Member postings for Bikepete

There is a whole chain of components which must all work together for Mach to be able to drive your (or any) motors:

Mach (which is motion control software on a PC)

interprets your G-code and drives

A breakout board or motion controller (either an expansion card in the PC, or more often a separate circuit board connected by either ethernet, USB or parallel port)

which in turn connects to

The motor drive controllers (usually separate boxes)

which connects to and drives

The servo motors

If your existing motor and controller hardware is OK, you need to work out what sort of input the controller expects, and then find a breakout board or motion controller which can output the appropriate signals. It's simplest and cheapest if your controller can accept "step and direction" signals like most stepper motor drivers do, but if it doesn't there are still solutions.

Unfortunately, I suspect that both the motion controller and motor drives are all combined in the Accurite control - not sure how easy it may be to separate out just the drives and control them from Mach instead.

Like Neil I'd suggest you'd probably do better on another forum for more detailed advice - the Mach forum is at

**LINK**

but for a friendly UK based CNC forum I would try asking at: **LINK**

Edited By Bikepete on 01/07/2016 20:25:28

Great work on the press and the video - thanks for taking the time to make it and show us!

Manual appears to be here - for the DV700T model, rather than DV700, but worth a try:

**LINK**

Large worm wheels are also often used on telescope mounts, so small ads sections on astronomy forums or the like might be worth watching if you're looking to buy. Also astronomy suppliers do them: look e.g. here and you will find a 14" worm & wheel set for £250 (details here). Also worth a read is this on DIY worm wheel cutting from Chris Heapy which was I think written with telescope mount applications in mind.

Edited By Bikepete on 04/04/2016 16:23:04

I may be wrong but I don't think 'self lube' in the pillow block context has anything to do with Oilite. They're just well sealed ball bearings, pre-greased. Exhibit A confirms and Exhibit B suggests 'Self-Lube' is an NSK/RHP brand name.

Basically you're fine - they're well sealed so some dirt will make no odds. Just use them until they eventually go rough, then buy a new insert e.g. here as they can be bought (in standard sizes) separately from the pillow block housings.

Edited By Bikepete on 30/03/2016 23:35:15

Here's an example of hand cranking while thread cutting with ELS (looks like cross slide is also stepper controlled, so maybe closer to CNC... but it's still synching with a hand-cranked spindle) . Skip to approx 2:50 to see the hand crank.

Description says "Turning an ACME thread on an old ML7 lathe, by hand. The leadscrew is electronically tied to the spindle using an Arduino Due and stepper motor. There is a 1440 pulse per rev (with Z pulse) digital encoder on the spindle. The code is written so that any pitch can simply be typed in (here it was 3.175mm for an 1/8inch pitch). Imperial and metric threading is simply calculating the required pitch. The lathe backgear cluster has broken teeth, so the motor could not be used to provide a low enough RPM. Motion was done very slowly to ensure the thread cut properly (including repositioning the cutter, which was done automatically). The encoder was salvaged from old medical equipment. All details will be provided at no cost/obligation for anyone interested. CNC rocks."

EDIT - found an even better one:

Edited By Bikepete on 28/03/2016 19:21:05

Pallet truck?

JA, re residual magnetism - that's addressed by the inventor at some length here. Seems the circuit delivers a 'reverse pulse' to get rid of it...

Watch this and tell me you don't want one:

A whole lot of versatility and (in contrast to most sheet metal machines) it takes up very little space - it could live on the front of a work bench semi-permanently without getting in the way...

And even better, the inventor has posted a superb, clear write-up for anyone wanting to build their own! Click here. All looks do-able, and the electronics aren't too complicated either...

Think it's just stolen top spot on the projects 'to do' list...

Pegasus Mail without question - has seved me well for decades, is completely free and it is more fully featured than any other I've ever tried:

http://www.pmail.com

Has very flexible configurastion, spam filtering, etc. Handles over 20 Gb (!) of emails for me, dating back to the mid '90s, flawlessly. And it's still under active development. Windows only but I believe it runs on Linux under WINE.

Edited By Bikepete on 08/03/2016 14:49:39

I helped a friend move one a couple of years ago. With some care loading and unloading it will go into an estate car on its back.

Solid, simple machine. No complicated gearing systems etc. inside that column. Just a simple belt drive to the horizontal spindle.

On the one my friend bought a previous owner had modified the vertical feed from its original ratchet arrangement to use a more normal handwheel, via bevel gears. His also has just the bolt-on vertical head, a solid little unit but no quill, and a bit limited in vertical space underneath it. The overarm-mounted vertical head would be a lot more versatile.

He's been pretty happy with it. Table is smallish compared to some, but it's all rigid enough to take a good cut. If the price is right, and you don't need a huge table or travels, I wouldn't hesitate.

Edited By Bikepete on 05/03/2016 13:13:17

Great that it's sorted.

In such situations I usually 'print' to a PDF first (using e.g. the free CutePDF printer driver, which works with just about any Windows program) to check it looks as it should. Then print the PDF to paper. Adobe Acrobat (which you use to open the PDF) has a print dialogue box which is more helpful than most, and it shows a wee preview of what you're printing and how it fits onto the paper.

If you have a scroll wheel on your mouse, try holding down the 'control' key and twiddling the wheel - this will also zoom in or out in most web browsers.

