helical lathe prototype - choice of components

You can disable the temperature settings. Many printers don't have heated beds, and these rigs are often used to make dual head printer/router machines.

Neil

Thanks, Neil. So would that reduce the current requirement for a nema 23 low enough for one of these boards to cope?

can you recommend a good resource for learning g-code? G-code for dummies?

CNC cookbook has some online training that would be a good start.

**LINK**

Martin C

This site also has a short course on milling with Mach3 but part 1 seems to be off line, Neil please note, here is part 2.

**LINK**

Martin C

PS

I have found an alternative link to part 1 that seems to work.

https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/news/article/cnc-milling-with-mach-3--part-1/4787/

Martin C

Edited By Martin Connelly on 16/07/2018 09:18:31

I found cncsimulator and its a fantastic free program with lots of tutorials and support. Last night I used it to write my first bit of g-code - yaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy! I actually cut a thread into the end of a rod on a metal lathe.

The problem is (and I think this might be an issue with all simulators) that my machine design is non-standard so it doesn't simulate properly. CNCsimulator does allow you to create a custom machine but it's a seriously advanced function and I think well beyond me.

On a ramps board the heating power controll is separate to the motor power so it wont make any difference , the motor controllers are designed for 17 sized motors with a 2 amp current and you will have to tune the controllers - plenty of stuff on the internet or youtube about that and it is fairly easy .

The main reason for disabling the heating is so the gcode doesnt hang waiting for something to heat up that isnt there or stall because of an alarm for overtemp / too long a heating time .

I lashed up an A axis on my mill with a small stepper I had and the electronic driver board for it. I used a pen to mark a tube to show the result of rotating the A axis through 360° and at the same time traversing the X axis 150mm.

I then rotated the tube 45° and repeated to give 8 lines on the tube. If you imagine doing this with a piece of wood and a ball end milling cutter you can see how it is quite easy to produce decorative twists in round stock. I couldn't actually cut anything with this setup as the stepper motor was such low torque (0.7 amps per phase) that even with an axial gearbox on it torque to drive the workpiece around was very low and the motor stalled with both too high a speed or the slightest resistance in the set up.

CNC was done by manual data input in Mach3, no CAD or CAM required.

Martin C

That's excellent Martin. It'll be exactly what I'm looking for. Although I might use a ball-end cutter for some effects, a point cutting roundover bit will give me a rope twist.

I've gradually been taking delivery of components and its its been my first chance to lay things out. My rotational axis is a rotating table and 4 jaw chuck. I can't remember how many turns per table rotation but its quite a lot so I hope the required torque wont be that much as a direct 1 to 1 ratio. Mind you. the reason I'm making a prototype first is so I can make these kind of mistakes and learn from them.

did you use a tailstock martin?

I run Mach3 on laptops with Widows XP on them. It does not require a fast computer or massive drives but does require a parallel port or a USB board that is provided with a driver program for Mach3. If you have an unused laptop lying around it would be good enough to run a couple of stepper motors. See this video Youtube video showing how minimal a setup can be for two steppers.

Martin C.

**LINK**.

wow. I do have an old laptop but I dont think it has a parallel port. I'll have to check.

Would this setup run to 3 steppers?

If you go to the website for Mach3 you can download the manual that shows the pinout for a parallel port. If you get a USB breakout board then you get the equivalent of two or three parallel ports. The manual shows the pinout in paragraph 4.4.1 and has outputs on pins 1-9, 14, 16 & 17. If you have enable, step and direction signals for each motor then you can run 4 motors but have no outputs for anything else. There are plenty of 5 axis breakout boards for Mach3 available which make connecting to a motor easier than using the parallel port and for a cost below £5. They are available as 5 axis so cover your needs.

No centre supporting the tube, I was only pressing on it with a pen. I would support both ends if machining.

Martin C

thanks martin. Those 5 axis breakout boards you mention - are they usb or parallel?

I think the cheap ones use the parallel port but have a USB socket to supply 5V for the control circuitry. If you want a full motion control system that gets its instructions from the USB link they cost more. Look up Smooth Stepper for an example. USB control instructions have the advantage of not relying on the speed of the computer to time everything. Having said that many people use the parallel port on older computers, including laptops, with no problem.

Martin C

Am I too late to suggest LinuxCNC? (I should admit that I am a developer, but as it is free and open-source I derive no benefit from expanding the user base).

Another developer, Dewey Garrett makes beautiful things using a home-built ornamental lathe controlled by LinuxCNC. You can see his machine in the video at the bottom of this page:

http://www.deweygarrett.com/

Edited By Andy Pugh on 11/09/2018 11:18:32

No you're not. I havent finished the hardware yet so software comes next.

I think I've decided that I dont need sophisticated tool control of the type needed to carve a design in 3D. I just need basic algorithmic control to move the the tool in and along the work and out again at a certain speed while rotating it slowly.

I think linux cnc is going to be excessive for that. I need something I can write and check my gcode in and if possible a simulator and I need to transfer my gcode to the arduino via usb.

still open to suggestions though.

If you have already decided to use an Arduino then I am too late

(LinuxCNC won't run on an Arduino, and does the same job in the system as the code on your Arduino)

thanks, Andy.

Without derailing the thread are you, as a developer, able to offer a brief synopsis of why Linux CNC never has any good functional mileposts which users can choose, the exact reason why Tormach had to spend money to get to a good usable system for 3/4 axis mill users developed without the need to for said users to "eat, collate and assimilate a ream of dispersed documentation" ?