Topics

1

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Another TCL Video

« on: December 19, 2008, 11:56:41 AM »

You might like to compare these two videos.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=pgAdO5TLDN0

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=rID_OoHl3D4

Just showing what gang tooling, gecko 203Vs and Mach3 at 75 kHz can do.

This is the job it is doing, it is 25mm long.


Ian

2

General Mach Discussion / Imagineering

« on: October 01, 2008, 04:20:40 PM »

A heads up for UK people.

http://www.imagineeringweb.co.uk/

Exhibition at the Ricoh Arena 11-12 th October.

Great fun for children, parents and grandparents
The general idea is to catch the interest of young children by introducing them to the world of engineering, science and technology (and I got to sit in a Bently convertable last year!)

Ian

3

General Mach Discussion / Tribute to Art

« on: January 02, 2008, 07:05:25 PM »

Art,

On your retirement trip to Egypt, you might see this on a Temple wall
A big thank you for your contribution to the world of CNC.

Ian (Just back from a Luxor/Aswan/Luxor Nile trip )

4

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Cameo

« on: December 05, 2007, 05:38:47 AM »

Trying to impress SWMBO, I used a picture I had taken of her a few years ago and imported it into LazyCam as a jpg. I set the maximum depth of cut to about 90 per cent of the thickness of the Perspex material and using a hand ground 60 degree engraving cutter, let Mach do it's magic. The size is about 60 x 60 x 3 mm. She has it displayed so visitors can see it, so I guess she was quite pleased. The pictures are of the original photo, a backlit one and a sidelit one to show the machineing marks.

Ian

5

General Mach Discussion / Novamill Test

« on: November 12, 2007, 01:46:02 PM »

I have posted a short video of my little Novamill doing a test run.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMSKSDKfB3g

It was originally fitted with a CNC4PC C11 Ver 3 breakout board but this had troubles talking to my Routout drivers. A C11G board cured the problem. Arturo Duncan sent me his new C11 Ver 5.3 board and this is the test code I am using :-

N10 G90
N20 G21
N30 G94
N40 M98  L10 P123
N1000 M30

O123
G91
G00 x5y-5z5
G00 x-5y5z-5
G90

M99

The main code is just acting as a counter for the subroutine which exercises XY and Z simultaneously plus and minus 5mm.
Getting all the DTI's lined up for a video was more difficult than writing the code!
Speeds  - X 2.27m/min Y 2.04m/min Z 1.08 m/min. Mach3 is running at 45kHz. The Z is slow because it is not counterbalanced.

Ian

6

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / TCL with Gecko's

« on: November 07, 2007, 05:18:56 PM »

The saga continues.............
Encouraged by some help on the Yahoo Gecko group, I ordered two Gecko's for my TCL 125. I am very impressed, so I thought I would share the figures. Originally, I had stripped out the Boxford/BBC micro bits and replaced them with the standard £30.00 Allegro type 30 Volt 3amp drivers. This gave me 1.8 m/min speed for a G00 move before the steppers stalled. Toolplate video on the Mach Youtube site shows what was achieved (Posted as dvbydt).

I have attached photos of the electronics and the method I used to measure the torque at the ball screw.

In comparison, holding torque is up from 0.59 Nm to 0.90Nm and at cutting feed speeds from 0.30 Nm to 0.85 Nm. Maximum speed of the steppers is also up from 920 rpm to 1350rpm and I am out of speed with Mach3 at 45 Khz. This was with the same power supply at 27volts. More fine tuning and a 48 Volt power supply to come.

This will probably only give a 10-15% improvement in cycle time for simple components but will give increased metal removal rates on heavy cuts.

I'll keep you posted!

Ian

7

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Another Boxford TCL Video

« on: October 13, 2007, 07:36:37 AM »

Benny liked my toolplate video, so I posted another one for his amusement :-

http://www.youtube.com/group/artsoft

This is with the 8 station turret fitted. G00 is only 750 mm/min, I have now got it running at 1.8M/min.

Ian(dvbydt)

8

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Novamill

« on: July 30, 2007, 07:02:18 PM »

Just finished the control box on my Denford Novamill, it is 6 x 8 x 10 ins. My advice is to use a box at least twice the size you think you will need!!!
List of contents:-
3 Routout(UK) 2.5 amp stepper drivers.
CNC4PC C11G BOB.
24V 6Amp Power supply.
5V 2.5Amp Power supply.
Spindle motor Contactor.
E-stop relay.
Novolt release starter.
Big fan and filter.

The front panel was engraved with a 1.0 mm cutter using the Mach Write wizard.

Mounted on the back is the SMC-00 DC spindle motor controller from www.beel.ca and an EMC Filter.

The numbers, which are 5mm high, were created in DesignCad using a vector font, exported as a DXF, then imported into Lazycam. I used a small pneumatic impact engraver resiliently mounted, to mark on the 45mm dia stainless steel tube.  DesignCad has a plug-in, ContourCam, which I have yet to play with.

Still learning but the curve IS getting less steep.

Ian Ralston

   

9

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Christmas Trees

« on: December 19, 2006, 11:03:03 AM »

Seasons Greetings!
Made these on my Mach converted Boxford TCL 125 lathe. The code was originally for the BBC Computer but I rewrote it for Mach.
Xylotex drivers, CNC4PC breakout board, BEL spindle drive card.
Just for fun.

Ian