Extra Electronics?? Coolant Control?

Hello all, I have chosen most things I need to put my X3 conversion together! Thanks to everyone who has helped me out so far. I do have some additional questions regarding electronics.

I have seen people talking about other electronics in their CNC builds, other than what I normally see. These include, Smoothstepper, master control board, spindle control board and boards for coolant.

Are ANY of these boards NEEDED to run CNC? Is all that is REQUIRED, the stepper motors, stepper drivers and the BOB?

IF they are not needed, what are they used for? I assume the spindle control board can be used to change the spindle speed through mach 3, but is this necessary, or can you just manually change spindle speed by pulleys, etc.

Also I would like to have the capability to have my computer control my coolant, what do people recommend?

LASTLY, as far as limiting switches go, do you need 1 per axis, or 1 for all 3 steppers?

I realize this is a lot of questions, but any help is greatly appreciated!

You need a limit switch for all 3 axis- on the cnc fusion kit, you don't need an x axis limit switch as the motor mount will keep the balls from pulling out and cause the stepper to stall on one side, the home is on the other side. limit on the z is ackward because of different tool lengths, however its pretty bad if you dive into the table.

You forgot the power supply :p:
cheers!

I DID forget the power supply! :). BUT, I obviously knew that was part of it. So am I correct in my thinking that there is no NEED for the other components?

What do those other components do for you?

Still, what is the setup for computer controlled coolant?

Required can be a matter of opinion. As far as spindle control goes, you can do things several ways. One is to just turn the spindle on and off and change speeds by hand. Works just fine, but you have to remember to do things right. You can wire a relay to an output to control things, or you can get really fancy.
The BOB isn't essential, you CAN hang things right off the parallel port. But it makes life a lot easier, and can offer some protection to the computer in the event that you wire things wrong. Many of these boards have outputs pre-wired for things like coolant or spindle relay control.
Smooth stepper (although I have no personal experience with them) simply provides a pulse train to the servo/stepper drives. It takes this load off the main computer, and can provide different/better results in specific circumstances. It will also let you use CNC control programs on machines without a parallel port. Definitely not necessary, unless you are in a specific set of circumstances -OR- you just want the benefits it can bring.
When you think CNC you should think of the machine as just an industrial robot, not a mill. You are controlling axis of motion, moving things in relation to one another. The fact that there is a spindle spinning with a tool in it is only one thing you can do with it. You only need to control the things that you want. Currently I run my mill by manually turning on and off the spindle, and adjusting speeds. It's the first thing I plan on upgrading, as I'd rather take spindle control and let the program deal with choosing a correct speed and making sure that it's doing it. Then I'll add coolant, tool change etc as it becomes necessary or desired. But I can make parts just fine right now.

Firestorm,

Don't forget blinker fluid.....very, very important. ;-)

-Caleb105-

You can easily operate and do useful work with nothing but the motors connected. You just manually control the spindle, coolant, etc. If you want to semi-automate those functions, insert M00s or M01s into the G-code, and the program will stop and prompt you to take an action. You then click on CycleStart to continue program execution. So, when it's time to turn on the spindle, instead of inserting an M3 into the G-code, insert:

"M00 (Turn spindle on to 2500 RPM)"

Alternatively, you can leave the G-code alone, and modify the Mach M3, M4, M5, M7, M8 and M9 macros to do the same thing. For instance, replace the M3.m1s macro with:

Code "M00 (Turn Spindle On)"

Replace the M5.m1s macro with:

Code "M00 (Turn Spindle Off)"

Limit and home switches, on a small machine, can be considered more a convenience than a necessity.

