[1hander]

well i thought it would be...LOL..

i got the new stylus in for the probe...carbide ruby tip... after calibration it was super accurate...
slo oi finally get the hang of the tool measuring geal on MSM .. and im doing some air tool changes,,, everytime i entered T#M6 it would respond correctly by moving to the tool change position.. so i was doing some probe routines..with T1 ..the probe..master tool.....everything was perfect... but this time when i entered T2M6 to change out the probe...it went down into the workpiece instead of up and to the tool cxhange position... of course turning my new super accurate stylus into 5 smaller super accurate pieces .. dammet..

so after that i tried recreating the crash with the exact same conditions but it never did it again... just that one time.. ive had problems like that before where mach would do somethig completely crazy ..then never do it again..oh well lesson learned.. but at least im getting the hang of MSM... ive read the manual 4 times thus far and continue to reread it ..and it makes more sense every time i read it...

[1hander]

got the toolsetter installed... it makes tool measuring a thing of simplicity for someone with one working arm...it used to be an absolute nightmare for me,so was work piece setup..its now a breeze..

even though i was advised not to use a moving toolsetter, i didnt know not to use it when i ordered it... i wanted to run what worked easiest with the touchprobe which is of course NC.... so i set up the toolsetter using the spindle nose and 0 for the measurement...

and the measurement for the test tool i was using was good and repeatable to within .0002 every time i measured it, i did 50 measurements...this was with it set to measure only in the center of the touchplate... very accurate.....unfortunately when i used .500 in the random area touch DRO ... the farther from the center it measured, the more error i got in the measurement of the PTL... but it was never plus or minus more than .0013
so as long as i use the center of the plate the measurements are good...even at .0013 its good, im not sure the machine is accurate enough to ***** about .0013...

good thing is as my tooholders ar RH...so i wont be measuring except when replacing worn or broken tools or the drill bits in the chuck i think..so i probly wont add the airblast feature, i dont think ill need it.. then build my tool table..and i need to accurately meaure the touchprobe PTL when triggered accurately so my offsets will be correct...and that parts done

in case theres a problem down the road i have started on the touchplate and circuit... it has never tried to crash my probe since the last time, so it must have been my fault somehow..

i got in a 220 EMI filter that ill be trying out..then im out of excuses to get started on the PDB,head extension, and balancer

[1hander]

today i wanted to test the mill for emi...and it went awesome... after adding the inline emi filter..shortening the motor line and mounting the vfd on the column to the right rear.. debounce is as 50 , i didnt want to go any lower...
i did get a couple of estops when varying the rpm from really low to really high in a big step... so i looked in the vfd and it has a setting for current, it was set to low and when i hit a really high rpm really fast the spike in current would set off the estop..so i adjusted that and all seemed well for a while

i decided to try to machine the front load meter panel for the loadmeter i got and set up with the vfd... again all went good until it started to machine circular pockets in a 2d clearing op...i had the cam at 20 ipm but it would not go faster than 13 or so and it had a really bad juttery movement on both x and y... .. i encountered this before , after i lowered the backlash speed a bit and increased the accel it got a bit better

but when i tried feed override it was super ugly... i remembered someone saying in thread something about the look ahead featurei and after checking it, it was set to 12 lines, i increased it to 100 and it immediately fixed the problem and the overide started working again but i never use it any more... i cut a few circular pockets and it was good to go again it seems,,,

the part went really well...apart from the juttering problem which was my fault... and me not using a deep drililng strategy that caused a drill bit to break off inside a hole that i cant get out..of course i tried a hammer and small punch to get it out which scratched the crap out of the part...all the toolchanges went off without a hitch.. the offsets were dead on....the prob/moving tool setter and MSM worked perfect...really like MSM

but in case anyone has the same problem heres some short vids of the problem

[Fastest1]

Great to hear about success in dealing with noise. 50 is nothing to be ashamed of and is likely a little low.

I run 200 on the look ahead. I have for years but cant remember what prompted me to set it that high.

There is also another setting that can smooth motion. I will have to open Mach and see.

[Kenny Duval]

What does the G-Code look like? Is it calling a radius for the interpolation or is it generating a bunch of separate X an Y segments to do it?

[1hander]

the code looked ok, i compared to other runs i did and nothing looked different...

it turned out to be the look ahead it was just to low...if i changed it to 200 it went well, when i changed it back to 20 it started to jutter on the radiuses.. everything is going well... so far...
but now i have to deal with a balance issue...the quill barrel and the spindle need to be balanced...

i was able to get the barrel almost dead on with trial and error and 3 strips of double sided tape all the way to 8k, im not planning on more than 7k...it starts to pull to much amperage...and the quill bearings start to heat up then i can watch the amperae slowly start to creep up to 4.8 which is full load amps then the vfd cuts power ,,

with the spindle in there the vibration jumps up again at 4500...

i had made plans to build a balancer but i just cannot spare the money and the month or two it will take me to build it and get it working right...
soooooo...is there anyone who can balance the spindle and the quill barrel for, im willing to pay of course... i can send the barrel with the bearings installed and the spindle in the cartridge
or can someone recommend a place that isnt crazy expensive..

im working on setting up the fourth axis (which will be anothr hobby unto itself)
working on converting the lathe to cnc and all the stuff that goes along with that
replacing all seals on my x5
finishing up working on some helicopter parts
jeez..im over extended... and i just want to get rid if the vibrations..the vibes im pretty sure whats causing the heat buildup in the bearings also i found out that i still get estops at rpms above 7500 because of the vibrations..id like for it to be as balanced as possible at all rpms

[1hander]

would like you guys input on this if possible....what i did wrong..or what can be better

[Fastest1]

That was a nice model. What problem did you have?

