[mhackney]

Here's a quick update. I've been mostly working on getting the electronics together, building up a new Windows 7 Dell Optima 755 computer with a touch screen display and configuring the KFlop and KStep. It's all coming together nicely now. I did want to show how I am mounting my bellows to protect the Z screw to the right of the apron. It is a bit trickier but I figured out a simple way to do it.

I made 2 more of the mounts I described earlier. To mount, I drilled a clearance hole for a 10-24 cap head. I removed the top socket head screw that attaches the ball nut to the apron. I used that position with a longer screw (1.5") 10-24 cap head. I used four #10 washers as spacers. The mount doesn't touch the other screw heads. It is held security and this is really a non-stressed part. I am doing something similar at the other end but have to drill and tap a hole. There are 2 screw heads to clear that retain the bearing at that end.

Attachment 254734

[jim-c]

Nice build, thanks for posting.
I have a 0752 being delivered this week.
What's the latest and greatest QCTP set up.
I don't mind paying for good quality.

[Fastest1]

Michael, What are you going to use? Rubber bellows like a motorcycle fork protector or a telescoping spring like this? Telescopic Springs | Hennig Inc. Or something else entirely?

[mhackney]

Well, this conversion has been stalled for over a year and I need to figure out how best to push forward. To recap...

I finally ended up returning the stepper drivers and getting the Dynomotion KSTEP to go with the KFLOP I plan(ed) to use to control this machine.
I completed the mechanical part of the conversion - ball screws/mounts/steppers, VFD motor update for speed control

Basically everything is sitting there, the control box is unassembled because I had an issue with acquiring a breakout board from Winford (my problem, not theirs) to use with the KFLOP.

I got stalled by 3 things - in order of "pain":

1. figuring out what and how to use an encoder for the spindle speed feedback so I can do threading, etc. This became a quagmire of research with no "prior art" from the KFLOP community to help. I can easily follow what someone else has done but I don't have the time or experience to invent stuff like this.
2. Programming (literally "C" programming, configuring, compiling, testing, etc) the KFLOP software. It really makes me miss the convenience of simply configuring things in Mach3. I was starting to make some progress and even got the motors (on the bench) to move on command. But it just feels like I'm writing my own software to control what should be a straight-forward lathe controller. I develop software professionally (enterprise software) so it isn't that I can't do this, it's just the learning curve is a lot higher than I anticipated and every time I ran into an issue and asked about it, there was some "grunge" around the answer "oh, we fixed that in the latest release" "oh, you need to do X before Y but not after Z" type of stuff - i.e. undocumented and no priori art. I really just want a chunk of software that I can configure and move on. I'm considering scrapping the KFLOP and KSTEP and moving to a different controller that I can plug into Mach 4 or something similar.
3. Waiting for the breakout board - this was minor but any delay just compounds when there are so many other projects that need to get done

So I'm re-looking at where the current KFLOP software is. I've been getting multiple emails a day for over a year from the Dynomotion Yahoo group and it really seems like everyone has to go through this very large learning curve. I need this lathe operational in the next couple of months and I just don't think I have the fortitude to plow through this when I know how easy it was to setup my mini lathe with a G540 and Mach 3.

[TOTALLYRC]

The nice thing about the Kflop is that you can do just about anything with it. The bad thing about it is that you can do just about anything with it.

[mhackney]

Well, with a bit of dedicated effort I'm "over the hump". I have the code working to control my lathe and working on the VFD spindle drive now. It actually makes a lot of sense once you get into it and understand some of the nuances/oddities. Like the overloading of the word "channel" for several different things. I am a bit surprised that no one has published a basic lathe control app for a converted lathe as a starting point.