[pete from TN]

Hey guys,
My recently completed Lathemaster CNC mill is working well. I have made all sorts of cool stuff with it already. I have as yet made the mods to allow cnc control of the coolant. I have the CNC4PC C11g Board and it has relays on the board to control coolant or whatever floats your boat. The thing is I am NOT and electronics guy and I wanna finally wire it up so I can get rid of my power strip that I am currently using to manually turn coolant on and off. How would you think is the best way to wire this thing? Am I to assume that you wire the 110v power directly to the relays on the board and use the board and software to close the circuit or do I need to buy a relay seperately and wire it differently. I have NO idea how to do this and also have another little project that may require cnc control of a 110v motor. Any information that would help me with this would be great. The cnc4pc website says the relays on the board can take 10a 110vac current but does that mean direcly? CORNFUSED!!! peace

Pete

[jalessi]

Pete,

The relay can be connected directly to A.C. as long as the motor does not exceed 10 amps.

Jeff...

[pete from TN]

That is kinda what I figured but I guess I am gonna hafta wire up an ac plug inside the box and then use the relay like a switch. I really do not want to have an external 110vac plug on the enclosure because of the flood coolant and possible splashes. I gotta figure out a nice clean way to wire it and make it semi waterproof.... Thanks for the tip jeff....peace

[jalessi]

Pete,

You can mount a box with a cover like this on the outside of your control chassis.

http://tinyurl.com/ykbo2vx

Jeff...

[Teyber12]

you can get a relay for like $10 and if anything goes wrong the $10 relay fries and opens circuits on both sides... Just a little safety.

ill be watching this thread with interest as i also have no idea how to do this stuff ha

lets see some pics of what you have made!

cheers

[neilw20]

Warning:

ON the C11G PCB the creepage distances for the relay output terminals on the PCB are LESS than safety standards prescribe.

Use the contacts to drive a low voltage coil relay with the secondary rated for mains operation.

[pete from TN]

So which is it guys? Can I just wire it like a switch and run it for the coolant control or are the CREEP DISTANCES?? too close and it is a safetly concern? I really love this board and despite my hamfisted attempts at building this control unit it STILL works great so I have a lot of confidence in it. Would love to have the machine run flood for me tho... peace

Pete

[BobWarfield]

Ask Arturo, Pete. It's his board, and he has always been very responsive for me.

RE the waterproofing, lots of different weathproof connectors you could press into service. Shouldn't be a lot of amps associated with your application.

Cheers,

BW

[pete from TN]

No not really any amps to speak of, just a small pump in a plastic box.... Gonna hafta see what I can come up with... Nice to have flood now but I am getting tired of turning off and on the power strip. The other night I ran a rather large engraving file that had the machine running at 6krpm for almost six and a half hours. I did not run the simulation or report so I had no idea it was gonna take that long. I got tired of waiting for it so I went to bed while the machine was running!! The only thing I really worried about was the damn coolant pump. The machine ran great for many hours and the spindle is working very well. Never really gets warm even,,, That was the first time I actually left the machine alone running. It was nice I gotta say to be able to wake up and run out in the shop to find a finished part and the machine patiently waiting for my next command.... COOL!!

[Teyber12]

lol pete you are damn confident in your machine!

anytime i HAVE to leave i just wait till i get to a positive z command stop it go to "run from here" do the prep move and when i want to keep running it i just hit cycle start. its a PITA but its much safer imo.

cheers

[pete from TN]

But waking up and seeing my custom Logo all finished was real nice. I guess if you can run it while you are asleep then it is probably pretty reliable huh!! I would not normally do that but I REALLY wanted to see that emblem done. I just ordered a bunch of ER collet holders that will hopefully allow me to run a much more precise runout on the smaller cutters, especially these small engraving cutters I am gonna be trying. This last one I did a no-no and run it in my keyless drill chuck. TIghtened the hell outta it and just crossed my fingers. Again ran it for many hours without any problems. This particular chuck I got from LMS is VERY good runout for a drill chuck. I know that they are not designed for side forces but with the engraving taking a DOC of .005 there really was not any.... I cannot wait to get the new holders in here and finally setup for the tooltable in SHeetcam.

I also finally bought some loc line coolant hoses for the machine instead of my long steel articulated hose I have been using. Will be nice to see two streams instead of one....

I am gonna update my build thread with these items when I get a minute.... Peace

Pete

[Al_The_Man]

But waking up and seeing my custom Logo all finished was real nice. I guess if you can run it while you are asleep then it is probably pretty reliable huh!!

Thats known as LOM, Lights Out Manufacturing
I know at least one plant here that leaves their plasma cutters going all weekend, there is a pick-and-place loader for the sheet material.
Al.

[pete from TN]

Let the machines do the work while you watch TV!! peace

Pete