Kobus, 'Amen' to install the 5th, I also have one in my box sitting there for over a year, unues... but I know somewhere next year I am going to connect that for a simple indexer :)

You box look VERY clear, amazing job(s) you are doing.

Happy New Year, I always love to read your posts!

Ries

http://www.for3d.ru/shop/index.php?cat=33

For people that want NICE Free STL files

See it's only fragments.. will see how much I get of each piece.

Most of the files are a bit expensive...but NICE.

The fragment of the puma... sure I can make something off it.
Attachment 10953

Attachment 10954

Kobus,
Nice looking box. Those drives look so small. :) Looking forward to seeing that violin stained and finished. Do you play?

Thank's Heath...nice and simple and easy to faultfind if something goes wrong.. It happened with this box..I pinched the one X-Axis DIRECTION wire. Managed to isolate fault quickly and fixed the wire.

No I do not play the Violin, but my son of 11 years old inherited his grandfather and grandmothers musical talent. The piano teacher suggested he starts with a second instrument soon.

I have an appointment with a professional Violin maker this morning at 11h00. Will take my creation for him to check out before I glue it all together.

I am lucky is is about 50km away from me.... http://www.bekkerviolins.com/

Feedback on the violin. Had a nice chat with him and gave me a few pointers. He said that if I use the right wood, this could become something. So now that I know we are on the right track, I ordered some proper TONEWOODS from Bratislava in Slovakia. Also managed to find the accessories like the pegs, chinrest etc from place in Canada at a good price.

Today also spend time finishing off my new control box. The local BOB from Greg (www.cncdirect.co.za ) is magic. Can handle up to 6 steppers. Now my indexer is permanently wired and all I have to do is select the correct Mach Post Processor and away I go.

I visited a friend and he gave me a VFD.
It is an OMRON SYSDRIVE 3G3XV . On the front it is marked ....200v class 1ph 1.5 kW
On the side is marked Omron 3G3XV-AB0 15-E
Input: AC1ph 200-240V 50Hz / 60 Hz
Output:AC3ph 0-240V 2.8kVA 6.5A
Does this mean I will only be able to drive a 1.5kW spindle...?
If so, as I am not in the production environment, do I really need a 2.2kW spindle.
Remember I started with a 500Watt router. Now running a 1100Watt router.
I don't cut deep and fast as you all know.
Any suggestions are welcome.

If the electrical output of the VFD is 2.8kVA, then you can run nearly at 2.8kW.

(6.5 Amp 3-phase output is a lot more than 6.5 Amp single phase)

Indexer on Steriods
 

Thank's Gerald, that is good news..Maybe soon a 2.2kW spindle will be on old BBB.

This afternoon worked on my INDEXER on STERIODS.
I had an old el-cheapo tablesaw. When I got my big saw, I decided to strip this old saw to try and make a drum sander from the parts. Worked sort off, but never happy with it.

When I saw the thing that JR put together (I think it was him) to turn things with CNC, I knew I had the right parts available.

A small 150mm diameter blade has a width of 2mm....narrower than my smallest straight bit that I normally use. Will have to put a shield in front of me for all the flying chips. I turned the wiring around inside the motor so that it will turn DOWN as the lathe will turn towards me. This way most of the chips should go down to the floor....I hope.

I might also be able to cut boards with it...maybe I will make a swivel base so that I can cut in the Y-direction as well.
Attachment 11017

That looks HAIRY!!!!! but a good idea non the less. The big machines often have a unit like that for doing grooving in the X axis, maybe you can give it a try :eek:

I drilled and tap 4 x 6mm holes...So when I don't use the saw, I take it off.
Attachment 11018

Speechless & scary more than HAIRY….I’d say…. :eek:
Kobus, You’re some sort of DIY gooroo !!
Come back with some pics to show some result of usage !
Amicalement, Robert ;)

Could we expect to see something like this ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EByrvARuj4w

Kobus, you obviously need to check that the saw blade is rated for the speed of the driving motor. . . . otherwise the teeth fly off.

