[SkipW]

Greetings Butterknife,

My ISF paperwork didn't get submitted until the day my router was loaded on the ship. It was still considered a late filing though and subject to a possible fine, but I never heard any more about it. Hopefully they have extended the grace period.

My crate had to go through the x-ray also and the machine still glows in the dark. Just kidding....

Hope you hear something soon.

Skip

[Butterknife]

Thanks Skip.

Well, it made it through the x-ray. So far that's the cheapest anything has cost me - $25 - and 7 extra days of waiting. I guess it heads for Baltimore next week and more customs stuff. I think either end of next week or beginning of week after I will see my machine. Maybe by that time the radiation will have faded.

Butterknife

[Butterknife]

Got my machine Thursday. It came in a strong crate.

It seems to be put together very strongly. It's built like a tank. I am very impressed with the machine so far.

I was concerned that being listed as 600mm X 900mm I might not be able to get 24" X 36" out of it. After homing I ran it to the right..., 24 inches. Very good so far. I ran it to the back..., 37 inches. I am very happy. I got more than I paid for!!

I did not cut anything yet. That comes next week. I did run a file in the air. The machine seems to be very strong, the file had lots of arecs and I saw no visible backlash. I was able to get 300 ipm and the machine sounded very happy. I don't expect to get anywhere close to that while really cutting, but it's nice to know it can do it in rapid.

It came with a power cable and a Chinese plug. A quick trip to Lowes and that was replaced.

I still have not wired the pump in for the spindle. It has it's own power cord and plug. I think I will wire it to a relay and connect it to the inverter. That way, when the spindle comes on, it will come on. For now I'll just connect it inside the control box and let it share the power for the drives and inverter.

I have seen some people commenting here on the cooling of these spindles. It's a 2.2kw. What do the experts say here, should the pump run all the time or only when the spindle is running? I'm open to suggestion.

I had an extra copy of WinCNC so I set it up on that. I like the idea of being able to control the spindle on/off and the spindle speed.

I'll set up a tool measure switch at the back in that extra one inch so I can do tool change files.

Mandy at JCut provided me with an assortment of tools. I saw a few in the 6mm range and several of size 1/8". There was also a v-groove there that was about 3/4" (guessing) in diameter and a larger diameter endmill for milling the spoilboard.

Since I did not get the vacuum table they provided me with several clamps.

I think I was expecting a light weight toy. This machine seems like it can take a beating. very solid, very well put together. the frame seems very stiff. I get the feeling that this machine could be ran for 8 or 16 hours per day and be ready to do more next day.

I also got a rotary axis. I can't wait to play with this. Of course I have no idea of how to use it but I sure want to learn.

More to come.

Butterknife

[Justin Cavender]

hey butterknife what was the cost to your door? if you dont mind me asking.

[Butterknife]

Justin,

I can't remember what the shipping was exactly. I know that JCut provides shipping to your port. I did have to pay some handling fees at the port and I got a broker to handle the customs end. I did pay JCut to arrange the shipping to my door and I'm sure it was done cheaper and more efficiently than I could have done it myself. Sorry I'm not much help there, but I'm sure that if you contact Mandy she can give you a good estimate on charges.

The machine arrived on a truck with a liftgate at no extra charge and the guy actually unloaded it right into our shop door. I was very happy with the delivery.

Regards,

Butterknife

[Butterknife]

I cut a couple of things last night. To give an idea of the size, each letter is 7" high.

I have this set up as a manual tool changer I did this with two tools; a 1.25" v-groove and a 6mm end mill. Nothing fancy, just wanted to test the machine. The machine measures the tool after I change it and before it goes on with the cut.

The material was 1 inch #1 pine. The v-groove I ran at 100 ipm and cut 1/4" deep with one pass. With the endmill, I did 3 passes of 1/4" at 200 ipm to go through the board. I left 4 bridges to hold the parts in the board. I am very pleased with the machine. I want to try pushing it a little further on the speed, but I don't expect it to do much more. No more than these things cost I figure anything over 100 ipm is great!!

The parts are a little rough, but I thinkt they will look good after I clean them up a little.

More to come.

Butterknife

[Butterknife]

The inverter is hard wired to FWD and CM. That forces the inverter to come on. It uses 3 outputs to control speed. There are 7 RPM options - 0, 6000, 9000, 12000, 15000, 18000, and 24000. I'm thinking of changing it to D/A to get real control, but honestly, this pretty much covers anything I need.

