Bridgeport Manual to CNC conversion...

[Davek0974]

Got the switches fitted and have finally achieved 3-axis motion :)



A short video showing basic path with two tool-changes...

[Davek0974]

Scary stuff - she has cut her first steel

Spent the morning putting stuff back - trammed the head, fitted the vise and trammed that in, fitted a floating Z touch-plate and modified the touch-off macro so it did what i wanted.

Threw a small lump of 20mm scrap in, a duff 1/2" four-flute cutter and programmed a facing cut in Aspire of 0.5mm, seemed way slower than i would have moved if doing it manually - may not be a bad thing. It gave me a speed of 140mm/min at 650rpm

Picture below - looks worse than it is, pretty good finish as it goes considering the state of the tool etc. and dry cutting plus unknown grade of steel.



Next I tried spot-drilling four places and followed up with through-drilling with a 6mm drill, all went perfectly.

I really need to sort the speed control out though - it tells me when to put it in back-gear or high/low speed so the VFD can give me the final speed BUT it only does this when it gets the S command from the code - it shows the message on screen but the carries on cutting at the wrong speed. What i need is for it to stop the spindle and show the message, wait for me to set the right conditions and the restart the spindle and get to work.

[Boyan Silyavski]

All looks fine now. So whats next? Mist cooling, right?

[Davek0974]

Ha, I already have that built, it's fitted on the mini-mill.

The next step is to weld up a suitable control cabinet, this is needing a big cab - about 850 tall x 700 wide and 270 deep, commercial ones are +£250 in that size so will plasma cut and weld up from 3mm sheet steel parts i think.

Then i have to strip the rats-nest down and start the final build.

I've been running various cutters through HSMadvisor and it seems i've been pushing them quite hard when doing it manually - all the feeds seem very relaxed ;) I tended to run the HSS so the chips were straw coloured and the carbide insert ones just flat out and hard - dark blue chips that melted your shirt ;)

[Davek0974]

Got the control cabinet built today, absolute monster and a two-person lift :)



Fitted the mounting bars too.



Next job is to strip the test setup down and start final fitting.

[Clive S]

Got the control cabinet built today, absolute monster and a two-person lift :)

Well it will be a three person lift when you fill it

[Davek0974]

your'e not wrong there, i have all the guts temporarily mounted on a pallet top and i can just about lift it all, not quite sure how i'll lift the steel panel into the cabinet yet;)