Topics

31

PoKeys / Which plug-in

« on: February 20, 2010, 10:20:37 PM »

Which plug in should I use, the one that Scot posted or the one on the PoKeys website?

Thanks

Vince

32

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Christmas present

« on: December 13, 2009, 10:00:56 PM »

My wife wanted a game of marble solitaire for Christmas.  Since I had this big mill sitting around I decided to make her one.  As I don't have any woodworking equipment, I decided to use a 12" round butcher block for the game.  I made the layout in AutoCAD and ran the DXF file through LazyCam.  Since the board has two sides, I decided to make a Chinese checker game on the other side of the board.  I engraved "Merry Christmas Nancy 2009" around the top of the solitaire side of the board, but I did not mill quite deep enough so it is a little hard to read.  I plan on milling a pocket into the side of the board into which I can install a drawer for the marbles.   I used a 5/8" ball end mill for the solitaire side (it uses bigger marbles) and a 1/2" ball end mill for the Chinese checker side.  It was nice to be able to run a a very high speed and not have to worry about coolant.  The board is made out of teak.

Vince

33

LazyCam (Beta) / HELP! Lazycam and drilling

« on: December 12, 2009, 02:05:54 PM »

I am trying to make a Chinese checker board for my wife.  I created the DXF file with all 121 holes.  The holes are indicated with .125 D circles.  When I load the file I click Drill rad circles and choose .3 and all 121 holes turn red.  I then click on drill sel circles.  In the layer tab I chose drill cycle and the proper hole depth etc.  There are 120 chains shown so it looks like I have all 121 holes.  When I post, the TAP file only has about 40 holes.  What am I doing wrong?  I need helps ASAP so I can complete this gift in time for Christmas.

Thanks

Vince

34

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Wizards drill one hole

« on: March 04, 2009, 11:55:11 PM »

Any chance to change the drill wizard to allow to drill only one hole?  Presently I use the linear hole wizard, pick two holes then delete the second hole in the code.  If I choose 1 hole I get an error.

Thanks

Vince

35

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / CNC watch lathe

« on: March 03, 2009, 04:25:29 PM »

I know, I have too many projects already, but in case I am off work for any length of time, I am trying to gather the items I will need to convert my Levin watch lathe to CNC.  The attached picture shows the basic layout of my Z axis.  Besides the mess of my watch bench, in the picture you can see a Taig cross slide I made to fit the lathe.  I had do some special machining to get it low enough to fit under the spindle.  There is also I micrometer XY slide I put together.  I have two ball slides that are going to be the Z axis.  In the bottom of the picture you can see a spare lathe base that I will use for this conversion so I don't have to drill holes in my chromed Levin bed.  I am pretty good at hand scraping now and will make sure it is better than .0001" flat.

In between the ball slides you can see the precision ACME screw I got from NOOK.  It was cheaper than a ball screw but has better tolerance than most rolled screws.  NOOK guarantees better than .0001" per foot.  It is 1/4x20 thread.  The little stepper at the end of the screw is 200 steps per revolution.  This will give me an accuracy of .00025" per step.  With micro stepping it will be ever better.  I purchased 4 of these little steppers from eBay for $25 total with the encoders!  The guy was selling the encoders and the steppers were something he threw in because he did not want to take the encoders off.

I also got some plastic ACME nuts from NOOK for the screw.  I plan on cutting them in half and installing a spring between the two halves so I can get zero backlash.  The loads on this lathe will be so light that it won't take much preload.   The X cross slide will look similar.  I have one more ball slide that I will cut in half to get me the X direction.  The total X movement will be about 2", it looks like I will get almost 5" on the Z though 2" would be more than enough. 

I hope to be able to make custom balance staffs when it is all completed.  A balance stall might be 3mm long, 1mm at it widest, and have pivots that are .12mm.

Vince

36

General Mach Discussion / Turn tool table

« on: February 25, 2009, 10:48:54 AM »

I must be doing something wrong.  In MachTurn I am setting up an 8 station tool turret.  I put a 5/8" drill rod in a collet and then set all the tools based on that.  When changing to my actual part, the only thing that needs to change is the Z zero.  I will put in my part, take a facing cut with my tool #1 then click axis position zero for the Z axis.  When I do this, the other 7 tools do not have the new Z zero position.  Should I be clicking part zero instead?  What am I missing?

Thanks

Vince

37

LazyCam (Beta) / Won't do offsets

« on: February 23, 2009, 10:39:01 PM »

The attached file will be for a flywheel's spokes.  The DXF is the actual size.  I need to offset to the inside so they come out the proper size when I cut them out.  When I select all the chains then do offsets using my 1/4" end mill, LazyCam only adds two of the 5 offsets.  If I choose a 3/8" end mill, LazyCam does all 5 offsets.  Any guesses what could be wrong?

Thanks

Vince

38

Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / Miser engine

« on: February 23, 2009, 02:46:03 PM »

I have been posting in another section that was not quite the right topic so I am picking it up here.  I have been working on a Miser Stirling engine.  Most of the hard to make steel parts are done.  Today I made a connecting rod end.  I made everything on my converted Hardinge CHNC and converted Yamazen mill except for drilling the connecting rod end.  It required a .020" drill for an oil hole.  I did not have anything on my CHNC small enough to hold the rod end or the drill.  I moved it to my watch lathe.  The .020" drill is still 5 sizes larger than my smallest collet, which is .010".
(the picture of the finished miser is just to show what it will look like, I have a ways to go).

Vince

39

LazyCam (Beta) / More clean and optimize

« on: February 20, 2009, 04:34:12 PM »

In the attached file (a cribbage board) there are 367 holes.  Any circle that is .375" is a hole for a peg.  I can't seem to get LazyCam to clean up and optimize the drilling of all the holes, I just jumps all over.  Any suggestions?

Thanks

Vince

40

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / MachTurn wizards

« on: February 16, 2009, 12:07:59 AM »

Ron, I talked with you at the York show.  I realize that the wizards in MachTurn were not done by Newfangled Solutions, but if you could ever get a chance to go through them and fix the bugs, those of us that are trying to use them would be very grateful.   The may have to be done in conjunction with Brian fixing the MachTurn code, the two may be related.

Vince