(231,’2006-07-21 12:00:00′,’figNoggle’,’2006-12-20 08:05:09′,’david’,’Project CNC 8×12 Lathe – The Master Plan’,”,’Well, this actually had been brewing in our minds since we first had the lathe…

With some free time on our hands, we spec’d out how this will work:

1. “DRO quills” (aka “DRO scales”) installed for the X and Z axes. (We thought of also adding a swappable DRO for the compound slide and tailstock, but in reality, our drilling needs rarely need a high degree accuracy since they’re mostly through holes and as for the compound… we rarely have any need for tapers. So, we’ll start simple.)

2. DRO display. Time’s a premium at this “little machine shop” and boy do we mean “little”. While the Shumatech DRO was also top in our list of things to do, taking the time to build one right now is something we can’t quite do. So, off we go to Shars (Remember, their eBay specials are always cheaper than their catalog pricing so it pays to check them out within eBay first. Their name is “discount_machine”.) The first unit was a “Positron-3A” that places such as Lathemaster and LittleMachineShop sell. This one has LEDs which makes reading easy. Shars unfortunately only has the LCD version with those tacky yellow buttons.

3. The motors. Being price-conscious, we’re opting to go with step motors again. The difference being that it’ll be of the NEMA 34 variety with loads more of POWER! We’re currently looking at KelingInc which is a Chinese manufacturer of motors (and drives too!) as well as other things.

Here are the choices. They all have a spec’d 637 oz-in rating for $89 (not bad). They go up to 1812 oz.in. but that’s definitely overkill. The X2 NEMA 23 motors are rated at 269 oz.in. and work well in direct drive (1:1) on the X axis, so to be on the safe side, an increase of over 100% should do it.

-NEMA 34 HIGH TORQUE STEPPER MOTOR 637 oz-in, ?” shaft with a flat, 80 mm KL34H80-45-4A (Single Shaft)

-NEMA 34 HIGH TORQUE STEPPER MOTOR 637 oz-in, 1/2″ shaft with a flat, 80 mm KL34H80-45-8A (Single Shaft)

KL34H80-45-8B (Dual Shaft)

-NEMA 34 HIGH TORQUE STEPPER MOTOR 637 oz-in,1/2? shaft with a flat, 80 mm KL34H80-55-4A

4. The drives. We really like the Xylotex kit, but wanted to try something different for kicks. Everyone talks about Gecko drives. OK, we’ll give them a whirl. BTW, the step motor line of their drives has only two differences between models; some have half and full stepping and some have short-circuit protection. Here’s a chart we whipped up while trying to decipher their product lines’ specs (wish they’d had a product matrix):

[MODEL #] – [MOTOR TYPE] – [7A, 80VDC] – [10-MICROSTEP] – [5-MICROSTEP] – [HALF-STEP] – [FULL-STEP] – [OPTO-ISOLATED STEP/DIR] – [SHORT-CIRCUIT PROTECTION] – [SILENT 20KHZ PWM SWITCHING] – [MID-BAND RESONANCE DAMPENING] – [NO LOW-SPEED VIBRATION] – [SINGLE UNIT PRICING]

[201] – [STEP] – [X] – [X] – [N/A] – [N/A] – [N/A] – [X] – [N/A] – [X] – [X] – [X] – [$114]

[202] – [STEP] – [X] – [X] – [N/A] – [N/A] – [N/A] – [X] – [X] – [X] – [X] – [X] – [$134]

[210] – [STEP] – [X] – [X] – [X] – [X] – [X] – [X] – [N/A] – [X] – [X] – [X] – [$148]

[212] – [STEP] – [X] – [X] – [X] – [X] – [X] – [X] – [X] – [X] – [X] – [X] – [$168]

Basically, their 212 has everything.

5. Break-out board. In our CNC X2 mini-mill conversion, we didn’t use home or limit switches. We just paid attention to our G-Code (and yes, it still went beyond our machine travel at times!) and used software limits. This time around, with a huge mass spinning in excess of 600 RPM it might be a good idea to watch where we’re moving the carriage! We haven’t isolated a vendor yet, but it may be Campbell Designs’ breakout board made by Sound Logic or back to Gecko with their “G-Rex” G-100 or G101. Difference between the two Gecko models? The G100 has an enclosure and lights and other widgets. The G101 is “just” a board.

