Messages

71

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3Turn

« on: April 05, 2008, 07:19:31 AM »

Well I updated my Adobe Acrobat reader and the blank pages are no longer blank!

So at least for the time being I have something to read and compare with my other controls.



Thanks


Wayne....

72

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3Turn

« on: April 04, 2008, 09:15:26 AM »

No-one know anything about mach3 turn then?

73

General Mach Discussion / Mach3Turn

« on: April 03, 2008, 05:35:19 PM »

Greetings folks, sorry been away from all this for a while to deal with family stuff.

Anyway, any pointers to resources on Machturn.   Much of it seems to be undocumented?  or at least I struggle to find the information.

Until now my mach usage has been the VMC, but the other projects are coming along again, and soon will be time for testing.

So any pointers to information regarding turning cycles supported in Mach Turn would be approciated.   The online manual shows quite a few blank pages for me.


Wayne.....

74

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Another Mad Project!

« on: January 23, 2008, 05:02:34 AM »

Benny

The mold is about 1" thick MDF in section.    MDF is only OK for a couple hundred forms, the heat really gets to it!

That Mold has been reprimed (Water based) and refinished once already, and will be replaced with a new Ally Mold next month.   We intend to run 1000's of these.

No Vacuum Cleaner motor here.   They can only pull a few inches Hg of vacuum.   I'm using an Edwards Dual Vane High Vacuum pump into a 20-25l tank.   I'm getting 28-29" Hg or 100Kpa which means the gauge is bang to the stop.   Even then it takes about 50 secs to get there.  Less time than the heating anyway.

The Material is 2mm thick.

Nooo Not a reason to inflict more Devo, but I did need about 2minutes of something to drown out the chugging of the vacuum pump.   Too Much Paranoia fitted perfectly.

They may tour Oz soon, if you get a chance go see them, it's a live show that even non fans tend to talk about for months afterwards.


Wayne.....

75

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Another Mad Project!

« on: January 22, 2008, 06:09:42 PM »

Benny.   I assume it is the Vacuum Former you are interested in?

Well here's a vid of the HomeBrew one in action

Wayne....


<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/fFskUFNI4qA" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/fFskUFNI4qA</a>

76

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Another Mad Project!

« on: January 18, 2008, 05:37:53 AM »

Benny

The machine in the Vid was not made by me and is a commercial one I was considering buying (£2500), the mold being used is mine though.

I ended up with an offer of an real Vacuum Pump which got me thinking about making my own machine.   This I did over the xmas break.     Only issues I had was with the heating.    After wasting a lot of material at nearly £1 a sheet, I managed to get the heating right, by buying fancy ceramic heaters (2.8kW)

This job would not have been possible with a vacuum cleaner!   The pump I use pulls 29"Hg into a 25l tank in just under a minute.   My machine pulls the plastic down  instantly.

As for landing the "job"?   Well I been a DEVO fan for nearly 30 yrs, and turned up some fancy earrings for the wife to wear during their Euro Tour last year, and they got noticed!   I was already fortunate to  of been in the "in crowd" already having been a fan for so long.

http://www.devo-obsesso.com/html/news_pgs/europe_07/brighton/wayne.html   For pictures,   The little brass "naughty" pinback badge I made WAS machined with Mach.



There's a few more things I'm doing for them


Wayne.....

77

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Another Mad Project!

« on: January 17, 2008, 06:29:37 AM »

Thought some of you might be interested in why I not been around much.   But then again some of you will be horrified Haha!

I did mention above that I had been working on a vacuum former for a project, well here's a vid of the Mold test (On a commercial machine) in November.   

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/IlLtOFdmjaM" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/IlLtOFdmjaM</a>

There is no vid yet of the machine I built, but it's faster and Mach was used a LOT to make parts for it.

The DEVO Hats (Energy Domes!)  Made their debut on stage at the Warfield Theatre Jan15th 2008 at the MACworld Bash.   They were booked my Microsoft for the release of Office 2008 for MAC

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/mPVs5FAC6zw" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/mPVs5FAC6zw</a>


Wayne....

78

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Another Mad Project!

« on: January 06, 2008, 05:58:04 PM »

Hi sorry for the delaying in getting back here.    Been busy all over the holidays on yet another side project (Vacuum former) which has taken all my time, but works well.

Anyway was back on the Boxford today, but only more welding on the carcase to get ready for the initial test assembly.

Re the collet closer.    I have a fair bit of it done, but my recommendation for Overloaded it that IF your spindle can take a 5C size drawtube then go with 5C.   I only gone the ER32 route because the Boxford only has a 20mm dia spindle bore.

Wayne.....

79

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: emco 5pc spindle motor help

« on: October 15, 2007, 04:36:09 PM »

2hp on an Emco Compact 5?   Seriously you don't need that, the original motor would have been well specified.  I'd even go as far to say that 1/2 or at a push 3/4 hp would be good enough.

As Ian says a 3 phase induction motor and VFD would be perfect.

Bear in mind the headstock on a Compact5 is only diecast aluminium and the bearings standard deep groove ball races,  there's a limit to how much power you can put into that setup.

Wayne....

80

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Another Mad Project!

« on: October 14, 2007, 06:15:50 PM »

Hood.   Blanked power chucks are a pain I know.

My work is repeating small to medium batch sizes 50-1000 parts normally per order.   The jobs I have in mind for the Boxfords are a couple of jobs I normally do on the Emco or even the capstan.

Yes a power collet closer is in the works (own design) and some form of bar feeder.   Seems silly to some on such a small machine, but these things can do good work, and take up no room.   More than I can say for my bigger machines.  The Emco's have proved the point over the years, and now it's almost time to let someone else get good use out of them.

As I said at the beginning of this thread, I have several of these Boxfords, and this particular one is the prototype, and if it works well they will all get the same treatment.

It's been on the cards for a longtime, but originally was going to be for a 30k pieces/year order in nylon 66, but thats now gone to china for moulding.  I still got other parts for the same product though.

Wayne....