Gerrit's workshop and machines

[gerritv]

In my Rudy Kouhoupt build thread, Admiral_dk/per expressed a desire to see my CNC build. I will start off my 'This is my Workshop' thread with a few photos of that.

I spent a lot of doodle paper on various designs over the years, mostly constrained by what tools I had to build a CNC router/mill. When I was able to buy 3 motors and a breakout board for CA$100 in 2019 I finally got a move on. Some more doodling/3d CAD and I committed.

The main frame is 2x4, 2x2 and 1x2 .125" wall tubing. The joints are all shop-made t-bolts, aka furniture bolts using 5/16-16 into .5" rod. Everyone of those is reinforced with a .25" backing plate.
The X axis channel is from a 1958 Uniservo II tape drive, one of those you-never-know-when-you-might-need-it items. The bed is from the same tape drive, .5" cast plate. All drilling was done with careful layout, punch pricks and a drill press.

There were a few iterations of swarf containment, from shower curtain to aluminum.

Control is via PathPilot on an HP SFF computer and Mesa 7i92 ethernet interface. Rock solid and well supported by updates from Tormach as well as a good post processor from Fusion360. An example run: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V04TWEVuOek" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V04TWEVuOek</a>

Gerrit

[Admiral_dk]

I like the Layout of you CNC Mill 

Looks very solid for it's size - do you have any chatter on any of the axises ?

The Controller and the rest of the Electronic System is a lot more complicated (more parts) than I anticipated and one I haven't seen before- Do you have a link ?

Thank you very much for showing 

Per     

[scc]

To an old school thicky like me,  brought up on counting handle revolutions, etc.   this looks like the work of N.A.S.A.    I can't imagine setting one up let alone building it       You have my complete admiration.
            Terry

[gerritv]

Per, the driver board is a PMDX-132, no longer made. It has 4 drivers. The control started out very simple, a minimalistic power supply and the board. But then I realized I needed a contactor for the VFD, and some relays for motor coolant and air. And then another contactor for the whole machine to implement an e-stop, and and and and :-). Those items needed power as well so along came 5, 12 and 24 DIN mounted supplies. I mounted it all on aluminum plates on a plywood base that is releatively easy to remove from the machine. I keep looking at those lovely metal enclosures with doors and after seeing the price, and having to redo all my wiring I conculde that this setup is working just fine.
There was initially a bunch of resonance but most of that went away after doubling up on ball nuts. There is still an issue with drilling, esp. for M6 holes but milling is ok. I have potentiometers for feed and spindle overrides so it is easy to play while cutting to get things to 'sound right'. Surface finish on aluminum and steel has been excellent. Once I find a happy feed/speed setting for material x I write it down and make it part of the tool library on Fusion360 so it sticks for future use.
The machine overall is patterned after Stefan Gotteswinter's Stepmores cnc.

Terry, it all starts and ends with drilling a whole lot of holes and bolting stuff together. It kind of designed itself as I went along after the initial rough drawings.

gerrit

[Alex]

Hi Gerrit; the air is an interesting one - is it described elsewhere here?

I've got 2 mills running LinuxCNC with MESA hardware. Built them before Tormach moved away from the bandaid software, to LinuxCNC based PathPilot. I haven't updated them much, because they simply just work! Fantastic software. You chose well! ;-)

Very nice build, by the way; building from scratch adds 10 points to get you to a mark of 110 out of 100. (smile) JohnS.

[gerritv]

Thank you Alex.
The air is my version of a fogbuster. But it was fiddly to get going and then adjsuted so I built an MQL system.
First pic is of my fogbuster head, the others are of the MinimumQuantityLubrication I implemented. The output head for that one is from JBWorx Studio, it mounts using Locline. The code for the MQL is from https://github.com/hausen8/ColdEND32. EndCNC will not sell outside of EU so I made my own board. The bonus is that PathPilot will turn it on and off using gcode. It can run off an airbrush compressor at 15psi (as in the video) but it is now hooked to my larger compressor.

I  used to run soluable coolant but switched to isopropyl with sewing machine oil. Much cleaner.

gerrit

[Vixen]

Hello Gerrit,

I like your interpretation of the MQL Minimum Quantity Lubrication system. They really are the perfect solution to controlled lubrication and chip control.

Thanks for the tip about using isopropyl with sewing machine oil, in stead of soluble coolant. What is your isopropyl to oil ratio?

I built a similar version using the same peristaltic pump head (e-bay from China) driven by a small stepper motor and also used an airbrush compressor. See build log "Peristaltic Mist coolant pump" post 36 onward.  I run LinuxCNC which we all know is the beating heart of the commercial Pathpilot controller. I hacked the HAL file and added six lines of code to create a 'step gen' signal to drive the pump's stepper, which is controlled by an on/off button on the screen. I have been too lazy to add a relay to control the airbrush pump from another screen button.

I found I was forever knocking the peristaltic pump cover open with my sleeve. The fix was simple; saw off the overhanging end of door opening lever.


Cheers

Mike

[gerritv]

I am probably mixing 10:1 isoprop vs oil. To be honest the main goal is to clear chips with the air blast, esp. in aluminum.

One excellent feature of the code is that setting the flow rate pot to zero you can push one of the buttons to reverse the pump and empty the hose of fluid.

gerrit

[Admiral_dk]

Gerrit I know about Feature-Creep all too well 

Resonance and curing it with a change in Feed-Speed makes sence - nice to hear that it was so easy for you to fix 

Again thank you for sharing     

Per   

[Vixen]

I am probably mixing 10:1 isoprop vs oil. To be honest the main goal is to clear chips with the air blast, esp. in aluminum.

One excellent feature of the code is that setting the flow rate pot to zero you can push one of the buttons to reverse the pump and empty the hose of fluid.

gerrit

A MQL feed rate of about 15 drops per minute should not create any significant isoprop fume hazard.
Did you notice any comparability issues between the isoprop and the silicon or nylon pipework?

Mike

[gerritv]

A MQL feed rate of about 15 drops per minute should not create any significant isoprop fume hazard.
Did you notice any comparability issues between the isoprop and the silicon or nylon pipework?

Mike

No, or at least not yet. The pump reversing mechnism helps because I can empty the system after use. I did order a meter of spare hose for the pump, just in case.

gerrit