With WinCNC, I set it up with a spin.mac file (I get a range for each speed - ie. 15000 covers everything from 12001 to 15000, 18000 covers 15001 to 18000. So if my tap file calls for s13500, the spindle will really turn 15000 RPM.

I'm also going to wire the inverter for 'up to speed'. I'll put that in the spin.mac file to make sure the spindle doesn't plunge into the material before it's at full RPM.

I should re-emphasize here that I retrofitted the JCut 6090A with WinCNC. It's the controller I'm used to running and I didn't want to change. A little pricey, but an easy conversion. And this thing loves WinCNC.

I sort of wish I'd have installed the NCStudio first so I could compare the two controllers. I hear it's pretty good too.

Oh yeah, did I mention that I set it up as a manual tool changer? It raises to the top, moves to the front and tells me to change the tool. I hit enter, it moves to my measure switch, measures the tool, raises, starts the spindle and continues cutting. FANTASTIC!

Butterknife

[Butterknife]

Today I wired a couple of relays for the inverter. One for 'up to speed', the other for turning the spindle on/off.

Just in case anyone ever wants to do the same thing with a Sunfar E300, I'll tell what I did here.

For spindle on/off, JCut had wired a loop directly between CM and FWD. In that way the spindle was always turned on. You just controlled the speeds, 0, 6000, 9000, 12000, 15000, 18000, or 24000 using on or off combinations of 3 outputs from the controller.

I wired a relay that allowed an output to control on/off. Now I can actually control my spindle on/off with M3/M5 and spindle speed with S#. The way I'm used to doing it.

Before, in order to assure that the spindle didn't start cutting before it reached full speed, I added a 6 second delay to my output macros. I probably didn't need 6 seconds, but I wanted to be sure.

I wired another relay between 10V on the inverter and OC and to an input in WinCNC. OC settings are changed with parameter F1.11. The default is 0 - trigger when inverter is working. I needed 1 - frequency reached. The input now comes on when the spindle has reached desired RPM.

I use a M code that makes the machine pause until the input comes on. No more need for the 6 second delay.

The Sunfar inverter is very small. I was used to our TB Woods inverter. When I first saw the Sunfar I figured it must be lacking in features. So far it has been able to do everything I wanted it to.

In the next few days I'll wire analog speed. I'll use the D/A circuitry on the WinCNC daughter card and the 10V, CM, and the AI in the inverter.

[SkipW]

For a guy like myself who can barely change batteries in a flashlight and get it right, your above description sounded a lot like this guy to me....

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLDgQg6bq7o"]YouTube - Turbo Encabulator[/nomedia]


All kidding aside though, I'm envious of your programming and electronics knowledge, Butterknife. It sounds like the only thing left to do with that machine is to get it to make coffee.

[Butterknife]

Hahahahaha! I think I know that guy.

Sorry for getting too technical. I just wanted to try to make it clear for someone trying to wire one of these things.

How's this? I hooked up the spindle to start when WinCNC sees a M3 and go off when it sees a M5, and I made it so that the tool won't bury into the material until it's spinning as fast as I tell it to.

The next thing I'm going to do is make it so that when I type S13500, it goes as close to 13500 rpm as possible. Right now if I type S13500, it goes 15000. It has just 7 speeds from 0 to 24000 rpm and it goes to the next higher one.

Is that better Skip?

And how about a coffee cup? The spindle does have water, but I can't figure out where to put the coffee filter.

Butterknife

[SkipW]

Hey thanks Butterknife for dumbing down that explanation of your machine mod so even I can understand it now. I appreciate that. And the coffee filter goes in the unilateral phase detractor if I remember correctly. lol

[Butterknife]

Again..., I post this in case someone else is using the Sunfar E300 inverter and wants to do something similar. These are the things I did. I don't advise anyone to do what I did. This is for information only. Contact Sunfar. Every time I have contacted them they have been very helpful.

My WinCNC daughter card was wired for D/A and the feature was turned on in the software.

I changed the spindle= line in the wincnc.ini file from t2(auxout) to t1(D/A).
I added the DA= line and set the voltage to 9 volts. I would be getting 10v in, but figured I might lose a little through the circuitry on the daughter card.

I wired from the 3 pins that it shows in the WinCNC manual to the 10V, AI and CM screws on the inverter.

