[mattmark]

Hey Pete,

I know I've been awol on this site (home reno that was never ending and finishing soon), but wanted to send my prayers and well wishes to you too! Hope you can keep the dream alive and get a couple of these jobs going!

Matt

[pete from TN]

Matt,
Hey man nice to hear from you. Yeah I really appreciate the good thoughts and well wishes here I can certainly use them. Supposed to meet with the customer today and see about more details and whatnot. I also have another fellow who wants a whole bunch of custom engraving done for a motorcycle club. He is kinda wanting me to do some work for cheap or free to make sure I can do it before he lets me loose on the custom stuff which I am not exactly thrilled about but who knows it might be worth it to get in with these guys. They spent a LOT of money on their custom bikes. Who knows where that will go. The other jobs are a lot more concrete it seems. Maybe I can turn this into a business after all LOL. How is your RF45 working? Peace

Pete

[mattmark]

Hey Pete - the RF45 is currently dismantled - haven't had a chance to do the mods I've wanted to do. Unfortunate, but hopefully can get at it again soon. A lot of space in my basement workshop is clogged because contractors need space to work and put their gear. I did do a stick welding course last year though and will try to start learning TIG soon.

Matt

[skippy]

Hi Pete,
Just like Mattmark, I've been awol on a never ending Home Reno job as well. Started in mid-April and finished about a week ago. Was doing my day job Mon - Fri, 7am to 3pm then going to the house every night til 8pm and every weekend 8am - 7pm as well then drive home each night about 3/4hr away. What I thought was going to take 2 months took me 7 months but ah well, that's life. I haven't been on here for well... about a year and the first thing I did was to look up this thread. I certainly wasn't expecting to see your machine up for sale. Anyway, I just wanted to say that I've always enjoyed your thread and your work and I'm so sorry that things haven't worked out too well for you and the Cincinatti machine and I hope that things pick up for you soon. Just out of curiosity, do you have any photos of your custom cabinetry work?
Regards
Phil

[pete from TN]

Phil,
Nice to hear from you again man. Yeah I had put the machine up for sale awhile back here when things were REALLY slow around here. I thought maybe I could sell or trade it for a nice flatbed CNC router or just cash out on it and use the money for something else. Since then things have started to look up for me a little around here and I managed to pickup a couple small to medium cabinet jobs that have made things a little easier on the wallet. Nothing to write home about but at least something. I also have found a couple small things to do with the machine and I am trying to get them designed and Cammed up in my spare time. Once I do I will be trying to run them in the evenings and on weekends. Right now the woodworking is doing better for me then the metalworking but I sincerely hope to remedy that situation. The machine is still working fine altho when it sits for awhile the coolant needs refreshed a bit. I usually just run the pump for awhile without running the machine and then put more water into the mixture and it works good. I have only made a few parts on the machine recently and nothing interesting so I never bothered to post about it. This first Cad project will be interesting so I may post about that once I get machining it. I had it almost finished and the customer changed the design a bit on me so back to square three. I do have some shots of cabinet work I have done recently but had a hard drive crash on me awhile back that took most of the really cool pictures. I have some printed off somewhere in the house I need to find and scan or something. For now here are just a couple small job photos. Hope you are well and Merry Christmas!! Peace

Pete

P.S.
Incidentally both of those sidebar/credenza cabinets house flatscreen TV lifts and moving tops. One is veneered with some beautiful burlwood the customer chose that was bookmatched.

[skippy]

Wow, beautiful work! To achieve this kind of result you must have a pretty good workshop with lots of special tools. Did you make the carved corner pieces in photo 5 or can you buy that sort of thing?
Regards
Phil

[pete from TN]

