Setup in New Spot

Set up the mill in it's new spot. It is a crummy location but the only spot I have for now. I set it up with one of the faster spare computers I have to see if it will run the demo Mach 3 which alot of people recommend. I tried it a bit and it does seem interesting, though only on a computer witout the mill hooked up. Got some tooling ordered, not exactly what I want but hopefully good stuff on ebay at what is hopefully a discount and not junk.

Spot Welder

I have been doing some research on making a spotwelder. It occured to me that some of the small spotwelders people make for Stainless Steel might be usable for welding battery terminals, even if not it would be useful on its own.

Two pretty interesting sites have plans using big transformers, with rewound secondaries to step down to 4vac.

5 bears plan

Another spot welder

This is a DIY battery tab welder. It is pretty nice, but I could not find caps as easily as I hoped.

There is some decent info on rewinding a microwave oven transformer. He uses 20 coils on the secondary to get ~36volts vs 5 bears who uses 5 coils from the picture to get ~4 volts . The 36v appears to be appropriate for a arc welder while 4volts with high amps is good for spot welding.


I have the basic plan of making something like the 5 bears site. I have a omicron solid state relay rated 30A 200-480VAC

A timer like the Crouzet PU2R1 might work

I am looking for a relay time to control the time cycle like the one 5 bears uses.

I think I can use a rewound microwave transformer I have like philpem uses.

I would like to use the power head to drive a manual spot welder, using conventional pinch welder tips, battery tab welder style, with foot switch, and possibly using it the welder as a dual tip (like the battery tab welder) to weld pieces setup on the cnc. It could be pretty interesting.

Cost of Doing CNC

The orders I made are coming in.

-Rohm drill chuck 1/64"-5/16" and sherline morse #1 adapter to 3/8"X24 THD $34.00
-1/8" Carbide Endmills Qty 10 $34.75
-New Modular Vise from http://hightechsystemsllc.com/ Item # MVS-800 $84.45

Make a Stand

It is time to put the machines on a stand. I want something that will catch the chips and I want to be able to move it. Uh oh, looks like I will have to cut a hole in the side, it looked like it would fit, but the table moves too much.

 

Current Wish List

I have been eyeballing some things to use with the sherline.

-Quick Change Tool holder.
-Rotary table 4" CNC, I would use the extra axis (4th) with the stepper motor I already have.
-Ball end end mills 1/8"
-Universal Vice
-Modular Tooling System (realy a fixturing system)
-Sherline vice

-here is a cool vid of a tool changer made from the rapid tool changer system

-Cool wiki on making jewelry on a sherline cnc with a rotary table.

Evaluating Programs

Started taking a look at cam programs.
Installed ace that I downloaded from dakeng.com, this is the manual

I paid for the license for turbocnc. You can pretty much use it without limitation as a "free" version, but I think I will be using it some. I could have got on with EMC but turbocnc will allow me to use some old obsolete laptops I have.

As for the ace dxf to gcode converter, I am reading through the manual and got sidetracked with a "free" gcode simulator. It is called CNCSimulator You can run it for free but you have to periodically go back to their web page to "gas up" no charge. It kinda bothers me to use a program that could be shut down in the future, but I am still dabbling so will see if there is anything elsewhere.

I have just about gotten to where the sherline mill is running understandably, I had to change the axis directions for 2 of the 3 to have them in normal x,y,z directions and I had to change the z axis stepper calibration. It defaulted to a number that made a z axis travel of 1 inch less than 1 inch by a good amount.