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Messages - garyhlucas

601
Tangent Corner / Re: Ballscrew End Machining
« on: July 12, 2013, 09:07:24 PM »
Rich,
I'm sure it would take a little experimenting, but it should be fairly easy to heat a little piece and test machine to see where the annealing stops.

602
Tangent Corner / Re: Ballscrew End Machining
« on: July 12, 2013, 07:34:23 PM »
To anneal just a short part of the shaft. How about standing the shaft on end in water up to the point you want annealed. Then use the torch to heat the part sticking above the water.

Just a thought.

603
General Mach Discussion / Re: Need to sell something
« on: July 12, 2013, 06:50:41 PM »
Hood,
Did NOT see that!  Didn't want to get flamed for advertising here too.

Thanks!

604
General Mach Discussion / Re: using variables
« on: July 12, 2013, 06:48:53 PM »
This is an old thread, however it addresses what I am interested in.  Can these variables also be used to set the inputs for a canned cycle?  For instance can you have Q=#1 and use that to change the value of Q while a canned cycle is running?  I used to do this on a Fadal to change the depth of holes between hole moves, so some holes were the same size but shallower.

Gary H. Lucas

605
General Mach Discussion / Need to sell something
« on: July 12, 2013, 06:15:32 PM »
I have an electrical part that I got by accident and want to get rid of. It might be of interest to someone building a CNC.  Haven't sold it on Ebay yet, hate to just toss it. Where can I advertise it?

606
General Mach Discussion / Re: jog lockup
« on: July 05, 2013, 05:31:46 PM »
As reported before the xilifeng usb stepper board does the same thing. This is pretty deadly too, great way to break stuff! I am glad my E-stop button actually kills the dc supply to the drives.

607
General Mach Discussion / Re: The discouraging state of DIY CNC
« on: July 04, 2013, 01:18:33 PM »
Bob,
So other than those issues, and ignoring that your card with the same model number is completely different, you are a happy purchaser? If you blow up the board and the replacement you buy no longer fits, you are okay with that?

My argument is simply that bad design, practices, and service are still bad in the Internet age!  In fact there is even less excuse today because it so much easier to produce and market a product today.

608
General Mach Discussion / Re: The discouraging state of DIY CNC
« on: June 27, 2013, 10:31:25 PM »
Mike,
Just so you know I wasn't doing cheap. I've built this machine from lots of surplus and some new parts. 4 THK GL20n linear bearing slides with 5mm balls screws and 18" travels, one is a spare. Table is a hand scraped 24" x 24" Cast iron surface plate with 5" ribs. 4-800 in/oz stepper motors with a common 1500 watt 68 volt power supply, and 4 Leadshine 7 amp drivers, one 8.5 amp driver. 80/20 style aluminum base frame with complete 3' x 5' enclosure, LED lights and sliding plexiglas doors. Two nema 4 steel electrical enclosures. All shielded Igus energy chain cables. It has everything properly fused and grounded. All wiring in place for an extruder stepper motor, heater and thermister, plus a 12" square heated bed to allow 3D printing. It has a DL06 20 input 16 output PLC with a 4 channel analog input card for I/O. There is an air filter regulator and 4 gang manifold with 4 way air valves installed, and a cooling fan for the electronics. I also have a mini lathe bed with headstock and tailstock and that I am driving the spindle with a large stepper to provide turning and 4th axis positioning.  The mill spindle was a Sherline but is being converted an R8 spindle with treadmill motor and TTS tooling. The spindle can be rotated to make it a horizontal machine for long parts or deep pockets. I have tapped 144 holes in the table for holding down and I have two 4" CNC vices and two good size angle plates.

Don't ask me how much I've spent, my wife might find out! Oh yeah, I'm doing this with my 9 year old grandson.  We did our first paying job last week, 200 plastic wheels with holes and pockets in them. He ran the machine one night.  The next day when I got home from work he already had the PC fired up and the correct G-code program loaded to finish the job!

609
General Mach Discussion / Re: The discouraging state of DIY CNC
« on: June 27, 2013, 08:59:57 PM »
I got my PMDX-126 board today.  WOW! Mounting holes! REAL Documentation! A nice thick epoxy circuit board! Industrial grade terminals! Mounting holes for the Smooth Stepper too! A power supply built in! 30 amp relay for the spindle! 10 amp relay for other stuff! 24vdc capable I/O!  Was it expensive? Lets see, I have to tear my machine control panel all apart because the other stuff hasn't worked out, and toss most of that stuff. I had to add extra relays and a power supply. NAH! Cheap was expensive, Quality is cheap! I'm going to drill all the mounting holes with my 35 year old Milwaukee pistol drill, the same one I've drilled and tapped thousands of holes with.

610
General Mach Discussion / Re: The discouraging state of DIY CNC
« on: June 22, 2013, 09:36:44 PM »
John,
I have to tell you I'm getting a bit tired of reporting problems and often getting blown off.  So sometimes I don't bother.  You know why I'm doing this?  Because another breakout board that actually worked quite well and was quite well documented, has a dangerous firmware flaw that causes it to run away during jogging.  The recourse I was offered by the vendor was to replace it with the smooth stepper and the CNC4PC board.  So I am faced with tearing apart all my wiring to fix a problem that could probably be fixed by a firmware update.  This is getting old, I just want to make some parts.