6. Accuracy. There’s backlash! We’ll need to address this especially in the cross slide. The carriage will be driven by ballscrew directly mounted to the carriage itself, so this accuracy will be dependent on the screw/nut combo. The cross slide has its own anti-backlash nut (really, a split nut), but we may throw this all out in favor of a better ACME leadscrew and adjustable brass nut.

That’s the plan!

Lathe operations are quite repetitive. To us it makes great sense to automate much of the mass material removal and in cases where precision is critical, we’ll let CNC take us just shy of required dimensions and then take it from there by hand.

First, let’s buy some parts and install a DRO for those manual operations.

Of course the motors and drivers are important too!

‘,’

Well, this actually had been brewing in our minds since we first had the lathe…

With some free time on our hands, we spec’d out how this will work:

1. “DRO quills” (aka “DRO scales”) installed for the X and Z axes. (We thought of also adding a swappable DRO for the compound slide and tailstock, but in reality, our drilling needs rarely need a high degree accuracy since they’re mostly through holes and as for the compound… we rarely have any need for tapers. So, we’ll start simple.)

2. DRO display. Time’s a premium at this “little machine shop” and boy do we mean “little”. While the Shumatech DRO was also top in our list of things to do, taking the time to build one right now is something we can’t quite do. So, off we go to Shars (Remember, their eBay specials are always cheaper than their catalog pricing so it pays to check them out within eBay first. Their name is “discount_machine”.) The first unit was a “Positron-3A” that places such as Lathemaster and LittleMachineShop sell. This one has LEDs which makes reading easy. Shars unfortunately only has the LCD version with those tacky yellow buttons.

3. The motors. Being price-conscious, we’re opting to go with step motors again. The difference being that it’ll be of the NEMA 34 variety with loads more of POWER! We’re currently looking at KelingInc which is a Chinese manufacturer of motors (and drives too!) as well as other things.

Here are the choices. They all have a spec’d 637 oz-in rating for $89 (not bad). They go up to 1812 oz.in. but that’s definitely overkill. The X2 NEMA 23 motors are rated at 269 oz.in. and work well in direct drive (1:1) on the X axis, so to be on the safe side, an increase of over 100% should do it.

-NEMA 34 HIGH TORQUE STEPPER MOTOR 637 oz-in, ?” shaft with a flat, 80 mm KL34H80-45-4A (Single Shaft)

-NEMA 34 HIGH TORQUE STEPPER MOTOR 637 oz-in, 1/2” shaft with a flat, 80 mm KL34H80-45-8A (Single Shaft)

KL34H80-45-8B (Dual Shaft)

-NEMA 34 HIGH TORQUE STEPPER MOTOR 637 oz-in,1/2? shaft with a flat, 80 mm KL34H80-55-4A

4. The drives. We really like the Xylotex kit, but wanted to try something different for kicks. Everyone talks about Gecko drives. OK, we’ll give them a whirl. BTW, the step motor line of their drives has only two differences between models; some have half and full stepping and some have short-circuit protection. Here’s a chart we whipped up while trying to decipher their product lines’ specs (wish they’d had a product matrix):

[MODEL #] – [MOTOR TYPE] – [7A, 80VDC] – [10-MICROSTEP] – [5-MICROSTEP] – [HALF-STEP] – [FULL-STEP] – [OPTO-ISOLATED STEP/DIR] – [SHORT-CIRCUIT PROTECTION] – [SILENT 20KHZ PWM SWITCHING] – [MID-BAND RESONANCE DAMPENING] – [NO LOW-SPEED VIBRATION] – [SINGLE UNIT PRICING]

[201] – [STEP] – [X] – [X] – [N/A] – [N/A] – [N/A] – [X] – [N/A] – [X] – [X] – [X] – [$114]

[202] – [STEP] – [X] – [X] – [N/A] – [N/A] – [N/A] – [X] – [X] – [X] – [X] – [X] – [$134]

[210] – [STEP] – [X] – [X] – [X] – [X] – [X] – [X] – [N/A] – [X] – [X] – [X] – [$148]

[212] – [STEP] – [X] – [X] – [X] – [X] – [X] – [X] – [X] – [X] – [X] – [X] – [$168]

Basically, their 212 has everything.

