[Mad Welder]

Hi Pete,

would you mind posting your build thread please, I haven't found it yet....and reading your posts they make very interesting reading, and thanks...!

[pete from TN]

I will certainly take some pics for you guys so you can see the machine when I get it moved over here. It should certainly be a beast compared to any benchtop mill but in the world of commercial vmcs it is kind of a mini-me...hehehe

Madwelder my thread is called 'Finally getting started" on this benchtop forum. I just sold the machine to finance this vmc I bought. Gonna be an adventure that much is clear.....peace

Pete

[Starleper1]

Mind sharing how much you got for the 45?

[pete from TN]

I actually do not mind. I feel like I did a lot of work on that machine and put some decent parts in it and I was happy with the money I got for it. I basically sold the machine, the stand, the enclosure, all of the TTS tooling, the control computer, and some cutters for $5500.00. The fellow that bought it actually drove all the way from Canada and was a very nice fellow. Personally I think my machine was at least the equivalent of a Tormach and in some ways it is better so for that kind of money for a turn key machine I priced it at what I felt was a fair price. I actually had a couple buyers that were interested including a fellow in Texas who when I told him that I had a potential buyer who was trying to plan his day to drive down and get it wanted to buy it out from under him in as kind a way as he could put into words. I hope the machine works very well for him and I did a lot of work to it near the end there to try to ensure that.

All in all when I think of all the time and money I invested in the machine I feel pretty good about it. The things I learned on it would be hard to learn any other way and learning to run the machine under Mach control I hope will correlate at least in part to my new VMC under it's control. I am sure I will have a steep learning curve with the new control but since I MOSTLY use Cam to run my machine I hope that I will be able to keep that to a minimum. Peace

Pete

[Mad Welder]

.....Madwelder my thread is called 'Finally getting started" on this benchtop forum......

Thanks, and now I've another thread to read from the start

[jrslick22]

A cool little trick it to spray vinegar all over the galvanized sheet metal and let it sit until it dries. Then wash it off real good and dry then paint or prime. The vinegar microetches the surface and allows the primer or paint to stick real well. A trick we used for years.

Richard

Does this work on any surface or only galv? im looing to prep Ali, what version of vinegar is best?

thx

[rwskinner]

Honestly, I don't know. I've only done this with galvanized metal. Something about the vinegar and zinc I believe but I'm not much on chemistry. Sorry I can't provide a better answer.

Richard

[FannBlade]

Does this work on any surface or only galv? im looing to prep Ali, what version of vinegar is best?

thx

Look for something along these lines. [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Eastwood-Gray-Metal-Etching-Primer/dp/B003HM60PW"]Etch primer[/ame]

[jrslick22]

Look for something along these lines. Etch primer

I was more thinking a key for powder coating.

[jrslick22]

Hey GD. I've made good progress thus far, I have my belt drive set up just like yours, I getting about 8k just like yours, hell I even packed my bearings in kuLuber grease today just like yours! I'm very happy with the conversion.

I'm rady to tackle the power draw bar, I have threaded then end of my drawbar thingie and made up my nut but can't for the life of me find your pictures of the rest of the assembly, can someone remind me where they are?

Thanks.

[gd.marsh]

jr,

Sorry to say, I don't think I ever detailed the entire drawbar .. only bits & pieces of information here & there .. I can tell you that some of my original ideas were scrapped for a more practical design.

My still camera bit the dust but I'll see if I can find the time to put up a video that shows some detail & explains my setup.

gd.marsh

[gd.marsh]

Power Draw Bar Video,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEk2hbBunvo

[gd.marsh]

Working on not having to measure each tool on the surface plate anymore.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsB-9fDJzdY

[rwskinner]

Gary, very slick!

It shouldn't average the length. The first time is to get a general idea where the touch plate is, then the second time is a slower rate so it can take an accurate measurement.

