Hi Mike

Should have but no, might approach the distributor here about that.
I use a PMDX 122 and at a rough glance will only need one ribbon cable from the Smoothstepper to the BOB.

Cheers
Ross

PC - Ethernet Cable - Smoothstepper - 26 Pin Ribbon Cable - PMDX122.

Ross

It had a huge impact on how the (my) machine ran. I wish I had noted or logged the major differances to share. I remember grinning though after I made it through the swap. It has been to long to remember all the little details. The biggest thing I can suggest is to use the latest version of mach and the latest Driver. Backlash comp is working too, which was a long wait. I think Gerald is using it as I remember.

Drivers are at- http://warp9td.com/downloads.htm

Dust Collection Gantry- Time Lapse Test Code
 

Here is a time lapse video of my machine running 10 minutes of test code that shapes one side of a surfboard.
The machine is doing 20 meters per minute in this run, it goes ok as long as the acceleration / deceleration values are conservative.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tssNNS_6D-M

I have used my drill press as the base for the dust pipe gantry.
Normally this would not be such as good idea but the mobile base that I made gives the drill press lots more stability in all directions.
There is a pic of the mobile base somewhere on my thread, it has proven to be a great addition and very safe.
A flat plate is just clamped to the table.
Bungy cable, pipe joiners, 100mm sewer pipe and cable ties do the rest.

Attachment 13165

Regards
Ross

Sorry Ross,

I blinked and missed it :p the video I mean !! nice to see you still experimenting and working things out. Looking forward to the full blown video cutting a U Beaut surfboard one of these days :D

Cheers
Tony

Very nice Ross. I want to be like you when I grow up :D. I think I finally got my machine tuned so now it's time to put the to cut some real work..

Hi Tony, good to hear from you.

Miguel - you don't want to be like me (least today), as it was a long hard one with problems a plenty.
Can't lie I am drawn to solving things but it is certainly not easy street :)

Any way here is a video of my machine ripping into some EPS foam at the promised 20 meters per minute.
It starts off at 10 meters per minute, so ya gotta wait a bit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elM0MLfYpU4

Attachment 13174

Issues today

I found my blank was bending as the vac cups sucked it to the supports.
The fix was care of Miki Langenbach the CNC guy on the Gold Coast.
The cups are now loose and travel to the board, then are fixed once they have suctioned on.
No more deformation of the blank - Thanks Miki.
This also helps with more accurate positioning which is what we actually talked about.

The ball valves for the suction cups at each end of the table make single person positioning of the blank super easy.

Darn that gcode it looked good on the machine controller but cut the rails boxy requiring lots more hand shaping time.
This foam is like steel and laughs at 80 grit.
I suspect the cutter model but have to figure out how to catch it out.

Got one crazy low rapid on the underside that mowed to much foam out of the centerline. Filler anyone :D

Regards
Ross

Ethernet Smooth Stepper Install
 

Hi All

Attachment 13178 Attachment 13179

Attachment 13180

Quickly got the software installed but you need to follow the somewhat "distributed" resources on the web. Any way it works.
The phrenologists on the forum will probably be able to read a few more bumps on my head as any new piece of hardware tends to induce.

Any users with un-geared motors running a SS, if you could to share your Max Frequency and Max Step Frequency settings it would be appreciated.

Their is always that one issue and mine is a little confusing.
The feedrate override produces jerky movements when running Gcode.
The machine jogs very smoothly at full speed even when pushed to a crazy 40m/min (just has trouble stopping !!)
GCode that is set to 20 m/min runs perfectly but code set to 10m/min feedrate over-rided to 200% is jerky.
Feedrate overide reductions run well.

I have seasawed the Max Frequency and Max Step Frequency Values to their extremes in the ESS pluggin configuration and this seems to have no effect.
Feed rate override issues aside it did not miss a beat.

Regards
Ross

Feedrate Solved
 

My Ethernet Smoothstepper (ESS) instalation gave me one challange that I now have solved.
To make it perfectly clear it was unrelated to the ESS in the end, interesting none the less.

My motor tuning was set to 20m/min and when running gcode written to move at 20m/min the movement was nice and smooth.
When running gcode set to 10m/min at 200% feedrate (equal to 20m/min) the movement was jerky... hmm.
This problem persisted with both the ESS and the Standard Parallel Port

While away I though through the issue and proposed to tune the motors to an even faster rate of 30m/min to allow for some "overhead" in the speed.
My thinking was that there was some difference between Mach3's pre plannned movements and movements that were produced using feedrate over ride.
Sure enough smooth movement returned but I have at this early stage been unable to establish the exact difference.
I suspect that the instructions for the increased speed takes time to work through the buffers as per a suggestion from Jeff Birth on the Warp9 forum.

Anyway the issue has been resolved and I hope my experiences can add to others understanding.
In summary allowing some overhead between the max speed of the cgode and the max speed the motors are tuned to, fixed the feedrate over ride issues.

Regards
Ross

Always a pleasure looking inside your control panel. So tidy & well laid out.
I wish my next box will be like yours.

Took two days of reading , but just finished reading your build ....nice machine ! on the subject of surfboards....... http://aps300.com/download
http://jedail.free.fr/programs/HBTM.jnlp ..... I will assumed you have these to programs ..... folks on a couple of hollow wood boards site want to know how to produce G-code with the results of using these frebie programs.... They want to get people with cnc machines to cut for them .

