[MBViklund]

Hi Folks.

My first post on CNCzone.

I have been thinking about getting a CNC milling machine since I finished my studies almost 10 years ago. But never had the opportunity until now. Been looking mostly for used machines, but gave up and went with a Novakon torus pro. It should be shipped within 2 weeks and the shipping time is probably another 4-5 weeks before it arrives in Oslo.

Ordered a stepper machine with ESS and a 4th axis, built in computer, power draw bar and the upgraded stand. Also bought 2 6” vises and a 3 Jaw chuck for the rotary table. Would have bought the tool changer as well if it was available (hurry up Ray!:stickpoke )

For tooling a bought 15 er20 holders from tormach and a couple of collet sets for them. Also bought a fly cutter, a boring bar kit and some measuring tools. Already received the tormach tooling and a pile of mills, drills, threading tools and more I bought from a bankrupt company.

Also ordered 2 wild horse probes. One will be used as a probe and the other one as a tool setter. And Yesterday I bought a vista P3A-E pedant as well.

For CAM I will be using HSMxpress in Solidworks to begin with, I might upgrade it later to be able to generate 3D tool paths. But the works version is not cheap…
I have rented an old store together with some friends which is where all the magic will happen later. Really looking forward to get the mill and start messing around with it.

I am designing a cabinet in sheet metal to be around the mill. But I am not sure I have the measures for the old or new stand. Could someone give me the correct measures of the new stand? Will post pics of it as soon as the design is finished.

//Daniel

[Hirudin]

I haven't set up my upgraded stand yet, but it looks like the main tray is ~2400mm wide by 1157mm deep. There is a piece that sticks out of the middle of the back that adds an additional ~200mm (more like ~165mm) to the depth. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how much of the machine (specifically, the computer box) hangs off the back.

[MBViklund]

Thanks for the measures. I think I will place the computer box outside of the cabinet. How wide is the piece that sticks out?

[LeeWay]

Congratulations on the new machine and tooling. I'm sure you will enjoy it.

We do expect pictures of it's living arrangements when you get to that point as well as pictures of what it will be doing.

[Hirudin]

Thanks for the measures. I think I will place the computer box outside of the cabinet. How wide is the piece that sticks out?

No prob! It looks like it's roughly square, so 'round 200mm wide as well.

[DBD]

Congratulations on the new mill. What made you decide on the P3A-E pedant? I have been trying to decide which
one to order and have been looking at the P5A.

[ram48]

Congrats on the new mill. I have an NM200 with 4th and 5th axis that has been upgraded to the VFD motor and PDB so basically it is a pro in NM clothing lol.
I am waiting my new Pro and upgraded stand stepper version 4th axis version and like you It should be shipped in two weeks.
but only have room for one of them, I can fit both in the shop for a while but who knows. decisions, decisions.
I would also like to see the enclosure or drawings if you have them.

[MBViklund]

Congratulations on the new machine and tooling. I'm sure you will enjoy it.

We do expect pictures of it's living arrangements when you get to that point as well as pictures of what it will be doing.

Will post pics as soon as I actually made something

Congratulations on the new mill. What made you decide on the P3A-E pedant? I have been trying to decide which
one to order and have been looking at the P5A.

The P5A seems quite equal to P3A except for P5A being water resistant. P3A have LEDs in the buttons. I do not know if I need it or will like it. But at least I can choose later on :banana:

Congrats on the new mill. I have an NM200 with 4th and 5th axis that has been upgraded to the VFD motor and PDB so basically it is a pro in NM clothing lol.
I am waiting my new Pro and upgraded stand stepper version 4th axis version and like you It should be shipped in two weeks.
but only have room for one of them, I can fit both in the shop for a while but who knows. decisions, decisions.
I would also like to see the enclosure or drawings if you have them.

Need to get the mill before finishing the design of the enclosure. Will post it on grabcad once it is finished.

[MBViklund]

Bought Fusion 360 today. They are releasing fusion 360 ultimate in a few days and you will get the update for free if you have 360 when that happens. It is $300 a year and supports 3+2 axis 3d milling! Apperantly it is built on the same CAM kernel as hsmworks. I have just seen a few youtube videos, but actually looks good. There are many options for both 2d (including adaptive clearing) and 3d milling and post processors already built for many machines including mach3 ones.

