Search:

All Aluminum 30 x 48 CNC Router

Signs! Engraving! Guitars! Cabinets!

route in wood, light aluminum, plastics

Anything you can image!


*** TO RECEIVE A REPLY, MAKE SURE TO INCLUDE YOUR...

Here are a bunch of my blog postings on my conversion to VFD and belt drive.

https://donstechnologyblog.wordpress.com/category/rf45-vfd-project/

I am *very* happy with my G4003G. It strikes a nice balance between low cost, reasonable accuracy, good weight, decent power and reasonable capacity. I put on a 2 axis dro and a tailstock dro. ...

Cool thanks for the explanation.

Sounds like you have thought it out and have good experience under your belt! I just hate to see some guys spending $3k to save $1k - IF its a business. If its...

I know you will not like this but...

You said 90% of your work is threaded bungs. And you were tired of spending money on them. How much a year do you spend on these? How many bungs do you...

Thanks Hanermo, just what I was looking for.

Based on your comment "Concrete and granite is not strong, and will easily bend. But they dont crush or compress.
Thus, a strong steel structure,...

In my quest for a smooth finish, I noticed that my RF45 sitting on the stock stand using "hockey puck adjustable feet" is very far from a rigid setup. So I am going to get rid of the adjustable feet...

I already mentioned that the video was an older one and I already switched to climb milling. The picture of chatter is from climb milling.

A lot of the noise is from the RF45 quill spline...

See the attached picture - I am having a problem with finish. This finish was done with conventional milling.

I am cutting ovals 0.8" deep on 6061. I first do rough passes, then a finish pass at...

Vactra #2 all the way (pun completely intended).

I am like you. My machine sees only part time use. So I did a combination of one shot oiler and manual.

One shot oil for X & Y ways. and X...

Good point, gotta fix that. Maybe in the mean time, you can fix your delivery?

Bill, here are my 2 cents. Similar to AC above.

EStop - yes you can wire in all estops together. I have my Mach3 RESET, my pendant E-Stop and my control box E-Stop all wired together through the...

Found this little Gem. Seems to fit what I am seeing.

BK12/FK15 Bearing Housings | The Hobby-Machinist

"The bearings I have purchased have always needed a modification to be able to adjust a...

Well that did not work. Face-face or back-back it all exhibits the same amount of slop. Hrmmm...

Answer my own question. Found some stuff of the NSK site. AC bearings in tandem are only good for axial loads in a single direction (makes sense). I guess in my case it was an assembly error. My...

Like cyclestart says, it cleans up the input signal into a nice digital signal.

To add to the "geeky fun" If you have access to a two channel scope (with decent input impedance), put a channel...

The Y axis lead screw on my mill is 20mm diameter and about 18" long. It has a lot of backlash, what more than the other axis (about 1/2" measured at about 2" from centre). It is only supported at...

For lathe:
(1) as above: QCTP and holders. (I like this guy: CDCO Machinery Corp.)
(2) Decide between HSS or carbide tooling. I have a 12x36 and (after a lot of experimentation) use carbide,...

I use Fusion 360 for CAD, but then I export the sketches as DXF and use my old Cut2D. I only do this because I am familiar with Cut2D and the Fusion360 CAM is new to me. But, I did some experiments...

OK got all the parts etc and put it together. The little Lenova ThinkCentre combined with an ELO touch screen makes a nice unit.

Here is a write up on it, with video too!

...

I went with Kluber. Here is my justification and rationale fro buying Kluber Grease... I also list some cheaper alternatives.

https://donstechnologyblog.wordpress.com/2015/12/02/spindle-grease/

Spoke with the supplier. Unfortunately it can only support 5000 lines of g-code, cannot support a pendant and does not display toolpath. I am really surprised about the 5000 lines of G-Code - I...

Yeah, saw that. I figured it must be a misprint. My files are typically from 30k to 500k lines. Anyways that'd would be a deal breaker if true.

I am just finishing up a new CNC Mill build and starting to think about the CNC controller. On my CNC router I have a mondo PC, keyboard/mouse/monitor using Mach3. Which is fine, but bulky. I...

I opted for simplicity. Mounting a common compression strut to the base of the column, then to the Z Axis mount plate.

Here is a pic...
...

Alaska Guy,

Looks like the PM727M is an RF45 clone. If so, it will do steel just fine. However, like the above posts, if you can find something bigger (used) it will be better. More weight ==...

Lots of digging around reveals some things:

(1) taper roller bearings should be replaced by angular contact bearings to handle higher speed.

(2) lots of debate on weather ABEC-1, 3, 5 or 7...

I am upgrading my Rong Fu 45 to be belt driven VFD. Max RPM will be about 7000RPM. My current bearings are decent manufacturer, but inexpensive units:

Spindle drive: two SKF 6008-2Z (14 17 316A...

I am using FK15 support for my RF45 conversion. While assembling the Z axis, I notice that the sleeve on the FK15 support is not long enough - the nut on the ball screw interferes with the oil seal....

I did not select the drivers, PS, etc first. I already own already own them. They are from my CNC router. I am not going to re-purchase these parts.

So... the drivers and power supply are...