Thankyou @David the swarfer for confirming the renaming of the extensions on the G-Code files.
I thought that was the case as I could see they are noting more that a text file at the end of the day.

Also thankyou for the G-Code Reference also, Looks like I need to start a G-Code coarse or at least start becoming familiar with the commands to understand it all a little better, Have never dealt with G-Code before this project.

Cheers Glenn.

 

Points taken in regards to MACH3 @David the swarfer, Thankyou again.

I will play around some more, I have been trying to get the build completed with the finer details of wiring and Limit sensors, I also need to re-locate the table to it's final operational position in the Garage.
When I do, I will be getting stuck into G-Code and experimenting a lot more and hopefully get my head around it.

Glenn

 

Thanks @David the swarfer , Yes that makes a lot of sense, I completely understand the analogy with reference to RISC. Well it isn't as big a deal as I thought, it is rather simple when broken down.
Much Simpler than "C"..... LOL

Cheers Glenn.

 

No problem @Brandoneous, hopefully @Moag will see the question now.

Cheers Glenn.

 

Thanks @Moag , Yes I am very happy with the sensors, they are pretty reasonable cost wise too.
I also setup the Hall Effect sensors as Home & limits, there is also the option of having separated home & limits too and it can be an added extra down the track, I have thought about putting micro switches at the extreme Axes travels on the end plates themselves just as a last safety resort but Maybe later, I really wanted to play with the Hall sensors first as I have never experimented with them, I have got them in a digital joystick that I own where they work really well, gone are the days of dirty/noisy potentiometer issues in Joysticks, that's about the only exposure I have ever had to them.

Whilst I have given MACH3 some stick in prior posts I have to say the configurability/scalability of the software is fantastic and it is the reason I want to keep playing with it at this stage, I am growing to like it somewhat but I guess once I start cutting things out and seeing if it really lives up to expectations I will then decide if I am going to stick with it. As I mentioned I am also waiting for the release of this new OB super motion controller, that's going to be a bit of a decision maker for me too. At this stage I am happy to play around just to get a feel for things and learn.

I know what you mean with the Anxiety, however it was not too bad, here is how I approached it.
Firstly I assigned a set Hall sensors on one of the Axes only to Home & limit switches for that Axes.
I then just did some movement Jogging tests in the middle of the table well away from the ends of travel and with a Magnet in my hand put it near the sensor & triggered a stop, once I knew they were responding correctly and I had MACH3 setup for the correct sensing I then moved the sensors closer to the end stops with a little more confidence, giving myself a couple of centimetres safety margin, I did that on all three Axes and then I carried out the homing sequence with my finger over the ESC key which is effectively an E-STOP button in MACH3.

"The joy when it actually works!!" as you say, is fantastic and it really feels like your machine has some artificial intelligence now, although it's just a homing sequence I will admit I must have homed it like 20 times, It's like the feeling you get when you jog it for the first time. I had to take a Video of it just so I could tell somebody about it and posted it in the C-BEAM Machine XLarge thread.

Looks like you have got all the right tools there Craig, As I said the Crimping onto Dupont connectors can be a little fiddly but well worth it, make sure you purchase plenty of pins because you will screw quite a few up before you get them right, it's like filing.... It just takes a little bit of practise.
Here is what I do when crimping and it will depend a lot on wire thicknesses but for very thin wires:

Strip the wire.
Twist the strands.
Fold the wire so it is laying back over the sheath.
I then use a small pair of needle nose pliers to fold over the small set of crimp lugs, this gets the cable in position where you want it to be in the pin, I make sure the exposed wire is facing the bottom face of the pin.
Then I use the crimping tool which folds the lugs to their final crimped position.

With the smaller wires folding it back over the sheath gives the crimp some more meat to crimp/bite against if you know what I mean, otherwise a small tug on the wire can pull it back out of the pin. This is just my personal experience, I am probably using a smaller gauge wire than I should, it's not a perfect world and sometimes you need to crimp pins onto a wire that may not be the correct gauge for the pin, so that my little trick to get around it.

I used old USB cables for the sensors and some of the cables had slightly different gauges of wire between the two power conductors and the two signal conductors.... Probably manufactured when the price of copper was ridiculous.

In regards to Heat shrink.... I can remember around 35 odd years ago when I did my apprenticeship when the guys at work showed me heat shrink for the first time, I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread !!
It is one item in the workshop that gives me panic attacks when I run out of It ... LOL.

