The Journey begins.. new to me.. my first CNC - Black Cat

The Journey begins

The Black Cat arrived to day, seems everything’s there, I got an old PC out of the loft to use. I was panicking because I remember there needing to be a LTP port serial port then I remembered that this came with one that plus into the a PCI slot.. pheww, then it turns out the old machine had a serial port after all .. bonus !
Luckily I’m working from home today and heard the 16 tonner , turbo charging up the hill of our street, because he was lost , they had given him the wrong address.. so after he had gone past twice I stood at the end of the driveway and sure enough he gunned it down the street and pulled over to ask me directions, I asked him who it was for, and that turned out to be me. Anyway after a tirade of expletives and generally bringing the parentage of his dispatcher into question, he got out of the cab, looked at his paperwork and said .. do you have a folk lift ? I said what the fook for ? he said it says here its 500 kgs.. I said it says Goodyear on my tyres, but it fooking hasn’t been..! so he drew back the curtains and I said it would have to be made out of plutonium to way that much.. he agreed and we humped of the wagon and into the shed.


Attachment 6707



Attachment 6708


As you can see I have added the workshop essentials.. lighting , power heat and loud music


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Attachment 6710


Attachment 6711


My mate is a joiner and he has all the tools to build a work bench, luckily for me he lives next door :) I get him “films” and he helps me make stuff. So we will be building that next week. I hope to get the miller up and running before I start messing with the base plate.. after that I will make a Perspex box a. to stop cutting going everywhere and B. for my personal safety lol ..then I will make a sound proof box with all the speaker sound proofing materials I have for the compressor and vacuum pump. That’s as far forward I think….

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Originally Posted by Fivetide

I get him “films” and he helps me make stuff.

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Dirty one's I hope! Ha

Looks good, have fun!

Them Speakers look like B&W DM602S2's or possibly the earlier S1's?

Posh speakers for a workshop!

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Originally Posted by AdCNC

Them Speakers look like B&W DM602S2's or possibly the earlier S1's?

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Originally Posted by Shinobiwan

Posh speakers for a workshop!

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S1's I bought them at a car boot sale off some angry looking women who said they were her ex-husbands ..and didn’t work.. I got them home thinking.. What the hell could go wrong with them.. ? I mean speakers aren’t rocket science. And when I took out the post panels the crossover’s had been snipped! Guess he thought she would just give them back to him, but hey his loss my gain a bit of wire and solder and they were off and running.. I was going to set my daughter up with a system in her room with them, but she would just piss all the street off every night so I have them in the workshop.. Besides I like to hear good music .. the QED P300 and all the other stuff ..I was given because it wasn’t working.. most where simple fixes , I have an Arcam 350 in a box on the floor just needing a new toroid.. amazing the things people just give away lol

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Originally Posted by Shinobiwan

Dirty one's I hope! Ha
Looks good, have fun!

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Both ;) he has crap broadband (BT) even though he lives on a cabled street .. go figure

Though I suppose this thread should be split between machines and workshop I'll post my tonights progreess .. not much but its getting there.. frames up should have the top and shelf on tomorrow night, going to coat it with marine varnish to try and cut down om mosture , though I think its a bit useless lol ..

Managed to get the top on and shelf in tonight , going to put a couple of coats of marine varnish on over the weekend. Measure up to deck the top with 4mm perspex.

Sorry about the double pics I uploaded the wrong ones first the 2nd set are the actual right size ..DDOH !

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Originally Posted by Fivetide

Managed to get the top on and shelf in tonight , going to put a couple of coats of marine varnish on over the weekend. Measure up to deck the top with 4mm perspex.

Sorry about the double pics I uploaded the wrong ones first the 2nd set are the actual right size ..DDOH !

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you must have some discipline :) id be on my hands and knees on the garage floor cutting holes in whatever i could find with my new cnc.......... the bench would just have to wait!

Lol Mark don’t think I have any mate.. I’m seriously thinking of shouting a week off and getting the damn thing up and running. But I do want to do it right and right from the start save me frustration later on.. i have other things on the go not a least an 18 year old daughter who as mad as a hatter lol

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Originally Posted by Fivetide

i have other things on the go not a least an 18 year old daughter who as mad as a hatter lol

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Looking at the avatar i take it that its in the genes.

If we are going just on avatars then get the daughter fixed up with Audio Andy, match made in heaven............. :yahoo:

Cheers John now we have turned into match maker as well ! :love-struck:

Bench is varnished, I have a power breaker fitted and the pooter’s installed –with XP SP3. So the Cat is on the bench, but the serial cable was male to female and I need a male to male as I’m not installing the hardware that came with it.
I need to drills some big holes in the bench to feed the cabled down and move my lamp to the middle, but I’m not paying £20 to use it once so I’ll nip to my dads who no doubt has one from the 1960’s in drawer in his workshop somewhere.
Down side is the hardboard on the bed is held down with what look like Philips screws and the heads are mangled, so somehow I need to get that off to diagnose the tilted bed problem.. well I’m off to CPC in the morning for a serial cable. Then hopefully have a bit of a trial run with her.

Looks good. Soon be cutting.

