[kanton]

yantra3d,

This looks like an excellent piece of work but I have two questions:

1. Are the chips on the tray under the machine there from before the enclosure was installed?

2. Is the enclosure waterproof and do you plan to add a drain and other equipment to recycle the coolant?

Thanks.

[yantra3d]

Thank you guys for all the kinds remarks, etc... I'm happy to share my build with everyone after learning so much from other people's experience and wisdom here at the zone. After hogging up the bandwidth off the server reading other people's posts for so long I now get to hog even more with posting some big fat images. It's actually a good feeling to be able to have something to contribute to the community for a change.

Hey Kanton, those chips are from the 9 holes that I drilled and counter-bored for the main mounting screws I mentioned in the last post. I will clean the table up and then post a pic after machining my next part so we can see how well it actually works.

The tray is sealed around the front and side perimeter where it attaches to the tooling plate with a rubber gasket I made up. The front door and rear shield have a rubber seal at the base of them as well. The amount of coolant that accumulates from the "fogbuster" sprayer is very minimal. So minimal that you only occasional have to wipe up a small pool, but even that is very rare. Usually there is just a spot of standing coolant on the vise after an operation so there is never enough to worry about circulating.

I really didn't like the idea of flood coolant. It seems like an absolute nightmare to expose your precious ballscrews, ways, motors, cables, etc... to a constant torrent of liquid coolant. I'm real happy that I went with the fogbuster... it works really well imo. The air pressure alone is enough to move the chips out of the way and the coolant just adds a little lubricant and helps to keep the cutter and workpeice from getting warm.

I'm going to attempt to make another fogbuster-type head though since I can't keep my hands off the one. I keep wanting to constantly adjust it for a better position. I even considered making an LED light ring that will attach to the spindle and allow coolant to pass through it for a tri-head configuration where a single knob could adjust the flow for all three heads. This would also help to cool the lower spindle bearings since I'm now getting them too hot at 4-5k rpm. It would also have a spindle lock built in that would replace the inferior stock one on the x3. That spindle lock will throw the whole spindle out of alignment if tightened too hard! This ring idea would have 3 tension screws - or two tension screws and a main locking screw in the front so you could actually align the spindle with them. I can post some renderings of what I'm talking about...

Thanks again guys!

[oxford]

I enjoyed the build thread.

A very impressive machine. The pictures were informative.

I was impressed enough to order myself a kflop+kanalog today.

I hope my results will be nearly as good as yours.

[yantra3d]

Hey, right on Oxford! You will probably know more than me from the start but if you think I can help you with anything then just let me know.

Also, this build ain't over yet guys! I still have a lot of work to do. I'll be posting more mods very soon. Right now I am tuning my new servos (Aerotech Dc1000's on the x and y, and the larger nema34 torquemaster on the z) and once I'm back up and running then I will be moving forward with more mods.

Some of the projects I have lined up are the power drawbar, a tool rack for the tts (that may possibly include a dual carousel design), a servo controlled 4th axis/spindle indexer (that will be capable of threading), and possibly a spindle bearing cooling rig. Plus I'll be starting on the pc touchscreen console very soon.

I'll be selling the 2 matched keling servos complete with the encoders, 3:1 planetary gearheads, and motor mounts in the very near future so if anyone is interested let me know. The gearheads by themselves go for about $450 ea and were new when I bought them so it will definitely be a bargain deal for someone.

[ronncat]

Your build is incredible!! Thank you for all the photos and how to's. I am just finishing my tooling plate on my Promica build and see the need for an effective chip containment system. I hope you don't mind if I outright copy your design. Is there anything you might have done differently on the chip tray? I considered bending acrylic for mine, but I think sheet metal will be more durable in the long run.
Thanks again!:banana:

[yantra3d]

Hey Ronncat, thanks for the props and glad to hear that you are still moving forward on your Promica build. I was hoping you'd be back with some updates.

You are welcome to use the tray design (so long as you don't decide to start selling them w/o cutting me in on the design fee. lol) If I were to make another then I would probably make it taller. I didn't want it too tall cause I wanted to be able to peer over into it without much effort but the fact is that the front door opening is plenty large for that not to be a problem.

