Messages

8361

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Building a 4th Axis from scratch.

« on: February 27, 2009, 03:17:26 AM »

Hi Vince,

I took a few photo's during making some of the parts and I will try to document the construction of the project on my website.

Tweakie.

8362

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Building a 4th Axis from scratch.

« on: February 27, 2009, 03:00:33 AM »

Hi RC,

This is difficult to describe but as the 4 main parts of the case are not directly fixed to each other (they are keyed vertically) the small end plates can be moved vertically (and shims inserted) to increase the mesh of the gears to eliminate any backlash. The front and back plates are then clamped together by the 4 screws, trapping the end plates in position. The top and base plates trap the shims and make the whole assembly rigid. The stepper position will also be adjustable.

I am certain that initially there will be some degree of wear between the gears as they 'bed-in' so adjustment for backlash is essential.

Tweakie.

8363

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Building a 4th Axis from scratch.

« on: February 26, 2009, 10:13:01 AM »

As a winter project i have slowly been building a 4th Axis. I did seriously think about making a scroll chuck but decided on buying a Sherline 3 jaw for the project. All the other parts (excluding the flex coupling) have been made from stock, some parts CNC'd others made on a lathe or mill.
There is still a lot of work to do but I thought I could post some pictures of the progress so far.

8364

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Miser engine

« on: February 26, 2009, 02:13:52 AM »

Vince,

As the hole is for a grub screw couldn't the hole be counter bored, say,the diameter of the tap shank then only tapped for the length of the grub screw ?. This could save the expense of buying a special, long tap.

Tweakie.

8365

Tangent Corner / Re: I'm not a spam bot.

« on: February 25, 2009, 09:49:00 AM »

Super Kitty says "thank you".

Good luck with your collecting. If you have any technical problems with your CNC build, the guys on this forum are brilliant and only too willing to be of assistance.

All the best,

Tweakie.

8366

Tangent Corner / Re: I'm not a spam bot.

« on: February 25, 2009, 07:52:18 AM »

What sort of machine do you have Will ?.

Tweakie.

8367

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Miser engine

« on: February 25, 2009, 07:48:10 AM »

Hi Vince,

Sorry to hear about the work slow down. Very nice sterling you are making there.

Tweakie.

8368

General Mach Discussion / Re: can you move the motors manually

« on: February 23, 2009, 03:02:23 AM »

It's completely unnecessary to move the table manually - Move the part to its new position, jog the table to where it needs to be, and re-set the DRO.  This is the more conventional way of handling your problem.

Regards,
Ray L.

Brilliant solution here by Ray. Coincidentally that is the way I used to do it before I fitted the disable switches. It is only when you come to actually making stuff that is longer than the table size that you discover the most convenient way of doing it.

Luckily, in this world, there is always more than one way of doing everything.

Tweakie.

8369

Third party software and hardware support forums. / Re: Prolight 3000 Lathe

« on: February 22, 2009, 08:03:31 AM »

Hi Henry,

Hood is the expert on this type of conversion, I am sure he will be able to help.

Tweakie.

8370

General Mach Discussion / Re: can you move the motors manually

« on: February 22, 2009, 02:32:46 AM »

By way of explanation for what I use the axis disable for :-

I have had occasion to make wooden signs that are longer than my work table and so they have to be routed in stages. When the progress of the work reaches near to the end of the table, I pause Mach, disable the Y Axis, reposition the work and table manually (with the cutter in exactly the same position on the work), re-enable the Y Axis then restart Mach for the next phase. As Mach knows nothing about this repositioning (DROs remain the same), the work progresses as normal. For this to be successful the routing on each part of the job must be complete prior to the move and this sometimes means some GCode editing prior to starting the job. It is perhaps a bit long winded and does require positioning jigs but this method does enable work that is longer than the cutting area to be undertaken.

Tweakie.