Messages

641

General Mach Discussion / Re: Bridgeport Knee Mill Conversion?

« on: December 30, 2017, 12:45:20 PM »

Slowly making sense, thanks

So in the code all tool length compensation would be turned off and I would likely be editing the M6 Start ??

642

General Mach Discussion / Re: Bridgeport Knee Mill Conversion?

« on: December 30, 2017, 04:56:20 AM »

All parts on order

Still trying to get my head round how it all plays together but I gather tool length compensation is not really used as the knee sees the length difference and the code just thinks all tools are one length?

643

General Mach Discussion / Re: Flat bottom Hole

« on: December 30, 2017, 03:22:09 AM »

I would drill out most of the junk, then bung an end-mill in the drill chuck and run that down to depth, works for me in the past.

644

General Mach Discussion / Re: mach3

« on: December 29, 2017, 03:34:32 AM »

Hi,
price a real CNC controller like Fanuc or Siemens....20k plus and annual fees as well!

Craig

Wow, is there really 20k worth of difference in there between that and say a CSMIO which i would class as a pretty high power controller???

645

General Mach Discussion / Re: Bridgeport Knee Mill Conversion?

« on: December 28, 2017, 03:29:28 AM »

Yeah, its a real pain - i had to mix-n-match tool holders where possible which helped a lot but the big issue is the Haimer height probe - its the longest by far and really pushes the envelope if the job has short tools!

The Knee shift for tool length offset really sounds good and should help a lot for a very simple fix, cheap too.

I was toying with building from scratch, something like a Fadal VMC which has simple box frame maybe 1/2" wall steel box section, possibly epoxy granite filled, but my sums were not adding to anything that seemed worthwhile - too expensive for a risk project. Most of the money would have been in the steel frame, getting it machined true and some sort of heavy table. Once you get into £5000 plus its worth looking for old machines to rebuild rather than work up a new unknown one.

Would have been a nice project though

Have you got any pictures of your 18" Z mill??

646

General Mach Discussion / Re: Bridgeport Knee Mill Conversion?

« on: December 27, 2017, 09:09:27 AM »

Managed to dig my way through the snow to the shop, pulled the cover off and happy to see I have no less than three spare axis/encoder inputs and plenty of I/O.

So glad I bought that CSMIO now, I love flexibility

Need to order up a servo and drive, probably go China way again, same guy on Aliexpress, couple of pulleys and a belt, good to go i think.

647

General Mach Discussion / Re: Bridgeport Knee Mill Conversion?

« on: December 27, 2017, 08:14:33 AM »

Driving to the crank shaft seems the way in - simpler and as its only used for TL compensation which is all in the up direction, backlash should not be an issue, a member has forwarded some macros (thanks) and they seem to make sense.

I need to pull the covers off and check i have enough I/O on my CSMIO controller to take another axis and encoder plus limits etc

Seems do-able though.

648

General Mach Discussion / Re: Bridgeport Knee Mill Conversion?

« on: December 27, 2017, 06:06:18 AM »

Hi all, I'm getting that itch that can only be scratched by building something so I thought it time to revisit my mill build and fix some issues

Issue 1 - poor Z axis travel - avenue being explored = power the knee and feed tool length offsets to that thus retains full Z axis travel on the quill. Does anyone here have any help here - most of the stuff i have found on the 'net has lost all the media links or just get page missing errors. It will be a servo drive, belt reduction, probably best to go direct to the top of the screw rather than via the crank??

Looking for any tips here - software, macros etc

Thanks

649

General Mach Discussion / Re: Home Offset

« on: December 24, 2017, 08:15:55 AM »

Ok, thanks, it just similar to issues i had on CSMIO, I also know nothing on Mach4 i'm afraid.

650

General Mach Discussion / Re: How to slow down on rounded corners?

« on: December 24, 2017, 06:40:21 AM »

I think that 'wobble' is exactly that - mechanical wobble caused by machine flex. You do not need to slow down in corners, Mach will control that within the bounds set in motor tuning acceleration setup.

You could try just slowing the whole path down a bit but watch for cutter burning etc - to me it looks like the machine can not handle the speed requested accurately.

I had the same thing on my Plasma table as that has to run fast, much faster than milling, I had to redesign things a lot to get the wobble to an acceptable level, slowing down on Plasma causes more issues so its better to fix the problem.

Check your motion with a dial indicator for slop etc at the tool tip, it could just be loose pulleys, worn belts etc