Phil,
My shop is what I would call adequate LOL.. I actually bought those corner pieces and applied them to the cabinet but I have made similar items before. Sometimes it is not cost effective to do that tedious hand work and sometimes it is. Nowadays you can buy all sorts of cool carvings to add to a build for reasonable pricing. CNC and duplicator made pieces are relatively inexpensive for what you get. I do have the ability to do some hand carving and I will attach a photo of an airgun stock I did awhile back. Nothing too crazy but it came out good I thought. I just bought a larger wood shaper recently and bought some knives with rub collars so I can make some radiused top doors and lots more radiused work like trim and mouldings. Honestly I USED to have a lot more equipment for woodworking but sold it all off to venture into the metalworking and CNC when I bought this Cincinatti Arrow 500. That was probably a mistake but hey it is what it is. The nice thing about good woodworking tools is that they are not that expensive comparatively speaking so picking up a used machine here and there until you have a good shop is relatively easy. IN fact the equipment I had the first time I purchased entirely by making an agreement with a customer that they give me a largish down payment and that would allow me to purchase the machines and the materials for their kitchen I built. Once I had the machines in place I built their nice kitchen and then received a smaller final payment that tided me thru the build which took maybe two months. Keep in mind tho I got my experience from working in several different high end cabinet pro shops for over a decade so it was not a matter of getting the machines and learning to use them. I already had the knowledge just needed the equipment. Honestly while these photos are nice they are some of the most basic things I have made and the really cool stuff is in that damn hard drive and in some glossy photos I have stored somewhere in the attic. I really need to get a better portfolio together so I can show my work to customers. I build everything from scratch no premade cabinets that are added to and everything is made from 3/4 furniture grade plywood. Most builds are inset doors and european top quality concealed hinges. I make most of my own mouldings as well. These builds were honestly done to try to keep costs down but I used to work for people who did not have to worry too much about cost. They just told you what they wanted and waited for you to design and build it LOL. That was nice and I was blessed to be able to create some amazing stuff that went into multi million dollar homes here in the East Tennessee area and around the country.

Now I am back to a more basic shop but it created everything you see in these pictures easily and could do a lot more. Right now I am working on a largish built in cabinet for a master bedroom and it is over nine feet tall and almost twenty feet wide. It has bifold pocket doors concealing a flatscreen TV and two large book shelf cabinets on each side.

Like I said I originally wanted to move away from Cabinet work and go directly into CNC metalworking but so far it has been difficult at best. Now that the machine is working reliably thanks to the LinuxCNC/mesa retrofit I can hopefully work into getting these parts going on the VMC and start doing something that way too but I suffer from a limited space situation so doing both at the same time is kinda tedious. I have it setup now that it is easier but still takes some moving stuff around to accomplish what I need.

Ultimately my goal is to be able to make as much money as I did working for someone else but doing it from my home shop. So far I have a ways to go but with some recent customers and builds in the pipeline things are looking up I think.

Appreciate your compliments and it is nice to hear from another fellow from down under. I know a guy from New Zealand that is also into a Cincinatti CNC. Peace

Pete

[davo727]

Hi Pete would you feel like sharing how you got Linux cnc pcconfig to find and recognize the 5i25 card? Im not having any luck yet. Thanks, Dave

[pete from TN]

davo,
Yeah man I had to play with it initially too. There is a firmware update you have to install that you can get here...

LinuxCNC Support Forum :: Topic: 5i25 firmware XML files for pncconf (1/1)

There are actually a couple files in there you need.

Then you install the daughter card and ensure it has field power to it. Also make sure all your dip switches are configured to show whether or not you are powering the 5i15 with external power or PC power I think.

Then you can run PNCConf and get it going. If you are not registered on the IRC chat with LinuxCNC you really need to. You can get REAL TIME help with installing it and troubleshooting your system from the gurus over there almost any time of day. Pete from Mesa is in there quite often too. It is on freenode#LinuxCNC. If you can setup another computer or laptop near your machine hooked up to the next you can get on there and the folks will probably help you thru it real time. It is a resource I doubt you will find anywhere else. Good luck and let me know if you need anything else. Peace

Pete

[davo727]

Thanks. Well it looks like I need to find a learning course called Linux for complete idiots because I just don't get it. Some of the guys on the linuxcnc forum have suggested some things and it just digs me a deeper hole.....

[pete from TN]

Thanks. Well it looks like I need to find a learning course called Linux for complete idiots because I just don't get it. Some of the guys on the linuxcnc forum have suggested some things and it just digs me a deeper hole.....

