[Bigtoy302]

bigtoy - what's with the shallow-depth of green liquid in the plasma table? I'm used to seeing a water trap which is quite a few feet deep; yours looks to be a few inches...

It does not need to be any deeper then a few inches. All it does is catch the dust and smoke from the plasma. Mine is about 2.5" deep. I think any deeper then that is just a waste of space and not to mention all the extra weight.

[multiplex]

what controller card is that you are using?

[Bigtoy302]

what controller card is that you are using?

Dynomotion, KFLOP, SNAPAMP, and KANALOG.

[Bigtoy302]

I got a little bit more done this weekend. I mounted the the linear scale on the ram, wired the motors, valve and started tuning the motors and valve. I still need to mount the home and limit switches. I got everything tuned pretty good. I can move the ram up and down several times and have it repeat within .0005. It is not real fast but it will get the job done. I even bent a piece of scrap I had laying around. I took a short video of the ram doing some 1" moves. I will post it up shortly. Hopefully next weekend I can totally finish this thing up up a bend a bunch of stuff. I will take a good video of the machine when I get it all running.

I still need to tidy up all the wire once everything is final.




I know I said i was going to use a Newall SPB-TS encoder but I was running out of cash and this accu-rite was half the price. They are both 5 micron scales.

[Bigtoy302]

Crappy Iphone video.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WDkmankePU"]YouTube- Mach3 cnc press brake[/ame]

[Bigtoy302]

I got a little bit more done on it tonight. I finished wiring the limit and home switches. Here is a quick video of the back gauge in action.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5R7O8GPSSg"]YouTube- Mach3 dynomotion Cnc press brake[/ame]

[Bigtoy302]

Today I bent up a tray for the computer to sit on and made a articulating arm for it to mount to. I still need to figured out how to get the backgauge to home in the dynomotion software. Everything is written in C+ and I don't know jack about it.

[coop2005]

good job this machine is great, gotta ask.. what is the source of that noise in the linear drives on the back gauge? looks from the picture like you have some hiwin rails (smooth as silk) it sounds like some old sliding door opening and closing? is it just the poor audio quality or is there something else at work here.

keep the videos coming i am digging this machine

[Bigtoy302]

good job this machine is great, gotta ask.. what is the source of that noise in the linear drives on the back gauge? looks from the picture like you have some hiwin rails (smooth as silk) it sounds like some old sliding door opening and closing? is it just the poor audio quality or is there something else at work here.

keep the videos coming i am digging this machine

That is noise from the ball screws. They are just rolled Rockfords. You have never heard a big old machining center rapid? Sound about the same.

[multiplex]

any updates or new videos?

[Bigtoy302]

Finally got some more time to mess with it. I bent up a bunch of test pieces getting everything dialed in. I bought Solidworks 2010 this week so I am trying to get the K-factor dialed in on the software. Here is a better video of the brake and a test part.


[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38hfwvIbnjo"]YouTube- Homebuilt CNC press brake Mach3[/nomedia]

[Pandinus]

That is one sweet piece of work.

[chich2]

Bigtoy,
Very nice machine you have built there. Pretty impressive machinery in your shop too. I have a question about the linear rails. How suited are the linear rails to the loads imposed onto them in this configuration?

Thanks
Chich

[BobWarfield]

Bigtoy, this has been a fantastic project to watch coming together. I sure would appreciate any more detail you can give us on how you set up Mach to control this beast!

Best,

BW

[Bigtoy302]

Bigtoy, this has been a fantastic project to watch coming together. I sure would appreciate any more detail you can give us on how you set up Mach to control this beast!

Best,

BW

It is very simple. I am using mach for just point to point. The backgauge is X and Y and the ram is Z. I am using simple g code to run it. No actual angles calculated in mach. I just tell the Z to go -.805 for a simple 90 degree bend on 1/4" hr. 3/16" hr is -.615 for a 90. I bent a bunch of test strips at .050 increments and I still have to measure the angle them I will make a bend chart in excel to figure out the relation of z travel to bend angle.

[metalworkz]

Hello Bigtoy,
I have to agree with the rest; this is an awesome build and something we may not see many of here on the zone. Being a precision sheetmetal worker myself I can relate to the great press brake you have built yourself. Thanks for doing the build thread with information and pictures. I thought the video was a great addition also and gives a person a feeling of being right there at the machine.

Regards,

[Kipper]

Bigtoy, this has been a fantastic project to watch coming together. I sure would appreciate any more detail you can give us on how you set up Mach to control this beast!

Best,

BW

Couldn't agree more! Fantastic stuff :beer:

[rot]

Hello,

very impressive press that you´ve build. Very nice project. My own homemade Shop press is much smaller. Can you show some more pictures of the tools you are using?

Regards Rene

PS My homemade shoppress

[BobWarfield]

Rene, your picture didn't materialize.

Best,

BW

[Bigtoy302]

So today I bent up my first project. This is the reason I built the brake. I have other products planned but these will be them main thing that I will be building. Even though this thing has a lot of steel bending 2ft of 1/4" still flexes the machine several thousandths. So I have to add more angle to the longer bends then the shorter ones. Not a huge problem but I still have bend some longer parts to really see.