Regards,
Ray L.

well, the bottom line is just like has been said above, you only have to control what you need controlled. I've had my machine set up for over a year, and as of right now i do manual spindle control, manual coolant control, manual z tool height control, all of that.. now... that all being said, i make a few $$ here and there using my machine.. my personal list of to do's is:
1) touch-off plate.
2) limit and home switches(no i dont have these yet)
3) 4th axis
at this time, i have no plans to computer control the spindle or the coolant... Yea i know its easy enough, but eh, these other things are more important for how i work, and thats really the key, do what you need for the way you work. if down the road you figure out that you need or want spindle and coolant control, then go for it, but unless you see a specific need for it now, i wouldnt invest your time or $$ on it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by project5k

well, the bottom line is just like has been said above, you only have to control what you need controlled. I've had my machine set up for over a year, and as of right now i do manual spindle control, manual coolant control, manual z tool height control, all of that.. now... that all being said, i make a few $$ here and there using my machine.. my personal list of to do's is:
1) touch-off plate.
2) limit and home switches(no i dont have these yet)
3) 4th axis
at this time, i have no plans to computer control the spindle or the coolant... Yea i know its easy enough, but eh, these other things are more important for how i work, and thats really the key, do what you need for the way you work. if down the road you figure out that you need or want spindle and coolant control, then go for it, but unless you see a specific need for it now, i wouldnt invest your time or $$ on it.

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it also sounds like your a bit like me- literally almost all of our work is done with the spindle at 100%... so its not really a big deal to just turn it all the way over at least for me lol.

excuse my noobness but what would a touch-off plate do? (nuts)

A touch-off plate allows you to automatically zero the Z axis DRO. The plate is connected to an input on the BOB. You put the plate on the workpiece, directly under the tool, then run a macro that moves the Z axis down until the tool contacts the touch plate, thus grounding the BOB input. The macro knows the thickness of the touch-plate, so once it see the BOB input go low, it knows exactly how high the tool tip is above the top surface of the work, so it sets the Z DRO to that value.

A similar approach can be used to automatically zero the X and Y axes to edges of the workpiece. It's a very nice time and labor saver.

Regards,
Ray L.

sure beats the heck outta the way i've been doing it, using a .005 feeler gauge, joging down by hand till i feel it touch, then just bumping the z down a bit more while watching the dro... then manualy zeroing the dro.

look around for a thread or some posts about it, there are some videos on youtube as well that explain it and show it in action...

I use just a solid state relay to control my coolant. I picked it up from Surplus Center for about $9. It is simply one less thing I have to do. Mach 3 controls it well. SheetCam inserts the operating code automatically for me, so I never really have to think about it.
I use a speed control card from Homann Designs. It controls on/off, direction of rotation and speed of my DC treadmill motor along with the actual motor controller. This takes all the guess work out of the speed. In fact it really speeds up everything for me. Yet another switch I don't have to worry about.
I use Tormach Tooling and still touch off manually, but will make a plate some day. Once it is zero'ed on the Z though, all tool changes retain that Z. If I mill a bunch of the same parts as I normally do, I only have to set Z once a day. I can even keep the exact position overnight and start up the next day precisely where it was the day before.
When I get a tool change, I use a butterfly impact now to loosen the drawbar.
It is a metter of seconds to change the tool and hit cycle start and I'm going about other business as the machine does it's thing.

You really won't know what you are missing and how much time these things will actually save you until you implement them. At each step of upgrade, I often wondered "What the heck took me so long to do this?" ;)

hehehe yea, but i'm not using any kind of tool holders, so i would have to set my z each time...

oh, so how is that butterfly impact working out? seeing any wear on the drawbar threads yet?

No wear on the threads. It's actually a shop made drawbar. I used grade 5 all thread. It holds up very well. The impact is adjustable too. I keep it regulated down a bit. Works great.

I only bought a few of the tool holders. Maybe about $100 investment. Most of my end mills are 3/8" Shank.
I have 4 of those holders and one 1/4". I still need to get a small chuck and holder for drill bits. That should complete that part.

I've thought about buying and or making some, i just havent committed the mental cycles to it yet to make a decision, much less find the time and or money...