Interesting problem

I had an odd one today, sort of in the vein of the "some days are worse than others" thread.

Mine probably is not as serious as ones discussed there, but while I was machining out some small nuts from AL, I started hearing a really god-awful noise coming from the spindle area. Sounded like someone was beating on the spindle with a hammer, so I was sure my bearing were toast.

When I opened the door I found that the large bolt on the PDB that engages the draw bar from the bottom of the cylinder had some how vibrated loose and when it touched the draw bar it started unscrewing itself. This was pushing the cylinder up and eventually over and off the eccentric nut then to the side, hence all the noise.

Simple enough to re-tighten the bolt, and no real damage. but just thought I would pass a tip to everyone who has a PDB to maybe check that bolt for tightness every once in a while.

Terry

I put some loctite blue on mine. I'm thinking maybe I should upgrade to red ...
Glad your machine made it without damage!

Yeah, I was pretty happy!

For me all of this is just fun, I'm having a blast!

And on a side note, I'm in awe of fusion 360's capabilities, these are the parts I was making, and when I selected a 3D adaptive clearing tool path and picked the surface that shows in blue, the toolpath cut everything at once. Well, not including the drilling of the holes of course. But it cuts the profile of the nuts including the upper surfaces.

Terry

Cad, cam and control software has come along way in the past few years. The entry cost to use Fusion makes it by far the most compelling tool to learn and use these days. Decent integration of the process was $uper expensive just a few years ago and still is if you stray from this product. Still as mentioned in another thread it pays to be careful and not assume to much. I get going with the process of turning art into parts a little to fast at times. I didn't mill some un needed features in to a gun barrel. What I did was end up chasing a tiny error in where I placed my ucs on the cad model of all things. Made me think I had a problem with my z axis or maybe the tool setter and as usual it was me or pebkac error.

The only thing I'm really missing from Inventor is the "Bolted Connection" feature.
Being able to easily assemble and see exactly where the bolt heads will stick out would be useful.
(Currently I assemble with rigid joints, which puts pieces in place, but adding bolts to that is a PITA)

I use iron cad inovate. Super easy to draw complex solid models and assemblies certain ways. The module I have does many things like bolts, gears.... These do help and down right automate many tasks. Also works real well with Sprutcam. As mentioned above models with preset ucs and fixtures imported into position with little effort. Still Expensive software even for the one module I own. If I do change cad programs it will be to a subscription of inventor . About same cost as what I use with update cost.

I have noticed in most forum's that folks tend to use the CAD/CAM that they worked with, if they ever worked in the field. That makes perfect sense to me, because until recently, you couldn't try other software without buying it, and most of it is way to expensive to take a chance unless you are already familiar with it. Other folks tend to buy software with a connection to the equipment, i.e. Tormach owners buying Sprut or Alibre, like I did.

But innovation is starting to appear, things like Fusion and Onshape being free for amateurs, student licenses for Solidworks, etc. I believe these ideas will develop future business for these companies, in much the same way that Apple sold a lot of computers by heavily discounting them to high school's and colleges. Again, people tend to buy what they are familiar with.

Terry

You know, my friend, to tell the truth - that is what the issue I also experiencing right now. Have you considered the problem that can be connected with viruses? That's an absolutely annoying issue which can happen with anybody from us. I have spent a lot of hours surfing at StackExchange, but only when I found ( https://macsecurity.net/view/124-rem...me-and-firefox), I could finally get rid of the problem.