My Dupont connectors did not come in a kit when I purchased them, what I did was find a supplier on Ebay in China that carried all the various number of pin bodies from 1 Pin to 8 PIN and all number of PINS between, and ordered like a 100 of each size, At the same time I purchased like a roll of 200 Female and 200 Male PINS and put it all on one purchase. The Crimping Tool I just purchased separately. I can remember having a hard time identifying the connectors at first and it took quite a bit of googling to find their correct name, I only ever new them as servo connectors as they are commonly used and have been used for years on RC Aircraft by Futaba and other RC manufacturers to connect servo motors to their controllers/receivers, usually 3 PIN in the RC world.

Looks like kits are readily available these days, pretty cheap too.
I have had my connectors for quite a few years.
Here is one doing a Ebay search on Dupont Connector Kit:

620pcs Dupont Crimp Pin Connector Wire Jumper Pin Header and M/F Crimp Pins Kit | eBay

Cheers Glenn.

 

@David the swarfer, Thankyou for your Advice on the G61, you were spot on with your Analysis and my Pen Plotting troubles.

I decided to go for broke last night and fit up the router with a V Bit and engrave the OB Logo into some MDF, the very first run was a bit of a Dogs breakfast when I got to any corners.

Here is what I got without the G61 being issued, Here we can see the rounded corners on the Cog.
I don't know what the hell MACH3 was trying to do with the corners on the Squares around the Cog, but it did multiple passes and took the exact same path each time. The Job didn't quite complete because I had loaded the file from a share across a WiFi Network, I learnt a lesson there, Always load the file from a local drive and maybe get rid of the WiFi Adaptor all together if running a BOB.







And here is the Same Run again with G61 at the start of the GCode File.
The only other difference was I backed the Z off +2mm as I was plunging too deep into the material.
I noticed this time all the rounded moves were all little steps at a time including the circle in the centre of the Cog, but the Sharp Corners of the Cog were cut correctly. You can see on this run because the tool was holding on the rounded corners for so long I was getting some burning on the curved corners.

 

Cheers @Moag, Thankyou for that, That will be one of the next little jobs to turn out on the Mill.

My plan is to setup all the little mods and improvements over the Christmas break that will make Milling simple, quick and easy.

The Blind nut tie down setup was one of the most important ones so it got priority, this will now let me tackle some Aluminium cuts and experiment even more.
Here is my To Do list.

1) Fit some Aluminium Angle around the outside of the Table Base Board, Including a Flip of the Base Board similar to what I did with the Spoil board but Cutting Some Grooves in the Base where I can then insert and screw down more Aluminium angle along the X Plane, this should strengthen and Straighten the Base board up quite a bit.

2) Once the Aluminium Angle is fitted up I want to run a Surfacing Bit across the Spoil Board which should make it perfectly level with the Cutter.

3) Seal the MDF Board... It's like a sponge and if I play with Aluminium and use some lubricant, I don't want it leaving the boards all stained, they could even swell over time.
MDF and fluid = HELL.

4) Today I picked up a Dust Deputy Kit from Carbatec.... This will turn my shop Vac into a dust collection system, the few cuts that I have done points out to me that a dust collection system is critical, both for health reasons and to protect other items in the garage.

5) Cut out a Dust Shoe and mount some strip brush.... I picked up some strip brush today, I just have to give this guy a plug here on the forum as he looked after me on the supply of the strip brush today, Lets just say I owe him a Slab of beer, which I most certainly will drop in to him !!
Anyone in Sydney that is looking for strip brush for their dust shoes, these guys have what you need:
Industrial Brushware, 237 Beaconsfield Street, Milperra, NSW 2214 (Ph: +61 2 9771 9790) Contact: Larry Fleming, really helpful.
I think they have offices in other states too, but best of all you can walk in and talk to a real person.... Call me old fashioned but sometimes it is the best way.
Their Web Site is Industrial Brushware

6) I found a cool little USB Web Camera in my box of tricks here that I have never used, it's a sort of fat bullet style camera and I should easily be able to design a little mount for it on the side of the Z Gantry, I have tested already in MACH3 and it works like a charm, MACH3 fully supports a Camera with on screen cross hairs and offsets for visual X/Y Zeroing, this will be really handy when working on an existing part that requires modification allowing visual reference to the parts edges from overhead.

7) Make a touch plate for Z Zeroing and wire it up, the Z Gantry is now earthed so this should be reasonably easy.

