Converting into cnc milling

As a starting point I would suggest looking at Mach3

This will give you the software to control the machine and the Mach3 user group has a lot a examples of making it work. For the next step we need to know how big a simple machine to discuss hardware. I'm slowly building a Beginners Guide

I now it is a bit of a plug but have a look at

to see what I did to a small Chester mill.

Hope it helps.

Cheers

Adrian

work ;)

Try

It's got to be one of the best resources for most things CNC.

Model Engineers' Workshop magazine has carried articles in the past couple of years on converting the X3 mill to CNC - one series authored by Dick Stephen and one by me.

You will find Dick's article on the Arc Eurotrade website under "Projects and Articles" along with one or two other CNC articles:

My X3 article is here:

The last 2 issues (120 and 121) have articles on my conversion of a Taig (Peatol) mill to CNC. I haven't posted it on my website yet though.

Regards, Tony

To add to the other plugs, my experience can be found here:

Alan

Alan did you have any issues installing the software, when I tried I got an installation error saying I needed to update some windows package. This even though I run XP with latest updates?

Cheers

Adrian

A few things, thanks for correcting my link when I posted, it can be .co.uk or .com both same just that I managed to do neither! Again thanks

Mach 3 is it free? Or limited download to try and see if it works ok for the individual before purchase? It may seem a daft question but at present I am on a Linux Machine and Dos is not available to me to try at the present. So it is not just a case of download and see.

Many thanks Adrian

May I also ask if anyone has used EMC, the Linux cnc controller. When I tried the PC was not up to it as it seems to need a decent spec!

Adrian

I haven't tried it, though it will be the first one I play with when I get started myself. It used to be the case that it needed a real intel pentium as it relied on some timing register that wasn't available on the other x86 processors, but that was quite a long time ago. I would have thought anything less than a few years old would be OK, but a 486 or some early AMDs weren't.

I presume you've found

but the Yahoo group CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO can also be helpful.

-adrian

I have downloaded the image files to install but came unstuck on two aspects not enouigh memory I seem to remeber that min of 256 K was required and I only had 124K Also the PC I had had intergrated graphics on the motherboard and the recommendation was not to have but go for a higher spec graphic card as a seperate item. It basically ment the 800 Mhz pentium I had was not up for it. When i retire another computer or buy one from fleebay I would have another go.

The hardware specs said min of

Adrian,

I had no problems at all with any of the software installation.

Alan

Adrian,

I should have added that I am running Windows XP with SP 2.

Alan

That is, I think what I tried it on I will try again and see what the message is?

I did try to install from the site rather then install from a saved file

Adrian

OK my attemps with the free Dolphin Cad package led to an error 1931.(The windows installer cannot update the system file C:\Windows\...\NTOSKRNL>EXE because the file si protectedby Windows You may have to update your operating system for this programme to run correctly)

So I think I will give up with the package for a while and concentrate on the gear I have.

Adrian

You can always e-mail Dolphin and ask their advice. I have found them very helpful.

Alan

Alan, I have been wading through your writeup today whilst sitting here with a sore throat and lack of voice.

You are doing yourself down...

here:-

On page 5 you have :-

So what is the error for a movement that is not a multiple of 64? Well taking

0.001" as the probable smallest accuracy then 1/1000 = 40640/1000 steps = 40.640 steps which of course cannot be achieved so there will be either 40 or 41 steps done.

At 40 steps this will give 40/6400 =1/160 mm which equals 0.000255" and:-

At 41 steps this will give 41/6400 = 0.00640625 mm which equals 0.0002522",

so a 1/4 thou error can be expected. Am I bothered? (to use current jargon!)

This should be :-

At 40 steps this will give 40 * 4 /6400 =1/40 mm which equals 0.000984" (.016 thou error) and:-

At 41 steps this will give 41 * 4 /6400 = 0.025625 mm which equals 0.001009" (.009 thou error)

:-)

Regards Mark Rand RTFM

Thank f*ck for that ...............

-- Regards,

John Stevenson Nottingham, England.

Visit the new Model Engineering adverts page at:-

Mark Rand wrote: [X1 CNC conversion]

Alan's maths may be wrong, but he's probably closer to the right answer anyway. 32 microsteps just doesn't buy you anything like 32x the

*accuracy*. It gets you 32x the *resolution*, but that's not the same thing at all, especially when it comes to microstepping. A search on the interweb for "microstepping", "microstepping accuracy" or similar will find ample discussion of exactly why you don't get the accuracy (and why microstepping is still a good idea anyway). The short version: You get bugger all /incremental/ torque (5% for 32 microsteps) and that small incremental torque is swamped by effects in the stepper itself (friction, detent torque), let alone the external load.

Oh, and the maximum (resolution) error is always half the smallest division; half a microstep in this case. So I'd just have worked out how far that is rather than working examples. Imperial and metric are "out of phase" so you are going to get that maximum error at some point (actually at 1/127 points).

Tim