Bruce

Fivetide

Just buy a gender changer for the cable you have it should be cheaper.
One thing to check with shop purchased cables is to check that all pins are connected (voice of experience :eek:)

PS11270 - PRO SIGNAL - LEAD 25 WAY DM TO 25 WAY DM 2M | CPC

I'm hoping they are all connected Unit Price: £2.91 (£3.49)

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Originally Posted by Fivetide

PS11270 - PRO SIGNAL - LEAD 25 WAY DM TO 25 WAY DM 2M | CPC

I'm hoping they are all connected Unit Price: £2.91 (£3.49)

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Sadly not, if you'd clicked on 'further info' :
CS17361, CSLEAD106/9 wiring: 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, 4-4, 5-5, 6-6, 7-7, 8-8, 20-20

What you needed was CS17364 @ Unit Price: £2.06 (£2.47) (PS11274 - PRO SIGNAL - LEAD 25 WAY DM TO 25 WAY DM 1 | CPC)

CS9115, CS17364 wiring: all pins connected 1-1, 2-2 etc.

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Originally Posted by irving2008

Sadly not, if you'd clicked on 'further info' :
CS17361, CSLEAD106/9 wiring: 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, 4-4, 5-5, 6-6, 7-7, 8-8, 20-20

What you needed was CS17364 @ Unit Price: £2.06 (£2.47) (PS11274 - PRO SIGNAL - LEAD 25 WAY DM TO 25 WAY DM 1 | CPC)

CS9115, CS17364 wiring: all pins connected 1-1, 2-2 etc.

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Damn !! i was wrong on 2 accounts then DOH ! because I actually needed a serial M to Serial M as the control box is Serial F ... grrrrr I get close then kapooom.. another thing wrong.. oh and the water pump dosen't seem to work either .. have to find another one of those.. oh well I'm still kean though lol :)

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Originally Posted by Fivetide

Damn !! i was wrong on 2 accounts then DOH ! because I actually needed a serial M to Serial M as the control box is Serial F ... grrrrr I get close then kapooom.. another thing wrong.. oh and the water pump dosen't seem to work either .. have to find another one of those.. oh well I'm still kean though lol :)

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Do you mean a 9 pin D to 9 pin D? When you say Serial M to Serial M do you mean straight through connections or DTE-to-DTE (crossed Tx/Rx, CTS/DSR). You need to be specific... :)

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Originally Posted by irving2008

Do you mean a 9 pin D to 9 pin D? When you say Serial M to Serial M do you mean straight through connections or DTE-to-DTE (crossed Tx/Rx, CTS/DSR). You need to be specific... :)

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Yeah 9 pin D .. lol well I hope so .. look alot like a vga.. i'll have it sorted by tomorrow

So.. I finally got the Black Cat running under NCStudio, and it works fine..although I have ordered a Mach 3 breakout board for the controller .. never mind it can go into another project or I’ll sell it on here.. it’s a 4 axis.. which gets me to thinking lol ..I have lathe, I need a drop saw and CNC software.. problem was I didn’t realise that NCstudio was a very simple program in reality , as ever I over complicated it , but it was easy to install and get running in the end.. you just have to find the right youtube videos.. Basically the ones in English.. not Ingrish
Next thing level the bed plate..

So now onto trying to level the bed. Heres some pictures , see what you think and what if you might do or if you have any suggestions I'd be greatful.
And heres a few secounds of my baby running :)

Black Cat CNC test - YouTube

Get some of this in 2mm thickness

Then slip it under the track and put some holes in it to allow the screws to pass through. Tha website is nice as they will cut to the size you want (roughly).

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Originally Posted by Tenson

Get some of this in 2mm thickness

Then slip it under the track and put some holes in it to allow the screws to pass through. Tha website is nice as they will cut to the size you want (roughly).

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Bookmarked :)

So you suggest the tracks not the corner plate ?

No, I'm not sure where it is best, but it seems better to use sheet than washers.

Ah ok good idea thanks :)

I used the 2mm sheet sugested by Tenson under bed on the rails, now as you all know I'm not an engineer so this is the closest to level its going to get. I did a vid of the plunge gauge its a 10 mm so by my reckoning its not that far out now. Sorry for the poor quality I tried it on my Go-pro.

Video

Now to put on a 1/2 in bed or something, source some screws and washers.. etc..

That doesn't look bad at all :) With a sacrificial bed on there milled flat it will be very good.

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Originally Posted by Tenson

That doesn't look bad at all :) With a sacrificial bed on there milled flat it will be very good.

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Off to buy the bolts for one now :)

Not bad, but I bet you can do better...

Use the indicator as you have set it up in the video. Move the gantry so that it is measuring over one of the 4 supports (bearings). Now take readings every 20mm (or whatever distance you can be bothered with) and record them in a spreadsheet. Plot the graph and you'll find there will be some small variations due to the aluminium not being flat and a linear error due to the bearings not being at the same height, which is the bit we're interested in. Suppose you get something like the blue line on this graph:

Attachment 7033
As you can see, if a straight line is plotted using the blue curve, it shows the average gradient of the bed. If this function is subtracted from the readings, you end up with the orange line which shows the 'flatness' of the bed with these reading if the perfect size spacer was added. So once you've got the readings, use your favourite spreadsheet program to find the linear regression line and equation, look at the gradient of this line - in this example it is -0.0015, so if the distance between the blocks is 300mm you would need to add a spacer which is 0.0015*300=0.45mm thick. You should then repeat this test measuring parallel to the other axis, then over the other two bearings and you should end up with it being extremely close. The advantage with this method over measuring directly above the bearings is it will account for local variations that could otherwise skew the readings.

