New Build, Aluminium Frame Router/Mill

She's done! (well just about :congratulatory: )


This was encouraging - A 300mm square placed on the bed and against the face of the Z axis tool mount - perfectly square, I was impressed with this little fact :wink:
Attachment 17969

The fixed tool-change plate for the 2010 screen-set was hastily made up from a length of nylon with an M8 bolt in the top that had the face ground flat, it lives in the top R/H corner of my bed.

The movable plate was a simple bit of unused copper PCB.

The tool change and probing routine took a bit of getting used to, as will the initial set-up for new materials etc, its all totally alien form my experience in plasma cutting, lots to learn.

A lump of junk alu was then clamped down with overkill clamps and a further half an hour expended trying to figure out the correct probing routine for a new job :cool:

The G-code i prepared was too big for the scrap so thats why it got cut off, I was running out of time :)

I used the WD40 in one hand and the blow gun in the other, a pretty intense minute or so followed as she cut her first metal.

Attachment 17970

Messy or what ?

Anyway, the result was excellent, expecting a broken tool I threw in an older 5mm HSS three-flute and tweaked the g-code down from carbide speeds, this ended up at 12000rpm and 800mm/min cut with 500mm/min ramp. Ramped in to 3mm deep on the pocket and 5mm deep on the outside.

I'm pretty stoked at the result, a simple feat but nerve-wrecking when not used a CNC before, coming from manual milling it feels odd having the control of feed and speed taken away from you!

BTW, I removed the bed and refitted it, with minor shimming I got the variation corner-corner down to below 0.1mm which i think bearing in mind the way these machines are constructed is pretty good.

Now I need to build the fogless coolant thingy and get that going before doing some proper tests.

Looking good dave and nice to see a proper Chip not dust. . :applause:

I don't baby my tools, causes more trouble than needed, need a good chip to carry the heat away.

As the scrap was smaller than the code, it ramped down mostly in air and slammed into the side of the part at full depth, didn't bother it all :)

It was a tense moment though I must admit ;)

Need to get the lube system working now, got a couple of jobs lined up already.
Maybe add some chip-guards as well to keep the crud on the table and not all up the wall.

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I'm pretty stoked at the result, a simple feat but nerve-wrecking when not used a CNC before, coming from manual milling it feels odd having the control of feed and speed taken away from you!

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You still have control with the override sliders. Just grab the orange bars and drag them up or down, or type in a specific amount.

LOL, it was a fast test job, by the time I had reached for the mouse, grabbed a slider and hopefully yanked it in the right direction, the job was done and the tool was off and parked ;)

It's a lot slower than brain telling hands - "stop twiddling that feed knob you idiot, the cutter is gumming up"

Just need to get used to it.

Machines been working well generally, only major issue is random VFD drop-outs with an error code that indicates a short in the motor windings?

Its not done that much work really, i cant believe the spindle is dying already?

The MAJOR issue with this issue is that i haven't wired the VFD fault signal into Mach3 yet so the spindle cuts out and *ping* goes another cutter :(

I need to drag the diagrams out and figure a way to get the fault into Mach, at least that will save my cutters, but surely not the spindle already - this was from Aliexpress, any warranty do you think??

Is there a "good" spindle to replace it with?

Nah doubt it's spindle Dave I'd think it's more like setting that needs tweaking.

Main concern was the error code pointing towards motor phase short, not current overload etc, I'll check the manual but i don't think the short setting would be adjustable?

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Originally Posted by Davek0974

Main concern was the error code pointing towards motor phase short, not current overload etc, I'll check the manual but i don't think the short setting would be adjustable?

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Might be a long shot but have you checked the motor connections at both ends

Not yet but will pull it apart this weekend.

Been working well, last week did a 5 hour run of parts :)

Today i had one part and the blasted spindle cut out 4 times on me, luckily as i don't trust it i was close enough to e-stop each time and save my cutter.

I can't see any loose wires and its the same vfd message each time :(

Not sure what i can check really?

Ok, pulled it apart and rewired the VFD relay into Mach3, if it faults now it will throw the Cycle-Stop button so at least that will save any more busted tooling.

Not sure what the real cause of the drop-outs is but at least i can walk away from it now.

So far so good - no faults since wiring changes :)

Did have a probing error though - setting up for engraving plastic, 0.2mm 30deg 3mm tool in, tested the touch-plate as i always do, pressed the Z-Ref button, tool comes down and just keeps on going - pushed that little carbide bit through the pcb touch-plate, through 3mm of engraving plastic and a couple of mm into the machine bed :(

By the time i had hit the e-stop, the stepper was stalling, no idea why, i rebooted and it was ok for the rest of the day.

Scary stuff.

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Originally Posted by Davek0974

Did have a probing error though - setting up for engraving plastic, 0.2mm 30deg 3mm tool in, tested the touch-plate as i always do, pressed the Z-Ref button, tool comes down and just keeps on going - pushed that little carbide bit through the pcb touch-plate, through 3mm of engraving plastic and a couple of mm into the machine bed :(

By the time i had hit the e-stop, the stepper was stalling, no idea why, i rebooted and it was ok for the rest of the day.

Scary stuff.

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Dave, I had the same thing happen to my touch plate, it's got a 3.175mm hole punched through it, the 18mm MDf base and into the Ali bed....mine was because the earth wire had become unattached. Just goes to show how much power these things have, wouldn't want my fingers (or anything else) in the way of it! Needless to say I watch the procedure like a hawk now with one hand on the 'o'shit button...just in case!

Yep thats the stance i adopt now - one hand on the plate the other over the red button!

This was on the little stepper machine, on the Bridgeport with its AC servo drive i think things would have been far worse as they just do not stop until things break.

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Did have a probing error though

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I have had a similar problem and not got to the bottom of it I am now thinking that you should put a crock clip on the tool to ground as you probe because you are relying on the bearings in the spindle. It just does it very occasionally.

Thats a possible reason there, thanks. It also could be a bit of crap under the tool maybe - this was a tiny tool with a 0.2mm tip so not a lot of contact area.

It would mean carnage if it happened on the Bridgeport though, I am not using probing on the main spindle as have now sorted out fixed-height tooling etc, but when i have the engraving spindle fitted i will need to use it then as the spindle only has Er20 collet.

I always touch the touchplate to the tool before doing the probing now, just to make sure!

Sent from my HUAWEI VNS-L31 using Tapatalk

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Originally Posted by njhussey

I always touch the touchplate to the tool before doing the probing now, just to make sure!

Sent from my HUAWEI VNS-L31 using Tapatalk

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Ah, but so do i - the LED lit up when i did the test but the routine still did not stop when i did the probe.

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Originally Posted by Davek0974

Ah, but so do i - the LED lit up when i did the test but the routine still did not stop when i did the probe.

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Bugger!!

Yep, thats pretty much what i thought while i watched my new cutter get buried in the bed :)

I have a little less trust for it now but thats probably not a bad thing.

OK I have mine sorted I use a Purelogic board for the router but I have a simple bob tagged off it for the probe this had 5V inputs pulled high. I had put a resistor in series with the input pin sometime ago and I had forgot about it. I measured the voltage on the probe plate, It was only about 3.3V so there was my problem it was just on the edge of working when I removed the resistor it measured 5V. Problem solved for me anyway.