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  #121  
Old Fri 15 November 2019, 01:20
MarkRH
Just call me: Mark
 
Maryland
United States of America
Great build Ted!
Just getting the first jogs out of mine, still waiting on the rest of the correct wire to be delivered. Can you tell me what proxies you used and what aux power supply for them? I ha ve same 126 bob , looks like 3 core wire wired in series?
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  #122  
Old Fri 15 November 2019, 19:51
xraydude
Just call me: Ted #131
 
New Orleans, LA
United States of America
Thanks, Mark.

I used LJ12A3-4-Z-BX Proxies. NPN, NO, 3 wire, 12mm tubular. 6-36V, 300ma. I am using 4 of them, 2 on X, 1 on Y and 1 on Z. Because I went with NO sensors, I had to wiree them parallel. Also, instead of using a hole in the metal at the stops to trigger the proxies, I use a cut down bolt in the rail cutouts to trigger, for X and Y. For Z, I use a nut glued onto the stiffening tube that the proxy sees at the top of travel. Easy to understand if you look at the pics. All of the proxy wiring joins up into the main junction box on the table, then a shielded 3-conductor cable carries the signal to the BOB. On the 126, I am not using an aux power supply, I am using the 12V that the 126 supplies at the inputs. Due to the sensor's internal resistance, this configuration requires adding a resistor between the input terminal and the 5V supplied at the input. I have had no issues with this setup since installation. However, because of how I implemented this, I can not sense something like the y-carriage jumping the rails. I had these proxies on hand because of my job, so that is really the only reason I chose them.

BTW, those first movements are awesome, aren't they?

Ted

Ted
Attached Images
File Type: jpg X Proxy Trigger.jpg (146.4 KB, 282 views)
File Type: jpg PMDX-126 Proxy input.jpg (142.0 KB, 279 views)
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  #123  
Old Sat 16 November 2019, 14:52
MarkRH
Just call me: Mark
 
Maryland
United States of America
Thanks Ted,
Bought a 12v power supply not thinking the 126 already has it.
Yes they are... especially when you have the motor tuning way to fast and not zeroed, oh and no e-stops installed, makes it exciting.
I'm glad everything is talking to one another tho. I still dont understand the 3 button e-stop, pause, resume button layout. I think its spec'd by Gerald as 7 core wire? and I havnt got my head around it, 2 cores for the e stop, 3 for the proxies, I thought it was 2 cores each for the pause and resume, will have to reread the thread.
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  #124  
Old Sun 24 May 2020, 13:26
xraydude
Just call me: Ted #131
 
New Orleans, LA
United States of America
Hope everyone is staying safe out there. Because my job involves working with a lot of the analyzers used in labs for healthcare testing, I haven't really had any downtime for the past 3 months or so. Did manage to fire the beast up this weekend and make a small run of beer mug handles for a local artist. He just wanted rough cut blanks, as he has jigs created to handle final shaping. He gave me a stencil of the shape he wanted. Scanned it and traced it in Aspire and have started the runs this morning. He gave me a stack of irregularly shaped slabs to use, with some having been epoxy filled. He then takes the blanks, puts them under vacuum and impregnates them with resin. This lets him use wood that is checked, cracked, termite damaged, etc.. in his work. Makes for very interesting looking mugs. Nesting is really the hardest part due to the irregular size and shape of the work pieces. Fun to get back to making dust, for sure!

Quick clip of running a few handles. Volume warning! .25 inch 2 flute. 20 mm ramp in, .125 inch passes depth. 10% stepover. Fed at about 40 mm/sec @ 18k rpm.



https://vimeo.com/422159653


Ted
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  #125  
Old Sat 26 September 2020, 09:02
xraydude
Just call me: Ted #131
 
New Orleans, LA
United States of America
Playing around with a laser a bit more. Now using M11/M10 to start/stop laser. Was all set to start testing last night when I realized that the only relay board I had left after redesigning my wife's K40 was LOW active. Exactly opposite of what the PMDX126 provides. Threw together a MOSET inverter and seems to work fine. Still using the 2.5 watt cheap laser. Have a nice 5 watt with PWM control just waiting on me, but not ready to tackle that yet. The main problem I had been having was due to my primary use case being 4th axis work and needing the laser to have Z movement to maintain proper focal distance when engraving on a 3D wrapped job. Using the M11/M10 to trigger rather than using the Z travel to trigger means I can do that. Theoretically. Still working on modding the post processor. I'll be running some 4th axis stuff today and we will see!

https://vimeo.com/462145861

Ted
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  #126  
Old Sat 26 September 2020, 17:42
smreish
Just call me: Sean - #5, 28, 58 and others
 
Orlando, Florida
United States of America
Great idea Ted, I am in a similar development process with #28 Machine now to use a 7W/15W on the 2nd z-axis. Keep up the good work.
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  #127  
Old Sun 27 September 2020, 04:31
xraydude
Just call me: Ted #131
 
New Orleans, LA
United States of America
Awesome, Sean! Would love to see what you come up with.

Made my first test on the 4th axis. Just a straight cylinder, no 3D stuff to worry about. It works, but I still have problems in my post processor. I am getting rapids when I shouldn't and some lead-in burn while making a correct rapid. May be having an issue with how Mach3 handles angular velocity/acceleration, but it is something that I haven't noticed when doing normal 4th axis route jobs, although it doesn't mean it hasn't been happening. I have snapped a few bits that I wrote off to feed rate that may have actually been related to what I am seeing now with the laser operation.

https://vimeo.com/462310454

Ted
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  #128  
Old Sat 03 October 2020, 21:16
xraydude
Just call me: Ted #131
 
New Orleans, LA
United States of America
Continuing laser refinement

Switched over to a PWM controllable laser. Not ready for placing it under automatic PWM control, but needed to be able to manually adjust laser output for different materials. Still using M10/11 for on/off, but added an external PWM generator mounted on the Y-carriage that allows me to vary the laser intensity. Works great.

