Slant-Bed CNC Lathe Build

[footpetaljones]

I've seen a few machines that have the Spindle move in the X direction. The majority of them are chucker lathes, as you can't run a bar feeder with them. The Hasegawa TZ25 is one of them. Link here

The Quicktech i42 Eco is an example of an XYZC lathe with a fixed headstock. Link here

Whether you go with a moving headstock, or fixed, I would encourage you to make the tool plate vertical rather than at 30 degrees. When dealing with slant beds, alignment is more difficult versus machines that have a flat surface with everything else is 90 degrees to it. Having the tool plate vertical has the benefits of saving space and having the best possible chip evacuation.

I can't see how having the spindle hanging from the rails saves any space over mounting the rails below. It will add a lot of frustration to trying to bolt the motor in while holding it up, for sure.

 

[barnbwt]

That Hasegawa is a very similar concept. Just with a Swiss style toolplate vs a turret, so a tailstock or guide bushing is theoretically viable.

I'm sort of confused about the incline/alignment bit. The 60deg slant gives you room for support structure beneath the rails, but also shortens depth a bit. Being vertical would require a bunch of structure behind the rails, so the depth overall wouldn't be much different (I think). The X and Y are orthogonal, for what that's worth.

The reason I put the Y axis/spindle rails above the spindle was because of the incline. The rails move with the spindle (the carriages are fixed to the frame), so putting them above has the effect of sitting them a little further back inside the machine. That should minimize how much they will protrude toward the operator, so that should keep the housing smaller.

I'm hoping the motor/headstock will be more accessible in the hanging arrangement with that void beneath them. It also lets me set tools with cranking the saddle out to Z maximum travel.

 

[barnbwt]

Well, the board has been powered up, and no blue smoke was emitted. I also have no idea what I'm doing so it's gonna be slow going

I have managed to perform a hard reset (huzzah!) which cleared out the previous IP address, and more importantly, subnet mask that is incompatible with my local network. As it was, the devices could see each other (so the controller showed up in GalilTools), but they were not allowed to talk (indicated by the detected IP address being greyed-out)

Hard reset (jumper between the JP2 pins near the edge of the board marked "MR" before a power-up cycle, then turn off & remove the jumper, start up as usual before going into GalilTools; the pins' tails "go through" the SDM-20640 daughter board conveniently enough so the board did not have to be disassembled) put the unit into the default state where none of the addressing has been fixed, and the GalilTools software is able to see it. At that point the model info and serial number were detected, and I could assign & 'burn in' the new comms info, which was set to be a very similar IP address to my other devices on the router & identical subnet mask. Now GalilTools can see it! So far so good, at least the board's not fried AFAIK.

Oh, I fully expect to have to do this at least a few more times, which is why I'm writing it down; I've messed with ethernet router stuff just enough to know that the IP addresses get changed frequently, so I expect the router to lose communication until I figure out how to nail it down (that is, I'm not assuming the PC is a static address that the controller can always dial up upon startup)

 

[Karl_T]

Once you are running, try a master reset from the command prompt. change a value then,

You have to enable control characters, then:


<control>R<control>S


FUNCTION: Master Reset


DESCRIPTION:


This command resets the controller to factory default settings and erases EEPROM.


A master reset can also be performed by installing a jumper on the controller at the location


labeled MRST and resetting the controller (power cycle or pressing the reset button). Remove


the jumper after this procedure.


USAGE: DEFAULTS:


While Moving Yes Default Value -


In a Program No Default Format -


Command Line Yes


Controller Usage ALL CONTROLLERS

 

[Karl_T]

P.S. Keep a record of all changes as you verify what you want along with the command to change that parameter. then we can make up a .dmc file to download them all. if you ever suspect SOMETHING got farked up. do amaster reset, followed by a run of this .dmc file.

mine also includes all the subroutines all the motor PID data etc. I can then put it all in another galil card in a few seconds.


PS I just scored a Galil 1880 card, title slightly mis- labeled on eBay, for $175. Tested it a couple days ago and it works fine. Hope you don't think I paid too much, they are about $3K new.

 

[Karl_T]

posted to wrong thread. my mistake - deleted

 

[JimDawson]

Oh, I fully expect to have to do this at least a few more times, which is why I'm writing it down; I've messed with ethernet router stuff just enough to know that the IP addresses get changed frequently, so I expect the router to lose communication until I figure out how to nail it down (that is, I'm not assuming the PC is a static address that the controller can always dial up upon startup)

What I like to do is use the PC's onboard Ethernet port only for communicating with the Galil and fix that subnet, then use a seperate USB Ethernet port to connect to the world if needed.

PS I just scored a Galil 1880 card, title slightly mis- labeled on eBay, for $175. Tested it a couple days ago and it works fine. Hope you don't think I paid too much, they are about $3K new.

SCORE

 

[barnbwt]

P.S. Keep a record of all changes as you verify what you want along with the command to change that parameter. then we can make up a .dmc file to download them all. if you ever suspect SOMETHING got farked up. do amaster reset, followed by a run of this .dmc file.

mine also includes all the subroutines all the motor PID data etc. I can then put it all in another galil card in a few seconds.


PS I just scored a Galil 1880 card, title slightly mis- labeled on eBay, for $175. Tested it a couple days ago and it works fine. Hope you don't think I paid too much, they are about $3K new.

Nice. I'm using a laptop so PCI cards are a no go (including graphics cards, *sigh*), but those are functionally the same as their external controllers for the most part, right? Thanks for the tip on the .dmc file; that's very handy.

 

[Karl_T]

The PCI bus is far faster, recommended if you are high speed surfacing with monster gcode files and tiny moves per line. At least that is the case with Camsoft where the code is fed to the galil controller one line at a time.

Also helps with high speed lathe threading where a high speed input from an OPTO-22 input is used to start the thread cycle. In this case, I also increased the scan rate of the Galil card to maximum. This effects all the PID tuning so you may want to look into this early on. I'd first ask Jim how his control handles lathe thread cycles. He may not have implemented all the features you can get with two line G76.

In general you'll be fine without this, a dedicated LAN like Jim suggests is going to handle things.

 

[JimDawson]

I'd first ask Jim how his control handles lathe thread cycles. He may not have implemented all the features you can get with two line G76.

I don't have a single point threading cycle set up yet because I haven't needed it, but it could happen pretty quickly. My software does do rigid tapping, and with live tooling does thread milling. Once I get my current press project out of the way and get another customer's router upgraded, I'll get back to getting the lathe software finished. Should be able to start back on that by the end of the month.