The only thing I was curious about was the length of the X rail. It fell short of the end on the left side or so it appeared.

[1hander]

hey whats up boss...

yea the rails i didnt quite get to modeling the exact length... i was more worried about the cross slide

i figured start from scratch ...instead of whittle way at the original crosslide ... because of the height of the rails and the block...i set the block down in as far as i could into the crosslide....
trying to get as much meat for the blocks bolts to screw into...as it sits the bolts that hold the block onto the crosslide are getting into 10mm of metal, im not sure if thats enough(was planning on using cast iron for the slide..good or bad idea)

i left the remnants of the dovetail under the table to leave something for a bit of rigidity lengthwise..(was afraid the table might bow)

because of the height of the blocks and rails....the table sits .52 inch higher than it was before...can anyone see a problem with that other than loss of a bit of Z

right now the rails are just sitting on the surfaces...would it be better to machine a groove for them to sit in...this would drop the table a bit lower..maybe .2 or so...

[109jb]

The X axis blocks can't be directly above the Y axis blocks. The reason is because the blocks are threaded for the attachment bolts, so you have to be able to access them from the opposite side. You can do it for for one axis, but then those blocks will be in the way for installing the bolts for the other axis.

[1hander]

nice catch//// i have no excuse...LOL//
if i add stock width to the top...it wi;; ne shaped kinda like the original...if it make it wide enough to access the bolts to the top blocks from underneath ... thhen ill have to add extensions to the sides of the x axis because ill lose x travel
im not sure if the blocks are threaded or if they are through hole

[1hander]

does this look reasonable... have to add 35mm to eash side of the x and y cross slide...is that right....approximately a 3 inch spacer for the head .... approx 6.5inch y plus and minus
alsp want to extend x axis

[pippin88]

You can get bearing blocks that have flanges with through holes rather than threaded.

https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/i...0W5iQrHIv5QOQw

[1hander]

i saw that last night..and tried it in cad....
the egw(flanged 54mm) are wider than the egh 35mm..

the flanged ones will require cutting away of almost all of the remaining dovetail material fro underneath the stable...which im really scared of doing..im not sure on this one yet..

i wonder if using the flanged ones offers any less flexing of the block itself...the flanged ones have ribs on the sides..

using the egw will keep me from adding wifth to the crosslide....but im thinking a little more width on the criss slide for the x axis may not be sucg a bad thing..

as always opinions welcome

[1hander]

i jumped off the rails to setup and finish the 4th axis... this having one arm thing is really pissing me off lately...
i dont have a power drawbar yet.. so i was removing the touch probe...and io loosened the drawbolt...i have to tap on top of it to loosen the collet...
well the probe fell out and smashed stylus number 5.... i fricken lost it..and threw the probe against the concrete...

so ive decided to punish myself by building another one... but i would like to have the fourth setup for a couple of operations...

so i have some questions... i got it setup...steps per degree all that good stuff by watfching videos and reading... and i have a camera to calibrate it the way hoss did his...i know how to align it properly..
how does one go about defining the stock that you will be cutting from....or,,,,
i know how to define stock in the CAM setup....
is there away to define to center line of the fourth axis.... or are the machining paths based solely on the defined stock diameter entered in the CAM....and touch offs

[Fastest1]

Sorry to hear about the probe. Maybe Hallmark ITTP will have you beta their new model :-) You are doing a great job.

[1hander]

thanks boss... yea i saw the videos... the over run protection is really nice on that probe..one things for sure...if i was to beta that sucker it would get a full workout....if it can survive me then its tough as heck...LOL

[1hander]

i got the 4th running by changing the false to true for the axis in the post..


but its not right...i really need help... ive posted on autocad site and a couple others but hjavent got help with this yet... im pretty sure someone has a posty processor for mach3 wit the 4th axis rotating around the x axis..

this one is my setup in cam,..could be wrong..





if someone would like to share or put me in touch with someone who can help me get it working right... im using mach3 and inventor hsm... ythe post extension is cps

[1hander]

this one shows the toolpath output from the post.. inventor hsm is 3+5 with is indexing 4 and 5 i think... i tried it on the mill and the toolpath is exactly as shown here... the z is doing the circular interpolation instead of the z sitting and xandy doing it... the axis is rotating to the right place ... but the x y and are doing that triangle patterrn

[1hander]

this ones too far above my head