Just watched the video again and it looks lie the bed is bowed, can you take the readings and post them here then we can work out if it's worth proceeding?

From the video it looks like you're close enough, but if it was my machine I'd try this to see how much closer I can get it.

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Originally Posted by Jonathan

Not bad, but I bet you can do better...

Use the indicator as you have set it up in the video. Move the gantry so that it is measuring over one of the 4 supports (bearings). Now take readings every 20mm (or whatever distance you can be bothered with) and record them in a spreadsheet. Plot the graph and you'll find there will be some small variations due to the aluminium not being flat and a linear error due to the bearings not being at the same height, which is the bit we're interested in. Suppose you get something like the blue line on this graph:

Attachment 7033
As you can see, if a straight line is plotted using the blue curve, it shows the average gradient of the bed. If this function is subtracted from the readings, you end up with the orange line which shows the 'flatness' of the bed with these reading if the perfect size spacer was added. So once you've got the readings, use your favourite spreadsheet program to find the linear regression line and equation, look at the gradient of this line - in this example it is -0.0015, so if the distance between the blocks is 300mm you would need to add a spacer which is 0.0015*300=0.45mm thick. You should then repeat this test measuring parallel to the other axis, then over the other two bearings and you should end up with it being extremely close. The advantage with this method over measuring directly above the bearings is it will account for local variations that could otherwise skew the readings.

Just watched the video again and it looks lie the bed is bowed, can you take the readings and post them here then we can work out if it's worth proceeding?

From the video it looks like you're close enough, but if it was my machine I'd try this to see how much closer I can get it.

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Thanks for the advice Jonathan but in all honesty I'm supprised I got so close and it was a pain in the arse to take everything apart, at some point I know I will want it perfect but for nowI want to move onto doing some actual CNC milling and as it mainly art type work 10th of a mill wont make stripping it again for a while worth it.. but like I said thanks for the advice :pride:

Basically for the vac clamp I used a 5mm nipple with a male pipe attachment.
From the vacuum chamber to a ball valve. and then up under the bed and into one of the clamp holes.
The ring is a seal off a cheap ASDA food saver box. I’ve poured some RTV silicone that was well past its sell by date and will cut that out for projects. I can do a very thin double ring (no rude remarks Mark !) :whistle:to hold my amplifier face plate so I can cut out the holes, that’s why the RTV is a lot thicker than the seal. Anyway he holds well and the vacuum seems to stay steady, all cost £7.50, and thanks to Brian at Tom Parkers in Preston for being so patient while I tried to explain my master plan and then finding the right parts ..lol

Inspired by Blackburn Marks thread

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfgXUkChWH4

Then I saw this at the end of the street, because I had my camera with me I filmed it :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZdNI6F5ezQ

sweet !

i thought you where going to make your own seals with a bead of sealant. (would take a bit of doing)

so, are you saying you have basically buttered a flat plate with sealant and will cut custom seals from that ?

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Originally Posted by blackburn mark

sweet !

i thought you where going to make your own seals with a bead of sealant. (would take a bit of doing)

so, are you saying you have basically buttered a flat plate with sealant and will cut custom seals from that ?

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Sort of, I poured this RTV, but it’s so old its taking for ever to set lol then I’ll cut seals for the job I’m doing.. sorted ! Good thing is I can seal the other screw holes with screws so can cover most of the bed.

Did you like the fighter love um !!

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Did you like the fighter love um !!

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yea, i have a mate that works building the typhoon, saw one at salmbury years ago when they where still running it on tornado engines

some jammy 25 year old spotty kid tear arsing around the sky in a 90,000000 euro toy (bastard)

Could anyone hazard a guess of what the pulse rate for the CNC is , I know it’s a wild question but I don’t have a clue and I can’t find what I’m looking for on Google, because quite frankly I’ve no idea what I’m actually looking for :stupid:

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Originally Posted by Fivetide

Could anyone hazard a guess of what the pulse rate for the CNC is , I know it’s a wild question but I don’t have a clue and I can’t find what I’m looking for on Google, because quite frankly I’ve no idea what I’m actually looking for :stupid:

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Not quite sure what you mean by pulse rate, do you mean the maximum feedrate or the number of steps/mm for each axis, or something else? The latter is easy to work out if you know the pitch of the ballscrews, the drive ratio if there are any belts/pulleys involved and how many steps/rev the motors are set to.

Vacuum bed is looking promising...you could measure the force parallel to X/Y required to pull the material off the bed if you're keen.

Just tried the rubber replacement seals for jam pots and they vacuumn like a clamp, no movement at all works perfect, 3 sizes as well. they are slightly rough , this gives good grip.
Link ebay