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We had problems with arcing aswell. These chinese machines are quite poorly designed. The plastic insulation "cup" on the reci tube caugh fire once from arcing, which broke the tube. Since then we...

I can recommend lightobjects.com. Marco, the owner is very friendly and service minded.

We bought a RECI w6 tube that worked for 10 minuts before the arc penetatred the inner tube. We had a...

The enclosure was pretty much just a design-as-you-build. I actually sold the mill, didn't have any room for it anywhere. It was a nice machine, but consider if you can use it without a full...

Most of the pictures can be found here https://plus.google.com/photos/115067561687755992198/albums/5257455557749407665

(along with some older photos from other projects)

I just moved the lathe...

Another good tool is a dial test indicator (Dial Gauges & DTI's - Arc Euro Trade).
Real handy when centering on round parts.

And speaking of round parts, a chuck is a good thing to have for...

For coolant, go find the nearest workshop and buy a small bottle. When mixed you will have enough for a long periode, though it tends to get quite smelly when not in use for an extended periode.

What do you use for basic 2D machining?, as far as I can tell, Cut 3D doesnt have the basic 2D capabilities as Vcarve pro (or Cut 2D), which is a premium software. Aspire has it all if you can afford...

Not a bad idea. I dont think the idler pulley solution will ever work. I haven't done any work on the lathe for almost a year now. Starting a new business next to a full time job takes up all the...

Naah, not really. Its kinda suffering from the whole business thing we are building around the big router (check out www.cotter.dk, its in Danish, but there is a nice video). Someday I hope to find...

Been looking into this some more. For what I can tell, the loop is closed in the motion controller (Kflop or DSPMC/IP).

Are you sure? Encoder cables goes to both the drives and to the control today. Im still looking into EMC, but im still not convinced its worth the trouble. Isn't it more a question of "religion"?

Im pretty familiar with mach3 from my other machines + I know nothing of linux + the boards I have in sight for the analog drives, Kflop from dynomotion or DSPMC/IP only have a Mach3 plugin.

I...

Just a quick update. We kinda got it up and running full speed now. Its even doing its toolchanges very nicely:-) First thing to cut was a small sign with the text "cofab.dk",turned out we need to...

I manage to get the axis going. I kinda pushed every reset button inside the cabinet. Something must have rattle loose during transport.

The damn thing is still in German, so next step is to try...

Last night we did the final assembly and tried to fire it up, but no matter what we did it wouldn't clear a error 2000 - Emergency stop. It doesn't exactly help either, that the control is in German....

Please do stop by. We rented some space in the old shipyard in the middle of Copenhagen (B&W), this is one of the "smaller" sub-assembly halls. The shipyard closed back in '96, we are trying to bring...

As if I already dont have enough time for this project, I just added another machine to the portfolio.

A 6.5 ton beast of a full size CNC router. I almost look small in that giant building:-)
...

Today a large truck arrived with the goodies. Got it unloaded fairly easy. Tomorrow a 20' container is delivered. This is part of a fence that are going to enclose our little area in this giant...

After building a couple of machines from the ground up, I finally bought my first full size router and why start small. Its a 6.5 ton beast, made by german Reichenbacher back in 1993. Its a model...

Thx for the inputs. This is what this forum is all about I guess:-)

The pulleys are steel, so I would suspect that they are balanced okay.

Good input on the belt. Its quite stiff and "feels" to...

Right now im just testing with aluminum. When I take deeper cuts or run at lower speed, I get good surface finish. Its the finishing pass at high RPM that is causing me trouble. I think I can...

Not a bad idea! Im considering moving the motor on top of the headstock. There is almost room for it. Either that or just below the head stock, but that would require a total rebuild of the cabinet...

A couple of random pics since last post.

Did a test run, but was not satisfied with the surface finish, so I disassembled it yet another time. The tolerances was fine thought <0.01mm
...

Regarding threading. Mach3 takes care of this. You just add a simple indexing of the spindle. Its all in the manual. Be aware though, that you need the solution with only one pulse per revolution....

It may not be rigid steel, but look at that craftsmanship! Makes my work look like its made by a kindergarten:-)

Maybe axis_control can combine the best from both projects

I dont know if you have access to all sorts of fancy equipment, but there is the possibility to buy the spindle as a spare part for a already excisting machine, thats what I did.

Be sure to keep the pictures coming. Ive build a lathe from scratch and learned a thing or two along the way, maybe you can steal some ideas from my thread

Dont know. There is a fixed option in one of the pin setup tabs. Why would you want to activate/de-activate it once its set?

If you use mach3, there is a radius/diameter option

I have plenty of time, but the ½ hour drive to the workshop, keeps me from getting there so often. Anyway, been working on the indexing feature. Threading is one of the first things I need to do
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