Most hole center finders routines act the same way, the first measurements are to find the center axis of the circle then, the second measure accurately measures the I.D. exactly.

Richard

[gd.marsh]

Richard,

That's what I thought, but wasn't sure. Once I can get the arm slowed down to make softer landings it should work pretty well. Just swinging it out & back the repeatability is spot on.

Perhaps the flex in the arm will help keep the tools from digging into the face of the copper when hitting it at the higher velocity ..

More testing with a few sample parts will tell a better story once I'm feeling secure enough to put it into operation.

Gary

[RustedOut]

Hi Gary,

I've been following your build silently for a while and am quite impressed with it all. But now I have a question for you. I have been like minded in the use of the tool setter plate, not wanting to give up real estate on my bed for one. I was considering an added bracket to the back of the bed on one end, but I hadn't put too much effort into the design of it as I don't want the head to have to drop to the table to measure a tool. And I don't care for the rigid to rigid interface during tool contact to the plate, although I now measure with a feeler gauge.

So, my question is did you consider an electronic tool setter sitting on the arm? One like the low cost probes can turn into or just using a limit/home switch setup to trigger the input to Mach. Or are they not up to the task?

Thanks in advance
Bob

[RustedOut]

Hi Gary,

I've been following your build silently for a while and am quite impressed with it all. But now I have a question for you. I have been like minded in the use of the tool setter plate, not wanting to give up real estate on my bed for one. I was considering an added bracket to the back of the bed on one end, but I hadn't put too much effort into the design of it as I don't want the head to have to drop to the table to measure a tool. And I don't care for the rigid to rigid interface during tool contact to the plate, although I now measure with a feeler gauge.

So, my question is did you consider an electronic tool setter sitting on the arm? One like the low cost probes can turn into or just using a limit/home switch setup to trigger the input to Mach. Or are they not up to the task?

Thanks in advance
Bob

[gd.marsh]

Bob,
I have considered using an electronic tool setter but don't want to purchase one until I have proven the swing out concept to my complete satisfaction. So far it seems as though it will work fine but I haven't had a chance to put much more time into it due to other comittments.

[rwskinner]

Gary, Yesterday I was drilling some simple holes and only had 2 tools set up, a spot drill and a X drill bit. They were entered as Tool 1 & 2.

Mach started doing weird stuff out of nowhere and my offsets were getting out of whack and the DRO's were doing stupid things. I restarted Mach and all seemed fine but I was afraid to trust Mach again and just started touching off because I had zero room for error as I was using my very last inch of material.

The point is, Tool Offsets and Mach are not 100%. They work for the most part but sometimes they just go nuts. This is the 2nd time this has happened to me.

Richard

[SCzEngrgGroup]

Gary, Yesterday I was drilling some simple holes and only had 2 tools set up, a spot drill and a X drill bit. They were entered as Tool 1 & 2.

Mach started doing weird stuff out of nowhere and my offsets were getting out of whack and the DRO's were doing stupid things. I restarted Mach and all seemed fine but I was afraid to trust Mach again and just started touching off because I had zero room for error as I was using my very last inch of material.

The point is, Tool Offsets and Mach are not 100%. They work for the most part but sometimes they just go nuts. This is the 2nd time this has happened to me.

Richard

If you want rock-solid consistent behavior day in, day out, get a KFlop, and use their KMotionCNC app instead of Mach3 (or, do what I did - write your own custom CNC controller app, running on top of the KMotion DLLs). I switched about 6 months, ago, and ALL the flaky problems I used to have with Mach3 have completely disappeared. I have not had one single unexplained anomaly in all that time. It is such a joy to be able to go out to the shop, turn on the machine, load a program, and press "Run", and KNOW that it will run correctly, first time, every time. Never got anywhere close to that with Mach3. Hopefully Mach3 v4 will be a big step forward, but for now, KFlop is hard to beat, IF you can handle the more complex configuration, which REQUIRES some C programming.

Regards,
Ray L.