REALLY LOUSY VIDEO of the mill ACTUALLY MOVING in 2-D

Made an adapter plate and wired the Y axis encoder. Connected both X and Y axis servos to the actual ball screws. After some fiddling, I can now move in X-Y and the [shitty] video from my cell phone shows the table cutting circles in X-y.

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This is the mill executing my first ever file with g-codes.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus3594
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Congratulations! Major milestone.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Reply to
Spehro Pefhany

Thanks. My next urgent task is to wire the lubrication pump, as I do not want to move the table too much without the lube pump working.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus3594

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Very cool.

I'd suggest picking up some 3/4" MDF to use for your first test cuts, it's cheap, easy to mill, doesn't need any coolant and you can collect the dust fairly easily by holding a shop vac hose next to the cutter.

MDF is also good for future use testing your G-code before loading an expensive piece of metal or a one of a kind part. I did a bunch of test engraving on MDF before running some aluminum parts I had anodized

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Reply to
Pete C.

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Ummm, yeah, the video quality is not so hot, but why should a PHONE even be able to record video?

Great progress, Igor! It is going together real fast now!

Jon

Reply to
Jon Elson

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Thanks. I was also quite excited.

I have a couple of questions about it, one is, is it abrasive, another, is it corrosive (someone told me that all wood is corrosive).

I will try to use machinable wax, which I can remelt. I saw some recipes of machinable wax that seem pretty simple. I bought a couple of pieces.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus3594

Yuck! VERY messy, the dust gets into everything. If you ever want to use coolant, you will regret MDF or other wood fiber products. Even just cutting a little bit into some wood back-up material in a one-time fixture makes some mess when it gets into my coolant system.

Wax can be machined, and the fuzz collected and remelted for another try. There are a bunch of formulas for prototyping wax, but plain candle wax works pretty well.

The Axis preview on EMC2 is so good, I rarely get as far as starting the machine before I realize something is wrong in the program. Because the screen is cumulative, you can actually load two programs and see the way they fit together. For instance, a program that mills pockets and a program that drills mounting holes. You can use Axis to view both programs together to make sure they have the right relationship. (Just an odd use I did today to cross-check two programs.)

Jon

Reply to
Jon Elson

You can always plug it into the wall socket to make sure the machine is lubed (assuming

120 V AC motor.)

Jon

Reply to
Jon Elson

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A phone is a computer.

So is my mill's control.

Yes, things are moving along. Thanks for your support and providing a great product.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus3594

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Not particularly, and it's easy enough to wipe away whatever dust gets past your shop vac.

No, but wood does tend to attract and absorb moisture, so you don't want to leave metal buried under MDF dust.

Machineable wax is certainly another option, just not readily available at your local big box store.

Reply to
Pete C.

I've milled a bunch of MDF and not had a problem. My ordinary shop vac does a great job collecting nearly all of the dust. If I were running it on a CNC mill, I'd make a collection nozzle with brush perimeter to go around the spindle, but on a manual mill, just holding the shop vac hose next to the end mill works fine.

Wax is fine too, just not as cheap and readily available.

Dry runs with Z inhibit are also good for testing.

Reply to
Pete C.

That is WAY COOL. Congratulations, Iggy.

Reply to
rangerssuck

I did wire it properly last night. I am still not sure how it works, but the empty pockets seem to slowly move along the translucent lines. They move very slowly and I am not sure how much lube was really delivered to the moving parts.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus21191

I tried searching through the several posts from you on this. I did not see how you were adressing the Z-axis. I assume the series II has a rack and pinion quill, that has a big back-lash problem. But that's why I'm asking, as I have a Index mill that would have this Z-axis as a problem if not solved in some other way. ignator

Reply to
ignator

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You remember when you did that manually by turning the handwheels from coordinates? It would take a lot of practice to be able to do it that fast! :-)

Congratulations!

RogerN

Reply to
RogerN

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So true.

I still have that piece of steel with "Egyptian CNC" made circle.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus21191

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When you was doing that I thought you would enjoy a CNC machine. For a home shop I think it's hard to beat a machine like you have, you probably would spend more money for a CNC stepper driven sherline mill. The Sherline mill would be more portable though! You could have spent a considerable amount of money fixing the old control and everytime something broke you would be at their mercy to get it going again, darn, another $2000 board. Now I don't think you'll need a repairman for the controls, you'll be able to fix it yourself.

RogerN

Reply to
RogerN

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Yes. Exactly. Plus, using the old control, even in the best case, would be so clunky compared to XEmacs/Linux/Perl/EMC2. These guys really did a fabulous job.

The key to repairability is to make a good electrical schematic and label everything.

I actually "broke" something, I tried to wire all limit switches and as a result, the estops and limits stopped working. I will be fixing that tonight.

Size-wise, this is a perfect home shop machine. 2-3 HP, big table, etc. I can get to all of its hardware relatively easily.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus21191

Hey attaboy! Took me a minute to realize the workbench with tools is your mill bed. ;)

Wes

Reply to
Wes

This is an illustration of the law of free flat surfaces.they tend not to last

i
Reply to
Ignoramus23878

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