[philbur]

Hi Arie, this is my first post on this thread. Congratulations on a great machine. I haven't read all the posts but I am surprised you stayed with the router spindle for so long. My understanding is that the bearing arrangement in such spindles is not really up to high precision work. I have three and all, even the 400 EUR one, have only a single deep groove bearing, with no preload, at the business end. Have you found your router spindle to be up to the rest of the machine or did you solve the bearing issue in some other way. My interest is that I intend to add a high speed spindle to my machine but I'm not sure the router route is worth the effort.

I see you have made mods to the mount and are considering an upgrade so I guess you are not entirely happy.

Best Regards
Phil

PS: Two of the three routers I have have the same run out issue you found on yours. The runout on the expensive one is not detectable with a 0.01mm DTI.

plans are: either, replace the current router ( which already is upgraded with a more ridgid mounting bracket ) with a more sturdy Kress spindle for the time being.

or replacing it with a Hi-freq spindel with electronic control, putting me back another 1000 euro's..

better save some dough first i guess..

[arie kabaalstra]

well, basically, a router will do for machining wood, and plastics, when maching metal, you just can't "walk trough" the material, like you would normally do..

still runs good, but it's starting to get less good, so a High-speed unit is top on the wish-list..

[rhino]

Anything New with your Project? havent seen a post in a while.

[hesham morsy]

Anything New with your Project? havent seen a post in a while.

me 2

[arie kabaalstra]

well... erhm.. i've been working on software plugins for USBCNC since Bert ( the author ) and i have all kinds of plans with USBCNC, furthermore, i've spent a lot of time on other issues lately..

My girlfriend, and my new car..

i do have plans to make an enclosure, and, i found that bellows of a a HBM milling machine might fit on my machine to keep chips from falling onto my ballscrews..

[LN-JET]

I have been working slowly on my own design. I think of doing like you, and put the motors in between the rails.
Do you notice any heat transfer to the machine, or any ill effects of this placement?
How much room should I have around 34 size steppers?

Lars

[arie kabaalstra]

I have been working slowly on my own design. I think of doing like you, and put the motors in between the rails.
Do you notice any heat transfer to the machine, or any ill effects of this placement?
How much room should I have around 34 size steppers?

Lars

i've got some 2 mm's clearance between the motors and the frame beams, no noticeable heat transfer.. steel doesn't conduct heat that well..
since i basically copied an existing machine, someone else already found out this was a good way of building a machine..

[rhino]

".......My girlfriend, and my new car......"

AH HA!!! Two of the things that milk the valuable stuff from the wallet, and take up alot of your spare time.

I have 1 of each, plus two boys one is nearly 2, the other is 9months old and the full time job 6am-4pm. Then you realise the only spare time you have to yourself is the time to and from work but you wouldn't trade it for the world!!

Rhino

[_WALLACE_]

Hi Arie,

Congrats on a pretty cool machine, i have just read the entire thread, makes me want to build one twice the size. i would like to know why this machine (and others i've seen on this site) make much more noise than the commercial versions? (i dont mean to ask a silly question, many may know the answer)

Also when do you start on the lathe? :banana:

[jalessi]

Servo's are very quiet.

Steppers, whine, hiss and resonate.

Welcome to the Zone!

Jeff Alessi

[arie kabaalstra]

Well, as far as noise is concerned, it's the milling motor, which is basically a wood router..

apart from that, my machine is sort of a commercial machine.. i only have to install a professional spindle.. that's all there's to it..

at this moment, i'm almost finished with writing Cycles for USBCNC, Bert has made a Macro file in which you can store your own macros, for instance, if you do some seriuos PC Case modding, a Sub-D opening, is something you use very often, just write the program, and store it as a subroutine in the Macro file, then from your regular program, just Gosub (subroutine-name) ..

Very nice-ish..

[digits]

Servo's are very quiet.

Steppers, whine, hiss and resonate.

Welcome to the Zone!

Jeff Alessi

Don't believe the hype - my servos are noisier than steppers when not moving - I don't have the skills to tune that out, but perhaps it's doable. They are very quiet when moving - well, at least when compared to the clatter of the balls in the ballscrews

[digits]

Well, as far as noise is concerned, it's the milling motor, which is basically a wood router..

apart from that, my machine is sort of a commercial machine.. i only have to install a professional spindle.. that's all there's to it..

Have you got any spindle porn to show us then Arie? I've seen some very nice looking/specced stuff from ELTE and HSD...

[arie kabaalstra]

No new spindle yet.. i've been offered to test-bench a chinese HF spindle with watercooling, and i've seen another nice spindle, aircooled 24000 RPM's.. also nice...

