[fretman_2]

I too am a biology major... and my line of work has nothing to do with biology too. You go where there's an open door...

Hello Roger, you've achieved more in your study/eduction time alone than me in my entire life I guess..impressive list of qualifications and work.
I've only managed to finish a college degree and am a qualified teacher Biology & Geography..Never worked 1 single paid hour as such though.. At the time there where hardly jobs available and I just started sweeping floors in a factory to get some salary. Worked my way up and some 7 years later I was in Singapore, Sea/Air freight sales manager.
Got bored with logistics and moved over to one of my customers who was into electronic-waste recycling and that's what I still do, now running 2 sites myself (as part of a large MNC with HQ in Singapore), Thailand and Vietnam, with Myanmar and Laos next on the list.

Any pictures of your machine?

Cheers,
Luc

[Schuimpge]

I too am a biology major... and my line of work has nothing to do with biology too. You go where there's an open door...

That's similar to what my mom told me years ago.. 'it's the level you are capable of that shows on your papers. The rest you learn while working'..
She was a smart woman..

[RCaffin]

Hi Luc

Ah well, it's been fun.

Attachment 340136
It's a machining centre with two spindles. The rails are 40 mm ground hardened steel rods with linear bearings, which makes it a bit immune to the odd bump. DC servo motors, using industrial DC motors rated for 24/7 operation at full power. 4th axis unit not mounted in photo. ESS interface and Gecko drivers. The replacement electronics is spread out in the top box on the left for ease of servicing. The power supplies are inside the grey box underneath in an attempt to limit the spread of RFI from the spindle drive switcher. Lots of meters and LEDs and such so I can see what sort of load the machining is presenting. Air blast and pulsed misting lubrication on the right with all that air line stuff - NO flood coolant at all. Dual touch probe interface.

Cheers
Roger

EDIT: single step resolution from the encoders is 0.8 micrometres. I can see that when touch probing. But I would only claim machining and zero-setting to 0.01 mm. Any more than that would need air conditioning, which is not going to happen!

[fretman_2]

Wow!!

Hi Luc

Ah well, it's been fun.

Attachment 340136
It's a machining centre with two spindles. The rails are 40 mm ground hardened steel rods with linear bearings, which makes it a bit immune to the odd bump. DC servo motors, using industrial DC motors rated for 24/7 operation at full power. 4th axis unit not mounted in photo. ESS interface and Gecko drivers. The replacement electronics is spread out in the top box on the left for ease of servicing. The power supplies are inside the grey box underneath in an attempt to limit the spread of RFI from the spindle drive switcher. Lots of meters and LEDs and such so I can see what sort of load the machining is presenting. Air blast and pulsed misting lubrication on the right with all that air line stuff - NO flood coolant at all. Dual touch probe interface.

Cheers
Roger

[Schuimpge]

Hi Luc

Ah well, it's been fun.

Attachment 340136
It's a machining centre with two spindles. The rails are 40 mm ground hardened steel rods with linear bearings, which makes it a bit immune to the odd bump. DC servo motors, using industrial DC motors rated for 24/7 operation at full power. 4th axis unit not mounted in photo. ESS interface and Gecko drivers. The replacement electronics is spread out in the top box on the left for ease of servicing. The power supplies are inside the grey box underneath in an attempt to limit the spread of RFI from the spindle drive switcher. Lots of meters and LEDs and such so I can see what sort of load the machining is presenting. Air blast and pulsed misting lubrication on the right with all that air line stuff - NO flood coolant at all. Dual touch probe interface.

Cheers
Roger

EDIT: single step resolution from the encoders is 0.8 micrometres. I can see that when touch probing. But I would only claim machining and zero-setting to 0.01 mm. Any more than that would need air conditioning, which is not going to happen!

That's a beautiful piece of engineering Roger. Compact, well laid out. Still a long way to go for me getting close to that, but who knows..
Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Luc

[fretman_2]

I agree Luc...a long way off for me too. I bet that thing will plow through aluminum!

That's a beautiful piece of engineering Roger. Compact, well laid out. Still a long way to go for me getting close to that, but who knows..
Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Luc

[RCaffin]

I bet that thing will plow through aluminum!
It's not a router, it's a VMC.
Yes, it has machined steel, titanium, aluminium, brass, plastics and wood. Different cutters are used for the different materials.
Cheers
Roger

[Schuimpge]

Hello Roger, yep, didn't look carefully at the pictures, fixed overhead spindle, big one at that.
Nice contained machine..bit difficult for mine, but it's hardly necessary for now. Very silent.

Cheers,
Luc

[RCaffin]

Hi Luc

Yes, big spindle housing, and big bearings. Belt drive from the adjacent motor.
At the top a single 6207 2RS for the belt drive 17 mm ID, 72 mm OD
At the bottom two off Angular Contact Bearings 7208B Zero Clearance: 40 mm ID, 80 mm OD.

Cheers
Roger

[Schuimpge]

My son came over yesterday with a sketchbook/diary that had a small lock on it. Asked me if I could make a nice key-hanger for him.
Since he is crazy about anything monster and/or dinosaur, I took a logo of Godzilla and started testing how small I could go with that.
I was quite surprised and think its a pretty good result for my machine.

