Author Topic: Cnc minimill  (Read 22130 times)

Offline chipenter

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Cnc minimill
« on: December 12, 2015, 01:52:38 PM »
Some 18 monthe ago I bought a microscope plotter at a boot fair , presision instrument but the head could be lifted and wobled , then on ebay I bought a Arduino 3d reprap board and 5 stepper drivers , so now to mod the head to make it firm enugh for a mill  200mm X 100m X 100m .
Jeff

Offline chipenter

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Re: Cnc minimill
« Reply #1 on: December 12, 2015, 02:02:08 PM »
First job was to mill a groove in the cast iron body , then fit some small bearings on excentrics , turned down the X leadscrew and fitted bearings , made a dummy for the Y leadscrew to clock off and milled a groove in the bronze X table and some more bearings .
Jeff

Offline RotarySMP

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Re: Cnc minimill
« Reply #2 on: December 12, 2015, 04:52:04 PM »
Nice bit of recycling

Mark
Best regards, Meilleures salutations, Mit freundlichen Grüßen, Cu salutari
Mark
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Offline chipenter

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Re: Cnc minimill
« Reply #3 on: December 13, 2015, 03:57:00 AM »
The Arduino arrived last week I found easy cnc on the nett , dowloaded then it wanted firmware and that needed processing and was written in Java , my computer is 32 bit XP Java does not run on 32 bit and no support anymore , back to square one Makersmith do a cnc that runs but can't see the encoders as there is no pins defined so far , just got to find how to do that to test everything .
Jeff

Offline SteveT

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Re: Cnc minimill
« Reply #4 on: December 13, 2015, 04:57:16 AM »
Nice project looking forward to seeing the end results.
I use Linuxcnc http://www.linuxcnc.org/ running on Debian to drive my CNC mill it works a treat and is free; also will run on a old computer with no problems.
Steven Tyrer
lives in Cardiff South Wales

Offline chipenter

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Re: Cnc minimill
« Reply #5 on: December 13, 2015, 06:08:11 AM »
Thaks Steve I bought a new laptop on cyber monday half price in a supermarket , there was 3 left out of a hundred by 9 am . have Ubatu to load on the old laptop used to run Mandrake Linux years ago , the learning curve is getting very steep . 
Jeff

Offline SteveT

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Re: Cnc minimill
« Reply #6 on: December 13, 2015, 07:09:39 AM »
When I converted my mill about 18 months ago the mechanical bits was easy then I got to the software/electronics and the learning curve became a vertical cliff  :scratch:
But the guy's on the Linuxcnc forum gave a lot of help and we got to the top of the cliff  :D
Still learning but the cnc conversions was well worth the effort
 
Steven Tyrer
lives in Cardiff South Wales

Offline chipenter

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Re: Cnc minimill
« Reply #7 on: December 13, 2015, 10:54:03 AM »
Finished the spindle housing today from a hydroulic ram EN8 I think , the ER16 straight shank collet chuck I bought is to long  :Doh: reduces the height by 35mm and puts side pressure on the X axis lead screw two bearings required under the housing instead of one , I have some 6mm watchmacers collets but not a 3/32" one http://www.levinlathe.com/page23b.htm  :bugeye: , I will have to make a spindle and a collet to take dentist burrs .
Jeff

Offline chipenter

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Re: Cnc minimill
« Reply #8 on: December 27, 2015, 03:40:41 AM »
Got a peice of 10mm plate for the table filled two 1/2" holes with weld , skimed the face and squred the edges one side was cut with a torch with some hard bits that chipped the end mill ,
started on the spindle using anouther hydrolic ram as they are usualy EN8 , this one wears the edge off the insert pretty quickly even at 250 rpm with coolant .
Jeff

Offline chipenter

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Re: Cnc minimill
« Reply #9 on: December 29, 2015, 09:34:51 AM »
Got the spindle finished and pressed on to the bearings , no photos left the SD card in the pc  :doh: , made two collets drilled reamed and slit next is a draw bar then I can test the run out .
Jeff

Offline PK

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Re: Cnc minimill
« Reply #10 on: December 29, 2015, 05:54:31 PM »
FYI, my own spindle experiences...
http://www.caswa.com/cncathome/spindles.html

I should add that I now exclusively use Chinese water cooled spindles >24000 RPM. These are game changers for small machines.
My latest.

