EMC2 Revisit

Had a go at the Mach3 trial version earlier, it is nice package packed with load of goodies but it does has a 500 lines limit, until I pay up US175 for the full version... It was a lot of money to me so I revamp my system to EMC2 the open source program that is free to own & most importantly free to tweak.

Presently, EMC2_2.4.3 release is available & it can run in the latest Ubuntu 10.04 LTS released which can handle dual-core mobo. BUT since my mobo is single core ATOM board & I'm to anxious to get my machine in full operation mode as soon as possible, I stick to the Live Disc which contains EMC2_2.3.4 + Ubuntu 8.04LTS. I'll go for 10.04 & EMC2_2.4.xx when they comes in live disc...

It is great to have EMC2 back in business, the motors sounded happier, smoother & refine.
From the jam packed Mach3 screen, the bare & simplistic EMC2 AXIS screen suddenly feels empty... AND I missed the Auto Z Touch-off feature... Without further a do, I dig into information on Auto Z Touch-off feature in the wide sea of WWW.

Nothing is new under the sun... apparently; Many EMC2 users had their own concoction & I found good information on one of the step-by-step how-to here...
http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/emcinfo.pl?ClassicLadderExamples#Single_button_probe_touchoffand  here is how this thingy came about.
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=62423

They involve pyPVC which is a screen editor to tweak the custom virtual panel & Classicladder which is a ladder program. on top of that one has to be well verse with the MDI_COMMANDS in the Axis HAL & some Python language....

Took over a week to have a creak at the programes without much success... hence, to save time & loosing hair, I put on my copycat hat & shamelessly copied every step to the teeth & after some debugging & troubleshooting, ITS ALIIIIVVVE!!!

While I was at it, I squeeze in the jogging button for convenient operation.

Next will be a HID (Human Interface Device) using a common wireless game pad.... Don't wait up, I'll never know when I'll get there...

Another Health Hazard Management - Dust Collector

Anyone whom ever worked with wood working power tools can tell you how fast & convinient they make, BUT no one ever mentioned the mess it left with the amount of wood dust, saw dust they generate...
Wood dust get into everywhere! That includes every possible crackes, gap, opening in the building... Those which manage to get air bourn will stay air bourne for hours!!!
Not forgetting the demage they can do to our lungs, nostril & any other opening in your body...

I'm a lazy sob, I hate to do cleaning chore... & I don't want to die of lung cancer...
Naturally, I'm reluctant to use my CNC Router....Cleaning the mess is hell!!!

To keep my sanity & healthy lungs, I installed a full fledge 2-Stage Dust Collecting System... which really is nothing more then a glorified industrial grade vacuum cleaner...

I bought this Twin-Bag Single-Stage Dust Collector, I did planned to build this from scratch but again... As I'm a lazy sob especially when the financial benifit did not churn out more the 70% savin...

The white thingy is the fabric filter bag which stop fine dust from entering the shop ambient.

This is the centrifugal fan which acts as the "sucker"

Since the fan impellar & filter bag do worth some money, it will be best to have a buffer to remove most of the saw dust & foreign object from getting to them. The ideal solution (for me) will be a dust cyclone, which is not difficult & expensive to construct but I came accrose this Thien Separator in the internet which is even easier & cheaper to construct.

This is the Thien Separator which were constructed from a 200L barrael which I robbed from a friend & some fitting & CNC cut plywood. This will drop off 80~90%  of the saw dust & any heavy foreign object from contact with the fan impeller and fill up the filter bag.

This how they look inside.

Another view of the separator internal organs

This is the fully assembled dust shoe,

 it will confirn the saw dust within the effective vacuum suction region. Also capture larger wood chips from flying all over the place. the brush is a door seal brush & the rest of the wooden structure were cut by my CNC router. Everything just snapped on seamlessly.

The original hole around the cutting bit is round but was accidently demaged during test... but it still work beautifully as it is now... (too lazy to make another...)

suction hose attachement.

More pre-assembled pixs.

Then the flexible host.

And the assembled 2-Stage Dust collection system.

Now.... I am fresh out of excuse to delay cleaning up the workshop....

Upgrade Cooling water System for Water Cool Spindle

My spindle cooling water pump gave up on me!
No, I didn't fry my spindle along with it :)
I was so glad I had the reservoir made out of transparent plastic container! Saw that the water flow was reduced to a trickle when I started up the pump 2 weeks ago...

