New Personal Record

I designed a new mold the other day, and then turned it into a seven cavity mold. Largest that fit in the work envelope of the Taig. As is often the case I started cutting it as soon as I got things doubled checked as best as I am able. The first cut I had a load unload issue in the spindle motor after about 2-3 hours. (I had vertically crashed it during setup and forgot to run it for a while to let it unload, what can you say for a plastic body router.)

I made a few adjustments inserted a new piece of stock and ran the code. 358,598 lines of it. It cut from start to end without a flaw, and with trany fluid jetting over the cutter and aluminum workpiece from two directions the darn cutter still looked like new. Just over 21 hours total continuous cut time with some pretty aggressive cuts with a 3/32 ball mill.

I tweaked the code and adjusted a couple acceleration and deceleration parameters in the machine profile to reduce load on a plunge cut, and increase cutting speed performance on the horizontal feeds. The plunge no longer loads up the spindle as bad, and the simulation says it should take less than 19 hours. (It took 2 hours just to run the simulation.) Its 14+ hours in right now using the same 3/32 ball mill, and the cuts its making now are as smooth and shiny as the first ones it made almost two days ago.

The new record is 358K+ lines of code executed without a failure and step loss resulting in error far less than that of the machine backlash. I have run programs that took longer to cut with my older slower controller and lighter stepper motors, at much lower rapid and cut speeds, and dramatically lower acceleration rates. I've never run this many lines of code before though.

I'll tell you there isn't much for the price that will beat a Gecko G540 maxed out at 3.5 amps per motor and a decent 48V power supply. Add some relays for automatic spindle power and lubricant pump power and this is pretty cool stuff. Yeah, there is better stuff, but not for the price or even close to the price.

I have everything, but the monitor on an UPS now too. I may want to add a second UPS for the future for the other machine, but for now its OK. I think I am going to upgrade from the 1HP Bosch routers to the 1.75 HP Porter Cable Routers in the future, but I'll need different relays to handle the current when I do, and of course new mounts.

(The PC routers are all metal lower and look turned. I think they will drop in straighter and tram out easier than the composite metal and plastic lower of the Bosch. Also the extra 3/4 HP may allow me to go back to a more aggressive plunge on some cuts. Of course then I get to spend a small fortune on precision collets that will fit them like I did for the Bosch routers.)

P.S. This is on a Windows XP / Mach3 computer.

Reply to
Bob La Londe
Loading thread data ...

If you are UPSing the controls, be sure to UPS the spindle as well on a separate UPS. It doesn't help the keep the computer running and the axes moving if the spindle stops (and coolant pump). Fortunately UPSes are pretty cheap these days.

Reply to
Pete C.

I'm not sure I follow. I don't have anything monitoring the spindle. Its started and stopped by the software. In the event of spindle failure it will crash. I need to put some kind of load sensor on it eventually and tie that into my e-stop circuit.

I am using the charge pump from the PC to the controller. If the circuit drops out it goes into e-stop and it turns off all relays, and cuts power to the steppers.

Not sure how practical a load sensor is though for a brush motor unless I can trigger both low current and high current trips. Low current would be from a brush failure, and high current would be a crash that is beyond its power to cut through. I would think I'ld want a fractional second delay though. It can take a momentary over current in a hard plunge cut.

If I hit the e-stop or the computer crashes it shuts down the controller and the spindle and the lubricant pump. The PC, spindle, controller power supply and lubricant pump are all on the same UPS for now. The second UPS I want is for the second machine. Right now I just use it for little jobs and have it on the same UPS. I do need to setup a controlled shutdown activated by the UPS though. I would prefer to have a trigger relay on the UPS and tie it into my estop circuit rather than load a driver on the PC and use processor time to monitor the USB port. Preferably with a timer board in between. I will look into that.

The monitor goes straight to wall power.

(Feedhold does not shut off the spindle or the coolant pump, but that is just for a temporary pause to check something. I can hit F5 or use my mouse to stop and start them if I need to.)

Reply to
Bob La Londe

If you have a power failure and the UPS keeps the PC and stepper drives running, that isn't helpful if the spindle looses power. The spindle (and coolant pump) should be on a separate UPS unless you already have them on a pretty big UPS. Usually better to put electrically noisy loads like a router on a separate UPS.

Reply to
Pete C.

[lots of good stuff snipped]

Do you have a picture of your machine with the router mounted?

What is the mould making? Fishing lures?

Thanks for a good read,

Wes

Reply to
Wes

I do, but I would rather post a picture of the mount on the other machine. It looks a lot nicer. LOL.

Yes. Been doing a bit of that. Even a few custom orders although that can be a real stretch for both my abilities and my patience. Some guys don't understand that I may need to design a custom mold two or three different ways to get it to shoot right. Although I am getting better at getting it right the first time. Give me 20 years at this and I might be good. LOL.

Your welcome. This stuff is fun, and writing about it sometimes helps me clarify what i need to fix and what I need to do next.

I am working on a video for making a fishing lure mold from concept to final product. I'll post the link wh4en I finish it. Better yet hopefully I'll post the video of catching a monster on it. LOL.

Bob

Reply to
Bob La Londe

Oh, ok. No the spindles and coolant pumps are on the UPS. I understand the desire to try and isolate when possible due to noise potential, but the biggy for that I think is the cables. I was very careful to route data cables, stepper control cables, and AC power cables via different paths through the cabinet. They all exit the equipment cabinet via different knockouts as well. So far I have had no problems that I can attribute to noise. I lost position on a manual move the other day, but then I realized that a drooping stepper cable had hooked over a block of metal I set in the enclosure pan to take up some volume since I put coolant in it.