Ran it with a 1mm straight bit, 12,000 RPM, feed of 50mm p/minute on 5mm thick acrylic


The original file


The result. The Circle has a diameter of 40mm, the logo itself is 28mm


With a ruler across the logo.

Was quite happy with that. I do have a 0.5 mm ball-nose bit that I still want to test with it.
There's quite some detail lost because of the size of the bit used, so hopefully the 0.5mm bit gets that to an even better result.
Interesting test.

Cheers,
Luc

[fretman_2]

Wow...looks great. Fret slots are in the range of 0.021" (.5mm) or so and I plan on trying that soon.

[Schuimpge]

Tried the 0.5mm bit. What a difference. Not perfect yet, went too deep, (I need a touch-plate)..but it sure looks nice.


Before cleanup..


Done..the letters are 4.5mm high... :-)

Cheers,
Luc

[RCaffin]

Eyes - it needs eyes! (OK, one eye.)
Cheers
Roger

[Schuimpge]

Wow...looks great. Fret slots are in the range of 0.021" (.5mm) or so and I plan on trying that soon.

Thanks, yesterday's try really is a lot better. even at to much depth, (it went in about 1mm), it's quite amazing on detail.
This weekend will mostly be finishing work on yet another logo, but hope to do some other work on the router as well.

Cheers,
Luc

[Schuimpge]

Eyes - it needs eyes! (OK, one eye.)
Cheers
Roger

Oops.. yep.. details..details..lol

Your wish.. my command..

Cheers,
Luc

[Schuimpge]

Well, time for a bit of an update. Decided to finally start cleaning up the wire-mess and get a more permanent solution and replace that bread-board inside.
Had 2 'Extension Wings' ordered and they are just perfect for the job. No more soldered and taped stuff, all done with connectors and all grounds directly connected to the board individually and then 1 ground pin going out to the mains ground.


Still need to do the limit-switches. Tried to hook them up to an opto-coupler, but no luck as of yet. Wondering if mechanical switches are just not suitable for that, but can't find any confirmation on that yet. So they will be hooked up as before, but soldered properly on a board.


Did fit in a 20A Noise Filter and was able to use the original section cover to have the mains electric parts covered for safety.


Some picture before, during and after..


Before (even before limit-switches where installed...)



First try..little bit better but not happy with it.



Decided to rip out the cables, use longer ones and move the controller up one level.

The right side is still messy, which will be tackled this weekend. Limit Switch connections.
The top side with Power Supplies I'm happy with. Chassis with the Star Ground is not connected in any way to the actual power supply board ground..both connect separately to the Power Outlet ground pin... Tested that before connecting..
All grounds from switches and motors to the arduino stay on the board itself and only one ground cable from the arduino goes to this star ground.


Eventually still need to get some good connectors so that I can disconnect the cables from the casing. Job for another time.


Cheers,
Luc

[Schuimpge]

Finished the electronics for now. Happy with it, works and looks very nicely organized.
First job was to get the limit-switches done. Once again tested some configurations and eventually had to settle again on what I had from the beginning.
Configuration is Limit Switches in Normally Closed mode (series connected).
1 pin goes to ground and 1 pin to signal.
Signal line is connected to 5v on the Arduino with a 1k resistor
Signal line and ground connected with a 0.47uF Capacitor.
Picture below the first check without soldering on a matrix board and without the two cables for the limit-switch. (for 1 switch only)



Then started soldering all 3 switch lines resulting in a very compact board...



Marked all the wires, cut the board to size and then put a heat-shrink tube around it to shield it.



Connected to the controller and everything cleaned up.
I really like the wing-extensions. No more soldering multiple wires together because there's only one pin available. For each pin on the Arduino there's a signal, ground and 5v line available. Helps to really organize things very neatly.

Put some Hook'nLoop under the controller casing as well, so that's now fixed properly also.

Very happy with it. Almost a shame to put the cover back on..

Cheers,
Luc

[BlueElephantCNC]

Hi,this is Jack from Jinan Blue Elephant CNC Machinery, this video link you maybe interested in.


Cutting Aluminum 2.2 mm

Jinan Blue Elephant CNC Machinery Co.,Ltd
Contact:Jack
Email:[email protected]
Whatsapp/mobile/Wechat:0086-15064026772
Skype:elephantcnc
QQ:3001738567
Web:Jinan Blue Elephant CNC Machinery Co.,Ltd.

[motopreserve]

This was a great read. Appreciate all the details - and a well done DIY machine. I'm about to begin my second CNC router build (CAD designing stage now) and found some great inspiration here.

Now if only I could find the free aluminum extrusion....

Cheers.

Scott

[Schuimpge]

This was a great read. Appreciate all the details - and a well done DIY machine. I'm about to begin my second CNC router build (CAD designing stage now) and found some great inspiration here.

Now if only I could find the free aluminum extrusion....

Cheers.

Scott

Thanks Scott, glad you enjoyed it. Sure I enjoyed building it and now using it.

Nothing much happening right now though, busy on the woodworking side of things, building some furniture.

Cheers,
Luc