Questions on using a moving gantry style mini-mill...

Yeah thanks, I knew about the manual edits but I am sort of side-stepping from SheetCam to Vectric for the mill stuff and sheetcam can do code inserts easily, saves a lot of messing around when running and modifying a file repeatedly.

You can edit the post.

Look in the post processor manual. There's a variable called "file notes" that you can add.
In Cut 2D or V Carve Pro, go to Edit > Notes and put your G5x there.
Then the notes will be inserted in the g-code wherever you put the "file notes".

OOH, nice ;)

Didn't notice the post manual before.

I see there is possibly a more useful one called [TOOL_NOTES] that goes with each tool used, the post wraps the message in brackets which are ignored by Mach so it will need some editing which will then render the [TOOL_NOTES] feature useless for tool notes but hay-ho you can't have it all I guess ;)

Just insert the tool_notes var into the tool change part of the post, as i want add a macro call to go to park position and then a pause to remind me to change hold-down clamps etc before changing the tool and continuing.

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Originally Posted by Davek0974

I see there is possibly a more useful one called [TOOL_NOTES]

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That depends on what you want to do.
For adding a G5x, I think the file notes are a better choice.

For the park position, add the M883 at the start of your tool change section in the post, followed by your pause.

Its more complex as usual :)

The park position is only needed on a couple of jobs which need to be part machined then the clamping moved around and the tool changed then the finish cuts made.

There are three options i see tool_notes, toolpath_notes and file_notes - all look useful.
The G5x only needs calling at the start of one particular file.

:)

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Originally Posted by routercnc

Sorry typo
3mm high and ~12mm long
Careful filing and sanding then scouring pad gives a reasonable finish. If you want a mirror finish with no sign of tabs then you are back to fixing the part down in the middle using any holes that are available instead of using tabs.

On occasion I've also put the raw tabbed part in a vice edge up and used the machine to skim it down 0.05mm at a time and remove the last but if the tab. You can get a very good finish but you ideally need a parallel edge on the lower side to reference to sitting in the vice. But this takes time and is best for simple shapes.

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Why not using the "onion skin" method Jazz mentioned earlier? I think that a 0.1mm onion skin would give the same holding strength (probably even better) as a 3 x 12mm would, assuming you have 4 tabs with that size, converting that to onion skin, you can have a total circumference of 1440mm if you have a skin of 0.1mm. In my opinion it is easier to clean off the edges if only 0.1mm must be cleaned than if 4 times 3 x 12mm must be cleaned.

As some may have read, I am converting my Bridgeport mill to CNC, the idea is to attache the high speed spindle to it to make a dual purpose machine.

Seems I have a couple of options here - mount the spindle motor to the main mill quill or make a new Z axis complete and mount that to the head of the Bridgeport.

Mounting the spindle to the quill is easiest - a simple clamp block would do it...
Attachment 18475
The larger circle is the mill quill or Z axis (around 100mm dia), smaller is the 24k spindle (80mm dia), looking down from above. The distance between the two is 50mm and the clamp could be machined from 30-40mm thick aluminium or similar.

Would it work though??
Your thoughts...

Second option is far more involved and needs a mounting bracket and complete Z axis making to take the 24k spindle, this assembly would mount on the rear of the swivel ram (at the back in this picture)...
Attachment 18476

Would be harder to make but still do-able but if the first idea worked the much time and cash will be saved ;)

Thoughts??

Why do you want 24k on the mill surely you would be better having some lower end torque and going for maybe 6-10k, 6k bottom end seems to high for a mill, I may be completely wrong as a complete noob but I would have thought you are losing more than your gaining with a 24k with bottom end around 6k.

I'd come of the quill to save grief. Chances are you'll only use small tooling anyway so no great stress.

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Originally Posted by lucan07

Why do you want 24k on the mill surely you would be better having some lower end torque and going for maybe 6-10k, 6k bottom end seems to high for a mill, I may be completely wrong as a complete noob but I would have thought you are losing more than your gaining with a 24k with bottom end around 6k.

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It's all about flexibility - the mill itself has 2Hp and 50-3000rpm range - no good for small cutters or engraving, great for hogging the crap out of steel etc with large tooling. The spindle has the speed for small cutters and engraving but no good for big tooling or steel work. The Base machine is simply a very heavy X/Y table - 300mm in Y and 1000mm in X - way bigger than my mini-mill.

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Originally Posted by JAZZCNC

I'd come of the quill to save grief. Chances are you'll only use small tooling anyway so no great stress.

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That's my view too, I have 125mm of Z axis movement and losing 30-40mm for the clamp won't hurt as there is also a manual 300mm of table up/down - no engraving spindle is going to be diving more than 80mm into the work so travel seems adequate even allowing for clearance plane above clamps etc.

This is also the easy option to test out - only wastes a block of aluminium if it fails, my point of weakness would likely be vibration causing chatter marks, but time will tell here.