[damae]

D,
The temperature in the garage can get into the 40s fairly easily. Then in the day the outside temperature goes way up. If it rains and someone opens the garage, the machine sweats (a lot)

Every surface of the machine has a light coat of LPS II which seems to offer enough protection. (LPS is by far the best spray lube I've found, and the II is a good general viscosity) (It's also a good cleaner of thick stuck on greasy-grime)

This is my first experience with coolant, so I've not had problems with it causing rust... yet! =)

Yes, I have the same extremes in my garage and I combat it a few ways:

-I don't open the garage when it's raining or humid outside. (except to take the trash out)
-30 pounds of desiccant packages distributed around the shop -- including one packet in each tool drawer. This helps keep the air dry and remove whatever moisture sneaks in.
-Dehumidifier. Ran automatically and worked great, but recently stopped working. It acts like the refrigerant leaked out.

I like heat lamps for the same reason you heat your mills -- just to keep them slightly warmer than the air, without circulating more air across them while they're still warming up.

How about this for a PIC project: an Automatic Mill Heater. Electrically heating your mill would be expensive if you just left the heat on all the time without regard for the temperature difference. But we could monitor the ambient temperature, the air humidity, and mill temperature, and apply simple rules:

If the air humidity is anything other than bone-dry, then:
Check the temperature delta.
The mill should be more than 3 degrees warmer than the air
If it is not, then turn heater on
If it is, then turn heater off
Repeat

We could build-in an audible humidity alarm (beeps every 5 minutes if conditions are likely to cause the mill to sweat).

We could also record the peak/lowest humidity in the past 24 hours and display on a LCD.

I have the ICD2 from Microchip and a dev board based on the 16F977. Work is consuming all my time right now, but when I get back to regular hours, I'll give this a shot. I also have two PIC16F84A MCUs that might be adequate.

[Barry_ward]

I got the rust and sweat part, but missed the beers. Are you going to HK/SZ?

[damae]

I got the rust and sweat part, but missed the beers. Are you going to HK/SZ?

I was looking for a post title with a funny analog to blood, sweat, tears and it rhymed. You're right, I forgot to tie-in the beers.

I have a narrow window. I'm trying to kick-off tooling before Chinese New Year and then get over there to work out the bugs with the toolmakers in person. So it's looking like the first week of February right now. You still going?

[Barry_ward]

Back when I worked in the electrical business..

The electrical cabnets had heaters to drive out the moisture. They had simple thermostats and that worked fairly well.

Back when I built solar water heater panels...

I used 2 simple thermistors and an op-amp. When the panel got hotter than the tank, the pump came on. You just tweaked the bias to keep it off unless you had some differential. There was a little positive feedback which made the unit switch with a couple of degrees difference (so that the pump cycled on and off.)

I might be tempted to just rig up one of those type circuits. good, fast cheap, reliable.

I've seen all of the heater types on MCMASTER.com page 477 installed in cabinets. If you are serious about installing heaters, I'll call my bro. He had several laying around the last time I was there (Florida) Maybe freeer (rhymes with beer - keeping with the theme) than McMaster.

Let me know.

B

[Barry_ward]

Jan 22nd to 27th with possible extension. No jumping banana.

[damae]

I've been working on some control panel mockups using inkscape, which, by the way, is a wonderful free (opensource) vector editor, kind of like Adobe Illustrator. It's very easy to use, very intuitive.

Anyway, Here is what I was thinking for controls. I already have an industrial monitor enclosure, so I started there, placing the e-stop and all "powering-up" and enable functions. These switches would be tied to relays, perhaps indirectly through Mach. The small box above the monitor is a detatchable panel that controls my Mitsubishi VFD and displays the spindle speed.

The second panel I intend to mount to the center of the machine, just below the table. It actually will form a more cosmetic cover for the Y-axis pulley cover.

I'm looking for feedback. What controls did I miss? What won't I use? What indicators should I add? I was trying to keep it simple, without losing any important funtions.

[Barry_ward]

Hey D,

Man thats a nice looking panel. Got any more?

I might be tempted to put the buttons that I use a lot or that need to be handy in the holes that you have available.

Feed Hold
Drawbar open/close
Spindle Power
Axis Enable

BW(HK)

[damae]

Hey D,

Man thats a nice looking panel. Got any more?

I might be tempted to put the buttons that I use a lot or that need to be handy in the holes that you have available.

Feed Hold
Drawbar open/close
Spindle Power
Axis Enable

BW(HK)

Hey Barry, how's your Hong Kong trip going? My project is delayed and so I likely won't be back to HK until April, but when I do go, it will be for 3 weeks!

That is my only remaining control panel. I had reserved a few more of them at the junkyard where I bought it, but I never picked them up. That was last summer, so I think they're gone by now. =(

Good idea about the Feed Hold button! I would have kicked myself if I left it out!

[braidmeister]

Damae,
GREAT thread!!! I don't know how I missed it!!!

So I guess you had to make the Z axis pulley? Know where I can get one & a belt for my BOSS 5? Know where I might find a Series I spindle bearing set?

Thanks!
-B

PS...now I have to go back & re-read this entire post and try not to get lost in all of the links you posted!

[damae]

Damae,
GREAT thread!!! I don't know how I missed it!!!

Thanks for the compliment! Just giving back.. considering how much I've learned from the build logs of other members!

...Know where I can get one & a belt for my BOSS 5? Know where I might find a Series I spindle bearing set?

I made a plan to make my own pulley, but in the end, bought one from Misumi. If you prefer to make your own, a neat trick is to download the CAD model from Misumi's website and use that model to machine your own pulley. That's what I used to make my X axis pulley -- although I used a rapid prototyping machine for that pulley, not CNC.

https://fa.misumiusa.com/gwos/catalo...ATEGORY_ID=023

Eventually, I will make a new X-axis pulley out of aluminum, the way I described in an earlier post.

McMaster-Carr has very good prices on H-pitch belts. I don't remember how many teeth you'll need on the Z axis, but it is a H100 series (H pitch, 1" wide).

http://www.mcmaster.com/

As for spindle bearings, I have seen good deals for a spingle bearing set on ebay, but have no idea if you can trust the quality. McMaster will also carry the appropriate bearings, but I am not sure if their bearing prices are competitive.

Machinetek, a member here on the 'zone is our local Bridgeport expert and he has been known to help out when people post a specific question on in the Bridgeport sub-forum. You might try that if you have more particular questions. For instance, he probably knows how many teeth on that belt and which bearing numbers to use.

Are you doing a retrofit on your mill? If so, post a link, I would love to check it out!

[braidmeister]

Thanks man...you've been more helpful than you know!!!

Question: Are the BOSS pulleys metric? I didn't see an SAE/inch reference on there.

My retrofit has taken more turns than Suzuka Raceway :drowning: First I ran the machine under it's own power & just moving the machine around, it kept blowing transistors...So I bought some DC motors from surplus center to do a servo conversion and then realized that there was no way it was going to fit on the Y (unless it was going to be sticking straight out...which is not what I wanted)...So I figured, why not use Nema34 motors, and bought some N34 Tormach 1200Oz motors and G202s....Knowing full well I needed shaft adapters and N42 to N34 mounting plates. I cut the plates out no problem on my CNC plasma, and then had some adapters turned on a lathe & drilled & tapped for grub screws...Worked OK for a while, but I really wasn't keen on the adapters...So since then, I've said screw it, and put the original N42 motors back on the machine & will be running 1/2 winding to keep amps down on the Geckos...

The electronics box is gutted...I still have to take it all apart and clean out years of goo & putty...One good thing is that I only see AL chips in the remotest of places...so hopefully she wasn't ridden to hard.

Here's good ole Bridget in the Ebay spotlight before I bought her, a Rhino render of the shaft adapter and the N34 Tormach's mounted on the machine:

[braidmeister]

Here are the ways...and one reason I bought the machine

[Kevin Taylor]

damae I'v seen some new fadal jog pendent's on ebay thought this would make quick work of some of this maybe a lube level light ? The jog pendent would be handy during set up and touch off look's Good Kevin

[bnoji]

My wife is on my case if she spots any chips in the house (and there have been a few!) Not good for the dogs paws or for barefoot humans either! So I leave the shoes in the garage when I come inside. But somehow they still migrate indoors! I think it's a lesser known corollary to the "socks dissapearing from the dryer" mystery.

