Aussie Mike's machine shop

[Aussie Mike]

Originally Posted by Dimis

Even if you gave that to me for free, I wouldn't know how to use it, or even what to do with it. I'm glad it's in your capable hands, I can feel the buzz of excitement in your post.
Congrats & enjoy!

Yes I am excited about it. My mind is abuzz with ideas and possibilities. The frustrating thing is I'm half a world away from the shed at the moment. Working over in the UK for a couple of days.

One of the reasons for wanting to go CNC is its another skill I'd really like to learn. There is a ton of info out there on the web and YouTube to help pick things up.

I've always maintained that people should have a go at machining. Its a very rewarding hobby.

[stephen low]

Mike

No no no, don't be tempted - all you'll be doing now is writing machining files instead of working on the car!!

But it is great to see you are back on your feet and the passion is firing again.

Get into the car and get it on the road - ok!!

[indianamoon]

Mike,

That control does not take dxf files, but you can program it at the control for all sorts of stuff. I have MX3's at my place. The only problem that I have had with the Prototrak controls is that e\any time anything goes wrong with it, they want $1000 to replace the control box. I replaced each of mine once, and then started fixing them myself. The most commnf problem is the screen going bad. There is an outlet for a remote monitor and you can set a separate monitor on the top if you want. I have a customer with a half dozen that way. I found a bolt in lcd screen replacement, and both of mine have those now. I will try and remember to dig that info out and send it to you. There is actually some color programmed in the output, but of course the supplied screens are only mono. Good luck with it.

Pat

[Aussie Mike]

Thanks Pat.
I'm sure I'll be asking you a bunch of questions as i get set up. (I hope you don't mind)

I found a YouTube vid of the LCD screen replacement. I think if I have problems with it I'll just adapt a more modern controller. I'm fairly good with electronics and wiring so should be able to adapt something up. The biggest hassle I've seen with doing any conversion is the Prototrak uses the scales to determine position where most controllers use the drives. I'll probably need to change the drive motors for servos.

Cheers

[SydneyChris]

hi Mike.. congrats on the new toy..

Have sent you a PM re some possible machining / fabrication work.

Chris

[xb-60]

Looks good Mike.
Is it a conventional mill that's been converted to CNC with a (big) new head?

Cheers,
Glen

[Paul F]

Mike, if you are getting rid of the controller and just using the motors and glass scales, I've been through that conversion. I bought a Bridgeport that had a 3 axis Acurite kit put on it. But since it came from a secret government lab, they destroyed the controller. It has servo motors and glass scales. I used Mach 3 and a DSMPC controller from Vital Systems. It was a lot of work to figure everything out. But I can now do full 3D contouring. It's been a while since I did the conversion, but I'm here to help if I can.

[Wazza]

It's like I've wandered on to a Chinese forum....and I only speak English ( Engrish !!)
I have ZERO skill when it comes to this stuff...but totally admire those who do.

Cheers,
Wallen

[Aussie Mike]

Originally Posted by xb-60

Looks good Mike.
Is it a conventional mill that's been converted to CNC with a (big) new head?

Cheers,
Glen

Yes, it's a conventional mill that has ball screws and servo motor drives adapted to the x and y axis. The constant variable speed head is standard for this model mill. Its quite a common type of cnc conversion for a knee type mill. I'd looked at doing it to my mill but i found this one that was already done.

[Aussie Mike]

Originally Posted by Wazza

It's like I've wandered on to a Chinese forum....and I only speak English ( Engrish !!)
I have ZERO skill when it comes to this stuff...but totally admire those who do.

Cheers,
Wallen

My laguage skills extend to English, Bad English and I can say "2 beers please" in a bunch of other languages.

[Aussie Mike]

I got home from working in the UK on Sunday night and popped down to the showroom where the mill currently is on Monday afternoon. Paid the balance and had a play with the machine.

The machine is in even better shape than I hoped. It's equipped with ball screws on both X and Y axis and everything just works. It's been really well looked after.

Had a good chance to play with the machine and I have to say I'm impressed with the old Proto TRAK MX2 controller. The interface is easy to use and program for different shapes etc. I think it'll be great for me and the type of work I do. I reckon I'll get by with just the two axis for quite some time. Its simplicity will be a bonus for me as the learning curve won't be so steep.

The other thing I really like is that the mill can still be used as a regular manual mill like I currently have but with the addition of a sophisticated power feed and DRO setup. The current machine only has power feed on the X axis and the quill. To set travel limits you have to manually adjust the end stops. With the new one you can just quickly set the distance and speed and direction you want the power feed to run and press go. I also gain power feed on the Y axis.

You can probably tell from all the jargon I just babbled that I'm still pretty excited about it. I'm picking it up this Friday so you can imagine what this weekend holds for me.

Cheers

[DaveW]

You'll be studying up on G-code, instead of G-spot now Mike

[Aussie Mike]

Originally Posted by DaveW

You'll be studying up on G-code, instead of G-spot now Mike

Bloody hell, Another thing I'll never understand...

