Messages

6741

Tangent Corner / Re: Restore Lathe Tailstock

« on: April 19, 2011, 12:30:04 PM »

Russ,

An alternative thought - if your tailstock is adjustable and in two parts then could you fit horizontal shims between the two parts to raise the height ?

Tweakie.

6742

Tangent Corner / Re: Restore Lathe Tailstock

« on: April 19, 2011, 12:08:20 PM »

Russ,

John Mac did the saddle of his lathe with a low friction epoxy compound - follow the link here http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,18189.0.html
May be worth further investigation (seems simple enough stuff to make).

Tweakie.

6743

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: The Laser Project.

« on: April 19, 2011, 08:31:55 AM »

Thanks Sam.
When I made the knob I could hear your words, saying "anno it"  

Tweakie.

6744

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: The Laser Project.

« on: April 19, 2011, 08:08:00 AM »

Over the winter months the Synrad RF Laser controller went through much testing and as luck would have it, performs better than I had even hoped - the inbuilt, hardware PWM of the PIC micro is just brilliant and so stable under all the test conditions.
Now on to the enclosure which is really just a front cover because the PCB will be mounted on the outside of the laser housing and this cover fitted over the top.

1) The enclosure cutout and window milled to size. This cover started it’s life as the lid from an IP65 enclosure.

2) The front panel (1.5mm engraving laminate) which has yet to be engraved. I prefer to draw my work on paper, others prefer to use CAD - whatever, the end result is still a toolpath for the CNC.

3) The knob - perhaps doesn't look like it but more work has gone into this knob than I care to admit. It was turned, CNC machined, sand blasted and then anodized. And, like most things, if I had a second go at it I could probably make a better job.
 
4) Still some way to go but this is how the parts made so far will fit together.


Tweakie.

6745

General Mach Discussion / Re: Reprap 3D printing machines

« on: April 19, 2011, 01:58:53 AM »

I just dont see what the difficulty in the interfacing can be. I have seen the repraps, darwins, mendels and makerbots. What makes them so capable that any sherline, 80/20, taig cant do? Primitive by my standards. Do I have to be first? I want to modify my A2ZCNC, it would probably be best as an extruder anyway

Someone has to be first, why not you ? 

Start a new thread, post details of your progress and many more will follow (me included).

Tweakie.

6746

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Epoxy Bearing Material and Method

« on: April 18, 2011, 11:12:44 AM »

Hi John,

I read your presentation but I am still unsure about what you put on the thread first to stop the epoxy sticking and how did you centre the sleeve on the rod while the epoxy cured ?

Tweakie.

6747

General Mach Discussion / Re: Steppers and mach out of sync

« on: April 18, 2011, 06:15:15 AM »

Yes.

Pins 18 to 25 are ground (negative lead of multimeter) connect the positive lead to a step pin and then jog the axis one way it should read approx. 5 Volts and the other way it should read approx. 0 Volts.

Tweakie.

6748

General Mach Discussion / Re: Steppers and mach out of sync

« on: April 18, 2011, 03:53:03 AM »

Hmmm, sounds about right then for motor current. I will give this matter some more thought. 

The driver board is not the best but it is not bad either so should work OK. There is an issue with some opto isolators requiring the full 5 volt TTL levels and PC parallel ports only outputting the 3.3 volt TTL logic signal. If you can, it may be worth checking your LPT port to see if the direction signal pins swing approx 0 to 5 volts when jogging an axis or if they only make 3.3 volts.

Tweakie.

6749

General Mach Discussion / Re: Steppers and mach out of sync

« on: April 18, 2011, 01:58:19 AM »

The basic setting up instructions for this board are here http://fozztexx.com/CNC/HY-TB3DV-M_3Axis_Driver.pdf  may be worth checking the settings against against your setup of both the board and Mach.

My guess is that you have tight spots or binding (perhaps lead screw, perhaps linear slide) which are causing the motor to loose the steps and thus produce the inaccuracy you describe. Providing the motors are not getting hotter than you can keep your hand on comfortably then you could try increasing the drive current and or increasing the drive voltage to 36 Volts.

Tweakie.

6750

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach Just Stops

« on: April 17, 2011, 01:18:41 AM »

Hi Dave,

I am glad you have got it sorted.

In an ideal world you should investigate and resolve the noise problem rather than just rely on the de-bounce but 500 is not over the top and many use a higher figure than this. 

Tweakie.