Hi Kobus, did you mean you reverse the he rotation direction ? If so watch so the nut dont unscrew itself when the motor turn .

Thank's for the input guys.
Danilo : That will also be possible, but my main aim is to get the turning done faster. Will spin the lathe in the normal way with the electric motor and use the blade to shape/cut the profile. Then switch to 4th axis mode to flute or engrave the table leg further.

Gerald, The motor is from a tablesaw that spinned a 10inch blade at speed, so I think the little electric handsaw blade that I will fit will be able to turn at the same speed without problem... but good thinking there.

Normand: Thanks, have not given it much thought....will put some locking device on the nut. I wanted to have the motor turn the other way to cut INTO the wood and also to throw the bits down and not up.

It is good to brainstorm this so that we cover all the bases.. thanks again for the input and let's have some more ideas.

Ah, it is already a geared table-saw motor, so the basic safety is okay. (I was a bit worried that you had a direct-drive motor there). I knew you were careful, but felt obliged to mention it for other people picking up ideas here.

Don't tell anyone, but I have already put a saw blade in an angle grinder . . . used it freehand, and lived to tell the tale. (That Woodstock tool shop used to sell a special blade for mini angle grinders, it only had 2 teeth on the disk).

Normand, the thread direction is not critical, as long as it is tight. I have seen two cases where the threads were "correct" for a saw blade carrying cutting load, but both these saws had brakes on the motors to stop them fast in an emergency. During a fast stop, the torque direction reversed, and the blades came off the shafts and ran across the workshop!

I would like to see that thing in action

Anyway make sure the gard is near the end of the shaft and that the nut and blade cannot come off without taking off the cover. We would not want a double face friend;)

Kobus, Love the saw motor idea! Check out this link K2 CNC Saw Motor

It works !!!!!
 

The concept works like a dream....will make and upload a video next time I try it out.
Today I got a halfnut...actually 2 x halfnuts... as I have lost the original that was on the motor.
When I got home this afternoon I could not wait to try it out. I fitted the blade and put lock-tite on both to make sure it stays in place

I do however have a lot of SPARKING on the brushes of the motor...more when it is cutting under load (deep cut)
Maybe the brushes must SEAT IN after I worked on it ?? Any Ideas please let me know.

This cuting was not as scary as I thought. Took it nice and slow and never felt that there was a danger situation. One needs to be careful and don't put your hand close to the blade...and don't feed to fast.

Still have to play with feeds, as I had to touch it up with sandpaper after the cut. Maybe I must increase the speed the wood is turning and slow down more on the feed of the blade cutter.

First try was a 26mm square piece 450 mm long. Took 3 minutes to do.

Attachment 11037

Wow, looks great. Will wait for the video! :)

I have a question for guys that have done some turning on their indexing systems.
Vectric Aspire suggest one uses the centre of the workpiece to set Z=0.
If my piece of wood is in the lathe...how do I get it to be in the centre of the piece....the piece is 100mm thick.
I setup my router bit to be running along the Y-axis, therefore zero the bit in the centre of the piece and on top.
There is no way for me to zero on the centre with my setup.
My way works( zero on top), but I could have variations if my stock piece varies in thickness.
I can zero the Z on the middle, but then my bit must be positioned on the side of the piece of wood, but this does not work 100% for me.
Any suggestions to help me understand this Z=0 on the centre of material is appreciated.

How about, set zero on the top surface of the work piece, move off to the side, do a G0 move to Z-50 and reset as Z zero (assuming a stating job size of 100mm), is that workable?

Just had another thought, The centre pount of the indexer should not change, so make up a spacer the correct distance between the bed and the centre point of the indexer, then set Z zero on top of this before loading the job, then irrespective of any variation in the size of your blank, it will always be set to the centre???