So then I studied the manual on the Sunfar E300 inverter for a several minutes yesterday. I thought I had it figured out how to use the 0 to 10v to input spindle speed.

There really wasn't anything wrong with the 7 choices of spindle speed that JCut had provided me with, but I wanted to make this machine mine.

I looked at setting F0.0 (Frequency input mode). It was set to 4(External terminal). I changed it to 1(External input signal (0~10V / 0~20mA)).

I looked at F1.0 (AI input lower volt) - it was set to 0, that was where it should be.

I looked at F1.1 (AI input upper volt) - it was set to 10. I lowered it to 9.

I went to WinCNC and turned on the inverter (M3). Nothing... I went to the DA calibration screen and ran it to 511 (max). The spindle started spinning. I looked at the inverter. It was outputting 48hz. It should have been 400hz.

Instead of 24000, it was spinning 2880 rpm. I tried to adjust the potentiometer on the daughter card, but it only got worse.

I gave up for the night.

I contacted Sunfar and they told me to make sure that F1.3 (Max setting freq) was set to 400.

This morning, I checked it. It was set to 50. Hmmm, very close to the 48 I was getting last night. It took me about 20 minutes to get it to 400. It was increasing by 0.1 each time.

Once it was at 400. I calibrated it and VOILA I now have great speed control.

[Butterknife]

To recap, I bought this 600 X 900 mm machine from JCut. I was hoping that it could do 24" X 36". It does!

I ordered it with oversized motors and faster ballscrews. I've cut 200 ipm without any strain, and I think I can probably get 250.

It came with this miniature Sunfar inverter that works just like our big TB Woods inverter. I'm really impressed with it.

I converted it to WinCNC before I ever tried the NC Studio, so I can't tell you how well NC Studio works. It was set up to use 3 outputs to control the spindle speed, so that controller must be pretty good. A friend who has it says it can even do tool changes.

Speaking of tool changes, I put a tool measure switch on it and set it up to do manual tool changes. That way I can do multiple tool change files. I don't have to bust the GCode up into multiple files to cut them. It works VERY well. If you have WinCNC and no tool changer, you should contact WinCNC and ask them about the setup.

I added 4 inch casters to the machine. The one thing it lacked was the ability to move it around.

The spindle is water cooled and what little I've ran it, it's stayed very cool.

If you look on Ebay you'll see the base machine listed for $2888 shipped to your port. Although I got lots of add ons, I feel that the base machine would be a very good machine.

Mandy from JCut has been very helpful and I wouldn't hesitate to buy from her again.

Thank you again Mandy.

I hope my infor has been helpful and I'll try to post more from time to time.

Butterknife

[wizzardworks]

Hi Skip,

Well, I got a form that says ISF, but my broker says it isn't the right thing. She informed me of the $5000 too. I had no idea of the form or the fine. If I had, I'd have sure filed it. She said she did not know of anyone ever having to pay a fine for this, but with my luck, I'll be the first.

There are a lot of other items in the container with my machine. I can log onto a site and see what else is in the container. Everything from synthetic hair to kitchen ware. The broker didn't seem too excited about it. Says that customs just works slow sometimes.

Butterknife

I also purchased a 6090A from jcut of china. I had purchased computer keyboards and mice from china and some tool bits and was relatively comfortable dealing with them. They had quick responces to e-mails (same day) and helped me choose options. It appears to be a really solid machine.
I had paypal up the limit and paid with that. The free shipping wasn't exactly free there was a charge of several hundred dollars but that was explained early on in the negotiating. You can't start the paperwork soon enough for all the customs work. If you go that route a broker is necessary because the customs people do not work with amatures. The broker was about $375 and handled the transfer to a truck line at the port and all the customs paperwork (at least 30 pages). Some odd paperwork required was details about the "packer" who loaded the container my machine was in, and the trucking company who moved it to the port, then things about the container. Fortunately Lily at Jcut had all the information and e-mailed it an hour after I requested it.
My broker advised me that I should have sent the computer, transformer, cutters and toolbox air freight and the machine crate by container. The advantage is that the seller can charge 1/2 the price for the air shipped parts and half for the crate shipped. This brings the import price below the $2000 limit and there is no customs paperwork or broker fees to pay. This will save $375 and a lot of delays.
While setting up the Jcut I noticed that my preffered drills and table saw are made in China. They are Hitachi which I always assumed was built in japan. It turns out my big band saw and edge sander are also China built. I chose them for the nice foundary work on the cast construction and am well pleased with the woodteck brand.
My contact person at Jcut is Lily who has always been very helpful both before and after the sale. I emailed about a software question two years after the sale and get the same service as before the purchase.
wizzardworks

[Butterknife]

A few projects from the JCUT6090A with the WinCNC controller:


A little finishing and the toys will be ready for the grandkids.

