Cool😎
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Miles Blow - Julie Pitts
www.mulesfilm.com.au
www.wombokforest.com.au

-Pickasso- Vivid Sportsman champion 2015

Head job:

The CNC mill head got some attention today; most of the wiring needs to be re-routed and all the electronics has to be transplanted into a new plastic enclosure. Its looking just a bit daunting:



All the wires have to come off the main PCB and at least half have to be dragged back out of those large conduits - all without a circuit diagram .



Most of the controls and the speed LCD have to be relocated to a new panel outside the enclosure - I might leave the e-stop button and the power light on the head for safety.



Getting the quill out is ridiculously easy so swapping the MT3 spindle for an R8 taper is the first job. having the quill out of the head makes it obvious where to place extra locking screws so there is no chance of movement later on.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

Spindle problems:

The MT3 spindle came out easily after taking off the locking nuts and tapping it a few times. I can't say the same for installing the new R8 Spindle ! It is almost 20mm longer than the old spindle and the diameter must be slightly larger as it absolutely will not press back in to the quill:



The spindle should be almost flush with the end of the quill - guess I need a bigger BFH! It probably needs to come back out and get ground slightly with the hobo toolpost grinder.

I had a mini rage-quit and moved on to the replacement panels for the mill head; here is the replacement for the LCD display:



Once that is filled, painted and back-lit, its going to add some class to the mill
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

Multi-fail:

Fail #1: I found why the new spindle didn't press into the quill - the lower bearing's ID is 1mm smaller than the quill ! Looking at the photo, its like the parts came from completely different mills:



The parts are different lengths and the R8 part at the bottom has a 1mm smaller OD - why do you taunt me so, Sieg? I sent an email to the Little Machine Shop and if the OD of the replacement quill is the same as what I have, then I will get a quill and bearing kit to fit the R8 spindle.

Fail#2: I worked on the Laser carriage alignment problem, drilling an access hole in the X axis tube and using a long haemostat clamp to reach down the tube and retrieve the screws. The screws were not even finger tight and really did nothing to keep the axis secured on the linear rails - good one Chinese laser company!



Now I have access to the linear bearing, a 5mm spacer can be fitted, which will get the beam and laser head lined up for better cutting.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

looking good nick, please continue to keep the forum alive!!!!!
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Creative Instigation - Build Something Awesome!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTuWeJ4OrAcsmjKir9L4JNg

https://www.facebook.com/CreativeInstigation/

I'm giving it CPR every day
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

Laser cutter:

The X axis alignment problem is all fixed and the beam position only varies by around 0.5mm across the length of the bed - close enough! I tested the power loss at various points and the new mirrors are a definite improvement, with the first two mirrors only losing 4W each - that's as good as it gets. The new lens is also much lower loss but third mirror is still losing about 20W . I swapped the mirrors around fussed with the alignment and even made a custom alignment tool to no avail.

I think what must be happening is that the laser beam has spread out a bit after reflecting off the first two mirrors and no matter how well aligned it is with mirror 3, the edges of the beam always hit the aluminium mirror mount and not the mirror. The cutting power is better than before but I want some of that lost 20W back. I'm looking at a new laser head that takes a larger mirror; before ordering it, a test with the IR camera may show where the laser is hitting and warming up the mirror mounting.

CNC mill:

Little Machine Shop replied very promptly about the new quill dimensions and their version is 0.02 inches larger than mine - or someone's callipers weren't zeroed Either way, the quill can be made to fit so that's saved the R8 spindle conversion.

Robots:

With the Nats and Robochallenge creeping up its time to dive back into not building - stay tuned!
_________________
Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

Laser cutter:

The X axis alignment problem is all fixed and the beam position only varies by around 0.5mm across the length of the bed - close enough! I tested the power loss at various points and the new mirrors are a definite improvement, with the first two mirrors only losing 4W each - that's as good as it gets. The new lens is also much lower loss but third mirror is still losing about 20W . I swapped the mirrors around fussed with the alignment and even made a custom alignment tool to no avail.

I think what must be happening is that the laser beam has spread out a bit after reflecting off the first two mirrors and no matter how well aligned it is with mirror 3, the edges of the beam always hit the aluminium mirror mount and not the mirror. The cutting power is better than before but I want some of that lost 20W back. I'm looking at a new laser head that takes a larger mirror; before ordering it, a test with the IR camera may show where the laser is hitting and warming up the mirror mounting.