Still have to install some homeswitches, and at the moment i've taken on another project..

i taught myself some VB.net, and wrote a programming application for USBCNC.
Just like a Heidenhain Control, you program cycle parameters, and execute cycles where you want em... very handy for those everyday-jobs like mounting brackets and flanges



this example shows a drilling cycle, but you can also program round and rectangular pockets and studs, surface milling, thread milling and patterns with this application.

the most beautiful feature of this application is that it works entirely MOUSE-FREE!!.. not even a touchpad is needed to operate it, maybe a touchscreen will be possible in the future, (then i will also add an onscreen Num-pad floating over the program window, when needed )

For now, everything is operated with the F-keys, F1 is drilling, F2 is pocketing, and so on...

Somewhere back in time someone told me to use what ever control was available, or go through the hassle of programming things myself..well.. that's not half bad... i did learn some VB.Net, and it's great fun... programming my machine with the aid of an application i wrote myself..

[arie kabaalstra]

Just Dreamt this up..

how about a version of Visual G++ that puts out Generic G-Code?...

i could incorporate the Algoritms that i wrote for USBCNC in the application, and make a G-code Compiler that generates G-Code for about any Machine on the planet.. wouldn't that be nice?.. :rainfro:

[ZipSnipe]

Hey Arie, wheres a pic of the mill assembled or complete? I,ve searched back only one I found was when you had it together with no screws or motors.

[NC Cams]

In much earlier posts, you mentioned the desire for stability - you also mentioned the issue of warpage after milling out pockets to lighten the various tables.

WE ran into this problems with our billet cams - we'd cut and HT them and then when we went to grind them, they'd warp like a pretzel.

If you're dealing with PHT (pre heat treat), steel, you're limited to the following. Subject the parts to a 300-400 deg F stress relieve for at least 2 hours after machine and prior to grind. Furnace cool if possible. Bake at 250 aftyer grinding to relieve frinding stress.

If you heat treat the parts after milling, the following is a supplemental HT process that does wonders for reducing warpage and maintaining stability. Prior to HT, subject the parts to a 1200-1300 Deg F stress relieve. DO this for 1-1.5 hours MINIMUM pror to HT. Try to find someone who does salt bath heat treating so as to put steel in a neutral environment to prevent decarb.

Parts would then be residual stress free and VERY VERY stable. Otherwise, the parts will keep on moving until they settle themselves down which could ruin the fit and finish that you worked so hard to maintain/achieve. See prior paragraph for stress relieve after finish grind specs

[arie kabaalstra]

Hey Arie, wheres a pic of the mill assembled or complete? I,ve searched back only one I found was when you had it together with no screws or motors.

Well... to be honest.. i need to make some new pics, since the machine is working like a charm at the moment.. i made a new control cabinet from an old PC case, and i'm working on a programming application ( as you might have read in this topic ), furthermore, i'm building a Fibreglass/foamcore casing for the machine, with sliding doors, and a control mounted on a support (or maybe a screen and keyboard in one of the sliding doors )

[arie kabaalstra]

In much earlier posts, you mentioned the desire for stability - you also mentioned the issue of warpage after milling out pockets to lighten the various tables.

WE ran into this problems with our billet cams - we'd cut and HT them and then when we went to grind them, they'd warp like a pretzel.

If you're dealing with PHT (pre heat treat), steel, you're limited to the following. Subject the parts to a 300-400 deg F stress relieve for at least 2 hours after machine and prior to grind. Furnace cool if possible. Bake at 250 aftyer grinding to relieve frinding stress.

If you heat treat the parts after milling, the following is a supplemental HT process that does wonders for reducing warpage and maintaining stability. Prior to HT, subject the parts to a 1200-1300 Deg F stress relieve. DO this for 1-1.5 hours MINIMUM pror to HT. Try to find someone who does salt bath heat treating so as to put steel in a neutral environment to prevent decarb.

Parts would then be residual stress free and VERY VERY stable. Otherwise, the parts will keep on moving until they settle themselves down which could ruin the fit and finish that you worked so hard to maintain/achieve. See prior paragraph for stress relieve after finish grind specs

you're damn right!!, but the problems you described are more applicable for high-strenght alloys, wich i didn't use by far..
i just used a "plain ol' construction steel ( 1.1730, C45 ) wich has very little residual stress, and i let the parts "age" a while before mounting.

if i measure up the machine ( even after a year of service ) there's still less then 0.01 mm deviation.. fair enough.. i don't need to machine rocket parts...

[boogerlad]

Hey, i just finished reading the past 19 pages. I'm really impressed by your work. How deep can the 0.2mm endmill go down? at what rpm? is it carbide or diamond coated?