[Pamela578]

make up some g-code that will run a circle over and over and over

[RussellK]

Did any of you do something against the noise from the water pump sharing the 24V with the steppers and stepper drivers?
Mine doesn't have any capacitors and creates 30+V spikes even outside the range of my osciloscope.

Running off my benchtop supply set to 24V, I was getting 90-100V P-P spikes and audible interference on a nearby FM radio. I did this to each terminal:



And it's quietened down the spikes (30V P-P) and no interference on the radio.

[RussellK]

Oh, and with that pump, be sure to do this:



Don't ask me how I know why you should.

[RussellK]

2 more observations - on my unit, the casing is connected to earth by the housing of the mains filter (and the guts of the machine seem decent quality and well laid out) but neither the VFD or spindle connection is earthed.

Also, the tool-height probe was wired backwards such that it'd trigger instantly when you tried to set the tool height (could be something to do with the relative potential of the machine, I dunno, but reversing the connections in the base of the puck fixed it.

[RussellK]

And if anyone is after the manual for the E100 VFD, a helpful soul posted it here:

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/shopma...tml#post889246

[cnewb]

[QUOTE=RussellK;1246849]And if anyone is after the manual for the E100 VFD, a helpful soul posted it here:

Well, I for one am all for gathering up manuals for the products I buy, but I am not always successful. I have found though, that the better a "tool" works, the less likely it will be for me to dig into it.
As for this particular VFD, I just turn the dial up to some point, say 200 and check the RPM with my handy non-contact tachometer, in my case the 200 setting tachs out about 11500 RPM. this works for me so I don't care about messing with the VFD settings at this time.

Electrical noise issues ...... I'm not having any that I can see or hear. Guess one of these days I will scope around on it and see what I can find

Accuracy Issues ... none. My particular machine seems dead on right out of the box. First trial cut I made was a 1.00 inch round pocket, .125 inch deep.
measured out with calipers at .098 d and .120 deep. I reran using a different Z-zero number. It cut right on same center but depth changed to .126.
Close enough for what I do. On the third pass I used MPG MODE to move the gantry away from part center, hit GOTO ZERO, ran job again, with no visible change in pocket.

Random Sample of One ----- Maybe I was lucky and got a "good" one.

Don't misunderstand though, I have created a couple of doozy cut failures due to my inept g-code writing. But as the old saying goes, "a good photographer never shows their bad photos".

[cnewb]

[QUOTE=RussellK;1246849]And if anyone is after the manual for the E100 VFD, a helpful soul posted it here:

Well, I for one am all for gathering up manuals for the products I buy, but I am not always successful. I have found though, that the better a "tool" works, the less likely it will be for me to dig into it.
As for this particular VFD, I just turn the dial up to some point, say 200 and check the RPM with my handy non-contact tachometer, in my case the 200 setting tachs out about 11500 RPM. this works for me so I don't care about messing with the VFD settings at this time.

Electrical noise issues ...... I'm not having any that I can see or hear. Guess one of these days I will scope around on it and see what I can find

Accuracy Issues ... none. My particular machine seems dead on right out of the box. First trial cut I made was a 1.00 inch round pocket, .125 inch deep.
measured out with calipers at .098 d and .120 deep. I reran using a different Z-zero number. It cut right on same center but depth changed to .126.
Close enough for what I do. On the third pass I used MPG MODE to move the gantry away from part center, hit GOTO ZERO, ran job again, with no visible change in pocket.

Random Sample of One ----- Maybe I was lucky and got a "good" one.

Don't misunderstand though, I have created a couple of doozy cut failures due to my inept g-code writing. But as the old saying goes, "a good photographer never shows their bad photos".

[Adverse Effects]

i can run at 2540mm per min no problem at all

but when i run the same file on the same sheet of plastic50 timed i am almost 3mm on y and 2mm on x and some times Z is out other times z is spot on

i need to turn my speed all the way down to 1310mm per min to be able to run that test with no missed steps

[RussellK]

With regard to the VFD manual, it was helpful in shortening the spin-up and spin-down times to 4s rather than 8s, and I was hoping there was an option to adjust the display scaling so it'd display RPM instead of frequency, but the option isn't there (not a big issue really). It's also interesting to check the current draw - pressing the >> button changes between Hertz (set-point then actual), Amps and Volt display (bus voltage and spindle drive voltage).

I'm in the process of learning about RPM, feed rates and materials - I've been playing with 3mm aluminium composite panel of which I have lots of offucts. Initial playing around suggests that I can run a full depth (3.05mm) cut with the supplied 3mm dual flute cutter spinning at 12,000RPM at a max of about 2,400mm/min and not lose steps (well, at least, not so far).

