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Author Topic: RICH'S ATLAS CNC CONVERSION  (Read 9037 times)

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Offline RICH

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RICH'S ATLAS CNC CONVERSION
« on: July 01, 2008, 10:04:26 PM »
This is a 38 year old Atlas Clausing Vertical Mill which I rebuilt and converted to CNC 4 years ago.
Six speed ranges / 24"x 6" table / 15" x 5.25"  cross travel / MT 2 taper in spindle.
The guard is removed to show stepper mounting. A handle extension was made for the quick feed
( in-out to engage fine feed) and a 85 in oz stepper was mounted directly to the fine feed, thus total manual
operation is still available. Motor side of the x and y axis have double contact bearings in the bearing blocks
with a single contact bearing in the other bearing block. Nuts at handle ends provide for preloading adjustment of the bearings.
200 in oz Superior Electric steppers on the X and y axis. Three axis digital display along with an indicator for quill movement. Not much room for the ball nut as shown by the picture. Ball screws 16mm -5mm lead with adjustable ball nut by Techno Inc. A 1 HP DC motor with variable speed controller still waites for me to installation.
Overall dim of 36"x 40" x 70" provide for a nice homeshop mill.

Offline Chaoticone

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Re: RICH'S ATLAS CNC CONVERSION
« Reply #1 on: July 01, 2008, 10:13:39 PM »
Nice Rich, Good job.

Brett
;D If you could see the things I have in my head, you would be laughing too. ;D

My guard dog is not what you need to worry about!
Re: RICH'S ATLAS CNC CONVERSION
« Reply #2 on: July 01, 2008, 11:20:56 PM »
I TOTALLY agree....Excellent Work.
Thanks RICH,
RC

Offline budman68

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Re: RICH'S ATLAS CNC CONVERSION
« Reply #3 on: July 02, 2008, 05:10:46 PM »
Very cool, Rich, thanks for sharing the pics -  8)
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Offline RICH

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Re: RICH'S ATLAS CNC CONVERSION
« Reply #4 on: May 24, 2011, 10:40:37 PM »
Pic of the mill head modified such that the quill movement is done with a ball screw. Need to make a cover and reduce the 0.001" backlash.
RICH

Offline RICH

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Re: RICH'S ATLAS CNC CONVERSION
« Reply #5 on: May 29, 2011, 11:23:11 AM »
The mill served me well until I got into 3D miling and it just would not do the job.
So improvements to the mill were required.
I reworked the  the X and Y bearing holders and installed new and better bearings, upgraded the stepper motors,  and per
the last reply modified the head to use a ball screw to drive the Z axis.

What a difference to have no backlash and all the axis can  now can do 80 ipm reliably.

I attached the old adapter plate for the high speed spindle  and tested her out....machine worked  like a charm.

RICH
Re: RICH'S ATLAS CNC CONVERSION
« Reply #6 on: May 29, 2011, 06:42:45 PM »
Rich, how fast can that high speed spindle go?

Offline RICH

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Re: RICH'S ATLAS CNC CONVERSION
« Reply #7 on: May 29, 2011, 07:28:44 PM »
The one pictured is 18000 rpm / 1/4 hp.  The Dumore  is 12000 rpm under load and also 1/4 hp. Have others that are air driven that go to 60,000 rpm.
The spindle holder gets up to around 105 F so maybe the spindle is around 110 to 115F after an hour of use.
May need to make a water cooling jacket or add air blowing on it since it will get somewhat warmer when cutting SS.

RICH
Re: RICH'S ATLAS CNC CONVERSION
« Reply #8 on: May 29, 2011, 11:21:03 PM »
Rich

Beautiful machine. You should be proud.

Eric
Re: RICH'S ATLAS CNC CONVERSION
« Reply #9 on: June 03, 2011, 01:08:11 PM »
Very useful and very flexible, and saves writing programs for odd jobs if you can still use the old handles. Well done :)