[ty1295]

Thanks a bunch for pic.

I think you made my desicision on which way to go now.

I can picture it in my head now (little pun)

Your work on it is top notch.

[Klox]

Dave: I'm not into rugby! Yep i'm one of those few South Africans that's not rugby crazy! LOL! If i can arrange that the Aussie teams beat our local guys everytime you must supply all the spares as well! LOL!
Ian: I suppose you ended up with a stiff neck to maneuvre that drive into the knee, it looks very good/professional!

Klox

[IJ.]

ty1295: Very welcome.

Klox: Nah just drilling and tapping the 4 mounting holes was hard the install went smooth as silk and very quickly !

I'm making the lower belt covers and motor covers today then sort out the cable routes and I'll get into the X and Y BallScrews on Monday!! All downhill from here !

[Kookaburra]

Nice Limit switches Ian,

Looks like you are going to be using 6 overtravel switches and 3 homing switches, good move!!

Quality limits like those will give you a nice repeatable homing position, well done.

[ESjaavik]

Really nice work IJ!
I've seen companies bringing their commercial CNC conversions to international fairs and not not looking half as professional as what you're doing. Thanks for showing us the details. This stuff should be serialized for when this thread is forgotten. Hey cnczone.sir do you hear?

[IJ.]

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[IJ.]

Trolly is done !

I got some aluminium C channel for the limit switch mounts today and a heap of stainless capscrews to bolt it all on.

I hope to get the limits done tomorrow then the cables on Saturday and see how this thing runs....

[ty1295]

Your quality is still amazing me.

Keep the pics coming.

Giving me ideas by the handful.

[Kookaburra]

Ian,

The trolley looks very cool, hope you not color blind as it seems that you are now ready to wire up our controller, lol. Keep it going buddy.

[IJ.]

ty1295: Thanks and if there's anything you'd like to know/see just ask and if I can answer/take pics I'll be happy to!

Dave: LOL I'm pretty sure I'm not but will be triple checking each wire just to make sure.(there's so many of the damn things )

I was going to mount everything in a wall rack but decided it's easier if it's on a trolly as I can wheel it into the middle of the floor to work on it!

[IJ.]

Today's efforts !

I made the T Slot hardware from 6061 then had to go out to chase some wire and a few bits and pieces so only finished the X axis!

In the pic you can see the C channel I got for Y and Z and for X I used the stock T slot from the autofeed trip.

I made the trips offset (in the Z and Y) so the Home can never trip the Limits no matter how I adjust things.

I'll put a few hours in tomorrow and see if I can't get it ready for wiring around lunchtime.

[IJ.]

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[BrianS]

IJ

I have to say I admire your work, it is first-class all the way. I only hope my projects come out 1/2 as good and I will be happy.
How did you make it so the "home" switches don't trip the limits? The X and Z have little posts that contact the switches but what
contacts the switches in the Y? I can't tell from the pictures.

Thanks
Brian

[IJ.]

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[ESjaavik]

Yes we do follow your installments. It looks like someone else does too. It's at 1535 hits just now.

If you need any criticism, I have now carefully scrutinized all the pictures to find something wrong.
And finally I did! The door of your cabinet have no ground strap. Finally something not perfect.

[IJ.]

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[gtslabs]

Nice work!
2 questions:
What is the parent Mill?
and
Have you considered the safety issue of having those handles spinning without some type of guard?

Steve

[IJ.]

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[ESjaavik]

The handwheels on my mill have no handles, they are just aluminum wheels. Also they are like you describe, you have to push them in to engage. And there is (sorry: was) a spring pushing them back out. This is because it had power feed. And yes, the wheels would rotate driven by the friction, but I could stop them with one finger. I recommend wheels like that, because you could push them in to engagement with your body. Plain wheels will be less probable to hurt you then. But it is less convenient to turn them by hand.

Now there will be no wheels. The drives will need to move the axes also in manual mode. I want handwheels, but that will have to be a "fly by wire" system. And I can put the "handwheels" wherever I want. They just need to feed the drives with step and direction pulses. And they will of course not spin when in CNC or "power feed" mode.

If there is interest, I could elaborate on how to do this. My idea is that the PC may not be beside the mill at all times, and the beast should still be available as a "manual" mill then. But the drive cabinet "belongs to" the mill.

[IJ.]

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