I don't think you can physically touch off the Z of any object in its center...
touch off Z at the top of the job, then use G92 to change the Z0 position.
This is what I will do with my EMC2.

After a long discussion with AlanC this morning I see his point. I was always working by hitting ZERO-ALL once I get to my 0,0,0 points.
He pointed out that I should zero the Z-Axis on the centre of the lathe. Then pick up the router, and go to my X and Y zero point.
Then only Zero X and Y....all so easy, will go and check tonight.
Sure it will work...just got to remember to setup Aspire to work off the centre of the workpiece.

Kobus,

you could make a touchoff plate (block?) that is stationary on the center of the workpiece.
This way you can do toolchanges, and still touch off in the center, and you can even do this with a auto-z system if you have one.

Would something like that work?

Does your indexer still look like this?

I agree with Ries (and Vectric) . . .looking from the top down (his right side sketch), the touch point is to the side of the workpiece.

Yes Gerald, it is still the same indexer...just added a new self centring 4 jaw chuck.

What I did this afternoon after work was the following.

I brought my cutter on top of the LIVE CENTER...that is 38mm diameter.
I then told Mach that this is Z=0
I then took the gantry away from this point towards X=100...to give me space to drop down on the Z-axis.
I then dropped the Z-axis another -19mm...this is now CENTRE in the lathe.
Again I did a Z=0...actually I Zero'ed ALL the axis at this point.
I then picked up Z to +60 to clear my workpiece.
Then jogged to the centre of my workpiece (X=0) and to the start of my workpiece (Y=0).
I then only did a X=0 Reference and a Y=0 reference.

This worked and the machine started to do it's cut.
I was not happy with the toolpath that it followed and stopped the Mach-3 during the cut.
I then hit GO TO Zero...
Guesss what happened...it went to X and Y zero, but tried to go to my Z= - something....the centre of the lathe.

In the past when I used the top of the workpiece and did a ZERO on all axis at this point I could easily get back to my start point...time and time again, but with this offset of the Z in the -direction, I am missing something.

So in short, the touch plate is not the issue...what sequence must I set up my reference points to get this working, so that I can get back to 0,0,0 ?
Boy, I am slow to grasp this offset thing, but point me in the right direction and I will FLY....:o

Kobus,

I am not vert familiar with Mach3, but in EMC2 we call 'Go Zero' 'Go Touchoff', in Gcode terms that is G0 X0 Y0 Z0.

May be it's a good idea to create or program a button called 'Go Home', that is usually a place on your machine 'out of the way'. In my case with the MM that's on the lower left on my machine, ususally this place is 0,0,0 in Machine coordinates. The place your machine goes to with G0 X0 Y0 Z0 are called work (offset) coordinates.

Machine coordinates => place on the machine references to the machine itself
Work coordinates => Place in reference to the workpiece.

In EMC I created two buttons
1) GO Home
2) Go to touchoff

However I programmed it in such a way that I always go to a area where Z is high enough' to fit my largest mill. So my GO TO TOUCHOFF button looks something like this sequence:
G0 Z160
G0 X0 Y0
G0 Z 40

so I first move my spindle as high as possible.
Them move to my touchoff X/Y coordinates
Then I lower my spindle 40mm above my workpiece.

Such a button should be-able to get programmed with Mach3 aswell I think.

Ries

Thank's for the input Ries. I am sure Mach-3 can do it, just that I don't yet know how. There are a lot of options in Mach to modify and do, but I got stuck to the basics and never went any further.

Die ouderdom !!:)

Decided to keep on with my old way's. Zero everything where I can see and understand it.
Then let old BBB and Aspire do it's magic.

Attachment 11118

Attachment 11119

Very Very Very Nice.

Someone needs a dust extraction attachment."Ek like dit"

Love it!

Nice :)

The patina just lifts the piece no end.

PS that saw is a crazy bit of kit :)

Regards
ross