After some leg work, found a nice submersible pump. It was a love at 1st sight! black aluminium body, stainless steel impeller & shaft, 415V/3 phase, 1/10 horse power (75 watt) , capable of 2m head but didn't indicate the flow rate... & the best part was its has a RM250 price-tag! well within my RM300 budget! I love it so much that I couldn't care less about the flow rate...
I only need 350 ml/min which I recon a lovely pump of this specs will surely achieve.

Another pleasant surprise to find the shop next door carry some heavy-duty PE tanks! So I just got hold of a 16 liter tank, I choose it as it look about right size to keep the pump stable...

More leg work to find some extra 6mm tubing, connector, reducer, 4 core wires, an on-off switch, some screws, washers, pp tubing tape...
Took a nice Sunday morning in cooling rain to tie everything up nicely...

Open up all the necessary opening for mounting the pump, fit the reducer at the outlet,use up some 20m of 6mm pneumatic tubing to go along the cable chain,  I like the pneumatic tubing as it has stiff tube wall, it is light weight & the glossy finishing eye-catching... & some fittings to go along...

Tie up the electic cable, switch, got the motor direction correct & ready for a test.

The pump fills up a 1 liter paint can in 2 minutes 45 seconds, so a healthy 363 ml/min. consider the amount of work it has to get through some 30m long tiny 6mm tubing... an improvement over my old aquarium which was 300 ml/min at its best...

Ran the motor with the spindle running for over an hour & everything is cool & nice! This industrial grade outfit will serve me trouble-free for a long time...

Total damage? RM276... yeah... don't believe everything written on the price tag.... LOL

I would conclude this upgrade a complete success!

What next?
I can' really see the water level despite the translucent tank wall, will buy some of car radiator coolant to give a distinct color to it & give better corrosion protection to my pricy spindle. If it still doesn't work, I'll die the coolant with ink :)

Pre-raquisite Software Skill for operating the BEAST

Building the CNC Router was a stressful but fulfilling experience. Inflated ego was the direct product of this memorable journey. BUT that is only the starting line of my CNC endeavour. Now that I have a machine at my disposal, I need to learn up how to drive this machine to churn out those beautiful artifact like we seen in the net.


In retrospect, running the machine is easy, but that is only after you actually operate the machine...

I totally over estimated my learning capacity, & underestimated the complexity of the software involvement in running a CNC machine. After over a month of tinkering with running the machine & many software packages, I come to this overly generalised summery.
You need a Drawing to convert to G-code, feed the G-code to the Motion Controller. To cut properly, one need to know the cutting tool characteristics, material properties & some machining procedure knowledge.


Drawings
To make something with or without CNC machines, we need to provide specific specifications of what to do, so coming up with a drawing is the first step.
From my understanding, we can use 2 types of drawing files, namely Raster & Vector.
In raster, examples are bitmap such as jpg, png etc. With this, the cutter will transverse the whole area covered by the file, this is how most 3D cutting is done. With Vector file, the cutter only travels along the path where the cutting is required, saving lots of time. this is how profile cutting & 2.5D are done.


Drawing software
With different cutting strategies different software are used. In vector files, we direct the cutter in straight lines to cut the profile or contours, leaving the other space alone. In raster file, the cutter will transverse every mm of the file... example of raster files are bitmap. & the generally accepted vector file format is .DXF, other formats are SVG, AI, STL... etc etc
I'm fortunate enough to have worked with AutoCad in my junior career life & residue memory helps a lot when relearning. This is my preference for 2D & 3D rendering but there are others such as SolidWorks. You can also use CoralDraw, Win Paint, Adobe Inventor, SketchUp Pro,.... Open source CAD drawing are not quite up to the fee software but I find Blender is a promising, still crude but its getting somewhere.
I also learn that one doesn't need to draw a drawing from scratch everytime, especially when we are dealing with ornamental & art craft... We can "convert" raster files to vector files by tracing bitmap. I downloaded the open source INKSCAPE software which can do many capabilities of fee software such as the Coraldraw & Adobe AI.

G-code
One can write G-code from scratch if they feel they are up to it, BUT I'm too lazy for that... CAMBAM, UCANCAM, SHEETCAM, LAZYCAM... a whole library of CAM software which can translate vector file into G-code. I evenetually ended up with VCarve Pro for 2D & 2.5D works & Cut3D for 3D works..

At the end of the day, depending on requirement, all common or not so common software packages works, the difference are in the learning curve & the ingenuity of the user to utilise the available capabilities of each. Its a compromise of $, time & requirement.

