[Fred Evans]

Hello Chaps-
I am new to all this stuff and I hope someone can help me.
I have built a cutoff machine which cuts a polyurethane component to length

The component is inserted into one side of a rotating jig and the other side of the component
is trimmed to length.
The trimming is done by a hand operated knife that slides in a holder. the movement is about
25mm straight in and out.

I want to automate the cutting action by installing a small ball screw driven by a stepper motor
which will just move the knife in and out.

I need adjustment on the speed of the cut because some materials are hard and the blade must move slowly
which other materials are soft and the blade can move a lot faster. Speed adjustment by a pot would be great
or I can run it off mach3 or linux- but i dont think i need to go the whole hog with new computers,screens etc
so something simple would be ideal.
I am looking for a cheap and easy solution - something I can build myself.
Anyone can make suggestions and i am grateful for the help
( i dont mind buying motors and circuitry if nessessary - but would like to mention that
I do have a number of old printers and photocopy machines which i am sure could be a source
of the nessessary hardware.)
regards

fred evans



regards

fred

[tgh-mathieu]

The best would be to use a micro controller to do that.
For instance, you buy an Arduino board and it will do the job perfectly.