That was a pretty good cut you made there. Good proof that the spindle is strong and able to handle heavy duty cuts...but do not do that all the time.

I would have had the RPM at 10000 RPM or higher and started off at about 30 mm per minute if that depth of cut and stepover was intentional. But in reality i would have set my DOC at 2 or 3mm and stepover at 2mm.

 

It depends...if you are taking small DOC and small stepovers it helps to heat up up the carbide....but that is only if you are not cutting for long periods of time. I know from first hand experience...

But overall to be on the safe side I would use coolant with carbide.

The secret to better machining is to use high speed machining techniques if possible. Small DOC and small stepovers is just a simple HSM technique. Constant Surface Contact surface machining is where its at. That basically means that the tool never moves away from part in the toolpath. The constant contact allows the tool to stay heated up and that helps with cutting better. Trochoidal toolpaths are one way of staying on the part at all time. There are other toolpath types but that one is the one talked about the most.. But that takes some practice to create good toolpaths and unless you have CAM software that outputs HSM toolpaths then its tough to create by manual G-Code programming. And just because the software says it can create Trochoidal toolpaths there should be settings to adjust the toolpath to optimize if for Trochoidal machining.

 

As far as the tap guide goes...thank you.

So considering that I'm new at building stuff with the OpenBuilds components it took me some time to understand the assembly process to perform. Once I got in the routine after practicing with the first y-axis plate I got the second one finished in 45 minutes or so.

All I have Frog Lube which I use for cleaning and lubing my firearms between a complete tear down/reassembly. Works good.

So I have both y-axis plates built and when and I'm dialing in how freely they roll on the c-beam without having any slop or backlash. The two things that control that adjustability are the eccentric spacers and how freely the bearings spin. The two are close but not exactly the same.

 

Upon reviewing the build guide for a Sphinx build I found that it calls out for 27mm screws which aren't available at OpenBuilds and thanks to Michael M. suggesting as an alternative to use a 3mm spacer between the screw head and mounting plate the need to grind down a bunch of 30mm screws isn't necessary. Unfortunately my supply of 3mm spacers is limited. My build is on hold pending a delay in shipping

 

I am assembling the X-axis gantry plate/wheel assembly and I used the build guide along with the solidworks model to see how it's built. I have the eccentric spacers oriented so it should roll in as loosely as possible yet it will not roll on like it should. I'm thinking I should remove the inner wheels and see if it will roll onto the c- beam that way,

 

After posting I decided to remove the fixed row of wheels and i then oriented the eccentric spacers so they were both in the same direction with the wheels having the most distance from the V-slots. I probably had the spacers oriented the other way. With everything assembled it was kind of hard to see which way the e-spacers were oriented. That plus I couldn't sleep even though I was tired so that didn't help either.

 

I saw that...but just to make it easier for me to see I have been marking the flat with the '6mm' label with a Sharpie Marker as well. Thank you.

PS just wait until I start asking you questions about setting up the spindle and VFD with the controller card. I started reading through the manual for the VFD and not only is electronics a foreign language to me but so is chinese english.

 

Assembling the X-axis wheel/plate assemblies I found that the 60mm screws that are specified are too short for the way the Blue Ox plates are currently machined. The counterbored holes should be deeper rather than just deep enough to make it so the screw head is flush with the plate surface.
And the opposite plate should also have counterbored holes for both rows of holes.

This is so the screws stuck out far enough so the locknuts can be threaded on completely.

I am going to see if I can get longer screws at the hardware store...unless of course there is another solution that I'm just not seeing right now.

 

On the side of the plate where the eccentric spacers go I feel its necessary to use a spacer/shim/washer because the hole is large and the locknut does not contact the plate completely. I now see that 65mm screws are available from Openbuilds and that is the length that will do the trick. I am still waiting for the Phoenix CNC board so I am considering getting the CNC xPro V3 also.

 

I will wait. The sale only cuts the price by about $14 so if I need to I can get it later. I found another web site that sells it for $119 normally so if I need to I will possibly get it from there. I will get the 65mm screws though.

 

What are these in the photos?

 

I did get the micros witch limit switches...but the solution is simple...just don't let machine travel past its limits.

 

Can you tell me what you used of the machine controller enclosure? An old

In the real world when you home ( G28 ) a machine you actually should never actually go to the 0.,0.,0. never go to the machine coordinate.

Most programs I write for a vertical mill have code (in inches) that looks like this:

G0 G90 G28 Z-.1
X-.1 Y-.1
M30

Which brings the machine to .1 inches below machine 0. then jogs the machine to machine X-.1 and Y-.1 next. You never want to put X, Y and Z all on the same line since there is a chance something could be in the way if it rapids directly to machine home. On industrial machines if the spindle is at machine 0.,0.,0. there is a chance because of inaccuracies of the machine that that location could actually exceed the machine limits.

.10 inches is equal (roughly) to .25 mm so if you are programming in metric i would use .25 mm for the distance from G28 machine home.

If machine rapid scares you you can always use a G1 instead of G0 and then use a relatively fast feed rate such as F25. a feed of 25 is pretty fast but not so fast that if it looks close you wont be able to turn the feed rate down or at the worst case hit the E=Stop button.

Also its a good idea to make sure you always use a decimal point when programming co-ordinates

 

I haven't seen a hobby machine in action before so I guess that's something i need to learn.