Messages

1

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Lathe/Mill Combo Conversion

« on: January 01, 2008, 10:54:07 PM »

The milling spindle on my machine is MT3, although I've noticed on the latest machine they switched to R8 which seems to be much easier to find tooling for.

I just found out last year the lathe is MT4 and comes with a dead center, but I've never used anything but a chuck.


So far it has served me very well...  the lathe is excellent for my needs and the mill is fine for aluminum and plastics, and I have used it to fly-cut mild steel and stainless.  For general and 3D milling of steels it is not quite a stiff enough arrangement.  I am planning on getting a plain mill when budget allows.

2

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Lathe/Mill Combo Conversion

« on: December 30, 2007, 12:12:40 PM »

Hi Bill!

I started by converting the lathe portion of my machine as well as the X & Y axis are more straightforward than the Z.  I purchased ballscrews cut-to-length and with ends already machined, and made my own preloaded ballnuts.  I went with servo drive as I like the closed loop and didn't find the price difference too significant.

I tore out pretty much every part of the original motion system and made some brackets to hold everything in.  The first phase was a pain as I had to keep re-assembling the machine so I could use it to turn bearing and ballnut mounts and then tear it apart to test-fit 

I just drill and tap the casting as necessary and use 1/4" mild steel plate for all the bracketry.  I think Mach3 is definitely the way to go!

Good luck!

   Marcus

3

Competitions / Re: ******Guess and win a G100 Grex******

« on: May 22, 2007, 10:49:00 AM »

It looks like 2,674,361 to me!

4

General Mach Discussion / Re: Router to plasma and back for $300 w/water bath

« on: May 04, 2007, 01:51:19 PM »

Very cool & clever!

The Hypertherm is not a high-frequency start is it?  Have you encountered any noise issues or did you do any special grounding?  My present HF plasma (and HF start TIG) create enough EMI to cause my unshielded Mach3 setup to hang across the room.

5

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Lathe/Mill Combo Conversion

« on: February 20, 2007, 04:33:01 PM »

Here are some shots of my Lathe/Mill combo.  I purchased it in Canada from Busy Bee Tools (Craftex Brand) but there are some disturbingly similar ones available elsewhere   (e.g. Harbor Freight etc.)

I bought this as my first machine a newbie, I realize now the mill column isn't super-stiff and it's kind of awkward having to put a riser block on the bed to get near the spindle.  It works fairly well for my hobby-grade stuff nonetheless.









(why yes, that is an A2Z toolpost, home made digitizing probe on top of the cabinet, homecnc.info servos, homeshopcnc ballscrews, etc...       )

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Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Machining the compass inserts

« on: February 19, 2007, 02:00:26 PM »

Aha, that makes sense!  I should have guessed the backside was flat in those images 

Very nice work indeed!

7

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Machining the compass inserts

« on: February 19, 2007, 12:38:52 PM »

Very cool Dan!  So your engraving cutter is just a sharpened carbide rod?  Do you spin the spindle or does it just scratch the pattern?  I'm surprised how well it works without any cutting edges.  I had thought about strapping one of those vibrating engraving pens to my spindle to try something similar but it is a lot easier to line things up with a cutter true to the spindle.  Does it only work because the silver is so malleable?

8

Tangent Corner / Re: DYI Rapid Prototyping

« on: February 07, 2007, 04:07:30 PM »

A DIY http://www.zcorp.com/

The ones I have seen work like zcorp stuff... in an empty box it spreads and ultra-thin layer of powder, then inkjet prints a layer on it.  The ink bonds with the powder, and then it lays down another thin layer.  Basically like stacking sheets of paper on each other one at a time and cutting each one to form a 3D object.  Cool stuff!

9

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Blender 3D and Mach3

« on: January 26, 2007, 02:37:43 PM »

Yes, sounds like you are looking for 2.5D instead of 3D (X, Y, and 'up or down' vs a continuously variable Z).  Have a look at the SheetCAM website and LazyCAM as ger21 suggested.  Can Blender render a 2D projection of what you want to cut out and then export that as a 2D DXF/HPGL/etc for something like LazyCAM?

10

VB and the development of wizards / Re: New Turn Wizard work in progress (use with care) Parabolic Curve

« on: December 21, 2006, 01:11:32 PM »

Yes indeed!  Thanks for sharing with the community!  I just downloaded your other taper wizards and am going to play with them as well.

I hope to contribute something back soon.