[Imagineering]

Well, the title of the thread says it all.

I'm well on the way to finishing the Mechanical side of my CNC MiniMill and about to start on the Electronics & Software.
I would like to share, (sponge), ideas with others in the Capital City area.

[Imagineering]

Just fishing again - Running the thread again to see if anyone bites.

[GeorgeR]

Not quite wellington, but I'm up near Palmerston North. I'm converting a Square-Column mill to CNC - just the Z axis to go and the addition/creation of some anti-backlash nuts (3mm pitch 24mm diameter leadscrews don't appear to be very common )

[paulC]

Hi Murray
You already know about me. But thought I would reply in case other people watching.
Upper Hutt area. CNC router. Early photo of my Router. Working on my next one.
Paul

[synthetiklone]

Greetings,
I know the msg date is going back some time now, but seeing that I am also in Wellington, NZ, I thought I'd leave a quick note to let you know there is yet someone else here building a CNC machine.
I'm building a 3-axis machine, and trying to future proof the design so when I add the 5-axis (a&b on the z!) I wont have to completely redesign the whole thing. Im at the stage of deciding the best bearing arrangement for the 40mm diameter stainless rails, which is also relating to the size of the table frame, which is also relating to the depth of the z-axis, which is also relating to the size of the router I use, which as also finally relating to "where the heck do I buy the parts I need - here in NZ, without having to morgage the house!
Also designing and acquiring parts for a 3d polystyrene cutting cnc machine as well...
Couldnt help it, the CNC bug bit me!

I'm going to post some pictures somewhere here soon (in the gallery?), as my design is slightly different to other Ive seen.. (mainly horizontal y-axis rails, which leaves little room in between for the router, but give excellent stability for the 5-axis (a&b) when incorporated).
Now, this is also scaring me a bit, as maybe Im thinking I should stick to the known designs, because they work, and mine might not! hah.

Anyone in Wellington or close by wanting to get involved, send me an email


synthetiklone ((-a@t-)) yahoo.co.nz

cheers
Tony

[paulC]

Welcome aboard Tony.
There is no such thing as cheap here I'm affraid.
It can be cheaper to import stuff than buy locally.
Murray (Imagineering) told me about a recycler out at seaview. "New Metal Technology" They have some interesting stuff and well worth a visit.
Hard to find, they are not in the phone book. They are on Seaview Rd just past the roundabout going south on the right. Down a drive way. There is a green sign on the fence I think. The map is where I think it is. I may be out by a bit.
They break down old computer gear, printers etc so they have micro switches, small motors, magnets, vacume pumps, fans, lots of junk.
Paul

[trayor]

Hello, I'm in palmerston north, building a CNC machine, partially build the z-axis, and some of the y-axis. Buying some steel for the x-axis tomorrow if I can get my design sorted.

Looking to purchase some motors, and drivers. Any ideas where to get hold of a reasonable (in my opinion) deal?

[paulC]

Hello, I'm in palmerston north, building a CNC machine, partially build the z-axis, and some of the y-axis. Buying some steel for the x-axis tomorrow if I can get my design sorted.

Looking to purchase some motors, and drivers. Any ideas where to get hold of a reasonable (in my opinion) deal?

I have purchased two 200in/oz kits from hobbycnc. Have been quite pleased with the result. The kit does need the assembling of the curcuit board, something I have no problem with, but not everyone is confident with electronics.
Think you will find it cheaper to purchase from overseas than to buy locally.
A lot depends on the size and design of your machine and how fast you want it to travel. Gecko drives seem to be one of the most popular with machine builders and have drives to match both steppers and dc servos.
Paul

[synthetiklone]

Thanks for the info/map PaulC

Ive now setup a gallery and a build log here on CNCzone

the url should be in my sig below

OK, so now I got my own sig, and piccy, im hooked ok

tony

[trayor]

Hello PaulC,

Thanks for the advice, I'm currently engaing a couple of overseas suppliers, so we'll see how we get on.

Regards,
Trevor

[cncbits]

Hi to all NZ cnc builders. As listed above there is a Seaview based supplier of recovered components. There is also another in Petone and Myself in Bulls. I can supply L297 / 298 kits / Steppers if your only after full and half step controllers. Cheers

[paulC]

Hi to all NZ cnc builders. As listed above there is a Seaview based supplier of recovered components. There is also another in Petone and Myself in Bulls. I can supply L297 / 298 kits / Steppers if your only after full and half step controllers. Cheers

What size steppers do you supply? New or recycled?
Paul

[cncbits]

23 and 34 frame standard lenght, recovered ranging from very tidy and near new to a little tatty around the edges. cncbits.co.nz has some more info. Thanks
Clinton

[flyboypete]

Im Here in Paraparaumu. I have completed a CNC router Nov06 and have been running it off and on for a month now. THK linear slides ball screws etc. X is 2m Y is 1m long.
Using Mach 3 and Meshcam and of course Rhino for the CAD work.
Hobby CNC drives and machine at about 3m a minute. Still learning but am able to answer most basic questions.......between Mach3 Meshcam and Rhino....I seem to spend most of my time in front of a computer....

