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Post by Deleted on Aug 12, 2017 12:20:27 GMT
Afternoon gents, I am looking at having a dabble with CNC milling and am looking for opinions on the Proxxon MF70 Micro Mill CNC and using the Artsoft Mill Wizard to run it as I am only looking at the simple operations that this offers at the moment (facing, circular pockets, rectangular pockets, etc.). The parameters of this machine I know are small but the components that I am looking at making fall within these boundaries. I have been looking at various machines on a certain auction site but have no idea how to go about setting these machines up if they are not ready to use. I have also looked at the conversion of certain machines from Warco or Chester Machine Tools but I think this would be beyond my abilities/budget at the moment. Any advice/comments please. Plus is there anybody in the North West (Manchester area) using a small CNC set up that I could come and have a chat with?
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Post by Roger on Aug 13, 2017 16:07:35 GMT
Hi Orville,
It's not that hard to set up a CNC mill using Mach3 for example. Once you have servos driving the axes, you only have to tell it how many steps make up one unit of movement, say 1mm and adjust the ramps so it can accelerate and decelerate at rates that are achievable. There's a lot of information about servos and stepper motors on the internet, and none of it is that difficult to understand. It can be expensive to convert a machine though, and that's because you need to replace the leadscrews for types without backlash.
I hadn't heard about the Mill Wizard software before, that looks pretty useful. There's nothing stopping you from writing G-Code long hand for other things if necessary, but you won't realistically be able to do anything that's truly 3D.
In my opinion, any CNC is preferable to no CNC, they all do things that are almost impossible or impractical to do on conventional machines.
Hopefully someone will be close by to help you. If you're down this way, by all means drop in for a chat.
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uuu
Elder Statesman
your message here...
Posts: 2,816
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Post by uuu on Aug 13, 2017 16:31:14 GMT
I've played with John's tiny mill at the Pumphouse. Within the limitations of its small size and lightness of build it's a highly capable machine. As with a lightweight lathe, you can achieve the apparently impossible with a little ingenuity. It runs on steppers, cheaper than servos, and on conventional leadscrews - although with opposed nuts to reduce backlash.
I have a small machine too, although of much heavier build, with steppers driving ballscrews. So I can attack cast iron and steel with a bit more gusto.
Like Roger, I run Mach3 (as does John), and a variety of CAD/CAM programs (and hand coding) to deliver the G-code. I've not seen the Mill Wizard program.
Wilf
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Post by manofkent on Aug 14, 2017 6:26:32 GMT
Hi
I started my journey into CNC with the proxxon MF70 mill. It came as a standard mill plus a cnc conversion kit. It was very simple to set up mechanically, but I did struggle with the PC settings - the configuration of the PC printer port was very trying.
However it was an excellent is small machine, and I learned a great deal on it.
I used it in metal, brass or steel, making incremental cuts of 2 thou. I made some parts for valve gear, even making a gear frame for a 31/2 gauge loco.
Eventually the X axis screw fractured. I got a replacement, but after a while that fractured as well, and the machine now rests on an shelf in the workshop.
I used CamBam and Mach3 to program the cnc.
I then built a larger CNC Mill. As Roger says it is not hard to do.
Having cut my teeth on the Proxxon I use the larger mill all of the time - wouldn't be without it.
It was an excellent machine at its .level (small), and I thoroughly recommend it.
John
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2017 6:47:42 GMT
Hi I started my journey into CNC with the proxxon MF70 mill. It came as a standard mill plus a cnc conversion kit. It was very simple to set up mechanically, but I did struggle with the PC settings - the configuration of the PC printer port was very trying. It's the PC side of things I have not got a clue on and that appears to be where most problems occur. |
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Post by Roger on Aug 14, 2017 7:21:44 GMT
Hi I started my journey into CNC with the proxxon MF70 mill. It came as a standard mill plus a cnc conversion kit. It was very simple to set up mechanically, but I did struggle with the PC settings - the configuration of the PC printer port was very trying. It's the PC side of things I have not got a clue on and that appears to be where most problems occur. What is the control system you're using, is it Mach3? The old way of interfacing with the PC was using the Printer port, and that's not ideal. Is that what you have? Although I'm using Mach3, I'm using an ESS board ie it's connected using an Ethernet Cable instead of the Printer port. The PC doesn't have to generate the timing pulses for the output steps, so it's much more tolerant. Perhaps you could take some pictures of the control system and let us know what boards it's using? |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2017 20:55:09 GMT
It's the PC side of things I have not got a clue on and that appears to be where most problems occur. What is the control system you're using, is it Mach3? The old way of interfacing with the PC was using the Printer port, and that's not ideal. Is that what you have? Although I'm using Mach3, I'm using an ESS board ie it's connected using an Ethernet Cable instead of the Printer port. The PC doesn't have to generate the timing pulses for the output steps, so it's much more tolerant. Perhaps you could take some pictures of the control system and let us know what boards it's using? Hi Roger, I don't have any system at the moment but from what I have read on CNC related forums people go into what I find absolute gobbledegook about the computers and what they are not doing and what they should be doing in a language that I do not understand. I am very concerned about laying out what is a lot of money to me only to find myself sat scratching my head looking at a computer not having a clue what to do. |
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Post by Roger on Aug 14, 2017 22:18:19 GMT
What is the control system you're using, is it Mach3? The old way of interfacing with the PC was using the Printer port, and that's not ideal. Is that what you have? Although I'm using Mach3, I'm using an ESS board ie it's connected using an Ethernet Cable instead of the Printer port. The PC doesn't have to generate the timing pulses for the output steps, so it's much more tolerant. Perhaps you could take some pictures of the control system and let us know what boards it's using? Hi Roger, I don't have any system at the moment but from what I have read on CNC related forums people go into what I find absolute gobbledegook about the computers and what they are not doing and what they should be doing in a language that I do not understand. I am very concerned about laying out what is a lot of money to me only to find myself sat scratching my head looking at a computer not having a clue what to do. I know what you mean, Forums often dive in at the deep end with little explanation. In reality, there's not much in these systems when you break them down. Mach3 has been superceded by Mach4, so that would be my route if I were making something, I'll probably upgrade to that before long, but I'll have to check out whether it's compatible with my hardware. In essence, all Mach3 does is to generate Step and Direction pulses on two wires for each axis. So that's six connections, Step and Direction for X, Step and Direction for Y and Step and Direction for Z. These are what all Stepper Motor drives use, you can look them up on eBay, they are two a penny. My system uses AC Servos which are much more expensive, but they too have Step and Direction inputs just the same. Mach3 is pretty dumb really, it doesn't have any feedback to tell it that the machine has actually moved at all. That's called 'Open Loop', it just assumes that the machine responded to every step pulse that it output. On an AC Servo, that's a fair assumption, but Stepper Motors can stall and lose steps if they're not set up correctly or they're overloaded. So other than these simple outputs, there will also be an output to turn the spindle on/off and another which has a voltage which tells the spindle how fast to turn. These controls can usually go straight to the spindle drive. The only other connections are for the limit and home switches so that the software knows when the machine has run out of travel or it's gone to the home position to set the counters to zero. Personally, I don't bother with that, I just zero that machine wherever I make the machine zero. So that's all there is to is really, it's nowhere near as bad as you might imagine. Mach3 are very good at replying to technical queries, and there are some comprehensive YouTube videos explaining how to set up the software step by step. |
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