Search:

Hello all,
I bought a Chinese 6040 router back in 2014, and have used it quite a bit. I have had no trouble with it except losing the Z stepper driver a few years ago, and the X driver yesterday. My...

Thank you Rod. That's pretty much what I thought. Now I know.

Update 2/21/21....I bought one of these machines with the black box controller and the 1500 watt spindle back in October of '14. It has been run 2-3 times a week for a few hours at a time in a...

Hello all,
I'm not new to the forum, but am new to this section, and new to plasma-cutting in general, so please forgive me if I get the nomenclature wrong, LOL.

I recently acquired a plasma...

Now that I'm on the subject, has anyone installed a Z height probe on one of these black box controllers? I've been meaning to do this, as it would save a bunch of time. Any info would be mucho...

When I get the 6040 without the electrics, I plan to use the G540. I have a feeling I have just been lucky with the black box controller, especially after hearing so many horror stories. I really...

Well, you could try slowing it down & see if that eliminates the lost steps, I suppose. I have never experience that particular problem, so my insight is limited.

I have a few thoughts stemming from my own experiences with other CNC machines; I don't use USB to control steppers because USB is not a real-time protocol. I use the parallel port because it is a...

*Update* For those who may be interested, I bought one of these about 2 years ago and have put about 200 hours on it milling 2D shapes out of aluminum (1/16", 1/8" and some 1/4") 6061 and 5052 and...

zoltan, using the Mach software, the computer would "talk" to the mill, but it was erratic and jerky. I expect it was probably latency issues with the PCIe PPort card. I ditched the card at the same...

zoltan87...not to be a negative nancy, but, I think you are going to have some problems with that blue control box. The pic of the stepper driver board (if that is indeed what it is) has no heatsinks...

You make a good point about the recirculating bearings in the hiwins vs. the simpler system of the 6040. I wouldn't expect this mill to be terribly long lasting. I commend your effort to build your...

The g-code itself is pretty simple; it is getting to the point of compiling it that has the steep learning curve. There are 3 steps; first is to actually do the drawing. Real engineers use AutoCAD,...

That is my take as well, which is why I opted for the 1500 watt spindle. As long as the spindle has the power to drive the bit edge into, and remove material fast enough, the lateral stresses are...

@Handlewanker...Ha! I reread your post, and saw where, like me, most of your prior experience was on conventional machining tools. I was never an expert on them, either....more of a dilettante. My...

@Handlewanker, what you say makes sense. I am somewhere in the middle, with relatively deep cuts, but at slow feed speeds. I don't see much for side-load on the cutter, hence the load on the...

@ Handlewanker...before I forget, you will note that I have the bit completely penetrating the work-piece, and doing 99.9% of the cutting on the side of the bit. This may or may not be making the...

@Handlewanker, In retrospect, I wouldn't recommend stainless, my good bit is pretty chewed up now. It had cut a lot of aluminum, and only about 8-10" of stainless. I plan to swap it out before I do...

I guess there is no reason anyone would have to believe me or not, it makes no difference to me one way or 't other. I have no reason to lie, nor to argue about something so trivial, so I won't....

New update...I just finished up cutting some ovals out of 1/16" 304 (I think, maybe 18-8) stainless steel. I think I have either a miracle bit or a miracle machine, because it cut it without a...

I just finished up the escutcheons from the 3/16" 6061, and everything worked fine. I was using 9 mm/sec plunge speed and 8 mm/sec feed speed. I wound up running the spindle pretty close to full...

You may very well be correct. I'm cutting some 3/16" 6061 T6 later tonight; I'll see how that goes....

Bear in mind that this is 3003 H22 alloy, I don't know if 6061 is softer or harder. I'm no metallurgist. I think the kool-mist makes a big difference too. I also don't know how this would work out...

I've got the feed speed up to 480 mm/min @ 20,000 RPM in 1/4" aluminum at this point, and everything went fine. I don't feel the need to try anything faster; no sense in breaking anything. I've taken...

I do my drawings in scaleable vector graphics (*.svg) format with Inkscape, 2D only, and use the gcodetools extension to compile the gcode. I haven't done anything in 3D yet, I don't know what I'd...

I use 3/4" plywood for the spoil board, and a Kool-mist mister with just a small amount of liquid, but a good air-flow. The video was interesting, but I don't run my machine nearly that fast.

I...

I think the bit makes all the difference. I started with HSS 2-flute bits, and they seemed to struggle a bit @ 3 mm/sec in 1/8" material. I also discovered that running the spindle too fast...

Yes, it uses the 1605 ballscrew rails (16 mm Dia. x 5 mm thread pitch) on all three axis. That translates to 5.08 TPI for us non-metric types.

I bought it on eBay from goldraydigital for $1700...

I finished up the other 4 programs (using Inkscape with the gcodetools extension), and milled out a lot of parts today. The machine ran without hitch or issue. The last piece was 1/4" thick aluminum,...

I was also thinking hard about getting the G540, but the stock system seems to work very well so far. Since I am cutting at 1.5 to 5 mm/sec, I am not too concerned with traverse speeds. Those little...