[TitaniumCannons]

What happened to my post fo help it was their last night and now its gone i had contacted the Admin thru email but no go this is making me and driving me (nuts) I had some good leads if it was deleated for some reason why hadn't the admin contacted me at least i have the emails for the leads but this is BS (flame2) good luck you all i had thought this was a good forum for info i guess I'll stick with PM Forum it makes no sence :devious:

[Al_The_Man]

What did you post and what forum?
A post is not deleted unless it contravenes forum rules, or it is moved to an appropriate forum.
Al.

[escott76]

What did you post and what forum?
A post is not deleted unless it contravenes forum rules, or it is moved to an appropriate forum.
Al.

It was this forum, and he posted about a light machines bench top sized mill that he had acquired. IIRC he had the mill and control electronics and was trying to find a less expensive/easier way than using the manufacturers recommended $$$ special PC card. Nothing was out of the ordinary or bad with the post or any of the responses.

[TitaniumCannons]

What did you post and what forum?
A post is not deleted unless it contravenes forum rules, or it is moved to an appropriate forum.
Al.

Below is the email from a reply for help on the machine. I had post pictures of some of my jobs I'm not advertising. The reason why i had post here is because i need help on getting the bench top mill going not to make sales and if someone has the parts i need I'll be glad to buy them or trade for them i don't want to get banned and if my post was delated why i was only asking for some help thanks AUstin

Dear TitaniumCannons, kweierbach has just replied to a thread you have subscribed to entitled - Need Help on a Spectra Lite CNC Mill by light machines - in the Benchtop Machines forum of CNCzone.com-The Ultimate Machinist Community. This thread is located at:http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showth...8&goto=newpost Here is the message that has just been posted:*************** ---Quote (Originally by ibuildstuff4u)---You already have three stepper drives and a power supply inside that black box so I don't see why you need to buy new ones. All you really need to do is rewire the box to use the parallel port from your computer. You may just need a simple breakout board which can be picked up for as little as $65.00. If you can post a picture of the inside of the box. I have a D&M milling machine which is very similar to yours. It uses a Sherline mill too. When I got it I had the same problem and needed a special card to run and buying one was very expensive and also limited me to using the old outdated D&M software. I was able to rewire the machine for very little money and get it working with Mach 3 with just some basic wiring skils. I'm sure the same can be done to yours if your interested. Dale P.---End Quote---DaleI wish somebody could find a way to do this. I'm not sure what all LMC's card does. I have another mill and lathe that I would like to get working. If all I need is a breakout board that would save me alot of money that I could put to buying tooling. Kevin*************** There may also be other replies, but you will not receive any more notifications until you visit the forum again. All the best,CNCzone.com-The Ultimate Machinist Community

[Al_The_Man]

Usually we will leave a reason for deleting, I will post it in the Mod forum and see if anyone had issues?
Al.

[jalessi]

TitaniumCannons,

The offer still stands, if you need help with your controller give me a shout.

Jeff...

[TitaniumCannons]

TitaniumCannons,

The offer still stands, if you need help with your controller give me a shout.

Jeff...

Hello Jeff
When i get the machine i'll post some pictures of the inside the control box and we'll see what is needed and thanks for the help. I wish i could get a new one complete with computer buy Miltary disability doesn't pay much thats why i'm checking with you guys here on the best and cheapest way to get this running. Thanks again jeff i'll keep in touch

[TitaniumCannons]

It was this forum, and he posted about a light machines bench top sized mill that he had acquired. IIRC he had the mill and control electronics and was trying to find a less expensive/easier way than using the manufacturers recommended $$$ special PC card. Nothing was out of the ordinary or bad with the post or any of the responses.

Thanks for the help escott76
Thats what i was trying to do was to get this Mill going and nothing else wish i could get a new machine but military disability limits that i had only paid a few hundred for the machine pluss shipping and you guys here know whats going on with these machines better than i do. And i don't even know if this works or not thats why i don't want to invest a lot into it. In any case if it doesn't run i may be able to use the table as a cross slide on my hardinge DV59 lathe and try to get a controler to convert it to 2 axis CNC for the barrels i make thanks again Austin

[Rekd]

What happened to my post fo help it was their last night and now its gone i had contacted the Admin thru email but no go this is making me and driving me (nuts) I had some good leads if it was deleated for some reason why hadn't the admin contacted me at least i have the emails for the leads but this is BS (flame2) good luck you all i had thought this was a good forum for info i guess I'll stick with PM Forum it makes no sence :devious:

I'm sorry your thread was deleted. I think it was an accident, (or malicious?). We are looking into it so please be patient.

We'll post more (or PM you) when we know more. Again, I understand your frustration and I'm sorry.

[ger21]

It looks like someone posted some porn in the thread (which was reported), and the entire thread must have accidentally gotten deleted in an attempt to remove the porn. I never saw the thread, as it was already gone when I got the notice of the porn. Sorry.

[TitaniumCannons]

It looks like someone posted some porn in the thread (which was reported), and the entire thread must have accidentally gotten deleted in an attempt to remove the porn. I never saw the thread, as it was already gone when I got the notice of the porn. Sorry.