Art Fennerty, the author of Mach3, has always said that feedrate override should be used to slow an axis more than speed it up.

As a principal, get used to increasing the feedrate in code and then slow it to a desired speed with feedrate override.

Think of maybe 120% as a maximum.

Greolt

Hi Greg

I have arrived at this same conclusion by the back door so it is good to know that the designer intended it that way.
The Ethernet Smoothstepper has certainly made it easy to swap in a new controller PC and it seems to have made some differences in the operation of the machine as well.
It has never failed on communications over my short period of use so it all looking good.

Thanks for your input.

Regards
Ross

New Electronics Set to Work
 

Hi All

My Mechmate is steadily getting its eye in on the surfboard shaping side of things.
Today I cut out a 6 foot 2 inch round tail mid performance board.

Attachment 13227

... and a video of some of the stages http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOsYatkbjXc

Regards
Ross

Realy nice Ross !
It looks like dust extraction is still a problem with that "shapes".

More Inspiration for the Aspiring Surfboard Shapers
 

Hi Everyone

First up two pics of the a finished 6 foot 2 inch round tail I shaped a while back.
High density EPS foam core, 4 oz fiberglass and Innegra fiber reinforcements and epoxy resin.
I glass the boards myself and they are not absolutely perfect yet but in time I hope to get there.

Attachment 13262

Attachment 13263

Attachment 13264

Also aother 6 foot 4 inch swallow tail shaped on Friday.
The rails turned out OK this time so no hand shaping will be required other than the normal screen sanding.

Attachment 13265

Attachment 13266

A link to the video of my machine shaping the blank for those interested.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYj05Inp5PU

Lastly a little more information.
This time the cutter used was a 12mm 4 flute end mill, the gcode modeling for this cutter produced the correct rounded shaped rails in the mid section of the blank (a win there).
Secondly at 1:03 you will see a green piece of plastic appear on the gantry tube.
This is a thin plastic cutting board just stuck there with magnets to see if it would deflect some of the EPS from the Y car rack and pinion.
If you watch the video carefully you will see the exclusion pattern in the EPS stuck to the tube face.

This idea needs refinement, however as a first principal I think that I'm on to something here.

Love my machine, a super tool if ever there was one.

Regards
Ross

Love the Video - THanks for sharing!

A pleasure Sean - had to learn how to edit videos but thought it was about time !!

Regards
Ross

Nice video, and machine!

I have often wondered about rigging small air hoses to blow away dust from critical points. But your deflector would be a simpler option.

Hi Gerald - Thanks

Me too on your idea of directing air at the parts that needed protecting.
I have mentioned this to Red_boards as he runs his EPS foam machining tests.
I am a bit short on air to run the experiment as my compressor is used for the vacuum hold down.
40 litre 2 hp big box store compressors are very cheap and would be probably produce an adequate air stream for one or two points.
So your idea might still get some legs some day, just got to find somewhere to plug another compressor in!

I have found the Z slide to get plenty of foam on it but the concentrics do not allow movement sideways as it builds.
The foam consequently compacts and comes off as plastic ribbons.
The C car rack and pinion allows for continuous accretion of the foam and lacks that extra force of the Z slide to clean itself.

Regards
Ross

The exhaust from the vacuum holddown might be sufficient?

Hi Gerald

The exhaust port of the venturi is 6mm, so I might connect up a hard 10mm pneumatic pipe an see what gives. Thanks

Ross

That feels about right - no back pressure to venturi

Ross and Gerald,
Back when I was cutting those HUGE statues on my 4th axis, I experimented with air jets on the carriages to keep the rack clear. It worked exceptionally well. What I did was the following:

(adopted a HVLP paint gun parts)
Used the 4psi reducing port off the gun, to a piece of 3/8" clear hose, then just put the bottom part of a ball point pen (the clicky, screw together type) through a little hole I drilled in the y-car side plate.

Worked like a charm. Blew all the EPS off the rack consistently without making to much go airborne.

(Funny, how long ago that was making snow everyday for about 7 weeks)

Note:

I also liberally coated the rack with Table Saw slick top spray so the foam didn't stick. If you do this - make sure you get the NON Silicon version. The cheap silicon version will contaminate everything in your work/part area

Sean, have those statues been revealed in public yet? Still curious to see what they look like.....

Great video Ross, and love the finished result. You have made a truly awesome machine in MM.

Cheers
Tony

HI Tony

Thanks for the comments. I just got back from the beach after testing the previous 6 2 board my machine shaped and can report it is a keeper:D
Very happy with how it goes.

Regards
Ross

Good work you have done a great job with your innovations

Pete

C Car Air Blower
 

Hi all

My new C car blower works great. A 6mm pneumatic tube pumps air in from my compressor and blows directly on to the pinion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYrkcrUScNo

I mucked up the titles but watch the video to see it in action.
Note the cleared area as the car moves side to side.

Gerald, I plumbed up the venturi exhaust but in the end it needed a continuous flow of air.
The vacuum system has a storage tank so it only needed to recharge periodically, while that foam, well it was a full time job:)

Thanks Sean for your valuable input.

Regards
Ross

Good news!