As it is now I am capturing about 85% or better of the larger chips 100% of the time and that makes a huge difference! If you look at this pic below you can see how it's working so far:



The chips that are directly in front of the door are from me opening and shutting the door between tool changes, etc..., so those don't really count. The 15% or less of the chips that are flying overboard are ones that are really flying up pretty high! They typically clear the table and end up on the floor so that is why I would possibly make it taller if I redid it.

I've been making some interesting jigs and tools using the mill lately that I could post up here if people are interested in having a look. The mill is working well so far. I really want to move up to the power drawbar cause these sloppy tool changes are getting old.

I replaced all the motors and am now using some very nice servos that are really amazing. They are way too much for this little mill though. However, I like having the power if not for any other reason than knowing that lack of power is definitely not the issue when something does come up. I also switched over to differential encoders for all axis which produces a very clean signal. They have a higher cpr rating than the ep4's I had on the keling since I am mounting these directly to the screws instead of using the planetary gearheads I had for the kelings. In fact I'm going to post those for sale here in a short while as a complete matched set including motor, encoder, gearhead, and mounts... if anyone is interested in some servos.

I may also post some video soon when I get some time so you guys can see how its performing....

[ronncat]

Thanks Yantra!
Yesterday, I mounted up my tooling plate. I used 1" thick aluminum. Doweled the underside in two places and then bolted the plate directly to holes drilled into the mill bed. Today, I started to drill and tap holes for dowels and 1/4X20 bolts. Drilled north of 200 holes so far not including the oops hole. Holes are 1" on center for each of the dowel and tapped holes. Figure I'm about half way done. I thought that tapping was going to be a bear since the holes were blind...thank goodness for power tapping!!! Only took about an hour to tap the first 112 holes. The wizard in Mach made laying out the holes pretty easy.
Can hardly wait to make a chip tray. You should have seen the mess from drilling all those holes. Picked up a piece of 5052 aluminum sheet in .125". Was considering using stainless until I picked (or tried to pick up) the sheet. Little too heavy for my liking. I may take your advice and make the sides a little higher. I also considered making the bottom, front and back one piece and just bend it. I have a friend with a big time computerized brake and I might ask him for help. Otherwise, I'll use your technique. Thanks again, I'll keep you posted.

[ronncat]

Yantra,
You said you would make your enclosure a bit higher. I'm thinking perhaps 2 inches or so. It seems that the majority of wayward chips must be shooting over the backside acrylic wall. I know this must be shorter to accomodate the Z axis travel. Don't want the head crashing into a breaking your acrylic window. Have you experienced any problems however with Y travel. If you move the table to max Y, the cutter head is behind the rear of the table. I assume you know this is going to happen in your simulation, so you simply remove the rear acrylic prior to milling??? I am considering stretching a tall Lycra or other material on the backside opening. I can then make it stretch to the top of the enclosure. If the head crashes into it, it will simply move our of the way. Any thoughts on this?

Also was thinking about my design for the chip tray. Since I am using .125 aluminum, I think I could minimize the necessary bends and machining (notably the side pieces) by simply joinig pieces with angle aluminum at the corners, and substituting a "c" shape extrusion for the front piece. I likely don't have the skills or the time to build something as beautiful as you have. Plus, I'm wasting all my free time drilling holes in the dang tooling plate

Anyhow, off to drill more holes...thanks.

[veteq]

Hey Yantra,

you made some nice progress, really like the mess of chips...

Do you know if the inputs for step and direction are optical isolated on the kflop, cant find anything about it on the website. I thought Tom said it to me once??

Kind regards,

Roy B.

[1hand]

Sweet enclosure! Very thought out.

Matt

[cjdavis618]

Yantra, you said you replaced your spindle motor with a AC servo.

Would you mind posting up what model you used and also the driver that you run it with?

Great build by the way, I wish mine looked that good.

[oxford]

Hi Yantra3D

I was looking at your electrical enclosure to get an idea for layout.

What does the grey rectangular tubing do that you have between components. Does it reduce noise, just help keep wiring neat, or just look cool?

Thanks.

[Al_The_Man]

Not wishing to put words in his mouth, but that is wiring trough, One common manuf is Panduit who call theirs PanDuct.
Makes for very tidy looking enclosure wiring.
http://www.panduit.com/stellent/grou...log/068548.pdf
Al.

