Hand feed XYZ cube

[John McNamara]

Hi All

This old Tony posted a video on heat treatment However What caught my eye at 16:41 min in was a novel to me XYZ Cube for hand feeding a CNC machine. Using three hand wheels. instead of the usual one with a selector switch to choose which axis to use it on.



I rather like it.

The video is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_Fo...el=ThisOldTony

Regards
John

[depronman]

Hi All

This old Tony posted a video on heat treatment However What caught my eye at 16:41 min in was a novel to me XYZ Cube for hand feeding a CNC machine. Using three hand wheels. instead of the usual one with a selector switch to choose which axis to use it on.



I rather like it.

The video is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_Fo...el=ThisOldTony

Regards
John

Great idea just a pity the selector switch is needed it would be very intuitive if there was no selector switch just like a manual machine
Is the selector switch not for adjusting feed speeds ?

Paul


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[pippin88]

Great idea just a pity the selector switch is needed it would be very intuitive if there was no selector switch just like a manual machine
Is the selector switch not for adjusting feed speeds ?

Paul


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There is no selector switch. That is the point.



Downside is you need electronics capable of accepting 3 MPG / encoder inputs.

Other downside is cost. One MPG and a multiposition switch is substantially cheaper than 3 MPG.

[depronman]

There is no selector switch. That is the point.



Downside is you need electronics capable of accepting 3 MPG / encoder inputs.

Other downside is cost. One MPG and a multiposition switch is substantially cheaper than 3 MPG.

Read the post again it clearly says 3 hand wheels and a selector switch to select the axis being moved
The cost of mpg’s is only around £10to£15 each so whilst a consideration it’s not a major one in my eyes

Paul


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[Clive S]

Read the post again it clearly says 3 hand wheels and a selector switch to select the axis being moved
The cost of mpg’s is only around £10to£15 each so whilst a consideration it’s not a major one in my eyes

Paul


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I have 2 mpg's on my lathe and 3 on the mill. I find them very handy for quick jobs like drilling the the Z on the mill etc.

[pippin88]

Read the post again it clearly says 3 hand wheels and a selector switch to select the axis being moved
The cost of mpg’s is only around £10to£15 each so whilst a consideration it’s not a major one in my eyes

Paul


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Paul,

I think you missed the word "instead"



What would be the point of 3 MPGs and still needing an axis selector switch?

The MPG cost is not huge but you need interface electronics also. The common MPGs are 100 count encoders.

May be worth it but certainly more expensive than a single MPG and selector switch.

[depronman]

Paul,

I think you missed the word "instead"



What would be the point of 3 MPGs and still needing an axis selector switch?

The MPG cost is not huge but you need interface electronics also. The common MPGs are 100 count encoders.

May be worth it but certainly more expensive than a single MPG and selector switch.

You are correct I speed read it and missed the ‘instead’
Would still like to understand how the feed rate per mpeg click is set. Eg fine feed medium feed fast feed

Paul


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[John McNamara]

Hi Depronman

Unfortunately Exactly how the knobs are interfaced is not clear in the video.
Hopefully he will show more in the future on how he retrofitted the very nice MAHO mill. Note the position of the Z axis Not the normal setup used in a conventional say Haas CNC V mill.

I wonder if there are other examples of this interface?

Regards
John

[Doddy]

ToT likes the odd joke or two - highly entertaining videos, and (without listening to the video) it wouldn't surprise me if that's a bit of a prop for the video.

That said - I'm heavily involved in repurposing the fixed pendant on my mill with something more CNC-based/useful, including axis-feeds, DROs, probing etc, and - at least with UCCNC (and the plugin interfaces) - that 3-axis cube control would be pretty straight-forward to implement (particularly if you only wanted one-axis-in-motion). As Paul suggests - there's more required for a controller - like feed rates.

[Muzzer]

I believe Andy Pugh on the LinuxCNC forum fitted 2 MPGs on the apron of his original lathe conversion but IIRC he says he never used them. As noted, you need a controller that can handle several encoder inputs AND the means to process them. The various Mesa Electronics cards that are used widely in LinuxCNC can provide that expansion but they would significantly increase the budget beyond the cost of a few Chinese MPGs, not to mention the trial of configuring them.

This may be like retaining handwheels on a conversion - seems like a good idea at the time but turns out not to be so valuable in practice - speaking as someone who retained handwheels on my first machine. A wireless MPG is soooo much better on various fronts.