5. Break-out board. In our CNC X2 mini-mill conversion, we didn’t use home or limit switches. We just paid attention to our G-Code (and yes, it still went beyond our machine travel at times!) and used software limits. This time around, with a huge mass spinning in excess of 600 RPM it might be a good idea to watch where we’re moving the carriage! We haven’t isolated a vendor yet, but it may be Campbell Designs’ breakout board made by Sound Logic or back to Gecko with their “G-Rex” G-100 or G101. Difference between the two Gecko models? The G100 has an enclosure and lights and other widgets. The G101 is “just” a board.

6. Accuracy. There’s backlash! We’ll need to address this especially in the cross slide. The carriage will be driven by ballscrew directly mounted to the carriage itself, so this accuracy will be dependent on the screw/nut combo. The cross slide has its own anti-backlash nut (really, a split nut), but we may throw this all out in favor of a better ACME leadscrew and adjustable brass nut.

That’s the plan!

Lathe operations are quite repetitive. To us it makes great sense to automate much of the mass material removal and in cases where precision is critical, we’ll let CNC take us just shy of required dimensions and then take it from there by hand.

First, let’s buy some parts and install a DRO for those manual operations.

Of course the motors and drivers are important too!

‘,”,”,”,’8x128x14-Small-Lathe’,”,0,”,0,4,1,1,’article’,”,”,’project-cnc-8×12-lathe-the-master-plan’,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,’869ac92e74f0b4db035b8afcad2c8609′,’2006-07-21′);

(230,’2006-07-21 12:00:00′,’figNoggle’,’2006-07-21 12:00:00′,’figNoggle’,’Welcome to the figNoggle Designs’ Workshop!’,”,’Welcome! You’re still within the figNoggle Designs’ website – it’s just a bit different here than what you’ve seen…

This is what’s called a “blog” (aka “web log”) which in essence, is an online journal or diary of sorts. The purpose here is to make the site more interactive by allowing users such as yourself to post comments, questions, ramblings and what-not based on the journal entries we post.

We’ve been wanting to do this for quite some time but have been swamped with orders of our plans and kits and with upcoming projects in development. This “blog” happens to also be a more convenient method for us to share our developments with the community of machinists, tinkerers and hobbyists.

We have tons of pictures and articles yet to be published as we’ve made more modifications to the X2 mini mill, continued development of our injection molding machine and stamping and crimping machine, made some novel projects like our pneumatic beer can crusher (who couldn’t use one of these!), and our latest project – a DRO and CNC 8×12 Harbor Freight small lathe (aka 8×14 Lathemaster lathe).

We had done some work to our older 7×10 Harbor Freight lathe but found the 8x lathe so much useful for our projects that we’ve spent nearly all of the time working with the 8x!

You’ll note that there are categories that are divided by class of machine. For example, our CNC 8×12 lathe will be in the “8x Small Lathe” section of the “blog” while continued work with the X2 mini mill will be in the “X2 Mini Mill” section. You may have also noticed a section called “X3 Small Mill”… Stay tuned for that one!

Thanks again for visiting this site. We hope to continue providing informational topics about these great little machines and the little machine shops in which they are used. Have fun and enjoy!

PS – Feel free to leave comments using the box below each article. No registration required.

‘,’

Welcome! You’re still within the figNoggle Designs’ website – it’s just a bit different here than what you’ve seen…

This is what’s called a “blog” (aka “web log”) which in essence, is an online journal or diary of sorts. The purpose here is to make the site more interactive by allowing users such as yourself to post comments, questions, ramblings and what-not based on the journal entries we post.

We’ve been wanting to do this for quite some time but have been swamped with orders of our plans and kits and with upcoming projects in development. This “blog” happens to also be a more convenient method for us to share our developments with the community of machinists, tinkerers and hobbyists.

We have tons of pictures and articles yet to be published as we’ve made more modifications to the X2 mini mill, continued development of our injection molding machine and stamping and crimping machine, made some novel projects like our pneumatic beer can crusher (who couldn’t use one of these!), and our latest project – a DRO and CNC 8×12 Harbor Freight small lathe (aka 8×14 Lathemaster lathe).

We had done some work to our older 7×10 Harbor Freight lathe but found the 8x lathe so much useful for our projects that we’ve spent nearly all of the time working with the 8x!

