advice on upgrade to 5 axis control

[m_c]

you need to add '/blog' to the above url to get around the Site under development/ads.

[alanb]

you need to add '/blog' to the above url to get around the Site under development/ads.

Thanks for that and Sorry everyone, I thought I had auto redirection on the main page to redirect to the blog. Dont know where it went but will reestablish asap.

By the way anyone able to answer my original question and give me advice on a good 5-6 channel board to get.

Thanks again
Alan

[JAZZCNC]

By the way anyone able to answer my original question and give me advice on a good 5-6 channel board to get.

Have a look here they sell some very nice BOB's and the PMDX 126 is a great board. http://www.pmdx.com/PMDX-126

Edit: Sorry just spotted you use EMC and this boards mainly designed round Mach3,thou it should still work ok.

OR here

http://www.cnc4pc.com/Store/osc/index.php?cPath=33

[mocha]

you've got some beautiful items there Alan, very nice indeed.

Silly question if I may, on the home page of the blog, the pictures showing the cannibalised cast iron x-y table, does the cast iron assembly not flex the unsupported round rail at all??

[alanb]

does the cast iron assembly not flex the unsupported round rail at all??

I have not really tried it out yet together with the new tool post. And it is true that were I starting again I would use 25mm diameter rail and not 16mm as I did, I am sure it must a little. The table will be locked solid when cutting patterns. If you look carefully you will see that I have placed a screw based locking clamp between the two linear bearings on each side. The bearings and rail are just acting as a rapid positioning mechanism for the table. My reason for going with a heavy tool post is to dampen the vibrations I was experiencing. It may be that my real problem is not with the tool post but with flexing of the rail. I will not know until I have run a few test cuts. If there is still a problem then I will consider separating the headstock from the tool post rail and re-engineer tool side using 25mm rail as a minimum. However compared to standard milling, cutting OT patterns is a relatively gentle operation. The max cut you would take is 1mm and more often much much smaller than that. Also the work rotates very slowly up to about 5 rpm max and often at 0.5 rev per minute on finishing / polishing cuts which can be 0.01mm at max.

Alan

[mocha]

I'd expect that the round rail would to be bowing with all that weight on it and in the bottom edge of image 0277 it looks like it is :-) Of course that might well be the lens of the camera giving that effect?

What sort of length is the rail and weight is the table?