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Author Topic: Now the Orac is 90% done, mill next!  (Read 3224 times)

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Now the Orac is 90% done, mill next!
« on: December 13, 2012, 12:44:15 PM »
Hi everyone,
Like the title says the Orac is 90% done, just waiting a response from Homann designs on what spindle speed control board to use. Next up is the conversion of an AEW Viceroy vertical mill to Mach 3. The mill can be seen on Tony Griffiths website, www.lathes.co.uk, mine is the plain vertical with no quill feed, Z axis feed is by elevating the knee. I am, starting to "acquire" componentry as in ball screws and next, steppers. I cant afford or find servos and I guess fitting those would be above my meagre budget and skills!! I used Nema 34 motors on the Orac but I am wondering if I should use bigger motors such as Nema 42 motors and while I will fit ball screws to X & Y what about Z? would a ball screw be okay to use as it would be elevating the knee? or should I stick with the current ACME lead screw? also I am gonna try & figure a way to retain manual table elevation as well as CNC so shall have to devise a toothed belt driven coupling to the screw direct instead of the bevel gear drive that the hand wheel uses. Has anyone else done a retro fit such as this, will I be able to use all of Mach 3s functionality while relying on table elevation as my Z axis? I feel a bit more confident in another conversion as I feel that the Orac went quite well, with big thanks to Hood for his help! Any ways, see what you think as I am open to all ideas!
On another note, an ex-colleague of mine bought new in 2007 a CNC masters Supramill, this has been the biggest pain in the backside ever, its just about useless, very unstable and prone to just doing its own thing like taking a bite out of a hardened milling vice or fresh air for no apparent reason, very, very dangerous to man and machine. anyone converted one to run Mach?
That's all for now!
Croz
Re: Now the Orac is 90% done, mill next!
« Reply #1 on: December 13, 2012, 01:22:13 PM »
Cool, another ORAC'er! ;D  Mine's about 95% I suppose but the last 5% is a pain.  Here's some pics of what I did to mine. http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,22258.0.html

I've added homing switches and some other stuff since that thread; I guess I should update it soon.

Show us some pics of your project...I luv pics!!
Milton from Tennessee ya'll.
Re: Now the Orac is 90% done, mill next!
« Reply #2 on: December 13, 2012, 04:54:07 PM »
Hi Croz, I am still new at this but when I was deciding to convert my old mill I came to the conclusion that, having a table,carriage and knee weight of something like a quarter of a ton I could well ignore backlash as gravity does the job for me. Obviously, if you feel that a cutter could lift your table then you will need to take this into account. So far it has worked for me perfectly by gravity.

Dave.
Re: Now the Orac is 90% done, mill next!
« Reply #3 on: December 13, 2012, 06:47:50 PM »
Cool, another ORAC'er! ;D  Mine's about 95% I suppose but the last 5% is a pain.  Here's some pics of what I did to mine. http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,22258.0.html

I've added homing switches and some other stuff since that thread; I guess I should update it soon.

Show us some pics of your project...I luv pics!!

Hi Dickeybird, I have been following your thread, you are doing a top job there my friend! I shall post some pics asap, been working on my friend Neils Denford Easiturn lathe, bloody PWM for spindle speed, pulling MY hair out now! we got the spindle to rotate M03 and M04 & M05 but can we get the thing to alter speed? can we damn! I can change speed only by Config, ports & pins and manually changing PWM base Freq. any ideas anyone?
Knackered now, off to bed!
Croz