Messages

481

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: 9x20 Chinese Lathe Conversion

« on: June 06, 2012, 03:26:53 PM »

Thanks
Tried mounting the monitor and found that the door carrying arms are a bit weak. Their section is 12x3mm and there are four of them. I think I will replace them. Will get them cut from a 5mm instead and may also increase the width to around 15mm.

By the way, the picture above doesn't show the door fully opened and makes it look like part of the cabinet is covered. When fully opened it is almost in the same line with the cabinet edge and you get full access to the cabinet interior.

Dan

482

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: 9x20 Chinese Lathe Conversion

« on: June 06, 2012, 09:14:22 AM »

Been quite a while since the last update. Was a huge delay with the sheet metal parts. Eventually I got them and made some progress though

This is the cabinet assembled after welding and sanding:


And showing how the door opens:


I made the door open this way for troubleshooting convenience, so I can see the monitor at all times.

Working on the wiring now. And added some of the sheet metal parts to the lathe also. Will take some photos later.

Dan

483

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: The Laser Project.

« on: May 23, 2012, 01:51:11 PM »

Ah... so I guess it explains the video then.

Dan

484

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: The Laser Project.

« on: May 23, 2012, 04:35:28 AM »

Can't find this now, but here is a similar one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9BvPeAmuvc

May be I was wrong about the 80W, but it's still way lower than we thought.

Dan

485

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: The Laser Project.

« on: May 23, 2012, 04:28:28 AM »

Tweakie,

I seem to remember I saw some manufacturer of small CNC CO2 laser machines which claimed they cut metal (SS if I recall) up to 1mm with something like 80W. They had a video as well. I'll see if I can find the link.

Dan

486

PoKeys / Re: Pokeys tests

« on: May 10, 2012, 09:32:51 AM »

Yeah... was hoping to hear that you had a way of doing this inside Mach.

Dan

487

PoKeys / Re: Pokeys tests

« on: May 10, 2012, 06:11:10 AM »

Thanks Hood. Looks like I misinterpret the sentence about index homing in your first message. You said you were doing homing external to Mach, so I concluded that you implied that Pokeys would allow you to do it internally in some way.

Dan

488

PoKeys / Re: Pokeys tests

« on: May 10, 2012, 05:19:25 AM »

Hi Hood,

Got a question for you. How would you go about doing homing using a servo's index pulse? I imagine that after Mach finishes its regular homing routine and bounces off the switch I will have to use a macro that will rotate the motor in a set direction till it detects the index (not sure how to do that either). But will a macro be able to see a pulse as short as a servo's index? I am going to use an ESS which will see the pulse no problem, but I am concerned how a macro will see it?

Dan

489

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: 9x20 Chinese Lathe Conversion

« on: April 25, 2012, 04:44:59 AM »

To be honest Dan it will likely be fine seeing as its a relatively light duty machine and you wont be taking massive cuts, I was just curious as I think I would have chopped the cross slide down by half and had all the trucks on it, in fact I probably would have just made up a sub plate as a cross slide and that would have given me the option to mount different configs of top slide on such as gang tool setups.

I see what you mean. Gang tooling was also in mind, so thought I could utilise the T-slots.

I have been toying with the idea of making a wee lathe style machine as I have some beautiful heavy duty roller slides that came from a scrapped Bullard lathe and I need to use them for something
Hood

Having them lying around is good enough a reason.

Dan

490

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: 9x20 Chinese Lathe Conversion

« on: April 25, 2012, 12:43:26 AM »

Thanks Hood. The linear blocks are attached to the carriage for a few reasons. First flipping them around would have meant I had to drill 24 through holes in the cross slide right where the T-slots are, which preferred not to. Second, I did the design before I thought of putting a sheet metal guard on top to keep chips away and when the rails are on the top part they will always stay clean. With a guard it won't mean much, but it was a consideration at the beginning. And lastly I wanted to gain more X travel. The carriage is shorter then the cross slide and I couldn't mount the same length rails on the carriage.

I know that it may be problematic and I also had Graham tell me that I may have overhang problems this way. When the blocks are on the moving part the load on them is always the same regardless of their position. In my configuration the blocks are stationary, meaning the load on them will vary with the cross slide position. It's same as on a mill, where gaining X travel is desired and then you have a long table riding on a short bed. But the little difference is that on a mill the load is always at the bed centre .

Anyway, I can always limit the stroke if I see chatter problems at the extents. And if it's really bad I will consider flipping them over.

Dan