operation cnc

[wilfy]

i demand a video now...

in all seriousness i'm impressed at the speed you have moved with this and i really hope you stick around and show us all what your machine is capable of, it's very inspiring to see someones hard work actually doing something. well done fella

[kingcreaky]

admitedly lazy of me but im planning on ordered one of the 2.2kw spindles today... theres some on ebay for £250...

can anybody recommend some cutters to get me started... il just be prancing around with mdf for a while...

it says
Collet: ER20(4mm,6mm,8mm,12mm,12.7mm) Runout off: less than 0.005mm

any help appreciated...

[JAZZCNC]

Try a pencil first much cheaper. . . Lol

What your planning on cutting will determine which cutters and size you'll want to use.
If Aluminium/plastics then 6mm is a good all round size and single or twin flute are best, 3 flutes at the most. Carbide will cost more than HSS but last longer and allow higher feeds and DOC. HSS are good for learning has they are cheaper. I use Cutwel Limited | Cutting Tools & Machine Tool Accessories for my metal/plastics tooling.

If cutting MDF then ONLY use carbide has MDF dulls HSS in no time. Size will depend on what your doing and often wood cutters come in imperial shank sizes so 1/4" 3/8" 1/2" are common shanks also 8mm. Actual cutter sizes can be quit large with wood bits and 1/2" shanks can yield 50-60mm cutter widths.
I use Wealden Tool Company for wood/mdf bits.

Most spindles only come with 1 collet often 6mm so I'd Buy a set of Collets when you buy spindle and you'll be sorted for every shank size upto 13mm, Only need one set for both imperial and metric shanks.

[martin54]

The spindle i bought came with different sized collets as you have listed in your post but if you intend using smaller bits you will need to buy smaller collets. 4mm being the smallest it comes with.

Anyway stop changing the subject, lets here all about the breakout boards lol

[kingcreaky]

Evening Gents...

Right then... got a video for you at long last...

Past few days have been spent messing around with Mach3... and this evening ive been googling G-code... and even wrote my first bit

this is the 'house'
>>dont properly understand this bit copied it off internet
g0 g21 g90 g50 g80 f100
g0 z0 g0 x0 y0 set
m98 p1 l10
g0 x0
m30
%
o1

>> this is the bit i wrote!
z-30 >> drop the z down to where the pencil touches
g1 x0 y0 f3500
g1 x-200
g1 y-200
g1 x0
g1 y0
g1 y-200 x-200 f3200
g1 y0
g1 y-200 x0
g1 y0
g1 x100 y-100
g1 x0 y-200
g1 y0

and the circle... Really dont undestand this... found a wizard page on the net that made it...

G21 (mm)
G0
F3200.00
X0 Y0 Z0
Z-30
G1 X-99.5000Y0.0000
G2 X-99.5000Y0.0000 i99.5000j0
G0Z0.1000 (Retract)




thanks to Jazz and Jonathon for their help and patience with my repeated stupid questions

hope this inspires others.... (WILFY!!!!) to get started!!

[GEOFFREY]

Its the stupid ones that don't ask questions. Video looks good, now lets see some cutting. I'm sure Wilfy is dead keen to get going now - and many others. G.

[wilfy]

Its the stupid ones that don't ask questions. Video looks good, now lets see some cutting. I'm sure Wilfy is dead keen to get going now - and many others. G.

i am, i'm just a bit distracted with other stuff at the minute and i dont wanna start my machine until i know i can go at it full throttle. i have the cash to go buy the steel whenever but that would be it, so i could have my machine free rolling on its rails then i'd have to stick it to one side till i could afford the steppers and drivers/psu.

so for now i'll keep pushing everyone else who is building to post videos up to keep inspiring me

[wilfy]

awesome, love your ghetto pencil rig up as well.. i never realised the steppers made so much noise though, is this due to the spindle being much louder hence why you never hear them?

[wilfy]

if you ever struggle to think of electronics and need to use examples always use water... it's far easier.

i.e. example 1 you have 1 hose pipe(outgoing signal) with a splitter in the end to make 2 outlets (2xsteppers)... water reaches the splitter and splits equally between the 2(both steppers get the same signal)

example 2 you have 2 hose pipes connected straight to 2 outlets and the flow of these is restricted by a computer, something goes wrong with the first outlet and the flow is slightly restricted at the wrong time compared to outlet 2.. you now have one pipe pouring more water than the other (one stepper moving out of sync to the other.

it's just limiting the possibilities of things going wrong. i understand what jazz is on about and i "go way back" with computers

[D.C.]

if you ever struggle to think of electronics and need to use examples always use water... it's far easier.

i.e. example 1 you have 1 hose pipe(outgoing signal) with a splitter in the end to make 2 outlets (2xsteppers)... water reaches the splitter and splits equally between the 2(both steppers get the same signal)

example 2 you have 2 hose pipes connected straight to 2 outlets and the flow of these is restricted by a computer, something goes wrong with the first outlet and the flow is slightly restricted at the wrong time compared to outlet 2.. you now have one pipe pouring more water than the other (one stepper moving out of sync to the other.

it's just limiting the possibilities of things going wrong. i understand what jazz is on about and i "go way back" with computers

except this is a false analogy.

If you 'go way back' with computers and understand what you are talking about perhaps you can explain what is wrong with what either I or Jon said in this very specific instance.

Does a piece of software running on a computer have magical pixie hero men inside of it that create a 'magical physical hardware' perfect connection between the software and the cnc machine or does a computer use a piece of software (often called a driver) to decide in 'software' which signals to send to which lumps of metal?

If 'hardware' is somehow so much reliable than 'software' and desirable perhaps you could explain why mission critical systems use ECC ram, or why we need transactionable databases or why TCP has to sit on top of IP?