[David Bord]

Zero fighter.... nice work man. Just watched the video. Noticed you and I have a few things in common. David's Mk4 Build Thread... - FFCars.com : Factory Five Racing Discussion Forum and djborden - YouTube

Are you on ffcars or thefactoryfiveforum ?

David

[zer0fighter]

You bet. Not active anymore, sold my FFR and miss it everyday it's not raining here. I had your SAI kit on my car. Might build another someday but right now working on a Mazda RX7 race car.

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk 4

[FannBlade]

Looking good! You ready to cut some parts?

[zer0fighter]

Did some test cuts in some scrap MDF garbage I had today. Lots of tweaking needed for adjusting my gibs. Some weird unbalance in my mill spindle as well, so I need to figure that out before cutting metal. Here is a small circular hole pattern I made:



Also am experiencing an odd issue in Mach 3. I designed a 3d heart to make my wife and output it from Rhino with RhinoCAM. When I load it into Mach3 on my office PC (8 core, 16gig), all of the paths show up in Mach 3. When I load it up in my CNC laptop, it's only loading the first portion of the G-Code. I suspect it's lack of memory on the laptop, but could it be anything else?

[Richa0rdson]

I will mill a new one once the machine is fully functional.

[FannBlade]

My mill makes the same noise. It's caused from the excessive play the pulley has on the splined shaft. Annoying as hell!!!!

Is your Mach3 a full version? If still demo it will not load all the code....500 (200 lathe) lines I think.

[zer0fighter]

That must be it! I have the demo still, haven't upgraded yet but was planning on it. Although Mach 4 is out soon isn't it?

I wonder if there is any way to get the pulley to be on there tighter? I guess it needs to be able to slide up and down, but the quality of the fit just isn't good enough I guess?

[zer0fighter]

I may order a new pulley from grizzly and see if I can devise a way that 2 can be counter rotated to remove any backlash on the splines for the spindle.

[David Bord]

Nice work...!! I really like how you did the X as well. Any details on how you mounted it to the actual table?

Did you draw all the mounts etc in CAD, or wing it with a ruler ? If you have trouble getting that mount machined for the ball nut I may be able to give you some help with the Tormach.

David

[zer0fighter]

Nice call, looks like I missed out on all the X-axis pictures. Here are some. There is a really small bracket holding the free end of the ball screw, I'll do a better one, but it still works since the ballscrew is so short. It's just to hold it in place.

Attachment 205228

Attachment 205230

Attachment 205232

I don't have CAD for everything. I do have CAD for the spindle clamp bracket, but am going to modify the design and re-cut it. I'll gladly share that and any measurements you want?

Thanks for the offer re: the bracket. Since I've got the mill running now, i'm going to use it to machine this piece as well, see how that goes.

Am learning how to use the CNC lathe now with LazyTurn. It's a little limited and having trouble with my tools crashing when I swap from LH to RH tools. Need to learn how the pros do it!

[FannBlade]

On the lathe side you should get use to using the turn wizards. After you get use to them it will be second nature to punch in what you want and hit the start button. On the mill I do go the CAM program,but wizards are still good for it to.
I went through my fair share of tool crashes also!! Usually forgetting or entering wrong 0 location. Thank GOD I don't have a 20 HP spindle motor......WHEW!

these are all done with grouped together wizards.

Attachment 205256

[Fastest1]

FannBlade, did you single step those wizards or did you add all of the wizards together and do 1 run that completed all of the tasks? Obviously per piece is what I am referring to as the pieces are different.

[FannBlade]

That's correct. I test and set each cut then group the 3-4 together. I'm no G-code expert,in fact know nothing,but if you remove the M5 & M30 at the end of code (except last one) you can copy and paste next code.
Wizards were confusing at first but now I can just punch and go. Hopefully Mach4 has some better ones...I would like to see Tormach's screen for their new lathe as they advertise it as conversational programming.
When I hit the lottery I'm getting one!!!

Edit: My problem with the lathe is the only CAM I can afford is CamBam and still can't get my head around the lathe side of it.

[zer0fighter]

I bought a new pulley thinking me hammering it off of the spindle was causing the issue, but it does it again as well. I was thinking maybe a harmonic dampener from a car might help? I can potentially spin this up to 7,000rpm or more with my new motor, but not with this sort of vibration.

My mill makes the same noise. It's caused from the excessive play the pulley has on the splined shaft. Annoying as hell!!!!

Is your Mach3 a full version? If still demo it will not load all the code....500 (200 lathe) lines I think.