Features | Autodesk Fusion 360

[amish_rabbi]

nice. I'm tempted by that as well, Just have HSM express right now so I lack the 3d milling capabilities

[MBViklund]

nice. I'm tempted by that as well, Just have HSM express right now so I lack the 3d milling capabilities

I've played around with it for an hour now. Seems good for what it costs!
I have been using solidworks for 9 years. So I am not very familiar or comfortable in the way you navigate in fusion, but I think that I will over come that. All common features used in solid are there. For the CAM i have almost no experiece from neither HMSxpress or fusion 360. But I do really like what I see in fusion. Very similar to HMS.

You can just download a free trial from the webpage, you get access to it right away. But you will have to buy it before 8th november in order to take part of the deal. The ultimate edition will be 1299 per year when it is released.

[amish_rabbi]

I downloaded the trial last night, been watching a few videos and it is very HSMworks like, which is excellent. I'll be playing with the cam tonight but it looks like a really good option for 3d, and at $300 prob worth the money for a year "trial" anyways.

tool library ect look identical so its very clearly the HSM kernel.

[MBViklund]

So I have finally received my mill after waiting for over 3 months! Novakon were 5 weeks delayed, then the shipping company did not get the mill on a boat until a few weeks after that. Then another 4 weeks shipping. The company that received the mill 30/12 could not get their fingers out until 10/1... So many delays at so many places ads up.

I got the driver of the final delivery truck to bring it all the way home. I borrowed the forklift from work and put the 2 crates in the garage.

I was a little bit worried when I received the mill. There were 2 holes in the crate from a forklift. Probably tried to push the whole crate with the forks. But I could not find any damage to anything inside. :banana:

Spent the first evening to unpack everything and place the mill on top of the stand. Yesterday i spent removing a wall in order to create a little bit more space for it.

Will continue assembling it tonight. I ran in to trouble finding where to connect the coolant pumps. Can anyone post a picture of the connections in the electrical cabinet?

Best regards/Daniel

[SCzEngrgGroup]

I'm pretty sure the current machines use an SSR to control the coolant pumps. The SSR should be mounted just above the DIN strips, near where AC power enters the cabinet. It would be much easier to provide correct guidance it you posted a picture of your E-box, showing the lower right corner, where all the AC wiring is.

Regards,
Ray L.

[MBViklund]

] I found the switch as soon as I turned the mill on. Have not filled it with coolant so I don't know if it is working yet.

I do have a few things I am concerned about. The X axis makes a lot of noise. Seems to be the servo and a resonance sound through the screw. The sound will not stop until I touch the screw physically. When the mill is turned off the X axis kind of feels grinding when turned around as well.

The second thing is that the mill will trigger what it thinks is e stop at random places. It is nowhere near the end stop switches and nothing is coming close to the sensors.

Third is the drawbar panel that will display a bunch of wierd symbols at some times. Will go back to normal if reset.

Fourth is probably a user error. But I can't home the machine. Z axis is fine. It zeros and stops. Then it begins with the X axis, but as soon as it hits the sensor triggers an alarm. I'm I doing anything wrong here. The homing /limit values are unchanged.

[SCzEngrgGroup]

Daniel,

Sorry to hear you're having trouble with the PDB display. This seems to happen on a few machines, and not at all on others. It seems to be an electrical noise issue. Are you comfortable doing some simple soldering? It can usually be resolved by adding a capacitor to filter the power supply to the PDB electronics. If you're able to do that, I can tell you what to do, and the part should be available from Radio Shack. Otherwise, you can ship the PCB back to me and I can do it for you. Let me know what you'd like to do, and I'll get you sorted out.

On the E-stop problem, you might want to disconnect the three limit switches cables from the BOB and see if the problem goes away. If it does, then re-connect them one at a time, and run the machine long enough that you would expect to see the problem. When the problem comes back, then there's likely a problem with the last switch you re-connected. Could be either a flaky sensor, or a bad cable or connector. Also make sure there are no chips anywhere near the sensors, as even aluminum chips can cause them to trigger.

Also check the wiring on the front-mounted E-Stop switch. One of the wires on mine had rattled loose in transit, causing random E-stops, as that switch is normally closed. The door switch should be simply bypassed and thrown away. Mine was never reliable, and I see no need for it anyway.