When I am running both machines I'm probably pushing the current capacity of the UPS though. 2 1HP spindles and 6 48V 3.5 amp limited steppers, plus 2 computers, and two coolant pumps. I really do need another UPS.

Reply to
Bob La Londe

I'll make you a deal, I watch the fish action if you show me the machine action.

Wes

Reply to
Wes

Good to be careful with shielding and cable routing, induced noise issues can be a real pain to isolate. Plasma is about the worst for noise, but so far I haven't had an issue with my CNC plasma setup.

Reply to
Pete C.

Cracked 'er, did ya? Oops.

Excellent! Congrats on the personal record.

(I just gave you the clap, Bob.)

Good deal?

formatting link
Whose do you call a "decent p/s"?
formatting link
Is this?

What about the Gecko G201X?

formatting link
like this kit, with the above power supply, Mach3 and BobCad21?

Ayup, gotta match the currents.

But it'll be worth it, right?

-- Nobody, as long as he moves about among the chaotic currents of life, is without trouble. -- Carl Jung

Reply to
Larry Jaques

If you are using standard end mills, note that porter cable makes (though few dealers stock, since few wood router bits are that size) 3/8 collets. Might make that less of a fortune to spend.

Reply to
Ecnerwal

I, like Wes, am very impressed. Got a picture?

i
Reply to
Ignoramus28444

I'm running the Precise bits collets on my Bosch Routers. I noticed they also had a 3/8 collet for the Porter Cable.

I use mostly 2 flute carbide end mills, and a few micro grain carbide router bits so I can ball mill grooves larger than 1/4". I actually got decent results (for what I do) out of the Bosch collets, but one little crash, and they come out of the router in pieces. Nice thing about Precise Bits stuff is they also have collets for them down to 1/8 instead of having to use a bushing. You have to use their closer nut though as near as I can tell, then you need their spanner... then you don't want to have to keep track of the original collets and nuts too... Pretty soon you have more invested in collets than you spent on the router. LOL.

If I try the PC 1.75 I'll no doubt use their collets to start with. If its good enough and I don't break them...

Reply to
Bob La Londe

Bob La Londe wrote in rec.crafts.metalworking on Sat, 09 Apr 2011 11:12:11 -0700:

Lines, or characters?

Reply to
dan

Lines. I have no easy way to measure characters. LOL. When the machine executes the M30 rewind at the end of the job the LINE counter is 358,598. Multiple words per line, and some of them call up canned cycles so if one were to include all of the equivalent lines in some of the canned cycles it would be much more.

Reply to
Bob La Londe

Is it possible that the counter *is* including each trip through the canned cycles?

Let's see -- you're not running EMC2 -- so no linux, otherwise you could throw the file at the "wc" program (on any flavor of unix, not just linux), which will tell you lines, words, and characters.

====================================================================== Popocat:csu 22:59:26 # wc /etc/termcap 20359 97122 867346 /etc/termcap ======================================================================

And /etc/termcap is not a gcode program -- just a familiar file which has lots of lines in it at a standard location in most unix flavors, so I used it for a demo.

You can limit it to just characters or just lines, or just words (or any combination thereof) by using "-l", "-w", or "-c"on the command line.

Windows probably can tell you in the directory listing at least how many characters it is -- bearing in mind that there are two invisible characters at the end of each line -- the "Carriage Return" and the "Line Feed" characters. Unix/linux only uses the Line Feed, and older Mac OS's (pre OS-X, which is unix under the hood) use only the Carriage Return.

Enjoy, DoN.

Reply to
DoN. Nichols

Nope, been running it long enough and hand coded enough basic jobs to know it counts each text line starting with a g-code as a line whether it's a G00 (rapid linear move) or a G83 (peck drill cycle).

Reply to
Bob La Londe

It counts lines that start with M codes too.

Reply to
Bob La Londe

========== It's free -- Try

formatting link
"Supplied as freeware with no warranty for fitness of use, not even as a bad example.

A diagnostic tool to determine if your CNC program file contains lower case letters (such as a lower case ell in place of a one), high-bit (such as a "phantom" space) or non-printing [control] characters. This can cause hard to identify /correct problems. Generates a complete character count from ASCII-0 through ASCII-255 and identifies the context as in complete program, in blocks or in comments. Runs under most any version of windows, and does *NOT* require a DOS box or environment.

Source will be supplied on request if you wish to port to Linux or Mac. Written in PowerBasic Console Compiler 4.0. Very fast with operationally unlimited file size. Generates two output files, FN.rpt which is a standard text file you can print or paste, and FN.csv which is a comma delimited file that you can open in most any spreadsheet program for additional analysis.

Please let me know if you find this of interest and/or help, or if you have any suggestions. Click on GmcD above counter at bottom of page to send me an email.

Thanks to all the regulars on AMC and RCM for their observations, suggestions, etc.

Added Sunday 19 Aug 2007 as CNTCHR03.EXE, and placed in the public domain by the author.

Updated to CNTCHR3A.EXE on 21 Aug 07. Error checking/reporting (file creation/disk full) improved, and a screen notifying operator of completion and times required added. "

-- Unka George (George McDuffee) .............................. The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. L. P. Hartley (1895-1972), British author. The Go-Between, Prologue (1953).

Reply to
F. George McDuffee

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.