ITS ALIVE!!!!!!

Virgin cut were commenced on 5:30pm 31st March 2010....

There outcome.......... Speechless....

I'll just let the pix talk...

The 1st complete relief carving....
Will frame this as it is for me to show my grand children...

Now that I'd build the "car" I'll have to learn to drive.

Z-Axis Concoction

You might notice there isn't much mentioned on the Z-axis.

I did my own "design" to cure my needs to have my own signature in this machine.

Using Linear Slide & Rail bar is more expensive, but it does give peace to my mind & fulfill my over-sized ego...

There you have it.
All Axis are assemble (almost)...
The last piece of purchase to get this to machine to work will be the Gas Spring & a 500mm long gear rack.

After the rail alignment, progress took a nose dive to near stop. The are 2 reasons (excuses to be exact) I can come out with.
1) I'm near physically exhausted & mentally fatigue from this build, its like taking up 2 extra jobs... and
2) After all that adrenaline rush from the previous tasks such as steel fabrications, rails grinding, alignments...etc really tough nut I'd cracked, the later jobs looked & feel so easy now, so much so that procrastination starts to creep in quietly...
Anyway, looking at the time & dough I'd invested in this baby, I made an effort to muster enough will power to continue with the journey before I add it to my dreadfully long "perpetually unfinished" project list.

Installed the gear rack on the rail.

Made the Y-track hold-down

 The Stepper Motor Drive Assembly

And here we have it. Competed Mechanical bits for the X & Y axis.

All that is left are the Z-axis before I proceed with wiring up the controls.

What is the hoo ha with CNC Router?

The followings are some of the response O get when ever I mention I'm building my own full fledge CNC Router...

"When was the last time you visit your shrink?"
"Not funny...."
"Can you do that?"

To me, this is the tool to end alcl tools. I can sell my circular saw, my router, my jigsaw.... almost my complete collection of power tools.

Anyway, I would talk more about some of the stuff the CNC can churn up. Picture tells a thousand wors, so here goes

Enough for now, don't want to slow down page up loading...

Your imagination is the limit of this robot.....

MechMate Gantry & Y-Car Assembly

With the availability of CNC laser cut machine, fabricator's life gets a lot easier then it use to be. BUT that doesn't say one gets a free ride when fitting them accurately.`

Here are the laser cut profiled components. Most of them will be "Lego-ed" & weld into usable Monocoque Y-Car chassis & Box Beam Gantry

Level & alignment is of paramount important in this excercise. 

Hence, I build 2 adjustable trestle from C-Channel off cuts.drill & tap M12 holes for attaching adjustable leveler legs.

Setting up the box section beam on  the trestle.

• Using Spirit level to line them on horizontal plane. 

• Align the box section beam by measuring the parallel distance. Comparing diagonal distance to ensure they are square to each other.

• Clamp down to hold the position.

Rubber mallet for fine movement by tapping them lightly on the correct places without damaging the paint work. 

\

.

When you are ready, spot weld to hold the assembly together & check for distortion.before doing the final welding.

Here are the Gantry & Y-car after welding & a coat of red oxide primer on the weld.

Closser view of the Y-car, The original paint was severy damaged by welding spatters....Shouldn't have painted...

.....Nothing I can't sort out with a coat of paint.

MechMate Table Assembly Works

From previous post, I shown the fabricated steel parts for the MechMate build in total loose form, all cut, dressed & painted. A friend who visited asked if they are kit supplied? Luckily, the scent of wet paint proved that I did the fabrication works.

This post will show the progress of assembling the "kit".

BTW, the table is good for 1220mm x 2800mm (8'x 12.5') working area.




The welding set










The "precision" measurement equipment I need for aligning the assembly.








Some of the welding were done on this make-shift welding bench. :)

The tube truss fitted & welded






How I fit the leg perfectly square & perpendicular to the main channel rail.

Completed table side frame

Both side frames completed

Aligned the two complete side frames square & parallel to each other

Place the table cross bearer on its appropriate position accurately. Then weld...







Fit & weld the cross pipe & diagonal pipe brace & you have a table.







There you have it, what is left is to get a group of 6 full muscle grown-up to flip this chunk of metal over...

This is only the table, we have gantry, Y-car....

Stay tune ;)

PS,
Is there anyone out there???? Give me a sign...
please do leave your comment & response in the comment lines...