If you like I can try to help you.. Your best bet is like I said to get on the IRC chat they will literally be able to help you REAL TIME and you can ask questions as they arise. What exactly have you done and what is the issue currently?

Do you know how to get on IRC chat? You can download a simple chat client like the one I use it is called Quassel. Then you just log on and input the freenode and the #linuxCNC and you can get on there at any time. I can even log on with my smartphone. I cannot express how helpful this will be for you and how much free real time help I have received there with ideas from many guys who have built many machines. You really should give it a try.

Peace

Pete

[davo727]

Hey Pete , The guys on the Linux board got me going with:

you do need the xml files to be world readable

sudo chmod +r /lib/firmware/hm2/5i25/*.*

will do this

(be careful about the path, sudo chmod in the wrong place can cause a world of hurt)


And I had to change the owner and permissions on the 5i25 folder to allow it to be accessed

[pete from TN]

Okay guys,
Been awhile since I did anything with this machine. It has had to sit while I completed a couple large woodworking projects. Now I am nearly completed with the last one I took on I hope to be able to start running this machine here a lot. I just went out there today and cleaned it all up, cleaned up my vise and tooling and refreshed the trim sol E206 coolant I am using. Everything seems to be working as it should and I am trying to get a tooling setup to run a part I need to make here. Unfortunately I am still down to just a few toolholders that were GENEROUSLY donated to my feeble cause here LOL. I hope to be able to purchase a few more once I get paid for this job I just completed. I am glad to be working on the machine again as I truly enjoy it. I also got a new air hose setup so I can blow out the chips and stuff after a cycle is completed that I am gonna setup on the machines air supply. The hose I am running to the machine has a small leak and it is really annoying so I have to install the new hose here today. Other than that I am trying to get things rolling here again. Good to be back with it. peace

Pete

[bill south]

Pete;
Good to hear things are going well with you and you're finding time to spend on your metal working activities. Did you get your tool changer operational? I think that was where I left off following this thread. Life got busy for a bit but back to fun now!
I still have my RF45 but I'm most likely going to sell it this spring and pick up a Torus Pro. I've sunk so much time and $$ into the lathemaster, that I hate to let it go but I'm also getting to the age where retirement is not to many years away and I want to make some $$$ with a machine instead of spending most of my time tinkering and "improving" it! At least I find myself always striving to build the "best machine around"!
Another question for you! I am in the early stages of designing and building another target AR in 223 Wilde. However, for this one I want to build an adjustable stock for it. I remember you showing me your air rifle and if memory serves, you designed and built a competition stock for it. Is there any way I can get a pix of your rifle stock. I may want to attempt to fit it to an AR platform.
Thanks in advance and welcome back.
Bill

[pete from TN]

Hey Bill,
Nice to hear from you again. Unfortunately no I have not messed with the toolchanger. I had to get a different spindle encoder for the machine and have been so busy I have not gotten around to installing it yet. I should be finished with a large built in cabinet here soon and I am gonna be working on the machine as much as possible.

I understand your desire to sell the RF45, as good as it is and as much fun as mine was to build there is just no comparison to the machine I have now. Don't know much about the Torus pro but if you are gonna step up to a more commercial machine it seems to me you have the room to get a nice VMC too. Maybe pick up a clean used Fadal or haas or something if you really intend to make some money with it. My machine has not made me much money so far but that is mostly due to my misfortune of having to do a retrofit right off the bat. There is nothing wrong with the machine itself that is for sure but the electronics were toast. Now that it has the linuxCNC/Mesanet system on board it is dead reliable. I fired it up yesterday and homed it out and ran some simple stuff and it was exactly as I left it months ago before I started these big wood jobs. No surprise really as everything electronically speaking is brand new in the machine. I have been tidying up some stuff like adding the washdown hose with garden nozzle and a little mount for it as well as installing a permanent air nozzle for blowing off parts hooked up to the main pneumatics on the back of the machine. I am very pleased with the machine now and hope to use it to good effect here soon. My only real problem now is the lack of toolholders but I am working on that. Honestly the big Cat40 holders are about as cheap online as the Tormach tooling and similar I am just kinda tapped out after a big Christmas and new years celebration LOL. That and coming up with good ideas for custom parts to sell or finding customers who have parts they need machined and willing and able to pay for it.