Make sure all screw terminals and connectors in the E-box are secure as well. It's amazing how much stuff manages to shake loose in transit sometimes!

Regards,
Ray L.

[Novakon]

Hello Daniel,

We would like to echo and add to what Ray has stated. The stand wiring can be connected as indicated in the attached picture. The Blue set of wires are used for the spray down pump and are connected to the 220VAC terminals and is controlled from the switch on the front of the stand.The red wires are connected through the SSR and the 220VAC terminal also as indicated. The SSR is activated via the flood control in Mach3.

The hum in the X axis can be controlled by adjusting the "position feed back gain" parameter P009 on the servo driver. You can lower this (maybe in increments of 5) until the hum goes away. The default factory setting is 40 and we may have made some adjustments to this already before it was shipped. We would have lowered it to just above the threshold. The X axis seems to be the only axis usually needing adjustment.

If unplugging the sensors does not stop the E-stop triggers, try unplugging the N.O. soft stop plug from the BOB and see if it false triggers. The E-stop button will still control the hard stop since it will cut off the driver power via the power relay. This will indicate if the triggers are originating from the E-Stop cabling.

Regards,
Novakon Team

[MBViklund]

Daniel,

Sorry to hear you're having trouble with the PDB display. This seems to happen on a few machines, and not at all on others. It seems to be an electrical noise issue. Are you comfortable doing some simple soldering? It can usually be resolved by adding a capacitor to filter the power supply to the PDB electronics. If you're able to do that, I can tell you what to do, and the part should be available from Radio Shack. Otherwise, you can ship the PCB back to me and I can do it for you. Let me know what you'd like to do, and I'll get you sorted out.

On the E-stop problem, you might want to disconnect the three limit switches cables from the BOB and see if the problem goes away. If it does, then re-connect them one at a time, and run the machine long enough that you would expect to see the problem. When the problem comes back, then there's likely a problem with the last switch you re-connected. Could be either a flaky sensor, or a bad cable or connector. Also make sure there are no chips anywhere near the sensors, as even aluminum chips can cause them to trigger.

Also check the wiring on the front-mounted E-Stop switch. One of the wires on mine had rattled loose in transit, causing random E-stops, as that switch is normally closed. The door switch should be simply bypassed and thrown away. Mine was never reliable, and I see no need for it anyway.

Make sure all screw terminals and connectors in the E-box are secure as well. It's amazing how much stuff manages to shake loose in transit sometimes!

Regards,
Ray L.

No problem doing some soldering. You can send me the instructions and the spec of the capacitor. I can source it locally here in Norway.

I will check the wiring for both E stop and the limit switches.

Novakon : thanks for the picture showing how to connect the pumps.

I will try adjusting and see if the sound goes away. I actually got the sound on the z axis too, when it was in home position. Probably due to the long unsupported screw. But no sound otherwise in any other position.

What about the homing problems. I saw there was another thread where another user had problems homing. He solved it by changing mach version.

I am struggling a litle bit with the fact that mach is setup in inches. You don't have an xml file for metric users? :-)

Thanks for the quick answers guys!

[SCzEngrgGroup]

Daniel,

A 100uF capacitor (anything 10-100uF should be fine) between the VCC/GND pins on the MCU should do the trick. If you look at the PDB PCB, the MCU is the small board near the lower-left corner. Look at the row of pins across the top of the MCU. Second from left is GND, fourth from left is VCC. Just solder the capacitor to those two pins, either on the MCU board, or on the back-side of the PDB PCB. Mind the polarity of the capacitor. If that doesn't solve the problem, let me know.

If you want to work in metric, simply add "G21" to the Mach3 setup string in Config->General Config, and it will always come up in metric mode. Make sure your g-code does NOT contain G20. No need for another XML. Ideally, each g-code file should contain either G20 or G21, depending on whether the g-code is written to use inches or mm.

Regards,
Ray L.

[Hirudin]

Isn't this a stepper machine?

If you're looking to permanently switch to metric you might find some pointers on this thread...
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/novako...on-metric.html
As I recall the thread quickly changed from "how to do it" to "why you shouldn't" though, so it might not have everything you need.