Thats explans it sorry about being upset but i had some good leads from some of the members here but i also had them in the email replys.The person that put the porn in could of been a ebay member that was bidding on this CNC mill and i had won i know it sound weird and such but i had gotton some nasty emails after i won the mill from a gmail account. It was a steal at $255 plus maybe he was him. Being sore some people are like that who Knows Thanks for looking in to it to bad theirs not a way to prevent that seems like the moderators should be able to track down the person that had posted that thread tho thanks Austin:wave:

[jalessi]

Austin,

If you want to email the pictures of your controller I would be happy to give you some retrofit direction.

If the drives take step and direction commands it will be a simple wiring job.

You may need to purchase a breakout board in order to isolate the parallel port from the stepper drives. Keling has a inexpensive breakout board is about $25.00

Jeff...

[ibuildstuff4u]

I posted a picture last night, hope I didn't post some porn by accident!

My D&M machine was the same way and needed an expensive controller to run so I installed a breakout board and went with Mach software. It was a lot easier than I first thought and was a great learning experience. Now I feel very comfortable about building my own machine in the future. Your Spectra Light machine is very similar to mine and uses a Sherline Milling Machine too. I paid $500 for mine and stuck about $200 more into it. $255 was a great deal for what you got! You should be able to get it up and running for very little.

Dale P.

[TitaniumCannons]

I posted a picture last night, hope I didn't post some porn by accident!

My D&M machine was the same way and needed an expensive controller to run so I installed a breakout board and went with Mach software. It was a lot easier than I first thought and was a great learning experience. Now I feel very comfortable about building my own machine in the future. Your Spectra Light machine is very similar to mine and uses a Sherline Milling Machine too. I paid $500 for mine and stuck about $200 more into it. $255 was a great deal for what you got! You should be able to get it up and running for very little.

Dale P.

Thats a nice looking set up yo have there I'll be useing mine for my wood bases and small brass & tiyanium parts on the carriages for the scale cannon thats if it handles the titanium. Is that a breadboard for the table with 1/4 20 hole or a vacuum table its a nice looking unit did you upgrade the servo's ?. Hopefully mine works it looks nice and it was a trainer in a school. In any case it should be worth it Thanks Again for the post and happy machining Austin

[TitaniumCannons]

Austin,

If you want to email the pictures of your controller I would be happy to give you some retrofit direction.

If the drives take step and direction commands it will be a simple wiring job.

You may need to purchase a breakout board in order to isolate the parallel port from the stepper drives. Keling has a inexpensive breakout board is about $25.00

Jeff...

Hi Jeff thanks for the heads up. I should have the unit by the end of next week its coming from washington so it will take a while I'll take a picture of the inside of the box and hopefully it will be a easy fix he had told me also they are some extra parts that he found hope its the cards and such at least the cables are their. I'll email the pics when it arrives and thanks again for all the help I'll send you a mini mortar when i get more made for all your help Thanks Again Austin

[vlmarshall]

My D&M machine was the same way and needed an expensive controller to run so I installed a breakout board and went with Mach software... Your Spectra Light machine is very similar to mine and uses a Sherline Milling Machine too. I paid $500 for mine and stuck about $200 more into it.

Nice D&M. Looks like you've added a 4th-axis, too... I see extra plugs in the enclosure.

I think I paid about the same for mine about 5 years ago, swapped out the electronics for a 4-axis Xylotex card and 269in/oz steppers, and ran it on EMC2.

I'm really happy with the mill, but I'll probably upgrade to a Gecko G540 in the future, especially since they don't support my older card anymore. I recently put a Gecko on my parents' router, and it's easy to see how much more advanced it is over a single card like the Xylotex.

[ibuildstuff4u]

I wanted to keep the retrofit as cheap as possible so I re-used as much as I could. The stepper drives worked so there was no need to replace them. A friend of mine has a D&M lathe and scrapped all of the electronics and gave them to me so I was able to add the fourth axis. I haven't used it yet, but it's there if I need it. I also added a four in one solid state relay to turn on the spindle motor, future coolant pump, an outlet on the side for a shop vac or light, and the fourth output works the E-stop and charge pump functions. Some of the extra plugs in the back panel are for home and limit switches. I planned to add some the the mill, but haven't had the time to make mounts. In the end I'm glad I bought the mill and am learning a ton about CNC. I will probably replace the machine with something larger in the future though.

As for the mill table, it's an aluminum plate full of 1/4" holes to mount stuff too. I used the D&M machine to drill the holes and bought it to school to tap the holes with a taping machine and machined it flat with a large mill and cutter. It's much easier to mount stuff than the two small T slots that are on the mill. I made up a little clamp set to go with it and it works great.

You can buy tooling plates like this for around $65.00 and I see them for sale on E-bay all the time.

Dale P.

[ibuildstuff4u]

Here is the inside of the machine.

Dale P.

[vlmarshall]

Nice. My Z stepper controller was burned out, which started my replacement spree.

I kept the Puma motor speed controller for several years, until I tried to wire CNC4PC's spindle speed controller, missed the bit about using an ISOLATED power supply, and toasted both. Now that's been replaced too, with the ever-popular KBIC. Eventually I'll finish the CNC spindle speed control, but for now I'm back to the relay card and a speed control pot.

I also wanted more clamping area, so I made a spacer plate and larger t-slotted table. Now I've lost an inch of Z travel, but I'll probably extend it with Sherline's longer Z column.

[kweierbach]

TitaniumCannons did you get the mill and is it running ?


Kevin