Messages

181

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Re: Throttle body spacer

« on: June 04, 2007, 04:13:46 PM »

Cool!

Amazing what you can do!

182

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Arnie's CNC router build (just getting started)

« on: June 04, 2007, 03:59:56 PM »

Well after cnc'ing my mini lathe and then my mini-mill it is now time to get going on something a little larger. 

I am just getting started on a cnc router.  I have one question right from the git-go.  My frame has a lot of twist-ability in it. I can lift one
corner about 1" before the other legs start to move.

I was planning on stiffening it up by welding strut criss-cross between the channel and the unistrut just below it, and probably diagonally
corner to corner on the channels, flush to the bottom of the channel.  Then strut every 12" parallel to the shortest side flush with the top of the channels.

Any other ideas on stiffening this up more?

I am sure I will have more questions as I go.  My rails are drilled and tapped 1 1/2 bars 4' long.  I got some matching linear bearings and poured some aluminum castings that I am almost done machining on my mach 3 enabled mini-lathe.

183

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

« on: May 21, 2007, 05:48:05 PM »

I got it, I got it !!!!

2,286,000

Arnie

184

General Mach Discussion / Re: hickup at 12 and 6 oclock

« on: April 20, 2007, 09:56:38 AM »

I had the same problem with backlash compensation enabled on the y axis, it is doing its little shift for the backlash at those two points.

185

General Mach Discussion / Re: anyone know where to get an optical edge finder?

« on: March 16, 2007, 02:09:49 PM »

Hey guys,

Thanks for the positive feed back.  I have sold 9 of these now and have a couple of orders to fill again. 

I find it real interesting to see what everyone is using these for. 

It is interesting when folks share their web pages, lot of them are commercial sites, I go to their sites and look at the type of work they are doing, some pretty neat stuff.

Arnie

186

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Finally done my CNC mill after 2 years

« on: March 02, 2007, 09:26:12 AM »

Nice job,  what size steppers are you using?    How about the driver card, who make that?

What is the first thing you're going to make?

187

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: First Post, First Machine, LOTS of questions

« on: February 28, 2007, 09:46:37 AM »

Zack,

Your logic on putting drives in that you can find replacement parts if they fail is right on the money.  Might cost a bit more in the short run but it wouldn't be a very good project if you retrofitted interface and then the old drivers burnt out and now you would be stuck.

I am a hobby user of Mach3 and would recommend you go with it.  The reason is simple, it has a lot more user controllable configurations, down to the point of customizing it using visual basic, and custom screens.  It might have a little steeper learning curve but that is mostly due to the numerous ways you can configure it.

Arnie

188

Third party software and hardware support forums. / Re: Mach > Automation Direct PLC > Gecko

« on: February 27, 2007, 01:43:43 PM »

I didn't think you could control your axis pulse stream through modbus,  this is a serial interface that has a limited throughput time. 

I thought mach would only control the axis pulse stream through the parallel port , ncpod, galil, or grex.

189

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: First Post, First Machine, LOTS of questions

« on: February 27, 2007, 12:25:20 PM »

engineeringpunk,

Sounds like a very energetic project.

S&D is short for step and direction.   If you use the same amps (refering to the amplifiers - or - servo motor drivers) they are probably analogue input, not the step/direction input type.

 Most cost effective would to use as much of the hardware that you have and still is functional,  but that will not be the simplest way. 
It will require interfacing mach3, which does step & direction outputs via the parallel port to your analogue cards (the biggest hurdle), there are some interfaces that do this but I can't help you there.

The simplest way would be to purchase servo drivers with step & direction inputs, if a Gecko is large enough to handle the power requirements of your existing servos (they are pretty good drives).  Then the next hurdle is all the other IO you have for limits, tool changer, coolant etc.  You will quickly run out of points on your parallel port, even if you put in an additional parallel port card.  With your knowledge of PLC's you would probably want to put the less time sensitive IO on a PLC and communicate via ModBus with it. There will be a time lag between sending and receiving these ModBus points due to scan cycle time and how often Mach looks at the modbus.
Things like e-stop, limits & spindle index(1 pulse/rev index signal) you will want to keep on the parallel port for timing reasons.   Tool changer, coolant, maybe spindle start, stop, direction could probably all be done on the PLC.   Spindle speed, I am guessing you probably have an analogue input to the VFD,  you can use a mach to output a pwm signal on the parallel port - convert that to analogue and feed it to your VFD.

Lots of info in these forums, you should have a good time with this, looks like a very worth while project where you will learn a lot.

Arnie

190

General Mach Discussion / Re: video window camera- optical positioning/measuring -

« on: February 26, 2007, 01:26:42 PM »

Hood,

I am from the USA,  Wyoming.  It is one of the lowest populated states.  
I can make these in a metric dimension if you need.  I may have to scrounge for metric setscrews.

Arnie