The machine is drawing here.

Finished drawing.

[Butterknife]

A better version of the drawing. The first had double lines.


Here is the machine drawing the picture.


Here is the real photo.


And last but not least..., a clock.

[OregonCustom]

Butterknife- when you reprogrammed your e300 did you have to reset it somehow or just change the input?

"I looked at setting F0.0 (Frequency input mode). It was set to 4(External terminal). I changed it to 1(External input signal (0~10V / 0~20mA))."

Is this the answer to my cryptict question? "4" being the programmable inputs which from the factory change the speed.

I bought this unit also and had to gut it after a week of not being able to get it to run with the supplied software... fast reply from Mandy and crew but totally useless in fixing the problem. I have rewired with a Mach 3 controller and I'm down to reprogramming the freq. Drive.

[Butterknife]

OregonCustom,

I sent you a private message.

Butterknife

[wizzardworks]

Butterknife- when you reprogrammed your e300 did you have to reset it somehow or just change the input?

"I looked at setting F0.0 (Frequency input mode). It was set to 4(External terminal). I changed it to 1(External input signal (0~10V / 0~20mA))."

Is this the answer to my cryptict question? "4" being the programmable inputs which from the factory change the speed.

I bought this unit also and had to gut it after a week of not being able to get it to run with the supplied software... fast reply from Mandy and crew but totally useless in fixing the problem. I have rewired with a Mach 3 controller and I'm down to reprogramming the freq. Drive.

Oregon custom. I too had problems with the factory software and NO support, however eventually I stumbled on the set up by trial and error. I had bought the mach3 and parallel card as well as a 4 axis driver board. I had intended to pull out everything but the power supply and rewire everything. With the original software plus meshcam3 G-code and Rhino4 all talking to each other I am sticking with the NC-studio for the present. Out of curiosity did you make up a cable with a 15 pin D-sub on the machine end and a 25 pin D-sub for the printer port and use everything in the original control box just matching the pinouts or is it necessary to replace the drivers as well.
As I understand it Butternife changed the NC-studio out for WINcnc which he was familiar with. I don't know how much hardware he had to replace. Hopefully when he is satisfied with his installation he will post the details.
As far as speeds are concerned I set them in Meshcam3 before importing, however in the english manual for NC-studio they list the pinouts. The pinouts are also accessable from the screen if in manual mode. There is a youtube video by sale cnc showing setup proceedures for the 4 speed steps. The pinouts for mach3 are in the downloadable manual and in the manual that shipped on my install disks as well.
wizzardworks

[Butterknife]

I've seen people asking about JCut's wiring. I don't have the Mach wiring, but here's what I had for my NC Studio software.

1. Unhooked, but I think it was for a tool touch off switch.
2. Step signal for axis 1
3. Step signal for axis 2
4. Step signal for axis 3
5. X3 on the Sunfar inverter. It was set up for 3 outputs to control speed.
6. Z high limit switch
7. Y low limit switch
8. X low limit switch
9. Direction signal for axis 3
10. Direction signal for axis 2
11. Direction signal for axis 1
12. X1 on the Sunfar inverter. Another of the speed outputs.
13. X2 on the Sunfar inverter. Combinations of the 3 make up to 9 speeds.
14. 5v- for everything.
15. 5v+ for inverter, and steppers.

I can't promise yours will be the same, but this was mine.

I found mine by toning out the wiring.

I never ran my machine from NC Studio, I cut out the 15 pin plug from the box and added a 37 pin D-Sub connector for WinCNC. It is the controller I use at work and I am used to it.

I got a rotary axis with my machine. It was set up so that you moved Y to where you wanted it, then at the back of the machine, you unplugged it and plugged in the rotary axis in its place.

I added another drive for it and a seperate mic jack for it to plug into. That way I can use my X, Y, Z, and A at the same time.

Hope this helps,

Butterknife