CNC Milling Machine

I have the conversion kit installed now. Had to remake several parts due to my servo selection and PM randomly drilling and tapping holes.

Working on modifying the spindle motor mount to fit my motor now.

I put the stand on a sawstop hydralic mobile base so I can move it around. Had to modify the leveling legs too.

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That is looking great man! Very impressive. How did you modify the leveling legs?

I ran the tubing and angle all the way through the stand, welded them in place and welded nuts on each end with all thread. Had to move them to fit the mobile base as is. Iā€™ve used these sawstop bases before and they are super strong
and roll really well with 1000lbs on them.

I have the spindle motor working and most of the control cabinet built. Working on limits now. Already almost burnt up the spindle bearings. They are too tight from the factory. Nothing new there. I planned on changing them out
for some skf bearings and Kluber grease. Received those a day or so ago. Should be able to get 6000 rpms.

Todd Candee

todd@thecandees.com

I finished the PDB and spindle VFD and motor. All controlled by software.

Just need to build the enclosure.

Dang! You work quickly. I am starting to get a little jealous of your closed looped stepper motorsā€¦ If possible could you throw up a link to your spindle encoder?

Koyo, TRD-S2500VD, Incrementalā€¦ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YYKDVDQ?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

I used some close loop steppers on my lathe and I really like them. If you loose steps the program stops. Instead of going on cutting in the wrong spot. They are quite a bit more expensive unfortunately. Especially if you donā€™t go with the Chinese knockoffs. Spent about $1800 on these but they are nice and very strong. 1133 and 2800 oz/in.

I just got the spindle VFD speed range dialed in. I am able to get 50rpms to 5940rpms in vector speed mode. After I broke the new SDK bearings in I ran it for 20 min at 5940 rpms and it only got to about 90 deg. Should work really well. I usually tap at around 350 rpm. on my other mill I have to switch to a lower gear and I can still stop the spindle with my hand. Not this one!!! The difference being 2hp vs 1.1 hp and the vector mode VFD. Going to put one of these VFDs on my lathe too and see if it makes a difference.

By the way, I found out why my spindle got so hot before. The oil seal at the end of the spindle is too tight. If you run without it, no heat. Just though you should know. I ordered a new one that is slightly larger inner diameter. 47mm(45mm originally)x72mmx10mm. so if your spindle end is getting hot this is probably why. This amount of heat will cause bearing failure and tool longevity.

Iā€™ve recently converted to linuxcnc and Iā€™m i canā€™t for the life of me get the tool measurement to work. I used the documentation on this site to get going but Iā€™m definitely missing something.

Hey man,

Letā€™s see if we can get you sorted out. Is it a wiring issue? Like the Hal meter doesnā€™t show the signal changing when you press the tool touch off plate?

The hal meter shows the change but the mill doesnā€™t respond. This thing is really getting to me.

What LinuxCNC GUI are you using? Probebasic?

Just double checking, the Hal meter changed states for the probe-in signal on the hal meter? And not just the pin signal?

Iā€™m using probe basic. The probe and tool setter trigger the probe in signal in the hal meter but linuxcnc doesnā€™t recognize the tool setter when i try to measure a tool.

Ok it might be a problem with ProbeBasic.

Are you using the ā€œquick start installā€ (i.e. stable) version of probe basic found here: https://kcjengr.github.io/probe_basic/quick_start.html ?

The development version always has weird bugs. I found that out the hard way.

Unfortunately, I probably canā€™t be much help if its an issue with your installation of ProbeBasic because I have not come across that problem. However, I strongly recommend chatting with the developers over on discord (https://discordapp.com/invite/463hMhd). They are super helpful. Please let me know what the solution was though.

do you have a write or video of the software side of your install? I have the same probe and tool setter as you, iā€™m sure I just missed something.

Yes did you scroll down the project page? There is text on how I setup the hal file. After I had the hal and ini file configured to the my mesa board and machine specifications, I downloaded ProbeBasic and everything worked without trouble (after trouble shooting a tool length issue with the ProbeBasic team, which was an error in their code which was promptly fixed).

What wad the issue with tool length measurement? Thatā€™s the same problem Iā€™m having

The calculation for the tool height was wrong. If the end mill was actually 50mm long it was reporting something crazy like 500mm. But this issue was corrected. For ProbeBasic to calculate tool lengths you need to touch off the spindle nose so it knows the distance of the spindle to the touch plate (letā€™s call this distance S). In ProbeBasic S is known as the spindle zero value. Then when you touch off a tool it calculates how far in the Z direction it moved (letā€™s call this distance M). The tool length (L) will be equal to S - M.

Is that helpful at all? Maybe if you elaborated further on your issue I could be more help.

The system doesnā€™t measure the tool, it crashes every time.

Is there an order to follow? I managed to get 1 tool measured but I canā€™t repeat it.