[Titaniumboy]

You’re right - I don’t like your answer. Lol

Out of curiosity, how many of the different standard sizes do you have?

I ran into a situation last night where the 1/8” endmill used the same 1/8” collet as the 1/16” endmill needed. It didn’t take very many tool swaps in and out of that 1/8” collet, along with remeasuring the tool length offset before I gave up in frustration.

[metalmayhem]

ctc tools is a decent place to buy individual collets . I tend to have a half dozen or so extra collets on hand , blowing up a tool often results in a blown collet

[upnorth]

I have recently had the same issue you did. I have an odd mix. For 1/4 and 3/8" I would advise buying solid tool holders. I'm not really in favor of collets to hold end mills. I have solid and collet type holders. Guessing I have about 3 of each of the main sizes but I have to swap out tools. Not ideal. Errors can creep in.

[Titaniumboy]

Thanks guys. I appreciate the help.

So you can buy a set of ER20 collets for $30 for 14 collets, which is roughly $2 per collet, yet you go searching for individual collets and they are $10-$20 each?!? WTH?

CTC tools is listing individual ER20 collets at $3.75 each. That’s a pretty good price assuming they are half way concentric and if shipping is reasonable.

https://www.ctctools.biz/er20-collet-imperial-f6000/


Here is a teaser of what I’ve been working on. For a sense of scale this is only 0.7 inches in diameter.

Attachment 493882

[metalmayhem]

nice , thats a small gear what sized end mills ?

ctc are comparable to any of the chinese collets out there , not high end but they work . I use a lot of er16 and most of them are from ctc , it's tough to beat them price-wise . Their holders are ok to

[Titaniumboy]

I started with stainless steel gear blanks that had been EDM cut.


Attachment 493884


The gears were too heavy so I was machining out material to reduce weight. I’m hoping to eventually cut the gear teeth also. They require an endmill that is only 14 or 15 thousandth in diameter.

[metalmayhem]

a little rotary would be handy for something like that

[Titaniumboy]

I’ve been meaning to call John at Novakon about a fourth axis rotary. The little gear would be a lot easier on a rotary than trying to mill it.

[metalmayhem]

for something like that a sherline rotary would suffice . I've got one hooked up on an x2 for certain operations and it works well for the price

[Titaniumboy]

Wait, whut?

I’ve got non-Novakon options for a rotary? Well hot diggetty damn.

[metalmayhem]

if you want to make it easy for yourself then get a db splitter and another bob to run your stepper driver and make it not a permanent part of the machine . It makes it a bit more portable .
The pcnc440's didn't have a 4th axis option and the mere mention of it to tormach had the threat of voiding warranty since a 4th was considered a mod .I figured screw that and y'd off before the machine , no mod no fuss (except the pathpilot ini) . The nice thing about it is it's portable and I can drop it on any of the mills

[Titaniumboy]

I must be runnning a little slow today. How does a db splitter and a separate BOB make it simpler? I assume you mean one of the inexpensive BOB’s and not another Novakon BOB, correct?

On another note, should I be worried about the battery on my Windows 7 motherboard that came with my mill in 2014?

And on a third note I bet it would be a good idea to also go through the servo drive and record all of the parameter settings?

[metalmayhem]

ya just a simple bob , I didn't explain that well enough . I packed all my 4th axis electronics into a vented box (stepper driver , power supply , bob etc). This way everything about my 4th is portable and can go on the shelf when I'm not using it . When I want to use it I plug into the splitter and plug the electronics into the wall power , mount the axis , and good to go from there .
I assumed you had a stepper setup and not servo but either way backup is always nice to have . Even with a servo setup theres no reason you wouldnt be able to run a stepper operated rotary

[Titaniumboy]

Ok, that makes a bunch more sense about how you did your portable rotary. My first reaction is that there would be no benefit for me to go the portable route, but thinking it over there might be some utility in being able to move a portable rotary over to my manual G0704 mill.

My mistake in being unclear. I do indeed have steppers on the XYZ axis, but I have a servo motor driving the spindle via a pulley. Basically my Torus (not Torus Pro) is a NM-145 with Pulsar electronics. I forget which Novakon mill you have?