Offline chipenter

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Re: Cnc minimill
« Reply #11 on: December 30, 2015, 02:39:14 PM »
FYI, my own spindle experiences...
Thanks for the info £ 275 and I am to late for Christmas .
Jeff

Offline chipenter

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Re: Cnc minimill
« Reply #12 on: December 31, 2015, 09:01:32 AM »
Made the draw bar and set up to test the run out 4/10 of a tho out , a closer inspection a bit of swarf in one of the slots , a small burr and a bit of a wobble of the thread cleaned off and a retest less than .5 of a tenth  :thumbup: phew .
Jeff

Offline chipenter

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Re: Cnc minimill
« Reply #13 on: January 17, 2016, 03:40:01 PM »
Not had a lot of time one this project , bought a pair of ball bearing kitchen drawer runners and cut one in half , to get 100 mm of travel the runner needs to be 140mm , I will machine a slot and an angle bracket in the base plate when it warms up a bit , fitted the board into a cliplock box bolted on a small fan , as for the sofwhare one step forward and two back it wants netframework 4 , java , python , wxpython , repetier host , g code sender and arduino cnc host .
Jeff

Offline chipenter

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Re: Cnc minimill
« Reply #14 on: January 31, 2016, 01:32:50 PM »
Finaly got back on this setting up has been dificult to say the least , trying to sort the nots out it's not straight flat square or parralell , made the base and Z axsis screws from 8mm studding to fit bronze bearings , it's been apart so many times now but is getting there , sorted the software in the warm and ran a test the steppers all worked at last something went right .
Jeff

Offline chipenter

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Re: Cnc minimill
« Reply #15 on: February 04, 2016, 02:37:38 PM »
Marked out the table limits and drilled 4.2mm for 5mm clamps , to thin for te slots all I have to do now is counersinc and tap 180 holes .
Jeff

Offline chipenter

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Re: Cnc minimill
« Reply #16 on: February 08, 2016, 03:29:01 PM »
Finaly finished tapping the holes glad to see the back of that job , I was supriesed how ridgid the bed felt so I won't be fitting the drawer runner as a linnier bearing .
Jeff

Offline chipenter

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Re: Cnc minimill
« Reply #17 on: February 21, 2016, 11:34:11 AM »
Not had a lot of time lately just the odd half hour made some small bright mild steel clamps for the table , remade the bearing holders and the exsentrics for the X and Y , glad to say this has made it much firmer , the pullys turned up from China that will be the next job .
Jeff

Offline chipenter

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Re: Cnc minimill
« Reply #18 on: February 28, 2016, 09:56:12 AM »
It's 8 degrees C in my shed and the machines are about 2 degrees so I don't stay there long , got some bronze pullys and started on some mounts for them , drilled and taped 3mm other end threaded 5mm may do the outher three when I warm up , John Stephenson kindly coverted a image to g code for me , it's for Mack 3 Marlin works on buffered g code command I can edit the code in the warm .
Jeff

Offline chipenter

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Re: Cnc minimill
« Reply #19 on: February 29, 2016, 01:56:53 PM »
Got the idler pullys finished and started on the stepper motor mounts , I found I have no 3mm washers may have to make some .
Jeff

Offline chipenter

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Re: Cnc minimill
« Reply #20 on: March 01, 2016, 12:16:20 PM »
Drilled and taped for the idlers and motor mounts , got to figure a way of joining the drive belt all I have come up with is gluing 2 peices back to back , make some feet next now I know the height .
Jeff

Offline chipenter

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Re: Cnc minimill
« Reply #21 on: March 06, 2016, 01:31:45 PM »
Time to fit a motor a peice of 2 X 1/4" black iron was mounted , and slotted for the motor and driled for the spindle , the ends were radiused , started turning a peice of 2" bms for a spacer before the temperature droped like a stone with the sleet shower .
Jeff

Offline chipenter

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Re: Cnc minimill
« Reply #22 on: March 08, 2016, 10:15:29 AM »
Turned a spacer to go between the motor mount and the spindle , just straight turning .
Jeff

Offline chipenter

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Re: Cnc minimill
« Reply #23 on: March 08, 2016, 10:27:05 AM »
Ran out of head room to drill and tap the spindle and mount , I will have to pitch a dormer in the roof to get the mill up to full height , just enugh room to spot for the screws , I have an old chuck without a backplate that works well for holding round things for drilling , I am thinking of useing a O ring to drive it got to work out the pullys next .
Jeff

Online awemawson

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Re: Cnc minimill
« Reply #24 on: March 08, 2016, 11:08:14 AM »
Whip the chuck off the drill, and use an MT shank drill to reduce headroom. If you don't have a suitable drill, pop a hole in an MT blank of drill size, with an axial locking screw.

Andrew Mawson
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