Ted

Engraving a beer mug base.

https://vimeo.com/464573157
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  #129  
Old Tue 06 October 2020, 09:09
bachaabdelkabir
Just call me: Abdelkabir
 
Casablanca
Morocco
Well done Ted keep up the good work
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  #130  
Old Mon 31 January 2022, 11:07
xraydude
Just call me: Ted #131
 
New Orleans, LA
United States of America
Making PCBs

I normally either etch my own PCBs or have them done by a PCB manufacturer. Sometimes, though, I just need one board made and need it now. Today I needed one for a one-off control PCB. Didn't feel like photo etching it. So, instead, exported Kicad into a dxf and imported my dxf into Aspire then had the Blue Beast do it for me. I don't get to use the .25 and .75 mm end mills very often! Used a 3mm for clearance. Worked perfectly. Need to do it this way more often. It is nice watching the thing do some for delicate work. Volume warning!

https://vimeo.com/672043684

Ted
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  #131  
Old Tue 10 May 2022, 17:45
xraydude
Just call me: Ted #131
 
New Orleans, LA
United States of America
#131 Still making stuff

Running the blue beast quite a bit lately. Now I'm working on building up inventory for a big fair we participate in in November. Here are two videos of a mug running on the 4th axis. Volume warning!

First finishing pass with 8mm ball nose:

https://vimeo.com/708432994

Final finishing pass with .5mm 4.8 degree tapered ball nose:

https://vimeo.com/708433950

And a pic of the final product:

Ted
Attached Images
File Type: jpg skull_port_mug.jpg (140.4 KB, 88 views)
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  #132  
Old Thu 12 May 2022, 19:15
DocTanner
Just call me: Don Ross
 
Blue Ridge, Texas
United States of America
Very nice!!!!
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  #133  
Old Sat 14 May 2022, 14:17
xraydude
Just call me: Ted #131
 
New Orleans, LA
United States of America
Thanks, Don.

So, funny story. As I said before, I'm working on making stock for a big fair in November-December (6 weekends). I usually start on this in June, so I thought I was a little bit ahead of the game this year. Every year, I like to introduce a few new items and will have my bride, who handles our social media for the business, post a few blurbs to get gauge reaction. No sense making a bunch of widgets if no one is interested, right? Well, she posted this just on our business Facebook page. Of course, now I am slammed with orders for them right now, not November! She thinks it is great. So, no building up stock for the show, gotta get 'em out right now. Well, guess who I am now training to load the machine and run it for these?

By the way, since I use a heavy, food safe finish for all of my drinking vessels, I made a tool to help me get a fantastic, even coating on them. It spins the mugs/goblets/whatever and keeps sags/runs pretty much non-existent. I built the controller and wrote the code for it. It monitors temp/humidity/rpm as well as monitoring each shaft to alert if a cup should happen to fall off. It is internet enabled, so I can monitor and control it while I am away, which is important since it is usually a two day process (3 - 5 coats) to get the finish cured enough to handle them and then let them fully cure for up to a month on a shelf.

Also, just this single fair has paid for the MechMate many times over!

https://vimeo.com/709912407

Ted
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  #134  
Old Sat 30 September 2023, 05:34
xraydude
Just call me: Ted #131
 
New Orleans, LA
United States of America
#131 is still still making chips. Long time since last update. Had an issue with the PMDX-133 motherboard a few weeks ago. In the middle of the run, I started to smell a decidedly strong smell of electronic parts giving up the ghost. Quickly e-stopped and opened the control box, which let out quite a bit of smoke. Investigating, there were some burned traces on the one of the 133's attached to my PMDX-126. Uh, oh. The 133 is discontinued! I reached out to PMDX with a prayer and they hooked me up with a replacement. Seems that kept some in stock just in case and I was able to buy a replacement! While waiting for that to come in, I gave the whole setup a once over, and believe that the problem was caused by poor connections to the gecko drives. I pulled and replaced connectors and cleaned any connector I couldn't replace. I was able to repair the damaged 133 so I now have a backup. Good reminder that having spares on hand is a really good idea! Next up, I noticed that on my two sided jobs, my alignment was drifting. Digging in to it, I found that the spur gears on both X axis gearboxes were slightly slipping. Tightened up all set screws and good to go again. Can't stop to do a complete maintenance on it right now, but I plan on doing a hard core one after the work slows down in December. That's about it for now. 131 is still more than earning her keep.

Ted
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  #135  
Old Tue 26 March 2024, 18:58
xraydude
Just call me: Ted #131
 
New Orleans, LA
United States of America
Still making chips...

#131 still rocking here. Needed some HDPE rings to use in making a silicone mold. Gotta be honest, if I could do everything with HDPE I would! It just mills so nicely. Used a cheap SPE 3.175MM carbide O flute as well as an Amana 6.35mm carbide O flute, and both milled perfectly. Running anywhere from 1000 - 3000 mm/min and 12000 - 18000 rpm, with DOC from 1/2 D to full D.

https://vimeo.com/927782247?share=copy

Ted
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