[Aussie Mike]

Well the CNC Mill is now sitting in the workshop. Hooray!



I just love looking at this thing. So many cool features and upgrades over my current manual mill. Not taking anything away from my current machine, it's a good quality Taiwanese made tool room mill. An real industrial machine and not a toy. The new one is just another few steps up again.

Some of the cool extra features are the constant variable speed head. Rather than having to stop and change belts to adjust the cutter speed you just dial up the speed you want with the crank handle on the side. The cutter speed is displayed on the front of the head.

It's got an air powered draw bar which makes changing tools much quicker. No need to put a spanner on the draw bar while holding the spindle brake and unscrewing the draw bar to release the tool. With this one it's just the press of a button to change tools.



The other thing it has that I'd been wanting to fit to my manual mill is a mist cooling system. This sprays a jet of air with a coolant fluid mixed in with it. This keeps the cutting tool and work piece cool while blowing the chips out of the way. The current system is flood coolant which is a stream of just straight coolant that flows over the cutter and work piece. The disadvantage of this shows when using a big cutter or high cutter speeds as it splashes coolant all over the place. Also with a flood of coolant flowing around the tool it can be hard to see what's going on with the cut. Mist cooling systems are a total loss system. Coolant is supplied from a tank that you need to refill periodically but it is spayed in much smaller volume. The flood coolant setup has a sump in the foot of the mill where the coolant drains to and is pumped back up to the nozzle. After a while the sump can get pretty nasty and needs cleaning out (not a fun job).

So why is the new machine still sitting in the middle of the floor??!!

Well there are few jobs to do before I can get it in and running. That flood coolant on the manual mill has made a bit of a mess on the floor over the years so I've got to give the floor a good scrub before moving the CNC mill in.

The CNC mill is also 3 Phase powered where I only have single Phase power available in the workshop... Hmmm

The old Cincinnati Tool master mill that I rebuilt years ago was also a 3 Phase machine. I sorted that by rewiring it and adapting a single phase motor to the head. It also had a constant variable speed head which I really liked.



I thought about using a VSD (Variable Speed Drive) to run the motor on the CNC mill as they are readily available for running 3 phase motors from single phase power. But I would also have to sort out single phase power supply modules for the control systems and mess with all the wiring. Just too many possibilities to stuff something up compared to that simple old Cincinnati machine.

I decided to relent and install 3 Phase power in the shed. However it was going to be way to costly to bring it in from the street as that would have meant pulling in new cable, modifications to the house switchboard and a new meter. New cable pulled through from the house switchboard to a new sub board in the workshop etc... A lot of work, time and expense. I installed a Phase Change converter. This is a device that converts single phase power and produces a clean accurate true 415 Volt 3 Phase feed. This one is rated at 4KW/5.5HP which is bigger than I need for the 3HP motor on the mill but I figured in the future I'd like to put a CNC plasma table in the shed and a decent plasma power source will need a bit more get up and go.

Here's a link to their site if you want to read about how they work. A local Australian company too.

http://www.phasechanger.com/

This past weekends job was installing the Phase changer and getting it running. It's direct wired in via a dedicated 6mm feed back to switchboard. It's overkill for what it will draw but it's a long cable run at nearly 40M and the manual recommends 6mm for a longer cable run and there's not much price difference between 4mm and 6mm cable (and about the same effort to run in). The Phase changer terminates to a 10Amp 3 Phase outlet on the wall. It's a fairly central location in the workshop so I can run a lead back to it from whatever machine I'm running.



Got to tidy up the Sub woofer wiring hanging behind the phase changer though (got to have good tunes in the shed)

So the advantage of this setup is there is no need to mess around with the mill. Just plug it in and away it goes. I've got some time off over Christmas so it'll be a fun job for the break.

Still excited about it all

Cheers

[Ron61]

Now that is a great addition to your shop. Congratulations on getting it and I hope that you quickly learn all of the ins and outs of it.

Ron

[stephen low]

Maaaaaaaaaaaaate does it equate to the passion of sitting in your rat (cobra) rod burbling at the lights.

I'll assume no is the answer.

So when is your car getting mobile again!!!

You need to re-focus.

Cheers mate!!

Steve

[guye]

Sweeeet Mike. Might be time for another shed visit! You around next week?

[gjkrv8]

Mike, That new machine looks great. The phase changer etc is also a neat piece of kit. Saves a lot of mucking around and $$ with switchboards etc etc.

If I had the room I'd be offering you some money for your old mill :-)

cheers

Gregg

[Gav]

Nice work Mike, I see you are up to your old tricks and overkilling the wiring job
Looks very neat though, you will give the local contractors a bad name!

What is the first planned job?

[Gav]

You have got me thinking now Mike.
I have a couple of VFD's sitting in the cupboard that would suit a 3ph mill motor.
Now to find a motor with the right output shaft size...