[metalmayhem]

I've got a torus with the steppers . I haven't hooked the rotary to the torus yet but I could plop it on any time if I need to , I'd just need to tweak my settings .

[Titaniumboy]

So you have the same Novakon mill as I do? Cool beans!

For some reason I thought you had either the Torus Pro or the Pulsar. Just to be sure, does your mill have a NM-145 nameplate on the mill itself like mine does? Are you using TTS tooling? Are you changing the tools out manually with a a pair of wrenches like I’m doing?

The reason I wanted to record the spindle servo drive settings is that John used some fancy settings like “electronic gearing”, etc. to change torque settings between normal milling and rigid tapping. Chances are slim that I could recreate these settings from scratch if the servo drive ever took a dump.

[metalmayhem]

was there a torus before the torus pro , or was the nm referred to as a torus ?
Mine is the torus pro but with the old style base and bare bones (no options) . The price on the mills went up right while I was contemplating buying one . We got to talking and worked out a deal where I got an old base with the new mill at the price it was the week or so before . That was when they were still here in Canada . The old base was a bit of a pita for leaks and I tried every kind of sealant but the coolant always ate through it . Then I got a few tubes of pl premium and put a heavy layer at the seams , that crap sticks to everything and it's holding well .

I haven't been using the tts holders on the torus . I'd like to but I'd need another hand to hold the spindle while I wrench it tight lol . And yes I am wrenching , I didn't go with a power drawbar . I've been wanting to make some sort of spindle lock so I can use the tts but I haven't put enough thought to it yet . I have around 50 tts er and face mill holders for my 440's and I love em , so I should make the move on it . As it stands I use r8 face mill , side lock and er holders on the torus .

If I were you I'd copy the complete mach folder to a drive or 2 for safe keeping . I've seen numerous torus pro users , mostly running servo though and not a lot of guys running the nm mills . I'm guessing that getting the settings elsewhere may be a bit of a pain .

on a side note , if you want to reduce some noise -- I pulled the cover from my spindle quite a while back , and my mill is much quieter without the sound echoing inside all that sheet metal . It looks good with it on but it's totally unnecessary

[Titaniumboy]

was there a torus before the torus pro , or was the nm referred to as a torus ?
Mine is the torus pro but with the old style base and bare bones (no options) . The price on the mills went up right while I was contemplating buying one . We got to talking and worked out a deal where I got an old base with the new mill at the price it was the week or so before . That was when they were still here in Canada . The old base was a bit of a pita for leaks and I tried every kind of sealant but the coolant always ate through it . Then I got a few tubes of pl premium and put a heavy layer at the seams , that crap sticks to everything and it's holding well .

There was a Torus being offered from Novakon at the same time as the Torus Pro. This is a screenshot from archive.org from early 2013. I ordered the last Torus from John and Khai in late 2013 and it was delivered in the first quarter of 2014.

https://web.archive.org/web/20130325...//novakon.net/


Attachment 493896


https://web.archive.org/web/20130417...torus#features


Attachment 493898

Attachment 493900

Attachment 493902

[Titaniumboy]

I haven't been using the tts holders on the torus . I'd like to but I'd need another hand to hold the spindle while I wrench it tight lol . And yes I am wrenching , I didn't go with a power drawbar . I've been wanting to make some sort of spindle lock so I can use the tts but I haven't put enough thought to it yet . I have around 50 tts er and face mill holders for my 440's and I love em , so I should make the move on it . As it stands I use r8 face mill , side lock and er holders on the torus .

Good news! I’ve been successfully using TTS for a little while now without the need for a third hand. I’m already sick and tired of wrenching for every tool change, though.

I’ll go into what Is working - and what is not working - on using TTS tomorrow. I’m getting too tired to type straight…

[upnorth]

You can use a butterfly impact gun if you want faster tool changes. It was what I was going to do before I splurged on the power draw bar.

There are hundreds of 4th axis units on Ebay if 100mm (4") is big enough. I wish there was a 150mm option available but that gets way more expensive. Google something like cnc 4th axis and you will see loads of the 100mm ones.