Taking the CNC Plunge

[TomS]

I believe your X & Y motors are Wantai 85BYGH450C-012. The website says the operation range is -20c to 50c (-4f to 122f) with a max temperature rise of 80c ambient. If I read that correctly the max temp is 130c (266f) which I understand is the max temp rating for the wire insulation.

Have you measured the heat of the motors? My X & Y motors run between 100f and 115f.

What is switch SW4 on the driver set to, on or off?

Jay

Jay - sorry for not responding sooner. I just saw your post. I bought an infrared heat gun this morning. Wouldn't you know it Harbor Freight was out of stock on the $12.00 gun so I had to buy the $50.00 one. Just got done running g-code for a couple of hours and the max temp was 135 deg F. Keep in mind it's over 100F ambient here in the north state. I was guessing anything below 175F would be OK.

Switch 4: OFF = half current and ON = full current. I switched mine to full current and the motors immediately got hot at idle so I switched it back.

I'll post a few pictures of the parts I'm making later today. Thanks again for your help.

Tom S

 

[jbolt]

Jay - sorry for not responding sooner. I just saw your post. I bought an infrared heat gun this morning. Wouldn't you know it Harbor Freight was out of stock on the $12.00 gun so I had to buy the $50.00 one. Just got done running g-code for a couple of hours and the max temp was 135 deg F. Keep in mind it's over 100F ambient here in the north state. I was guessing anything below 175F would be OK.

Switch 4: OFF = half current and ON = full current. I switched mine to full current and the motors immediately got hot at idle so I switched it back.

I'll post a few pictures of the parts I'm making later today. Thanks again for your help.

Tom S

Sounds like you are good to go.

Won't be long now before you want more spindle speed

 

[TomS]

Sounds like you are good to go.

Won't be long now before you want more spindle speed

I've got the dip switches set at three amp levels below my starting point. Don't think this will be a problem unless I take deep cuts and ramp up the feed rate.

Spindle speed is already on my list as are an enclosure to keep chips and coolant contained and a new milling vice so I don't have to share it with my manual mill. I'm sure the wish list will grow over time.

Tom S

 

[jbolt]

You can never have enough tooling....

I have four vises, Three 4" vises and a 5". Two of the 4" vises are the CNC type from Shars. I use these the most. The only drawback is they are slightly different heights by about 0.003". Not a problem with soft jaws, only when using parallels. I need to have the bases ground but have yet to find someone local with a surface grinder I could use.

Tooling plates are also good to have. I made a couple from 1/2 alum plate.

Jay

 

[TomS]

You can never have enough tooling....

I have four vises, Three 4" vises and a 5". Two of the 4" vises are the CNC type from Shars. I use these the most. The only drawback is they are slightly different heights by about 0.003". Not a problem with soft jaws, only when using parallels. I need to have the bases ground but have yet to find someone local with a surface grinder I could use.

Tooling plates are also good to have. I made a couple from 1/2 alum plate.

Jay

As I learn more about CNC I'm sure my list will grow. Enclosure first then a vice, for sure.

Here's a blurry picture of a harness bar side plate I'm making for my Can Am Commander. The assembly takes two plates, four roll bar clamps, and one cross tube. The side plate still needs the outside contoured. When I get that done I'll post another picture.

Tom S

 

[TomS]

Finally was able to get back in the shop yesterday. After flailing along for a couple of hours I was able to figure out D2NC and profile the perimeter on the harness bar side plates.

First, I made a fixture which was not that difficult. When I ran D2NC, input the offset data, and selected offset the screen showed a radius on the 90 degree corners. Played around with it for a long while and went back to the house and watched the videos by jumps4. After a couple of hours, and not finding an answer, I gave up and decided I'd live with the radiused corners. Well, wouldn't you know it, when I ran the g-code it cut the corners square. The screen shot must be the way D2NC illustrates the tool path for a 90 degree corner. Anyway I learned something, which is a good thing.

I also figured out that I can save the g-code file for the roughing passes and finishing pass. This saved me from closing the g-code file and re-entering the set up info into D2NC for each part. Not to mention that in hindsight I should have machined the 1-1/2" hole and 1/4" bolt holes first, then used the fixture to machine the cutouts, chamfers, and the perimeter. I could have machined the part in two setups rather than four. Although I've been in and around machining for over 40 years my experience has been strictly manual machining. I've learned that CNC requires a different thought process. Having fun though.

Tom S

Here's a picture of the fixture. Could have held it in the vise but it was setup on my manual mill and I didn't want to spend the time to move it.


Part set up and ready to profile the perimeter.


Finished product. Next steps are bead blasting and painting.

 

[TomS]

Now that I've run a few CNC jobs I have come to the conclusion that I need to better contain the chips. Seems that I'm spending as much time cleaning up as I'm machining. So I've started on making an enclosure for my mill. I'm building it based on other enclosures I've seen on the web using the features I like best. The first order of business is to build a cover for the X and Y axis motors. While I would have liked to make the enclosure with a minimum of seams I'm limited to bending pieces 36" wide with my HF brake. Sheet metal is 24 gauge and will be attached with blind rivets and sealer at all joints. The picture below show my slow progress.

Tom S

Still need to make a cover for the Y axis motor.

 

[jumps4]

Everything Looks good Tom
your chamfers look nice, I haven't tried that yet.
You can get quite a pile of chips in a very short time...
Steve

 

[TomS]

Everything Looks good Tom
your chamfers look nice, I haven't tried that yet.
You can get quite a pile of chips in a very short time...
Steve

Thanks Steve. Didn't realize it but CNC machining does generate lots of chips in a very short period of time. Add in the coolant factor and before you know it you've got a big mess to clean up.

Tom S

 

[TomS]

Finally got the base portion of the enclosure nearly finished. This thing is huge at 43" wide by 88" long. I wanted to have enough room to clean around the mill, especially in the back, and with direct drive motors it ended up being bigger than I anticipated.

I used sealant at all the joints when assembling the panels but still need to go back and fill in a few voids. I used 1/8" aluminum blind rivets to hold everything together.

I need to reroute the X and Y axis motor leads, limit switch wiring and lube oil feed to the distribution manifold. Next step is to build the wall panels and the doors.

Tom S