That said, the machine's max feed rate was set to 3,500mm/min and I had to drop it to 3,000 on the X axis as it was losing steps while positioning between cuts (Y axis seems fine, even though it's moving more mass).

[Adverse Effects]

your cutting 3mm aluminum at cut depth 3mm at 2.4 meters a min hmmm dont think so


you may be cutting EPP or EPO or something like it that has a coating of aluminum food wrapper type of stuff

and when i said i can cut at 2540mm that is a 1mm cut depth and cutting acrylic any deeper or faster it brakes the 3mm 2 flute end mills so i dont see how you can be cutting aluminum like your saying

[RussellK]

Well, I did say aluminium composite panel, known as alupanel, dibond, alcobond, chefbond and many other names, and yes, it's a laminate of thin layers of aluminium over a core of polyethylene, and yes, much easier to mill than solid aluminium, but I've only had the machine a few days, only have the supplied cutters and am hesitant to dive into milling hard material until I have half a clue about RPM and feed rates, and no, it won't be doing it at 2400mm/min, it'll be a small fraction of that I suspect.

That said, today I moved on to experimenting with acrylic - my tests so far (cutting a series of 20mm square outlines) indicate it'll cut 2mm deep at 2,400mm/min with the spindle maxed out at 24,000rpm with the 3mm dual flute cutter that was supplied. It did that reasonably easily, so I'm inclined to believe it'll do a deeper cut OK. I've got 4.5mm acrylic stuck to the board at the moment so I can go deeper, but I moved on to the supplied engraving bits which don't do so well, churning up a lot of molten plastic which needs a second or third pass to clean out.

[Adverse Effects]

the few times i have tried to cut aluminum the best i could get was 0.2 cut depth and 50mm any faster or deeper snaps the bit the sec it touches the job

i realy need to find better bits that i dont need to sell a kidney to buy and use

the ones i am using only last for about 2mt of cutting at 0.2mm deep then there to blunt to cut aluminum anymore and that is with drip cooling

[Ruby582]

now run the same cut cutting down 2 mm with a 0.1mm cut depth and see if its out of alinement at the end of i

[aarggh]

the few times i have tried to cut aluminum the best i could get was 0.2 cut depth and 50mm any faster or deeper snaps the bit the sec it touches the job

i realy need to find better bits that i dont need to sell a kidney to buy and use

the ones i am using only last for about 2mt of cutting at 0.2mm deep then there to blunt to cut aluminum anymore and that is with drip cooling

The best ones I've found to not cost an arm and a leg are the 3 flute carbide high spiral bits such as this:

3pcs aluminium cutting three flute CNC router bits 6mm | eBay

When i've used a little spray they cut very well and don't clog up. I've ramp cut 32mm thick alu with these cutters: Machining 43mm spindle mount opening out of aluminium block - YouTube

cheers, Ian

[Adverse Effects]

wow

what cut depth you doing?

[aarggh]

wow

what cut depth you doing?

0.15mm very happily, on another piece I did it at 0.2mm without any issues at feeds from 1800-2400mm/min. It really didn't like the chips not being cleared though, I think if I had proper lube I could have done a lot better DOC and feed. As it was though, it just chugged away, and could have continued at that rate indefinately.

[RussellK]

I just ran a few tests on 1mm Aluminum sheet using the supplied 3mm dual-flute bit. At 12,000 RPM I got up to a 0.5mm cut depth at 600mm/min, lubrication being a blob of WD-40 - 900mm/min at that depth left swarf attached to the top edge.

[aarggh]

I just ran a few tests on 1mm Aluminum sheet using the supplied 3mm dual-flute bit. At 12,000 RPM I got up to a 0.5mm cut depth at 600mm/min, lubrication being a blob of WD-40 - 900mm/min at that depth left swarf attached to the top edge.

I had a massive amount of trouble when trying to cut some 0.8mm alu sheets, straight flutes are no good as they weren't cleanly cutting the alu, but instead sort of "mushing" it leaving a raised crinkly strip around the edge. I think you maybe need one of the single flute Onsrud style cutters to get a clean edge. I tried 2/3/4 flute straight and spiral cutters, but none gave a good edge, it was just unusable. Drove me up the wall, the other issue was the sheet was hard to evenly clamp down, and the minute flex/vibration was enough to just make it that more dificult to get a clean edge.

cheers, Ian

[RussellK]

The cut at 0.5mm deep and 600mm/min is quite clean, but I should have added that the supplied 3mm bit is spiral-fluted, not straight. It's only when I pushed the feed to 900mm/min that I started to get crinkly edges - I probably should have tried again with a higher spindle speed.

I'm on the verge of ordering some more bits (and larger collets than the supplied 3.125mm one) , but the choice is so huge that working out what I really need is a challenge.

[Adverse Effects]

ER11 Collets