Firefox is good, but if you are at all concerned about security and privacy you should also install the Adblock Plus and Ghostery add-ons - free and takes just a few clicks from within Firefox. Adblock blocks almost all ads, and Ghostery stops pretty much all trackers etc. There's also one called 'Noscript' which stops even more potentially nasty stuff, but I found that it stopped too many websites working...

EDIT - also Firefox has a 'private browsing' mode which automatically disables cookies etc.

Edited By Bikepete on 15/01/2016 12:05:55

I also recently bought one of these (from here - which gets you a three year warranty rather than the two you get in most places) and am very happy with it. Tend to keep it on the low fan setting to keep the noise down but it still extracts water at a fair rate and the heat is a welcome side effect. It does shut itself off once the humidity is reduced to the level you've chosen so hoping the next electricity bill won't be too much of a shock...

As Brian Wood suggested a few posts below mine, if at all possible then do finish bore them in the complete headstock assembly - this would be very much better for alignment. My suggestion was intended as a bodge to work around your machinery... If it will fit, perhaps the most promising route would be a between centres boring bar on the lathe, as suggested by mechman48 and Gordon W above. If it won't fit, and you can't bore in the mill either, you may have to try the solution you describe above unless you farm it out.

A few other thoughts:

• What sort of bearings were you going to use? For metalworking lathes you'd probably favour angular contact ball bearings, so that you can preload them against each other to take out all play, with a nut on the spindle. These are the fussy ones for alignment but provide a rigid spindle which resists both end and side loads. 'Normal' deep groove ball bearings are a lot cheaper, a (very little) less fussy but aren't really designed to cope with large end loads or preload. 62x30 size deep groove bearings might well be big enough to cope fine with woodworking type end loads - I don't really know.
• How will you locate the bearings axially? One set at least needs to be fixed so that the spindle can't move along its length. Were you going to leave a shoulder at the end of one of the finished bores, add a bolt-on plate to hold them in, or e.g. add a groove for a circlip?
• You mention you're making up the headstock from four plates (front back and sides presumably). If you add a lid and base (two more plates) it'll make the whole thing immensely more rigid.
• I think you said the plates are 20mm thick steel. Just machining the edges to clean them up might be a bit 'epic' on a CMD 10: one of these presumably? I've not used one but it looks a very light machine for that sort of job. Maybe take a test run before you commit to the design?
• Bearing in mind this is a wood lathe, I can't help thinking that a design using pillow block bearings would make life an awful lot easier. They're not ideal in some ways (not specifically designed to cope with end thrust, nor of immense precision) but if you were planning on using 'normal' deep groove ball bearings anyway they'll be no worse (that's what they are, basically, in a self-aligning housing), and woodworking loads might well be within the capacity of say 35mm ID pillow block bearings (go as big as you can, given your 40mm spindle stock). And they self-align... so just need bolting to something solid. Plus they are remarkably cheap e.g. here.

I think I would probably machine front and rear plates of the headstock in one operation (i.e. with them clamped or bolted together), to ensure they are the exact same size (machine all edges). Bore the bearing bores in one operation too (plates still bolted together), smallest first then open one out to the larger. Much easier to do a short compact bore like this (with the plates bolted together) than with them separated by the length of the headstock, especially on smaller machines.

Assuming the remaining plates are flat or can be made flat , when you assemble the headstock the bores should still be accurately in line.

Presumably you'll need to machine the material down from its current diameter anyway, so careful marking out, punching and centre drilling could well get you close enough - say to half a mm of the true centre. So long as your stock is more than say 1 mm bigger than the largest finished diameter you need, that should be fine.

Facing the ends completely is another matter - and even more so if you want to drill out the spindle at all. Can't think of an easy alternative to using a fixed steady.

If you can't just buy one (and for smaller lathes, check its maximum capacity first) it might be worth making one. Google 'DIY fixed steady' for inspiration.

A cheap but temporary bodge (for centring, at least) is to fix a block of wood solidly to the cross slide (and lock the slide!), and bore it using a tool held in a four jaw chuck, to a sliding fit on your stock. Grease it before use and use low rpm to put in the centres.

A slightly trickier version which will allow facing as well is to mount the block of wood to the lathe bed, securely but so it can still slide along when pushed by the carriage. Do this to bore it, again using a tool in the four jaw. Now you can fix this firmly to the lathe bed, mount your stock (with the other end held in the 4 jaw), put in the centres and face the ends.

But if a 7x14 lathe is 14" between centres, and the part is 300mm long, you'll be close to the machine's capacity, so double check that there's going to be enough carriage travel available even with the steady in place... also that you have enough length available to get the centre drill mounted in the tailstock (in a drill chuck, probably) with the stock in place held by the chuck...

It would certainly be a much easier job on a bigger machine.

Edited By Bikepete on 12/12/2015 13:07:32

Edited By Bikepete on 12/12/2015 13:12:29

Just curious - did anyone see how much the two Emco CNC machines went for? Rare to see such small ones, and with single phase supply, too. Can't see the closing price on the website...

I've had good luck on ebay going for 'parts or not working' inverters where the ads specify that they are untested (or removed from working equipment) rather than known faulty - not paying more than £20-30 and sticking to sellers with good feedback. Google the model number to check that it accepts 240V single phase in, what motor power it will handle (if not obvious from the listing) and that there's a manual you can download, before bidding. Think I have had three like that so far and all worked perfectly. Used three phase motors are plentiful on ebay too, often for just a few pounds if you can collect (again check that they can be wired for 240V).

Only problem is that once you get hooked you'll want to convert every single motor in your shop to three phase!