[zer0fighter]

Ive been using the wizards a bit, they are decent, I guess I need to get better at editing the g-code together. LazyTurn isn't too bad, I was having problems with tools moving left to right and not having enough clearance. It's nice when I can just build the profile I need in Rhino and throw it into LazyCam, very quick process. Just wish LazyCam had a BIT more development.

That's correct. I test and set each cut then group the 3-4 together. I'm no G-code expert,in fact know nothing,but if you remove the M5 & M30 at the end of code (except last one) you can copy and paste next code.
Wizards were confusing at first but now I can just punch and go. Hopefully Mach4 has some better ones...I would like to see Tormach's screen for their new lathe as they advertise it as conversational programming.
When I hit the lottery I'm getting one!!!

Edit: My problem with the lathe is the only CAM I can afford is CamBam and still can't get my head around the lathe side of it.

[FannBlade]

I bought a new pulley thinking me hammering it off of the spindle was causing the issue, but it does it again as well. I was thinking maybe a harmonic dampener from a car might help? I can potentially spin this up to 7,000rpm or more with my new motor, but not with this sort of vibration.

That sucks! Hope you figure something out it be nice to fix the problem,it destroys finish on side milling.

[BrokenRotor]

Hey zer0fighter,

I know I have PM'd you some questions, but I figured I'd put this one out for everyone in case someone new like myself has the same questions.

1) How did you figure out the motor torque needed for each axis?

2) How do you figure out what stepper/control system to use, and whether digital or analog?

Thanks,

Steve.

[zer0fighter]

Hey Steve,
I'm not the only one that has converted this machine, Fannblade was my inspiration and guide: CNCzone.com-The Largest Machinist Community on the net! Over 300,000 members and growing. (Wholesale Tool 3n1 CNC Conversion (56k warning))

He did a great job on his with many more options than I took.

1) I basically decided that NEMA 34 was too big for this machine for brackets etc... and so I bought some very good performing NEMA 23 steppers.

2) The gecko G540 is a bit more money up front, but saves a lot of headache in the long run. It's pre-wired to control up to 4 axis and with the USB CNC controller I have, it's really straightforward to hook up to the laptop.

[BrokenRotor]

I did see that posting also, but only a couple photos are viewable, and I'm a guy. I need pictures

I know I'm gonna ask questions that have probably been covered, sorry about that, but this CNC and milling in general is all new to me. I play with wires, microchips, and code. I know mostly nothing about machining, I am trying right now to register for spring classes at a local college for machining. Figured it would help out with my project, and teach me he names of all the machine parts so I don't sound like an idiot when I talk about it.

So with that, more questions:

1) You bought nema 23 motors, are they the digital stepper type?
2) Do all CNC mills use a VFD?, and I assume this is for changing the cutting tool speed on the fly?
3) Do I need a special motor for VFD control?
4) Did you buy all your stuff from Automation Technologies?
5) Acme versus ball screw. It seems you all switch to ball screw. I assume for better resolution and smoother operation?
6) Where did you buy your ball screws from? How did you figure out which ones to buy?

Guess I'll stop there for now. Sorry for so many questions, but anyone can answer.

Thanks,
Steve

[zer0fighter]

No problem, FannBlade and a few others answered a lot of these questions for me too:

1) You bought nema 23 motors, are they the digital stepper type?

Yes stepper motors. I bought them from Automation Technologies.

2) Do all CNC mills use a VFD?, and I assume this is for changing the cutting tool speed on the fly?

Not all mills use or need a vfd. I could have used the standard motor, however it requires more manual work during running the machine. Swapping belts to get different speeds, turning it on and off before and after a program is run. The VFD allows it to all be controlled via the CNC program (I run Mach3).

3) Do I need a special motor for VFD control?

I believe VFD's typically output only 3-phase. Some have 3 phase in, 3 phase out, mine are single phase input, and 3-phase output. The 3-phase motors are able to run at variable speeds with finer control/digital control.

4) Did you buy all your stuff from Automation Technologies?

A bunch of stuff, I got the VFD's from eBay, and the motors from AutomationDirect.com which also sell VFD's.

5) Acme versus ball screw. It seems you all switch to ball screw. I assume for better resolution and smoother operation?

The stock Acme screws would be a nightmare to try to get any sort of precision out of. Im sure people have done it, but not worth it if you're doing all the rest of the work.

6) Where did you buy your ball screws from? How did you figure out which ones to buy?

Bought them from Automation Technologies as well, Fannblade had bought the same ones for my X & Y, so I just copied him. My Z axis I got off e-bay, from China, it's NSK and it was cheap.

I think I actually have another one if you're interested, might work well for you.