A "different" project - CNC conversion.

[turbostang]

A lot of you already know about this project, but most don't - it's different that what you've probably seen me post in the past, but here it is. This is a Industrial Hobbies mill clone sold by a company called Machine Tools Warehouse out of Canada. This is one of the biggest "benchtop" milling machines you can find - The travels are 31" x, 12" y, and 16" z.

The machine is purchased in a regular ol' manual machine form, with NO options etc. It's basic as basic as can be, but still pretty useful. I've had it nearly a year now and use it VERY often. The "conversion" process is pretty intense, but a fun project. I must admit, the electronics part of it was pretty intimidating for me, but with the help of "Mark04" that was pretty easy...

Once completed it will have programmable spindle control, flood coolant, 100-6500RPM spindle speeds, Threading, 4 axis ability, FULL 3D machining, it should be able to rapid travers about 350-400IPM, and machine in the 100 IPM range on aluminum etc.

The semi-technical aspect:
3HP spindle motor (will probably get changed to VFD control)
72V power supply for the servos
4 axis Keling 1125oz./in servo motors
Gecko 320X drivers
CNC4PC C23 break out board and electronics (jog pendant, relay board etc.)
Warp9 Smooth stepper USB board (Converts Parallel communication to USB)

This is the machine now, sitting on a basic stand with nothing done - this was done just so it can be used. Once the conversion is complete, it will have a full enclosure with flood coolant etc.

To put it in perspective, that shelf is 6' off the ground and the machine weighs in at 1000#.



This is most of the electronic part, dummied up on a board for ease of wiring and testing.

[TENGRAM]

Where are you getting your conversion hardware from? Is this going to accept g-code or iges files, or does it just have a stand alone controller?

[Blue88Coupe]

that has independent Z axis control that isnt controlled by the quill handle? We have a very similar machine at school and I hate having to use the fine adjustments on the spindle vs having an actual Z adjustment.

[jw33]

Very interesting. I've briefly read about these conversions, but never really understood how you actually did it. I'll be watching closely. Is there a decent price break when you piece it all together vs. a turnkey setup?

[turbostang]

The main portion of the electronics are coming from one of two places:
www.kelinginc.net (motors, drivers and power supply)
www.cnc4pc.com (break out board, relay board etc)

The hardware, like ball screws and ball nuts come from Roton. It will have .5 pitch 16MM screws on X and Y and probably 18MM on Z.

It's just like ANY other cnc machine, it will take standard industry accepted files after they've been converted to G-code. It does take some of the files in raw form, but I can't remember the extensions right off hand.

Yes, the Z axis is fully independant - the original handles and feed mechanism will be removed and the quill locked in place completely.

The conversion cost is still HIGH by most peoples standards, but my main purpose has many pieces to the agenda: (I'm in it right now for about 6K, Est 10K by completion - turnkey off the shelf, 14K-20K depending on options)

1)don't have to shell out the 10-20K up front
2)become VERY familiar with the electronics
3)become VERY familiar with the machine
4)abillity to repair any aspect of the machine in the event of failure
5)You can customize your applicatoin as far as your mind will take you.

This machine in the video shown below is what my machine is a clone of, but a manual version... actually, the original vendor sells a manual version too...I guess the company I got mine from found the original manufacturer in China and got in with them.

The cut they are doing is pretty light duty, but you get the idea.



This is what the 4th axis setup will look like:

[inline 6]

Nice dude, I have been into cnc for a little while myself. I went with a router though. What are you using for software? Let me know if you need anything I have pretty much everything.

[turbostang]

Hey Dos - Yeah, I'm using Mach3 for controll software. (I also bought the wizard add ons, licensing etc). Most of my CAM work used to be done on the machine, but now days I have BobCad to draw with. Been quite a while since I've done any CAD work, I'm pretty rusty!

FWIW, Today we wired up the servos and ran some test programs. Everything works according to plan. I'll take a video later and post it up.

[turbostang]

Mark and I finished up the majority of the wiring today -..er.. Mark did! I did some quick setup, programmed a few pins and got the coolant pump relay to work with the M8/M9 commads like it should. Now you can hear it turn off/on with the program.
I made a quick program that's "drilling holes" just to illustrate the movement of the axes. The furthest one from the camera is the 4th axis, it won't be doing anything in this particular program.

The next step is sourcing the enclosure for the electronics and putting it all in there.

[Magnimike1]

Awesome stuff. The guy's out at Mike's Trickshift said it best. "that Brooks guys head is large for a reason". LOL

[turbostang]

Lol.

[turbostang]

One more piece of the puzzle on the way, the enclosure should be here in the next few days.

For the records, eventually it will end up with this capability

[JamesB]

damn, those are expensive mills. 30k

[turbostang]

Yep. For the accuracy they are claiming, it's pretty good. You can't get ANY kind of 5 axis machine turn key for that much money.

There are a lot of other off the shelf machines though (that fit a benchtop type machine criteria), like MikinMech, Tormach, Industrial hobbies cnc etc..

Tormach and IHCNC have 4 axis kits too - but still near 20K.

[Big A]

Very cool. How accurate is a manual conversion like that? The same as a purpose built auto machine?

[turbostang]

Most of the accuracy depends on what kind of ballscrews and ballnuts you buy - I'd say average accuracy is in the .0005 range, and if you buy the good stuff, I'd say that .00005 is achievable, but not real common place. A lot of the accuracy depends on how you make your final cuts...