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My Machine
« on: November 25, 2008, 01:15:03 PM »
I am near completion of my machine which has been in progress for 3 years.  It is a CNC chansaw.  Our company manufactures Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) for the construction industry.  It is a plywood-foam-plywood sandwich which replaces stick built walls and roofs.  

The machine moves the 24' long panel across the saw, while the saw carraige goes up & down and the blade plunges (pneumatic), rotates (A axis) and tilts (Y axis).  I have been intending to use the knife function with the tangent callout to guide the chain bar.  I am now to the point of turning it on, but it isn't working.  One concern is that I designated the vertical axis as the Z axis, but I am wondering if I should change that to the Y axis so the cutting plane is XY.

So, does the tangent control care if the cutting plane is XY or XZ?  I set it to XZ in the General config but it didn't get me anywhere and it seems to revert back to XY on a shut down.

I will post some pictures tomorrow.
Re: My Machine
« Reply #1 on: November 26, 2008, 10:21:52 AM »
I changed the axes to XY, and the tangent works.  Here are the pictures.
Re: My Machine
« Reply #2 on: November 26, 2008, 10:50:02 AM »
That's a pretty neat rig.
Did you see one similar before.....or did you "Invent" it ?
Either way, it's a good concept.
Does your chain motor have adequate power ? Looks a little small but if it's like a grinder, it's pretty torque-ee.
Your friction drive for the panel looks good too. Any slippage ?
Thanks,
RC
Re: My Machine
« Reply #3 on: November 26, 2008, 10:58:49 AM »
Thanks for looking.  No, I haven't seem anything similar to this.  This project is right out of my head (somedays good, others not so much).  Hence the copywrite and patent searches and all that stuff.

I know the grinder motor looks kind of strange, but the HP/weight is really high.  It is something like 4.6hp in 5 pounds.  I was going to go with an air motor, but since this was lighter, what the heck.  Also, since it is only cutting 1" of wood, the rest is just pulling the foam out.  That calls for a unique chain.

The friction drive (medusa as it has been named) has 8 air cylinders, each putting about 350 pounds of force on the panel, and they are all driven together through the central shaft, so I haven't seen any slip yet.  I went with the 8 arms to accommodate the bar passing by.  The arm which is closest releases to home so it doesn't get cut off, leaving the other 7 to continue driving the panel.

All in all I am pretty happy with it, now I just need to get the dxf into G code in a manner that works.

Roger
Re: My Machine
« Reply #4 on: November 26, 2008, 11:21:36 AM »
Thanks Roger,
 Please keep posting your progress.
A video would be interesting also.
Again, GOOD work,
RC