Messages

191

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

« on: February 26, 2007, 09:45:25 AM »

Hood,

The resolution is in the .001's,  take a look at my post in the topic"anyone know where to get an optical edge finder?"  it is reply #44,

I have a actual screen shot picture there of a mm scale,  the resolution can be seen very well, I think you can even call the resolution in the .0000's. 

With proper lighting you may be able to get the camera a little closer than in that picture.

Arnie

192

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

« on: February 25, 2007, 12:59:33 PM »

Brett,
Looks real good,  Thanks for the plug. 

Did you get it centered ok?

One thing I did to mine is to cut a little bit of the focusing hood off, it makes it a little harder to get a hold of it and turn it but it allows you to get just alittle closer without
blocking out all the light.  If I remember right the closer you get the more you screw the focus out of the camera. 

193

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

« on: February 22, 2007, 09:47:53 AM »

I have some of these for sale, look in the bargain basement.

194

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: New people welcome !! Come in here and introduce your self!

« on: February 19, 2007, 03:01:19 PM »

Hi all,

I am not very new but new enough.  I use mach3 as a hobby, just started hobby machining a year ago when I purchased a mini lathe.

I got started on CNC because I couldn't cut some of the different threads (metric) that I wanted to and I got real tired of turning those handles.  I am facinated by the machines abilities after converting it.  I then bought a mini mill and converted it also.  I built my own drivers, power supplies and interfaces, designed and built my mounting and drive configurations. 

I enjoy the friendship and community of the forums, everyone is so helpful with even the greenist of users.

My background is a former navy nuc sub sailor, electronics technician and now instrument supervisor in a coal fired generating station.
Never touched a machine before my hobby.

Another of my hobbies is scuba diving and I have been building underwater high intensity lights and video camera housings.  I sell some of these to support the machining monkey on my back. 

Arnie

195

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

« on: February 15, 2007, 12:21:50 PM »

Gary,

I suppose if you were mounting to your Y axis you wouldn't have any changes in heigth, except for material thickness variations. 

Arnie

196

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

« on: February 15, 2007, 10:25:25 AM »

Someone else talked about this a little.  You can mount it offset from the spindle center but then you will need to measure and account for your offset.  You will still want it pointing straight down, not at an angle,  because at an angle the center will move as you move your z heigth. 

I thought of doing it that way but it was not possible to have my camera 1/4" or closer to the target (which you will need to get the fine resolution of .001 or less) and mounted permanently.   If resolution is not that critical you don't have to be so close to the workpiece 1" or greater, you could probably mount it permanently and use your tool offsets to account for camera position offset.

197

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

« on: February 12, 2007, 09:48:05 AM »

Here is a sketch of the shaft,

I use a 3 -48 screw, it fits real nicely inside the camera.  Leave the screw a little loose.  You can even put the screw in the camera and glue it.  Then when the glue is set, gently screw it to your shaft leaving it just loose enough to deflect around. 

The set screws should be placed 3 each 120 deg apart.  screw them up snug to keep the camera steady and then start fine tuning the center. 

You center it by chucking it up in the spindle,  use your jog to center the crosshairs over a reference mark.  Then rotate the spindle by hand 180 deg.  the crosshairs will probably wander off the reference mark.  adjust the set screws to get 1/2 of the distance back towards  your mark.  Then rotate 180 again.  Use your jog controls to get back to the mark and repeat the steps until it doesnt move off the mark.  The distance you are off of the mark when you rotate is the amount of accuracy you have.

198

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

« on: February 08, 2007, 10:37:03 AM »

If you mean the web camera.

The cost is $19 for the camera.  I listed the part number in my post a few replys earlier.  You will need to make a shaft to hold it that is
adjustable, I can post a sketch if you are interested. 

Someone mentioned in an earlier post that I should make these and sell them in the "FOR SALE AREA" of the posts,  if there is enough
interest in this I will.   Send me an email if you are interested,  I will check this weekend on how available the cameras are.  I have quite a bit of experience in anodizing aluminum with my projects I have been doing on underwater HID dive lights, and I could offer an anodized
shaft that would be more durable.

199

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

« on: February 08, 2007, 10:02:15 AM »

Let us know how it works out.  Maybe post a picture of your camera.  I seem to be using mine more and more all the time.  I find I have to occasionally recenter the camera,  using the adjusting screws I built into the shank.  You know you are centered when the video crosshairs stay precisely on a mark that you put on your target as you hand rotate the spindle.

Someone else posted a link to Centercam, a software program that has other tools for using a camera in the same way but it has measuring tools for distance and angles.

200

General Mach Discussion / Re: video camera feed

« on: February 07, 2007, 12:39:05 PM »

do a search in this forum on (optical edge finder)  there are a lot of ideas and I posted the pictures of the web camera I am using for a centering/edge finding/measuring device.  $19 solution.