Messages

1691

General Mach Discussion / Re: Bridgeport Knee Mill Conversion?

« on: May 18, 2016, 07:39:30 AM »

Ok, its done now so 400w it will be, if it stalls then I can always fix it later, lesson learnt. I have a feeling it will be ok though, still a 2:1 reduction going in.

1692

General Mach Discussion / Re: Bridgeport Knee Mill Conversion?

« on: May 18, 2016, 07:35:05 AM »

OOh, nice

Motors are on order - went for 750w on X&Y and 400w on Z.


Drive belts, was going straight for HTD5 belts but it seems the GT5 profile is better suited to higher power stuff with less backlash, trouble is i cant find a stockist!

The HTD is easy to get but GT ??

1693

General Mach Discussion / Re: Bridgeport Knee Mill Conversion?

« on: May 18, 2016, 03:31:12 AM »

Crunch time, orders to place, money to spend....

Got the screw kit sorted,
Got the pulleys sorted,
Got the controller sorted,
Motors...

Should I fit 750w all round or 750w to the X & Y axes and a smaller 200w to the Z axis ??

Just wondering about the ethics of fitting a big motor to the delicate quill axis.

1694

General Mach Discussion / Re: soldering iron info, please

« on: May 18, 2016, 02:23:42 AM »

You need a large element - 50w or more for fast heat, temperature control either on the station or built in like Weller do, replaceable tips.

Anything that fits that should be good, my Weller station has been going for 15years now, works perfect, the temp is controlled by the tips.

1695

General Mach Discussion / Re: Bridgeport Knee Mill Conversion?

« on: May 17, 2016, 04:29:33 PM »

Yep, will only ever use one spindle or the other. I can definitely see two profiles being needed.

Looking for ways to switch all the lines needed -

Vfd supplies
vfd control and fault lines
vfd speed lines
limit switches for Z axis in two positions
homing for z axis in two positions
cooling pump for 24k spindle
probably others....

The programming for the CSMIO plugin I gather will need to be the same for both profiles?

1696

General Mach Discussion / Re: Do you use Soft Limits if you have limit switches on your machine? advantages??

« on: May 17, 2016, 02:23:57 PM »

Yep, you won't hit the limits if soft limits are set up properly

1697

General Mach Discussion / Re: Do you use Soft Limits if you have limit switches on your machine? advantages??

« on: May 17, 2016, 02:07:10 PM »

Blasted autocorrect

OK the message

Not quite - it stops the motion BUT it does not cause a reset condition so you can jog away again.

1698

General Mach Discussion / Re: Do you use Soft Limits if you have limit switches on your machine? advantages??

« on: May 17, 2016, 01:53:02 PM »

If you have soft limits set, working, and turned on, when you press cycle start on a code file that wants to go outside your limits, you get a "Soft limit Warning on X / Y / Z" message, you can then OK the message or cancel and fix it.

The first thing upon starting up is a ref-all function or the machine has no idea where it really is.

1699

General Mach Discussion / Re: Do you use Soft Limits if you have limit switches on your machine? advantages??

« on: May 17, 2016, 01:18:48 PM »

Yes i use both.

The limits are never hit in normal use as they cause a reset condition.

The soft limits are set 2mm before the limits so the machine slows and stops just short.

With the soft-limits set right it is practically impossible to hit a limit switch

1700

General Mach Discussion / Re: Bridgeport Knee Mill Conversion?

« on: May 17, 2016, 10:05:42 AM »

Yeah its a bit vague - seems you can do both, they say one PSU is fine if there are no big contactors etc. I will get a couple of small pus's probably, I did have a nice PLC quality one here but overkill if it cant do all the job so two smaller ones will be better.

Now, lets complicate the mix

I want/need two spindles here - the main mill quill and a bolt on high speed one - this will be clamped to the main mill quill for starters. Yes it will reduce the Z travel a bit but lets see how it plays before version 2. The aux spindle will only be doing thin stuff and engraving etc so smaller Z travel is probably not an issue.

Obviously when i clamp on the aux spindle it will stop the main Z home functioning so i need two Z homes, maybe two Z++ limits as well?

Ideas -
Two Mach profiles? - The speed setup will be different for each motor, as will offsets probably and other stuff.
A switch for spindle 1 / spindle 2 - changes limits, motor control, vfd power, vfd control lines etc.?

Sounds complex but that's me all over, having this is crucial so I need to get ideas sketched up before I spend cash - it needs to be possible or the project will probably not go ahead. I am 99.9% certain it can be done, just need to get a head round what needs to be done;)