Barry, your Shiz is looking great! (check out www.barryfish.com if you haven't seen his Shizuoka retrofit) Your machine really came out sparkling!



There is a lot of discussion here on the 'zone about making your CNC with manual handles. Generally, I discovered two main reasons people don't usually do it:

1. If you use ballscrews, they are so efficient that the reaction forces from the cutter could backdrive whichever axes you don't have your hand on. Manual machines have low efficiency ACME screws and so there is lots of friction to prevent backdriving.
2. CNC machines (especially routers) would have the handles in very awkward locations. That wouldn't be a problem on this machine.

The Z axis is the only one that has any appeal to me as a manual axis. Since I don't have a drill press in my garage, I use the Bridgeport, or else I just drill by hand. There are times where it might be nice to use the BP in jog mode to position the part in X and Y, but do the downfeeding by hand to 'feel' my way through the drilling operation.

To do this I would have to somehow disengage the Z axis ballscrew, or else force it to backdrive the Z axis motor. I think it will be too much work for the return. (I'll just get a drill press). =)

I was just wondering if anyone had designed a hybrid manual/cnc using electronic control since the servos/steppers are already in place. Seems like some operator feedback would be needed (like a force-feedback joystick).

[Barry_ward]

Bnoji,

I'd save the feedback for the giant robot suit. Even when you think that you can "feel" some magic feedback force, you can't do much better than with constant feed rates.

I recently drilled a bunch of 1/8" pilot holes followed by 3/8 drill through 1" plate steel and the results were fantastic.

I think that when you hand drill (machine, cut, etc) you keep constant FORCE going toward the subject material and when you use CNC you keep constant VELOCITY applied. With the constant velocity, you allow time for the chips to clear.

Barry

[srbliss]

Another nice discovery -- the bracket fits! Someone asked me for the CAD models of this design a few months back, but just before I sent the models, I realized that the "star" points of my design would probably interfere with the vari-speed housing on the spindle! So I didn't send the models, thinking the design needed more adjustment. If you're following this thread and still interested in the IGES or Pro/E models, please PM me.

I was the one that asked for the CAD models. I have been off line for a long time due to being a new father and starting a new company at the same time. I just sent you a PM but your over the limit so it didn't go thru.

[RayMjr]

What happened to this thread?
Have the projects finished?

Ray

[damae]

The short answer: I sold the Bridgeport Boss after I had it up and running on Mach3 with the huge servos.

That was a few years ago. In 2007, I moved to a new house on 2.5 acres, hoping to build a large shop building to house all my industrial tools. Before long, I had a surface grinder and two large CNC lathes, a syncrowave TIG welder, and all manner of smaller equipment packed into my 2 car garage. The shop never materialized and I realizing that I was spreading myself really really thin by taking on so many restore & retrofit projects. At the end of last year, I had purchased, repaired and sold an excavator, three bobcats, a Case 580 backhoe and still wasn't getting to all the retrofit projects in my garage.

But even sitting idle, those pieces of equipment were taking up my time - I spent untold hours researching and reading up on the specific machines (Mori Seiki SL-1 Lathes in particular). Worse, I was maneuvering sideways through the aisles in my garage.. and there was no space to do any actual projects.

So I finally decided to simply -- and sold over 40,000lbs of equipment early this year. I know, it sounds crazy... but I moved into a tiny 2 bedroom house with a single-car garage. Now I didn't abandon everything - I retained all my shiny stainless steel toolboxes full of small specialty tools, which now line the walls of my tiny garage. And I kept my foundry.

Life is still busy, but now rather than doing everything poorly and having projects hanging over my head, I am doing just a few things, but doing them well. Among the most important - being a good father, spending time with my 14 year old son!

Don't get me wrong - I think it's important to have a creative outlet. I simply put a clearer focus on what comes first. If there's time left over, I'll still be building things in the garage. =)