Yeah I did build a competition stock for the Air rifle I used in Field Target Competition. More to the point I built the whole gun from scratch except for the barrel. It was more of a mix of an adjustable 10 meter style stock only heavier and deeper foreend for field Target shooting. Unfortunately I had to sell it off when I had to undergo that lung surgery a couple years back. I think I have some pictures of it somewhere. I will try to find them on the hard drive here for ya. It was nothing special just walnut and billet aluminum parts to fit my shooting style.

Keep in touch man, I am glad to hear from an old friend at any time especially talking about CNC stuff. Peace

Pete

[pete from TN]

Okay guys I think I got that cabinet job finished up here. Spent all day Friday and Saturday working on the installation. I think it came out well and while it is Off topic I thought you guys might enjoy seeing the pictures. Still need to get the pocket door hardware installed so I can put in the four bifold pocket doors in the middle section. This leaves me all day today and the near future to mess with the VMC and try to get some parts machined YEAY!! Anyways here are the pics. Peace

[pete from TN]

Update!!

Okay guys now that the big cabinet job is behind me and the customer is happy I can concentrate on the machine again. Well today I spent all day running the machine. I had a part assembly to machine that is for another customer in Michigan. I have been working on the first part all week and just switched over to CamBam for my cam software from Sheetcam so I can do some of the 3d stuff I have been wanting to try. After a lot of fiddling with the post processor I have it working pretty well. I managed to get the first part, a boss machined in the mill during the week with trial and error post processor tweaking until I was happy with it. Then yesterday I was able to champfer the part with my champfer tool and it came out real nice. This morning I setup the second part of the assembly on the vise and started machining it. I was going a single op at a time to ensure everything works as it should. Thankfully the machine ran absolutely perfect for me today and I had a great day of machining. The first part has a funky shaped hole that is a slip fitment into the second part and I was able to creep up on the fitment in tiny increments until it slides in perfect with no backlash or play whatsoever. I was very pleased. I still have another two operations to do on the first side then I gotta machine the sacrificial jaws to accept the face so I can flip it over and machine the second side. I am so pleased with the way it ran today it is not funny. I still have to make the encoder mount so I can install my new encoder to the spindle to get feedback into it. Then I can continue working on the toolchanger and rigid tapping.

I agreed to do some flooring work at my daughters house and she surprised me with some paypal money to buy some new toolholders with. I ordered them today so hopefully they will be here by friday. I went with CME tooling on them so hopefully they will be good ones. Import of course. They said they have a 100% customer satisfaction guarantee for 30 days return policy. Hopefully I will not need to use it.

I also heard from a friend who I did some machine work on my RF45CNC for awhile back and he asked how my new machine was working. I told him it is making parts so he said he has some drawings for me too look at. With any luck I can pickup some work for the machine and start to pay myself back for all this cash outlay and work. I am really glad it is finally time to make chips with this thing. I am also pretty pleased with the coolant and flood system on the machine. It kicks ass!! Cannot even see any chips when it is running just a deluge of coolant and the finishes I am getting are really nice. Have not even really tweaked my toolholders and collets for best concentricity yet and the cuts are way beyond what I could get on the RF45. Amazing what a couple tons of metal will do for you. Anyways just an update. Things are starting to look up for the VMC here. I snapped a couple pics. The boss does have some minor chatter in the low areas of the wavy edge that is my fault because the toolpath was set for exact stop instead of continuous contour so the cutter dwelled in the corner for just a moment just enough to ring a bit. These parts will probably be bead blasted so it is not a big deal and the photos are closeup so you see every flaw. LOL peace

Pete

[rwskinner]

Hey there Pete, I'm glad you're alive and kicking! Nice work on the machining. ATC on Linux CNC - Good Luck. I looked at it and I decided to go back to mach. Not that I can't do it, but by the time I get up to speed on all the HAL crap and figure it out I can change many tools by hand or just use Mach. The LinuxCNC crowd thought I was crazy for wanting to do simple non rigid tapping with a tension/compression tap holder so I gave up. It's not like me to give up but I have too little time for all the arguments on how much better rigid tapping is an all I have to do is add this and that and write this or that.