[yantra3d]

Hey, thanks Al.

Oxford, Al is of course right (as always). And that is the Panduit brand of ducting that he mentioned. I got it from Mouser. If you need a part number I can post that for you. I'll try to post a pic so you can see the difference in having the conduit vs free-hanging wiring... the difference is HUGE. Once you start wiring you'll quickly notice how freakin' messy it gets.

I'm going to answer all these questions that I've missed by being offline for so long.... very sorry to leave you all hanging like that! I started making some good progress on some jigs that I'm building for a prj but had to put my entire shop into storage after the house I was leasing had sold. I moved into a temp place since and am still looking for a more permanent spot so I can set my shop back up and get back to work. Hoping to be back up by this time next month.

So, to answer your questions;


cjdavis: here are the specs on the spindle motor and controller I'm using:

spindle motor: Kollmorgen Goldline XT (MT308TB1-E1F4) brushless servo. 1.81 HP - 3000 rpm @ 225 oz/in.
spindle controller: ServoStar CD (CE06250) w/ motion link controller software.
spindle encoder: Class F LPR incremental w/ 2048 ppr

Here's a pic of how I purchased the rig off ebay - all for under $300:





This unit is amazing. The software is amazing and easy to use. I'm not familiar enough with high-end servo systems but I would bet that it's one of the best available... at least for it's time.

The great thing about this is that the drive will run directly off of step/dir signals from any cnc controller. It also has a differential encoder output on the drive that I've connected into the kflop/snapamp controller that allows for closed-loop configuration which I'll be using for rigid-tapping.

If you have trouble finding any info on these just let me know and I can post that here for you. The manuals are way dense and packed with everything you'd ever want to know about them.

veteq: Yes, the kflop controller has 8 opto-isolated inputs and 8 opto-isolated outputs. (you probably figured that out by now though.)

ronncat: Again, probably too late but.... the back plate (lexan) could have been even taller without it crashing into the head at -Z travel so that's not an issue. Y travel is fine too... the cutter/spindle only gets to within 2+ inches of back shield. It's not a problem. But, depending on the placement of your tooling plate it possibly could be.

With my tooling plate and the Glacern 4" vise, I can run a 3/4" endmill outside the vise jaws when they are mounted in the max position. So, when I mount the jaws on the outsides of the vice for max holding capacity I still have room to cut the back edge of the mounted stock with a 3/4" endmill.

How's your chip tray going by the way? Did you get a chance to make it, or use it yet?

matt (1hand): Thanks a lot! I got my inspiration mainly from the enclosure gallery at Bob's site cnccookbook.com. If you haven't been there you should definitely check it out. A great site for cnc resources.

Sorry for taking so long to reply to all your questions... I'll try to check back more frequently and will start posting more once I get my shop back up and running. I still plan on doing some more mods to the mill so I should have some more posts coming in the future.

[ronncat]

Hi Yantra,
Glad to hear you are ready to get going again! It's been nice to have someone pioneering the way for us. Anyhow, my Promica build is coming along. Finshed the tooling plate, built an enclosure, gutted out all the electronics and converted to a 1 hp motor and VFD. Am currently building a power drawbar. Have finished the mechanism and just need to complete the valve. It works slick. Have posted a few pics of my progress on my build thread. Will post more pics when the drawbar is complete!
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[veteq]

Ebay is amazing, really addictive.....

[CROSSHATCH]

What a deal!


-Jason

[veteq]

Hey Yantra,

got another question about the Kflop for you.......lol

Does it has a look-ahead-feed build in the controller,
maybe you know it from the documentation or something,
really would like to know!!!

Kind regards,

Roy

[yantra3d]

Hey Roy, I'm not sure I understand your question; are you referring to feedfoward? If so then the kflop does support acceleration and velocity feedfoward. Hope that helps!

[veteq]

What i mean is....

If you put a long G-code file in it, whit a lot small 3D moves.
Does the controller read further in the G-code file, so there is no waiting between g-code lines.
Some systems just excecute the lines, some think in advance...

What did you meant by feedforward and acc. and velocity??