New CNC Mill on the horizon

[fvfdrums]

I wasn't planning on sharing home and limit switches. If by this you mean using the same switch for both home and limits?

I have proximity sensors on the home and industrial microswitches on the limits.

Does this still apply?

[JAZZCNC]

I wasn't planning on sharing home and limit switches. If by this you mean using the same switch for both home and limits?

I have proximity sensors on the home and industrial microswitches on the limits.

Does this still apply?

Well yes and No.!! . . . No you can't wire all home switches in series they need to be on separate inputs, one for each axis.
But Yes you can wire all Limits in series and just use one input for all axis.

So in your case you'll need 4 inputs. 3 for homes and 1 for limits if wired in series.

[fvfdrums]

Thanks Dean!

Well been a bit quiet for a week or so due to work however have had a productive saturday. All home switches wired in and working well and all limit switches wired up and stops in place and they all activate well. Looking at the limit override switch is this something I should configure in mach? seeing as there is an option and I have plenty of inputs of the CSMIO left or can it simply be a switch in the circuit to override the limits?

managed to do a bit of testing and some very very basic cuts just coding on screen in mach to test things out. All axis are pretty smooth though there is still a sort of rattly vibration which I think is coming from one of the two x axis balloonist. Is it worth taking it apart cleaning and reassembling? I cannot be 100% sure thats where it is coming from but its roughly when the machine hits a certain speed in the middle of the x travel.

Still need to do some work on tuning the motors have them set at 160 steps per mm at the moment which I think is right but need to do a bit of work on the acc and vel I am not wanting to run this near its limit but the access from the home point is soooooo slow. Should I expect it to be a bit quicker or is that normal? once up to speed it seems to be fine.

Next on the list is getting the bed material sorted out and ordered in now we have a definite working area and there is a hydrovane compressor on the way to power the mister system/cold air gun (not bought specifically for this as I do all sorts with air however I have been needing an excuse to buy a machine of a decent size!)

Also need to sit down and do some fine adjustments I think the x axis is ever so slightly on the wonk! not by much but squares corner to corner are about 0.1mm out of square at the moment which I dont consider too bad seeing as we have not really spent a lot of time fine tuning yet and also it has plenty of adjustment in the machine. so I am reasonably confident we can get it producing a square enough square for what we need!

[fvfdrums]

Just noticed when trying to get over 12k rpm in Mach I get an error saying something about pulley size incorrect? Any idea what this is all about?

[JAZZCNC]

Looking at the limit override switch is this something I should configure in mach? seeing as there is an option and I have plenty of inputs of the CSMIO left or can it simply be a switch in the circuit to override the limits?

Personally i just use the Limit overide inside Mach. But if you want an override then just wire a Momentry button in the circuit (don't use a Switch). Only time i use an Override button is if the Limits are wired in the Safety circuit and knockout Power Etc Which I don't do any more for limits.

managed to do a bit of testing and some very very basic cuts just coding on screen in mach to test things out. All axis are pretty smooth though there is still a sort of rattly vibration which I think is coming from one of the two x axis balloonist. Is it worth taking it apart cleaning and reassembling? I cannot be 100% sure thats where it is coming from but its roughly when the machine hits a certain speed in the middle of the x travel.

Yes but not yet.! Run it slowly for a while and tweak alignment of screws. You'll be surprised how much just little missalignment can make to how machine runs and sounds. Then if it doesn't go away then think about stripping down after a few weeks when things have settled down.

Still need to do some work on tuning the motors have them set at 160 steps per mm at the moment which I think is right but need to do a bit of work on the acc and vel I am not wanting to run this near its limit but the access from the home point is soooooo slow. Should I expect it to be a bit quicker or is that normal? once up to speed it seems to be fine.

If 10mm pitch screws and drive Micro stepping is 1600 then yes 160 is correct. Safe velocity for testing would be 4 or 5000mm/min with Accelleration of 500-600. With the aim of reaching around 10,000mm/min and 1000-12000s.

Homing is slower and will be a percentage of the Velocity which is set in Homing & limits. Faster you home the less accurate the repeatabilty. 20% is a good figure when at 10mtr/min.

[JAZZCNC]

Just noticed when trying to get over 12k rpm in Mach I get an error saying something about pulley size incorrect? Any idea what this is all about?

Ye go to Spindle Pulleys on the Config menu and set speed to 24000 for which ever pulley your using.

[fvfdrums]

Once again thanks a lot Dean :)

Homing set at about 15% at the moment but the machines not running that fast anyway.'good to know what numbers to possibly aim for once comfortable.

I'm pretty sure the screw in question thats making the noise was the one with a slight bend in it. I would imagine this could cause that? I have straightened it but can't get it perfect. I will keep an eye on it and see how it all goes.

[fvfdrums]

Been a month or so since I could get anything done on the machine but am aiming to have another full on weekend in about a fortnight so want to get some bits ready for the machine.

I am still stuck on the best way to create the bed surface for the machine. I would like to be able to catch most of the chips that sit from falling underneath for example if I just put aluminium strips running perpendicular to the steel current bed. I suppose a thin sheet of anything attached to the bottom side of the bed would do this.

As for the main material lets assume I use aluminium flat bar, how thick and wide does this need to be given I plan on using t nuts to secure down any spoil board or at least some similar sort of system.

fingers crossed I can get it cutting some material soon rather than the basic square and circle combo I have to keep replaying just to prove to people it works!

[JAZZCNC]

As for the main material lets assume I use aluminium flat bar, how thick and wide does this need to be given I plan on using t nuts to secure down any spoil board or at least some similar sort of system.

On my Old machine I used similair setup with approx 35 x 16mm strips but I'd suggest thicker material 20mm min depending on support spacing.
Now this worked OK but in all honesty I found it to be mostly waste of money as 2/3rds was covered with some kind of spoil board which meant couldn't access T-sots so material was screwed down etc.
The area that wasn't covered was only used when I needed better accurecy on say things like engraving etc and I didn't want to surface the whole bed.

The type of work your mostly doing will determine which suits best but I found that while mostly cutting aluminium and mostly 2D profiling that a Good stable spoil board with a Matrix of holes using threaded inserts worked best. It gave good clamping options and most flexabilty for work fastening.
Very rarely did I need to remove the spoil board for acceess to more accurate aluminium base.

If you need accurecy but not over a large area then I'd suggest buying piece of Machine tooling plate and drilling matrix of holes. Then cover rest of bed with stable spoil board material and use T-slot track or Matrix of holes again.!

Just T-slots I find restrictive when using as general all-round machine cutting mixture of materials and Job types.!!

[fvfdrums]

Thanks as ever Jazz :)

What would you consider a reliable spoil board material?