You’ll note that there are categories that are divided by class of machine. For example, our CNC 8×12 lathe will be in the “8x Small Lathe” section of the “blog” while continued work with the X2 mini mill will be in the “X2 Mini Mill” section. You may have also noticed a section called “X3 Small Mill”… Stay tuned for that one!

Thanks again for visiting this site. We hope to continue providing informational topics about these great little machines and the little machine shops in which they are used. Have fun and enjoy!

PS – Feel free to leave comments using the box below each article. No registration required.

‘,”,”,”,”,”,0,’Comments’,0,4,1,1,’article’,”,”,’welcome-to-the-fignoggle-designs-workshop’,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,’78fd7d531c7f0f35d24dfe445fdd3300′,’2006-07-21′);

(233,’2006-07-22 12:00:00′,’figNoggle’,’2006-12-20 08:04:46′,’david’,’How To Select The Right Breakout Board’,”,’Well, we’re off researching the various breakout board options out there.

Why do we need a breakout board? We keep hearing the term “breakout board” this and “breakout board” that. It’s actually only half of the question and answer as we’re finding out. What we _really_ need is something to isolate power going back into the PC from the various drivers and servo or step motors that will be under at least 5VDC of power (if not more!). Turns out that the breakout board, which in its most basic sense is “just” a board that takes the pins of the DB25/parallel port on the PC to terminals that can be easily accessed. Sure, we could solder things like limit and home switches to the Xylotex board for example, but they offer only pass-through terminals, which is basically the essence of the breakout board for those pins that are available.

There are two options here. If we decide to buy another Xylotex board, we’ll need a way to isolate voltage (aka opto-isolation) i.e. offer voltage protection for the PC. We can wire up something ourselves and then connect them to the available terminals and then have Mach or TurboCNC for example work with those available pins to control home and/or limit switches. The other option is to buy a mega breakout board that actually serves to do a bunch of things, one of which is voltage isolation.

For now, BreakoutBoards.com has some wiki-style information that can be updated by anyone so that all the facts can be provided for others who are just getting into the learning curve of selecting the “right” breakout board.

Moral of this story? A “breakout board” is probably not exactly what you’re looking for. Find the functions that you want and match that with a board that satisfies those requirements. More than likely, it’ll still be marketed as a “breakout board” but you’ll know going into it what you really wanted to begin with. Hope this helps!

Oh and by the way, they are also sometimes referred to as “computer control interface boards”, “controller cards” to create more confusion!

‘,’

Well, we’re off researching the various breakout board options out there.

Why do we need a breakout board? We keep hearing the term “breakout board” this and “breakout board” that. It’s actually only half of the question and answer as we’re finding out. What we really need is something to isolate power going back into the PC from the various drivers and servo or step motors that will be under at least 5VDC of power (if not more!). Turns out that the breakout board, which in its most basic sense is “just” a board that takes the pins of the DB25/parallel port on the PC to terminals that can be easily accessed. Sure, we could solder things like limit and home switches to the Xylotex board for example, but they offer only pass-through terminals, which is basically the essence of the breakout board for those pins that are available.

There are two options here. If we decide to buy another Xylotex board, we’ll need a way to isolate voltage (aka opto-isolation) i.e. offer voltage protection for the PC. We can wire up something ourselves and then connect them to the available terminals and then have Mach or TurboCNC for example work with those available pins to control home and/or limit switches. The other option is to buy a mega breakout board that actually serves to do a bunch of things, one of which is voltage isolation.

For now, BreakoutBoards.com has some wiki-style information that can be updated by anyone so that all the facts can be provided for others who are just getting into the learning curve of selecting the “right” breakout board.

Moral of this story? A “breakout board” is probably not exactly what you’re looking for. Find the functions that you want and match that with a board that satisfies those requirements. More than likely, it’ll still be marketed as a “breakout board” but you’ll know going into it what you really wanted to begin with. Hope this helps!

Oh and by the way, they are also sometimes referred to as “computer control interface boards”, “controller cards” to create more confusion!

‘,”,”,”,’Home-Brewed-CNC-Vertical-Mill’,”,0,”,0,4,1,1,’article’,”,”,’how-to-select-the-right-breakout-board’,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,’5fa7738058af55b986406c9bdc134257′,’2006-07-22′);