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Re: Bridgeport Manual to CNC conversion...
Ok, sorted it i think :chuncky:
Couldn't rest without a fix so a couple of hours fiddling and a few thin shims later we have smooth motion from top to bottom, its pretty easy to reverse-drive it by moving the quill lever :yahoo:
The bracket that holds the nut was slightly twisted and the nut hole was too tight, fixing both of those cured the problem.
Now i need to fix up some limit switches and get the motor hooked up.
Attachment 18920
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Re: Bridgeport Manual to CNC conversion...
Got the switches fitted and have finally achieved 3-axis motion :)
Attachment 18924
A short video showing basic path with two tool-changes...
https://youtu.be/mJUxtS997MQ
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Re: Bridgeport Manual to CNC conversion...
Scary stuff - she has cut her first steel :stung:
Spent the morning putting stuff back - trammed the head, fitted the vise and trammed that in, fitted a floating Z touch-plate and modified the touch-off macro so it did what i wanted.
Threw a small lump of 20mm scrap in, a duff 1/2" four-flute cutter and programmed a facing cut in Aspire of 0.5mm, seemed way slower than i would have moved if doing it manually - may not be a bad thing. It gave me a speed of 140mm/min at 650rpm
Picture below - looks worse than it is, pretty good finish as it goes considering the state of the tool etc. and dry cutting plus unknown grade of steel.
Attachment 18928
Next I tried spot-drilling four places and followed up with through-drilling with a 6mm drill, all went perfectly.
I really need to sort the speed control out though - it tells me when to put it in back-gear or high/low speed so the VFD can give me the final speed BUT it only does this when it gets the S command from the code - it shows the message on screen but the carries on cutting at the wrong speed. What i need is for it to stop the spindle and show the message, wait for me to set the right conditions and the restart the spindle and get to work.
Re: Bridgeport Manual to CNC conversion...
All looks fine now. So whats next? Mist cooling, right?
Re: Bridgeport Manual to CNC conversion...
Ha, I already have that built, it's fitted on the mini-mill.
The next step is to weld up a suitable control cabinet, this is needing a big cab - about 850 tall x 700 wide and 270 deep, commercial ones are +£250 in that size so will plasma cut and weld up from 3mm sheet steel parts i think.
Then i have to strip the rats-nest down and start the final build.
I've been running various cutters through HSMadvisor and it seems i've been pushing them quite hard when doing it manually - all the feeds seem very relaxed ;) I tended to run the HSS so the chips were straw coloured and the carbide insert ones just flat out and hard - dark blue chips that melted your shirt ;)
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Re: Bridgeport Manual to CNC conversion...
Got the control cabinet built today, absolute monster and a two-person lift :)
Attachment 18967
Fitted the mounting bars too.
Attachment 18966
Next job is to strip the test setup down and start final fitting.
Re: Bridgeport Manual to CNC conversion...
Quote:
Got the control cabinet built today, absolute monster and a two-person lift :)
Well it will be a three person lift when you fill it:joker:
Re: Bridgeport Manual to CNC conversion...
your'e not wrong there, i have all the guts temporarily mounted on a pallet top and i can just about lift it all, not quite sure how i'll lift the steel panel into the cabinet yet;)
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Re: Bridgeport Manual to CNC conversion...
Back to my dual-spindle attachment, yes its been done before, found two people that have done a great job and turned out some amazing stuff on them.
I was looking at a single thick clamp ,made from maybe 25-30mm alu, but this idea seems far better....
Attachment 18989
It uses a two-layer clamp, bridged in the middle firmly and then clamped on the quill plus clamped to a fixture held in a collet in the spindle. This seems like it would be very stable plus use up less of my valuable Z axis travel.
Material is probably only 15-20mm thick so i would lose no more than 20mm of travel in Z, leaving me a healthy 100mm to play with. The wide spaced clamps should also grip the high speed spindle better too.
Not sure why he has made the bottom clamp like it is at the spindle nose, I would go with a solid area and a 20mm shaft fitted for a 20mm R8 collet - the attachment would then be slid upwards into the collet and onto the quill.
Re: Bridgeport Manual to CNC conversion...
Why not just get a quillmaster or a speeder? Somthing that is inline with the spindle in the firstplace.