[travkroberts]

CNC'ers

The project has started, and my '95 Lagunmatic 310 is going down the road of controller conversion. Mesa 5i25/7i77 came in last week, LinuxCNC installed and running on computer, and encoders wired last night. Attached are some before pics, and then where it stands today. Computer mounted, Mesa breakout board mounted, and wires torn up and ready to decipher..ha. I'll be checking in as I make progress, and hopefully can get some answers as the challenges appear!! Thanks all, and let me know any pointers as I move forward!

Thanks to Zach Jones as he helps me get this project running.


-Travis

[erikjgreen]

I've been rebuilding my Lagunmatic CNC 250 for a while now, and I'm just about to the point of being able to cut metal. My thread is over in the CNC Mill/Lathe build log section of the forums.

Most important pointer I can give you: Make sure your limit switches are connected and working before you try doing anything under power, including moving the axes. If the axes run away for any reason, they have enough power to break cast iron parts of the machine that are not cheap to fix (like the Z axis ballscrew mount in particular). Almost impossible to get parts except from Lagun, and they're *not* cheap.

I used the Mesa 5i20 and a 7i31/7i33 combo originally... Mesa is a great choice. I switched to a 7i47S stepper board when I switched out my drives... the whine from the SD1525 drives drove me nuts.

I have a Hitachi WJ200 AC drive that I use for spindle control, that plus the swap of the coolant pump (which is 3 phase) lets me run the whole setup on single phase 240v power, will full variable speed constant torque and reverse. Once I add an encoder to the spindle I should be able to rigid tap.

Currently I'm using Linuxcnc 2.5.1 from the ubuntu ISO on the Linuxcnc site. I run it on a small form factor Pentium IV PC with 2 GB RAM and an Nvidia FX 5200 PCI-E card. So far I use the mouse, but I also have a pulse generator pendant I'm going to hook up.

I'm looking forward to seeing your results, and I have another friend here (jsantos) with the same mill as me that will be interested in your work as well.

Erik

[travkroberts]

erik

Your thread has been tabbed in my browser since before I got the mill
I have literally read every post, most a few times over. Just trying to do my homework as I move forward! I am thankful for your thorough documentation, and am glad I can say that directly to you. I'm glad we can chat as things come up and stuff goes wrong.

This weekend will be more wiring; I am lucky to have all of the schematics for the machine, so locating wires is no issue. I have a EE friend helping me as well, good insight as I'm ME and like to stay away from sparky things when possible.

I would ask for your personal email, but everyone on the board could benefit from the dialogue you are helping me troubleshoot!

I noticed your ballscrew ordeals, thats a bummer. I will def get homes wired up. I would also love to see your config files for LinuxCNC at some point. I'm still wrapping my head around what is really going on, if that makes sense. I need to understand the logic that goes behind decisions, how inputs are handled, how outputs are handled, etc. All the kind of stuff that becomes more clear the longer I play with it too.

I have a 13x30 lathe and 6x12 surface grinder if you ever need anything, i would be glad to help you out since I've gained so much from your work. Thanks!

Travis

[erikjgreen]

Any news? How goes the work?

[travkroberts]

not much done lately. Got the hole put into the garage ceiling for the motor (stuck up about 4 inches too high..lame). I've kicked the spindle on (test out new belt) and it keeps throwing the breaker. Im wondering if my brake is faulting on with all the wires disconnected. So haven't messed with it, going to focus on the servos/homes etc.

I did have my second boy last weekend, bought a 90 convertible geo metro for a good deal, sold my 89 metro, and have since put on a new top, suspension, tore out and cleaned interior, new sound dampener all around, and all kind of little stuff. So that has been taking my time haha. after my wife can be a little more self reliant i'll be able to pick things back up on the mill. Thanks! i did figure out my home switches though, that wasn't a big deal but the wiring threw me off at first.

tkr

[erikjgreen]

Heh.... and he says "not much done lately"


I took my brake off... I seem to remember it was disengaged when powered off, but you may have a different brake... the newer ones all seem to disengage when powered as a fail safe, in the event of power loss they stop the spindle.

Erik

[travkroberts]

Well finally posting progress on this machine. It is pretty well up and running! Some tweaking to my .ini config file and the machine has been running like a top (thanks to the LinuxCNC guys!) . I had a first little job recently, was practicing some cuts in MDF.
Attachment 268120Attachment 268122Attachment 268124Attachment 268126

I needed to engrave some panels for decorations in the house, didn't want to run the 7 hp motor @ slow RPM for an engraving router bit, so I rigged up this router holder as well. It needs a little more support at the top of the router for cutting, but engraving runs great with no twisting!
Attachment 268128Attachment 268130

TKR

[erikjgreen]

Well finally posting progress on this machine. It is pretty well up and running! Some tweaking to my .ini config file and the machine has been running like a top (thanks to the LinuxCNC guys!) . I had a first little job recently, was practicing some cuts in MDF.
Attachment 268120Attachment 268122Attachment 268124Attachment 268126

I needed to engrave some panels for decorations in the house, didn't want to run the 7 hp motor @ slow RPM for an engraving router bit, so I rigged up this router holder as well. It needs a little more support at the top of the router for cutting, but engraving runs great with no twisting!
Attachment 268128Attachment 268130

TKR

Wow, nice work! I'd love to see some videos (or in RL) of your machine working.

I picked up a second mill myself... another 310. I haven't started anything with that one yet though

Erik

[travkroberts]

Yeah anytime in Houston come by! I'll have to take some videos soon. I'm loving the overall build of the Lagun- I am glad you have another one! I feel like 2nd time around a Mesa/Linux conversion has to be exponentially easier than the 1st.

tkr