Messages

1181

General Mach Discussion / Re: Bridgeport Knee Mill Conversion?

« on: September 12, 2016, 04:27:48 PM »

Got it working now

Modified post - I can now use a tapping op with feed-in at feed-rate then a dwell and feed-out at retract-rate, just what the doctor ordered

I just have to make some notes on using it as i need to make sure the retract height is at least 5mm above the surface as when the tapping head is in reverse the tap protrudes 5mm more than when it went in The dwell will need setting on the job as it will be speed dependant but the tapping head has a limit of about 800rpm anyway.

Should do the job nicely i think

1182

General Mach Discussion / Re: Bridgeport Knee Mill Conversion?

« on: September 12, 2016, 03:33:34 PM »

Already on there, amazing - they have since edited the post processor so it can use a tapping cycle but feed out and not rapid out - they are just doing a bit of fine tuning on it now

Great forum there.

1183

General Mach Discussion / Re: Bridgeport Knee Mill Conversion?

« on: September 12, 2016, 10:19:49 AM »

Ooh tapping-head time....

Will have some 6mm holes to tap soon, can play with my tapping head, not quite meant for CNC as its an auto-reverse model meant for pillar drills etc but hey-ho

It needs to feed in 5mm less that hole depth, then stop - the device will then feed that last 5mm and disengage the drive, you then feed out and the device reverses the tap out, it works very nicely in a manual BP

On to CNC, the best way, after a lot of pi$$ing about seems to be to use a boring cycle with dwell and feed-out in Fusion360.

For testing purposes I chose an M6 tap with 1mm pitch, 500rpm and 500mm/min feed, 10mm deep blind hole.

I have been doing simulations etc and this is the code i get for two tapped holes...

Code: [Select]

(1)
(T10  D=6.1 CR=0. TAPER=118DEG - ZMIN=-5. - DRILL)
G90 G94 G91.1 G40 G49 G17
G21
G28 G91 Z0.
G90

(DRILL2)
M5
M9
T10 M6
S500 M3
G54
M7
G0 X0. Y0.
G43 Z28. H10
Z8.
G98 G89 X0. Y0. Z-5. R3. P4. F500.
X20.
G80
Z28.

M9
G28 G91 Z0.
G90
M30

I think it reads ok, it has the delay (exaggerated for testing) and will feed in and out.

Am i on the right track here?

I couldn't find any G89.. codes in Aspire, seems too advanced for it and has no boring, threading etc so Fusion360 is the best way i have, apart from hand-coding and i'm not at that stage yet.

1184

General Mach Discussion / Re: Bridgeport Knee Mill Conversion?

« on: September 11, 2016, 02:20:52 PM »

Nice

Tool reach not an issue here, just need to figure how thick to go, maybe 25mm?

Needs to be removed easy so don't want to go massively overboard especially as the biggest tool that will be run on it would probably b 6-7mm

1185

General Mach Discussion / Re: Run a macro from a button press??

« on: September 11, 2016, 02:15:12 PM »

All the code - it's a pretty lengthy macro routine on this screen-set??

Or just use a "RunScript.." command, if that even works, just guessing here

1186

General Mach Discussion / Re: Cloning a setup...

« on: September 11, 2016, 02:13:11 PM »

Well, you learn something every day

1187

General Mach Discussion / Re: Run a macro from a button press??

« on: September 11, 2016, 01:29:48 PM »

Ok, that might do it, use a screen editor to assign a hotkey then configure an OEM trigger to use that hotkey?

Will try it tomorrow night.

Thanks

1188

General Mach Discussion / Run a macro from a button press??

« on: September 11, 2016, 10:08:32 AM »

Is there a correct or preferred way to execute a macro from a button press via an input on the CSMIO controller?

I have input 9 wired to a panel button that i want to execute auto-z reference for my mini-mill, the button needs to call M881.m1s which holds all the custom code (2010 screen-set) to do the height measuring etc.

Can't seem to find a method here?

1189

General Mach Discussion / Re: Cloning a setup...

« on: September 11, 2016, 08:47:20 AM »

Does not clone the tool-table?

Its a good thing in this instance but i thought it odd that the table did not get copied.

1190

General Mach Discussion / Re: Bridgeport Knee Mill Conversion?

« on: September 11, 2016, 08:45:45 AM »

I'm almost ready to move my smaller parts to my Bridgeport conversion from the mini-mill. The spindle mount adaptor is made and the wiring/programming should be good to go. The bed needs to be about 350mm x 450mm

Picture below of my mini-mill with a just-finished part still mounted, I need to make a sub-table to replicate the bed of the mini-mill on the Bridgeport.

So, what would i be looking at here? The existing bed is 15mm ecocast but is sitting on a 15mm slab of cast iron which is bigger than the sub-table. The Bridgeport has a relatively narrow table at 230mm so the sub-table will overhang, max rear overhang is 20mm so more to the front. The lump of MDF in the second picture is about the right size, sitting on the mill.

Now, I have about 5 parts i make occasionally, none in quantities big enough to deserve a custom fixture plate so the universal sub-table seems the best way forwards?

What sort of thickness here?
Would it need support arms underneath for the overhang?
How to mount easily onto the Bridgeport?
Better idea?