CNC mill:

Little Machine Shop replied very promptly about the new quill dimensions and their version is 0.02 inches larger than mine - or someone's callipers weren't zeroed Either way, the quill can be made to fit so that's saved the R8 spindle conversion.

Robots:

With the Nats and Robochallenge creeping up its time to dive back into not building - stay tuned!
_________________
Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

Decimator:

It was extremely scary before, this time its slightly less scary but more reliable. I decided to stay with a Bisalloy blade for now as the titanium one is too hard to make without a mill. Here is a 12mm thick blade prototype:



A rough weigh-in puts the bot at 10.5Kg without the blade so if that's rounded up to 11Kg for missing widgets, there is still enough spare weight for a very effective blade.

There is still quite a bit of work to do but most of it is easy; today the wiring loom got plenty of work and next job it to try to squeeze a large Lipo into a small space
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

CNC mill:

Just a short update today; after some detective work, I found that the R8 replacement spindle is really for an X3 mill, which has a slightly different shaped spindle, quill, bearings etc - so its never going to fit my SX3 mill

After copious Googling I found that Grizzly USA sells the SX3 under their own name and they have the right spindle for WAY less then the Little Machine Shop. I also found that European SX3 mills have an ISO30 Spindle - if I didn't already have all this Tormach TTS tooling, that would be a sweet, sweet upgrade!

I finally worked out some of the issues with the epoxy concrete mill base; I can now heat up the workshop to over the critical 16 Deg. C so the epoxy sets and the epoxy / aggregate ratio is more or less set. I will mix a test sample and adjust the mix if its is too far off.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

Epoxy concrete:

The test batch of epoxy concrete doesn't look like much but it worked out very well:



I will add more 2mm aggregate to the next batch as this one has a bit much resin. The epoxy takes ages to set - which is a good thing. Its easy to mix up small batches and pour them over previous batches and have the layers bond completely while they are both liquid. Tomorrow promises to be another warm 'n epoxy-friendly day so its time to pour the mill base. Once the base is full, it should weigh about 8.7Kg more; not as much as I guessed but every little bit of weight helps dampen vibration and stiffen the frame.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

Looks hard
_________________
Miles Blow - Julie Pitts
www.mulesfilm.com.au
www.wombokforest.com.au

-Pickasso- Vivid Sportsman champion 2015

Epoxy concrete:

Well, that wasn't as hard as I thought . Mixing & pouring the epoxy took almost two hours but the actual procedure was easy.



After masking the mill base and pre-measuring half the aggregate, I got the shed warmed up to 25 Deg, and started mixing. The rest went by in a blur and the base is now totally filled. It took quite a bit more aggregate than I estimated; 11.4 Kg plus whatever the resin weighs - more weight means less vibration so I am definitely not complaining!



After a day for the epoxy to set, the base can be turned over and I can start working on the Y axis.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

CNC mill:

Now the base is finished, its time for a test fit of the major parts. There was an early problem when I found that the resin had seeped around the mounting studs AND into the nuts, welding the backing 20mm backing plate to the base.

The largest BFH and a blow torch eventually loosened the plate and allowed the resin to be scraped off:



Getting the back plates, angles and the column mounted was straightforward:



That's the X and Z axis motors in position, stiil need to get all the Y axis parts assembled. While I was doing all the above, this new vice arrived; the DHL guy could barely carry it



Its a bit oversized for the Sieg mill, its more meant for a larger mill some time in the future. I got a good discount on it that made it about the same as top quality vice from Hare F forbes, but with better features.

There is one annoying issue with the column brace; The screws holding it together interfere with the coupling plate that connects the ball screw with the head:



Its fixable; I just have to countersink 16 holes
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

Y axis:

I found all the parts for the Y axis and got it temporarily assembled. The dual ball screws are a bit funky to install and adjust but after some trial 'n error, there is absolutely no backlash:



Before the ballscrew can be attached to the Y carriage, I have to drill & tap four ports for the lube system. There really isn't much metal in that area and there is very little difference between too shallow for the NTP threads to seal and too deep and breaking through the far side of the carriage.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion