Member postings for Andrew Evans

Martin - I got your settings file up and running and it helped me make a decision, thanks. I ordered a PlanetCNC setup yesterday for my Denford Orac conversion so it should be here next week hopefully. A 4 axis USB board, a board to control a VFD and a license. My plan is to get it running on a raspberry pi with a touchscreen and try to recreate the original Orac design that had a small VDU built into the base of the lathe.

BTW - if anyone is interested in Centroid Acorn I found a way to potentially get a discount, PM me for the details.

For this conversion the cheapest bit has been the lathe itself!

I ordered a PlanetCNC setup yesterday for my Denford Orac conversion. A 4 axis board, a board to control a VFD and a software license. My plan is to get it running on a raspberry pi with a touchscreen and try to recreate the original Orac design that had a small VDU built into the base of the lathe.

I seriously considered Centroid Acorn and it looks solid, it needs a high spec Windows 10 PC though and ideally a high res touch screen which really racks up the cost.

great for wildlife and stargazing

I do quite a bit of basic machining on my Seig KX3 by just manually typing in lines of G code. Manually jogging during setup with all maching done by g code - either manually entered for simple stuff or from CamBam. I don't miss having a manual way to control the machine beyond this.

Hi - I have tried fixing walking boot soles a few times and it has never really worked for more than a couple of uses and you risk being stuck somewhere remote if they come off half way round a walk. I also tried getting them fixed professionally by a cobbler and that failed too. The soles take such a battering in this country and walking conditions can be so wet and acidic that even top quality boots seem to last for 3 or 4 years for me.

MASSO have a UK supplier - the lathe version is £640 which is 1 to 1 with the $, so again much more expensive in this country.

Blowlamp - i will use your files and have a play.

Masso looks great - not having to bother with a PC is a big advantage. It isn't cheap though at $630 US with VAT, import duty and delivery on top - probaly around the £700 mark. We seem to be in a blackhole in the UK having to pay a big wack of import duties and tax on everything.

I contacted PlanetCNC and got a quick reply, a motion control board, a board to control spindle speed and a software license comes in at about £250. So much cheaper than Centroid Acorn. PlanetCNC software can also run on Linux, Mac or a Raspberry PI whilst Acorn needs a fast PC with Windows 10 - so a potential big cost saving there. I presume a power supply is needed for the board too. Documentation seems somewhat sparse so I assume support is via a forum but that is also the case for Centroid Acorn.

I downloaded the software and gave it a quick trial, it seems very simple and obvious to use. It seems set up for mill or router use with 4 axes displayed and a 3D view of the part. I could not see any way to customise or get a lathe centric view - it must be possible though as you have that in your video Blowlamp, was that a simple job to customise?

That looks great Jason - lovely job. Did you have any issue with the milling cutter going blunt part way through? Andy

Clive - that quote is much too high in my opinion. My plumber charges around £30 an hour and does an amazing job.

PlanetCNC looks good and seems cheaper than Centroid - I hadn't heard of it before so will have a closer look. Centroid Acorn does look good although once you take into account shipping, import taxes and the Pro software it is nearly £500 to get started.

Thanks, that is encouraging. Did y purchase direct from the states?

Has anyone got experience with using Centroid Acorn, particularly on a lathe? Andy

**LINK** - what about something like that

My advice is go for something as big as you can fit in your space.

That UCL site is a really good resource.

There you go Michael **LINK**

These are taken 25 years ago - I have digital copies of these but on old zip disks I can no longer read. Apologies for the photo quality, I used my mobile phone to photograph existing printed photographs.

All these are organic microfossils. These are dinoflagellates, foraminifera linings, scolecodont and plant spores from the Cretaceous chalks in Ireland and from oil exploration cores in the seas around Ireland. Plus an acritarch from the Silurian in Shropshire. The scale is shown by the black line which is 10 microns. All these rocks formed in the sea, the plant spores would have been washed in via rivers from land.

The black looking one is actually a plant spore from the Carboniferous of Ireland - the reason I added it is because that is what happens to organic matter when it is under high pressure and temperature when the rock is buried under many kilometers for millions of years. Certain pressures turn the organic matter to crude oil, even more pressure it becomes gas and even more any hydrocarbons are destroyed. Hence the colour of organic matter in rocks is important and widely used in oil exploration - if its not dark enough there is no chance of oil, so no point in looking, if its black then its the same thing. The microfossils are also used to help date and correlate rocks and are often the only thing you can distinguish in cored rock from an oil exploration well and often exist in vast numbers in the right rock types. So microfossils have a very practical use!

Certainly a fascinating subject, have you been able to observe microfossils at home? I have spent a long time preparing microfossil slides and taking photographs - many years ago now. It even landed me in hospital at one point

what is your interest in microfossils Michael?

Maybe your family would take up model engineering and use the workshop and tools to finish the unfinished projects - as an act of homage. They would say "I now know why they did it all these years" .