,EXAMPLE IF MACHINE WAS STILL AND YOU TURNED BALLSCREW
THE I WOULD FIGHT YOU BACK OR RETURN IT TO THE X .100
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Hey Patrick,
I can only run the x & y at 90 IPM safely. I could rapid at about 130 IPM if I didn't like the safety factor. I replaced the lead screws with adjustable preload ball screws, .200 lead. The steppers are 1780 oz. in. runnning at 65 volts, gearing is 1-1. The rods are for a tractor, not a Harley. I was amazed at how well the little machine handled the job. I roughed them out with a .750 4 flute carbide end mill taking a depth of cut of .260 at 28 IPM. It took 5 passes as the material was 1.250 thick. Your right about the nice circles Mach does. However, the bores were finished with a boring bar as well on these. I only ran the profile for a friend who is a manual machinest. He finished the bores and bolt holes. At times, I wish I had gone with servos but then again the little machine is not the most rigid foundation and the steppers have served me well so far. The nice thing about the steppers is that if I do screw up, not that I ever have ;D, the machine shouldn't destroy its self before they stall. Lucky me had a friend that had set Mach up on a machine of his that helped with the project. He designed the first controls to fit in an old cabinet I had and wired it for me. He brought it over one evening, we wired it up in about 30 minutes, and cut a wood rod that night for testing. I have all new components for a new control cabinet that will house everything, monitor and all. I also have some gas springs ordered to help the stepper with the knee.
Brett
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stop yer yappin and get that bloody cabinet finished, I bet you are still going to be doing it when I eventually get my lathe up and running :D
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LOL, I probably would have finished it already if it weren't for a Red Neck Fifer teaching me so much. ;) I figure I better listen to him while he is around, at his age you never know how much longer he will be with us. :D
Brett
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Didnt know you had been conversing with Mr McGrath, hes the only Fifer I know and yes he is getting on a bit ;)
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Hood, let me clear this up. Are you telling me he is an old Red Neck Fifer too? I didn't relize there were more than one of you.........I mean them, in the world. :D
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Fortunately there was a piece of water between my place of birth and the Kingdom of Fife. there are many many Fifers but they are best left trapped between the Tay and the Forth, Mr McGrath is one of the slightly better ones and he is allowed day release over the Forth and occasionally he is also allowed North over the Tay.
Hood
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LOL Hood, you haven't missed a step today.
Brett
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"LoL Hood,you have not missed a step all day"
Unfortunately you can`t say the same about his mill.It steps away when no one is near it.Well it does when i`m there.
You seem to be a bit muddled Brett,Hood is not a Fifer.We think he is a Dundonian from Dundee.He has very,very deep pockets and short,short arms and is extremely careful with his pennies which is classic Dundonian behaviour.
He is not getting on so well with the lathe although I did go up to help him power it up.In fact the top half of your avatar reminds me of his home built rectifier the day we put power on it.
We have also had him down in Broxburn running a milling machine for us.Obviously we programmed it and just let him close the vice and push the cycle start.It was good experience for him to run a real cnc control even if it was on a Bridgeport and gave him some extra pennies.Besides we needed his screws for the QC30 nut.
Once he has rebuilt the rectifier I will go back up and help him set up his servos once he can afford me.
Mark.
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Mark,
Let me see if I have this straight. Your saying Hood is not an old Red Neck Fifer. He is however an old Red Neck Dundonian. Am I right so far? He hinted that you were in fact the old Red Neck Fifer. I hope I'm right so far, didn't think there could be 2 of either in the world. He helps you and you help him. You have a lot in common with one another. He likes to make fire and smoke and you like to watch fire and smoke. You are both old Red Necks, just one is a fifer and the other is a Dundonian. It is more than obvious that you both like to pick at one another, cut up, and laugh.
Please tell me I'm right so far. If I have missed anything, fill me in. I need to know what I'll be dealing with over there when I come over. (As soon as my rich uncle gets out of the poor house). Which brings me to another question. Who do I petition for a permission slip, the Fifers or the Dundonian or do I have to get a separate one from each? I have been approved by the Red Neck council for free roam, however, I'm not sure it covers the above. ;D
Brett
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Brett,you have it bang on.Did I mention he`s so ugly his mother used to put him face down in the pram when she took him out.
Permission from a Fifer lets you roam where you like.
Mark.
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Ok, Good, I was staring to get confused. Glad you got me straight on all of that. As far as Hoods looks, I don't know what pram means. I would never say anything bad about Hood, I think too much of him. Just clear this up for me. In your statement,
Did I mention he`s so ugly his mother used to put him face down in the pram when she took him out.
I can only assum this is equal to our saying over here. "If I had a dog that was that ugly, I'd shave his a$$ and walk him backwards".
Is that a fair analogy?
Brett
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Well there are a few points to clear up here but first it is good to see that Mr McGrath has finally admitted that he is a Fifer :D
Brett,you have it bang on.
Secondly I have been on at him for a long time to get the lens's in those mirrored specs he wears reversed, they are in the wrong way.
Got the transformer powered up today and its humming away nicely, was a bit dissapointed though as the loud bang and large sparks the last time gave me quite a rush :D
So now you have it Brett, Mark is indeed a Fifer although previous to this he has always tried to deny it, I was born in Dundee which is the correct side of the river Tay but never the less is pretty close to Fife, but I was clever enough even at the tender age of 3 Days to leave and move a bit further North to Carnoustie (the town Tiger Woods doesnt like ;) )
BTW did Mark mention that it was his son that programmed the Heidenhein on his [SIZE=20PT]BRIDGEPORT[/SIZE] cause he cant.
Hood
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Brett,
Your analogy is spot on.Trouble is he`s bald at both ends so it is difficult to tell.
Pram=perambulator/push chair/buggy.What do you push young babies about in?
I see Hood`s posted while I was typing this.The rush he refers to is the rush he made for the door.
He moved further north cos he was that ugly even the Dundonians didn`t want him.
Mark.
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LOL, this is fun.
We push our babies around in what we call strollers. It is a buggy.
I'm glad your transformer is humming nicely now Hood and that you didn't get hurt running for the door last time. Maybe when Mark gets his lens's in right, you could teach him how to write G-code. LOL You two are funny.
Brett
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Naw nae point, hes that auld that it taks him a his time tae mind tae haul his troosers doon afore he has a crap. No way would I be able to teach him code ;)
Hood