The Fab Shop

Hey All,

I spent some time with the CNC Mill last night and have noticed a few things as I was exploring the machine. I'm not aware of much of the history behind this machine so if someone has some historic knowledge they can provide that'd be fantastic. A few things I noticed:

• Soft Limits in the .INI files that are auto loading aren't set with respect to the machine limits
• Hard Limits as interpreted by LinuxCNC are falsely triggering (Not sure if this is software config / hardware config / or interference somewhere. It's odd because you can keep attempting a jog command and sometimes it will take and other times it will not.
• Z-Axis hard stop in the lower position doesn't trigger properly.
• X-Axis seems to have proper travel but the X-Axis stepper has a bit of a freak out after running for more than a couple seconds.
• Y-Axis only has limited travel in it's positive direction before software locks it.

It doesn't seem like this poor machine get much use. Wondering if there are any concerns with me spending some quality time with it and getting it cleaned up / oiled / trammed in and troubleshoot all the issues I've noted above.

I also saw from some posts previously someone had identified a need to get things like a set of parallels, edge finder, etc. etc. Has this been done? If not, I may have some extras I can donate to the cause.

Cheers,

Jason

Hey jason I spent quite e a bit of time rewiring this beast. I suspect theres a loose connection on the x axis encoder that I haven’t troubleshot... i can meet you at the space if you want to know what I know...

Morning Mauricio,

That would be great if you've got the time. I'll likely be there this evening 7:00 PM onward for a few hours. Let me know what day/time works best for you.

Cheers,

I can meet you there tonight. I'll be there at seven as well.

Regards,

Mauricio

Well, Mauricio and I spent some time last night working on the Mill. Found that the X-Axis encoder disk was ever so slightly bent. Did our best to align things with that taken into consideration and also turned down the gain on the X-axis driver. Let it be known that Mauricio did all the hard work and I held the flashlight...lol

Once I spent some time tramming in the head (as best as I could with all the wrong tools), I made some chips and successfully turned out a part I needed!

Still think it needs a proper alignment/adjustment and some issues regarding false positive limits needs to be worked out.

Very nice work Jason!

Also very creative way to tram the head!

This was a machine I have wanted to learn since the beginning of my membership.

To have CNC mill in working order and a person knowledgeable about it is an asset to the Maker Space.

Thank you Jason

Heh. I've been hoping to see that machine up and running with training in place since I first did a tour of the space back in like 2016.

If it looks like things are going to get up and running and some shopping needs to be done I'd be happy to donate.

Put together a wish/shopping list and let me know.

Well progress is being made.

• Head trammed in to within 10 thou over 12 inches (good enough for most projects)
• Next job is to square up the vice jaws with the x-axis

Seems no-one has been able to locate any tooling for the mill so here's the prospective shopping list

• R8 Collet Set (Can go metric but 99% of low cost tooling and materials are going to be imperial) so I'm thinking a set that covers 1/8" to 3/4" should hit the mark for now.
• Set of parallels, thinking thinner stock (1/8")
• An R8 shanked Jacobs Chuck for drilling processes only
• Edge finder, double ended (one is pointed the other is not)
• Machinist Jacks (These would be a great makerspace project for an interested individual)
• Machinists square (small and precise)
• Decent HSS end mills though I would suggest folks purchase their own end mills as these are considered semi-consumable especially to the beginner machinist
• Set of Center Drills (We may already have these with the lathe) and if not I can donate a few.

Nice to haves:

• 1 and 2" Shell Mills
• Slotting Saw W/ R8 arbor
• If we get into more use of this it would be nice to create a proper referenced tool catalogue that we could export to Fusion360 with dedicated tool holders.

Music to my ears. Especially the Fusion360 bit!

Soooo Amazon gear?

This is probably the most economic set of R8 collets on Amazon right now

Not a bad price on an R8 drill chuck

Mauricio laying down some chipzzzz!!!!

Jason was instrumental in getting this done, so Kudos to Jason as well!!

CNC Mill area is sporting A toolbox to keep all the wrenches, cutters etc in a single place accessible and dedicated for the mill.

Hey I was just getting familiar with the machine and noticed the x axis is not responding to the software. My 10 second guess is a wiring or diver issue, but I'm wanting to investigate further. Is this a known issue?