[mr_westie]

Not sure if this is in the right place as there are a 'few' area to post.

A continuation of this thread so the other one does not get too off topic
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=72555

After sv1eps report of damaged I inspected mine.

- -

No damage but could have been better packed.
The spindle motor in it's own bag so I don't have to fish out foam beads.

Bits from thinktink.com
Won't be ably to go much further till the weekend.

[jalessi]

mr_westie,

Who did you buy the machine from?

Please post a link.

Jeff...

[mr_westie]

Sorry, my bad. Was mentioned in the other thread.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI....m=110389535528
http://stores.ebay.com/verycnc

us$200 shipping to NZL.
Gotta love China Govt subsidised shipping

All up us$780 Landed.
Didn't get stung by customs so I was very happy.

[jalessi]

mr_westie,

Is it all aluminum construction including the table?

What is included?

More pictures would be awesome too.

Welcome to the Zone,

Jeff...

[htrantx]

What is included?

Jeff...

I think they have two models. This one they asked for $780. It seems to be in all alum.

http://cgi.ebay.com/CNC-router-engra...3%3A1|294%3A30

ht

[Valisk]

Any progress mr_w?

If you and Theo have positive comments then I'll be buying...

[Dougal]

I'm watching with interest. Good to see some more kiwis here.

[mr_westie]

God has it been that long?
Finally made space and some time to get this thing going.
It 0730 on a Sunday, see how far I can get today.

Have unpacket, connected and powered on.
Used the controls on the box to test movement.
Looks all good.
Just need to do the ground mod to the board.

Not it's final resting place, just testing location for now.
-

Info compiled by rayellam
http://www.island-instruments.com/stuff/TonsonCNC/

[mr_westie]

Didn't get very far as I suspect the Parallel port on the laptop may be bad.

Will have to grab something tomorrow.

[mr_westie]

The laptop printer port tested ok with a printer but I set up on a desktop just in case.

Got furthur.
The diagnostic screen show a state change when I push the emergency stop button.
I loaded up a demo file and hit run.
It move the machine. IT's ALIVE.

Now to setup the rest of the settings.
This learning curve looks pretty steep.

Might look at EMC later.

Will keep you posted.

[mr_westie]

It's ALIVE

Easy once you know how.

From eagle to paper.


Please excuse the camers phone's quality.

Update:
The laptop now works, user error, I didn't know how to drive Mach3 at the time.

[mr_westie]

There is room for improvement

-Optimize the g code conversion.
-Flatten the work area better.

[mr_westie]

I am happy

About the smallest component I can hand solder.



Milled with a 60deg bit from T&T
http://www.precisebits.com/products/...oreengrave.asp

[Valisk]

Thanks very much for posting this info!

I take it that you agree with Ray - you would reccommend the Tonsen?

[mr_westie]

Definitely.

There is a small issue I have yet to deal with, spindle control.
At the moment I have to manually turn it on and off.
Probably something simple.

The limit of how small you can go will be the tools and materials you use.
The machine can work down to 4mil , 0.1mm, 0.004" easily as seen in my pics.

I am thinking of getting the 0.1mm router bits from T&T so board flatness is not so critical.
At that size they would feel pretty fragile so I had better get the feed rate right.
http://www.precisebits.com/products/...sebit-stub.asp


With all the info I have now I could have gotten it to this stage in 1 hour from unpacking it

[Dougal]

What are your impressions of the spindle and motor?
Would it make a worth addition to an X2 mill as a high-speed spindle?

Good to see some more kiwis here.

[mr_westie]

Hi Dougal, the set feels like a quality product

Definitly value for money.

[cpurious]

First, thanks for all the info everyone has posted, it makes it way easier for the rest of us.

I'm looking into getting a CNC to cut PCB's with, and so far the Tonsen has drawn my interest the most. I like the accuracy I'm seeing in the pictures and the price. I have a few questions:

How noisy is the drill motor? Is it still nosy and annoying in the next room? (I assume you got the 220V, some of the questions in the eBay auction say there is a 110V available, maybe slower and quieter?)

Why does the machines table in the pictures for the eBay auction only have 4 sections while mr_westie's pictures have many sections? The photos in rayellam hosted data show both styles. I guess I should ask the seller which he currently has.


If you get a chance, I wouldn't mind seeing more pictures of circuits with small SMD parts. Maybe a 603 pad? What you put up already is awesome though. Thanks!

[mr_westie]

Hi cpurious,
It's noisy but once you close the door it is fine.
High frequencies don't penetrate well.



The speed is adjustable.

Voltage shouldn't make a difference to top speed, motor is just wound for that voltage.

I have a 100w 35k rpm Ryobi multi tool I might try to use.
We don't really need 200w for PCBs and it's quieter.


Table, can't help there sorry.


I had some space on my current board so put in some test markers.
The 3 sets of pads under the C, R0402 - R0603 - R0805 in eagle.
My lower profile holders.
The novelty of the dust extractor will wear off soon after a few more boards.



As I said before, the limit of how small you can go will be the tools and materials you use.

Some more fine tuning in PCB-GCODE required.
The lower trace width limit is probably the thickness of the copper on the board.

I milled the left one first.
On the right one I fine tuned the height to just enough.
You can see the table is not completely flat


It's home on the garage

[Valisk]

Thanks for the updates! I think I'll be buying the Tonsen.

A quick question - what setup information is supplied with the machine?