I think it's sweet you do some metal and some wood. I just built my first 4x4 wood router and will be firing up in a few days. Lots to learn because I'm wood dumb!
I did set up nice DC with filter so I didn't end up with problems. Actually, I remember stories from you early on so I decided to do the DC. 0.5 micron filter plus I'll have it outside.

Good luck man and take care of yourself.

Richard

[pete from TN]

Richard,
Nice to hear from you man. Glad you are doing well. ATC is pretty common actually on linuxCNC and I dare say there are probably a helluva lot more commercial machines with toolchangers running under linuxCNC than Mach3 out there. I cannot imagine running mach3 on this machine. There is even a guy in England who comments here named Lee who has the exact same machine already finished and his toolchanger works awesome he has linuxCNC. Rigid tap is also no problem for LinuxCNC. Honestly after using LinuxCNC here now for awhile I would never go back to mach3. It does take some understanding of linux to set it up but thankfully I have had a lot of help from Connor and the guys on the LinuxCNC Irc. Those guys are VERY knowledgeable about this stuff and most have done commercial machines and understand them. You can do non-rigid tapping thats easy even for mach3 but with some feedback you can rigid tap so why not. My machine ran perfect today all day and I am quite pleased. It is not finished of course and still has things that need to be setup in the toolchanger and spindle feedback but the basic machine is awesome. Accuracy is way beyond my RF45. I need to get my ass in gear and finish drawing my encoder mount for the spindle so I can get it done. Surprised you did not get good help were you on the IRC? You really should check it out over there those guys are GOOD. Pete from Mesa is on there all the time as is Chris radek and a bunch of other guys who know their stuff. Plus they are always talking about interesting stuff. Good luck with your Router man. That sounds like fun. I need to build a router at some point. Peace

Pete

[rwskinner]

Yep, it's nothing really to do with LinuxCNC, I'm just very unfamiliar with it I get a bit frustrated when I don't know how to do something. I love it when I have time but unfortunately I haven't had much free time to jack with it.

You are right, Mach3 freaked out the other day and wasn't following my tool length offsets in the tool table and decided to rip a finger or two off my ATC. This has happened 3 times total, the first two were my fault because I didn't have any/enough air pressure to open the collet, the third time was Mach freaking out.

I've been saying I needed to add an air pressure sensor to her but it I keep putting it off, but I guess now I just need to do it. Let me tell you, my fingers/forks are held on by Two 1/4-20 nylon bolts. You can bend and tear up lots of stuff before those two plastic bolts shear. You wouldn't think so but sure enough, a good day of machine work to fix it.

Richard

Richard,
Nice to hear from you man. Glad you are doing well. ATC is pretty common actually on linuxCNC and I dare say there are probably a helluva lot more commercial machines with toolchangers running under linuxCNC than Mach3 out there. I cannot imagine running mach3 on this machine. There is even a guy in England who comments here named Lee who has the exact same machine already finished and his toolchanger works awesome he has linuxCNC. Rigid tap is also no problem for LinuxCNC. Honestly after using LinuxCNC here now for awhile I would never go back to mach3. It does take some understanding of linux to set it up but thankfully I have had a lot of help from Connor and the guys on the LinuxCNC Irc. Those guys are VERY knowledgeable about this stuff and most have done commercial machines and understand them. You can do non-rigid tapping thats easy even for mach3 but with some feedback you can rigid tap so why not. My machine ran perfect today all day and I am quite pleased. It is not finished of course and still has things that need to be setup in the toolchanger and spindle feedback but the basic machine is awesome. Accuracy is way beyond my RF45. I need to get my ass in gear and finish drawing my encoder mount for the spindle so I can get it done. Surprised you did not get good help were you on the IRC? You really should check it out over there those guys are GOOD. Pete from Mesa is on there all the time as is Chris radek and a bunch of other guys who know their stuff. Plus they are always talking about interesting stuff. Good luck with your Router man. That sounds like fun. I need to build a router at some point. Peace

Pete