Peter Williams

[jallitt]

Not really a CNC builder (yet) but I am thinking about replacing the controller of a 500x300mm cast iron framed chinese router with something with a bit more intelligence. Hardware is extremely rigid with 1mm pitch ballscrews and 1.8 degree steppers (so that's 0.005mm per step at 50mm per second) but the firmware is pretty primitive. There doesn't seem to be a way to vary the feedrate via any of the "usual" HPGL feedrate commands or reliably pause a job and you have to remember to jog the z-axis up manually if you want to cancel a running job otherwise it'll just linearly go from where ever it stopped to 0,0,0 (crashing through any stock that might be in the way).

Seems like I should be able to wire something like a gecko g100 straight into the stepper drivers.

I'm also running a small roland machine (200mm x 150mm) and I have a lathe which might be a good candidate for a CNC retrofit.

[paulC]

Sounds a good candidate for a refit. Does it connect to a PC or have some sort of built in system? If it connects to a PC you may not have to do much to get it running with Mach3.
Paul

Not really a CNC builder (yet) but I am thinking about replacing the controller of a 500x300mm cast iron framed chinese router with something with a bit more intelligence. Hardware is extremely rigid with 1mm pitch ballscrews and 1.8 degree steppers (so that's 0.005mm per step at 50mm per second) but the firmware is pretty primitive. There doesn't seem to be a way to vary the feedrate via any of the "usual" HPGL feedrate commands or reliably pause a job and you have to remember to jog the z-axis up manually if you want to cancel a running job otherwise it'll just linearly go from where ever it stopped to 0,0,0 (crashing through any stock that might be in the way).

Seems like I should be able to wire something like a gecko g100 straight into the stepper drivers.

I'm also running a small roland machine (200mm x 150mm) and I have a lathe which might be a good candidate for a CNC retrofit.

[jallitt]

It connects via RS-232 and has onboard firmware to turn HPGL into 3D motion. The problem is the controller isn't very smooth i.e it does linear moves and has a bit of a pause (a few ms) while it thinks about the next path. See attached picture. The part on the left was cut with my Roland MDX-20 and the part on the right I just cut on the chinese machine - you can see the parallel grooves where the tool paused between moves. Solution is to use a slower feedrate and more goto's. I know the Roland did the finishing pass in 100 minutes and looks like it'll take 200+ minutes on the "faster" machine to get the same surface finish.

On the plus side the Roland spindle would have choked on the roughing settings I just used (I was cutting 2x as deep and 3x as fast) so I win on that end.

It should be pretty simple to wire a new controller into the stepper drivers. I'd prefer something that takes USB rather than a parallel breakout board so I can continue using a laptop to run it.

I also discovered the inverter for the spindle puts out enough RF interference to kill the wired ethernet connection to the laptop. I'll have to try shielded cable.

Sounds a good candidate for a refit. Does it connect to a PC or have some sort of built in system? If it connects to a PC you may not have to do much to get it running with Mach3.
Paul

[paulC]

USB is not likely to be an option as most USB systems are proprietary.
To use Mach software you need parallel port. You can get PC cards to allow you to use the laptop.
If you can figure out the drives and they use step and direction signals all you would need is a breakout board. This of course would need some investigation.
Paul

[jallitt]

Just ordered a breakout board from http://www.oceancontrols.com.au and a PCMCIA parallel port from Auckland (I'm in Wellington BTW) and downloaded mach3.

I found the step/direction inputs to the X & Y drives and the X & Y home switches which all seem pretty easy to get at. I need to pull the cover off the Z-axis to see how that's wired then figure out how to start up the spindle.

[paulC]

Sounds like you are well on the way to getting it converted. If they are using step and direction for X and Y, I can't imagin them doing different for Z. Good luck and keep us informed.
( I'm in Upper Hutt)
Paul

Just ordered a breakout board from http://www.oceancontrols.com.au and a PCMCIA parallel port from Auckland (I'm in Wellington BTW) and downloaded mach3.

I found the step/direction inputs to the X & Y drives and the X & Y home switches which all seem pretty easy to get at. I need to pull the cover off the Z-axis to see how that's wired then figure out how to start up the spindle.