8) I still need to move the PC under the mobile table/tool cabinet that it is sitting on as that will give me plenty of desk space on top, I also want to mount connectors on the PC case so I can put the covers back onto it.

9) Emergency Stop Button, Why have I got this at the bottom of the List has got me beat, I do promise readers that I promote safe practices always, and always use goggles and all that stuff, Safety is important and this will get a higher priority for sure, you have my word.

10) Fit Christmas in between all that somewhere.....Yes I will have a break and a Beer or two, mmmm Maybe even a Bourbon or three.

Merry Christmas Craig, and also to all the Open Builders out there, hope Santa turns up with lotsa CNC related toys for all of you.

Cheers Glenn.

 

I am really loving the little Makita router, it runs pretty cool temperature wise and is rather quiet.... The Shop Vac is louder than the router.

Anyhow I am going to stick with this for a while, have been thinking about a Relay to allow MACH3 to ENABLE/DISABLE the router as the job starts but we will see, many other little bits and pieces to do before that luxury.

The 65mm PVC Water Pipe Adaptor ring for the OpenBuilds Mount works like a charm (See my Build Log)... I will mill up something that looks a little more professional eventually.

Anyhow I purchased a full set of Collets... not cheap, worked out about $200 Australian, the cost of the router itself but this will allow me to use all sorts of router bits of different shank sizes, it worked out cheaper just to order the complete sets and I now have a spare 1/4" collet because that's what originally came with the router, but that's OK.

One day I may upgrade to a proper spindle.

These Collets are not made by Makita, they are produced by a third party "Elaire Corporation" in the US, the website is The Elaire Corporation - Precision USA made collets, holders, air tool components
They look to be of very high quality.
They can Also do custom sizes if required.

Here is a link to the Makita RT0700 Collets for anyone else that might need to order a different size collet.

Elaire Corporation

Here is what they Look Like.

 

Thanks @Moag,

Well I did alignment using a ruler not a mirror and I have the drift on both X & Y less than 0.1mm for MAX/MIN Z Travel, However because there is no adjustment on the Camera mount itself that makes it independent of the Router Mount I have most likely put the tramming out, because I adjusted the router mount to achieve minimum drift on the camera.

I might have to re-think the camera mount, it was more of an experiment and a Perspex cutting test more than anything and will probably do for the moment for most of the things I will be playing with. I have not done any Tramming alignment as yet but the Camera alignment is definitely going to have to be independent of the router mount alignment.

Next to do is Stiffen up the table with some Aluminium Angle, then I will probably surface it..... Then I will tackle the tramming.... Then re-design the camera mount or modify it.

Cheers Glenn.

 

Just a little update from me and maybe this might inspire others to make things they thought they couldn't with their CNC.

Firstly I did my first test run with my Prototype Dust shoe... SUCCESS, NO Dust flying around now so I am very happy about that, I will now make a proper one with Magnets and all, I may even take a look at making a design similar to the SUCKIT Shoe that is independent of the cutter height but that is down the track.

Here is a Video of it running, I cut MDF because it makes the most mess with fine dust and would be a good test.
There does not seem to be enough suction to haul the dust from the cut slot but that may be because I have not emptied the VAC for a while, but the important thing is the dust is under control.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f13wpMOqR-1GbGTA842DOnOGNpRyWBpSPQ/view?usp=sharing

As I am still learning I am mainly playing with scrap and trying different ideas and looking for things to try.
Here is one technique that I think may be interesting to a lot of you creative builders out there that might want to build an item with your CNC but if It is an odd shape and hard to dimension you feel it cannot be achieved or may be too difficult to tackle.

I have a 2015 Mitsubishi Pajero 4WD, and like most of the modern 4 Wheel Drives there is ZERO room for any mounting of radios in the vehicle, I have my Ham Ticket so I always like to have radios fitted to my vehicle and Mitsubishi Engineers are not going to stop this little backyard engineer to fit one. So I have decided to build a Dash Pod that will mount on top of the Dash to house the Radio Control panels that I would like to install.

The big problem is with modern dashboards they are never square and are all curvey, there is rarely anything square in a modern vehicle to get that space aged modern look. So how do you build a Dash Pod to fit a modern Car ??

A Little Trick Called "PhotoGammetry"

I also play around with Flight Simulators and PhotoGammetry is very common practise when trying to build an Instrument cluster of say a Modern Day F/A-18 Fighter Jet, A call to Boeing asking for the Instrument Panel plans and dimension will not get you very far..... So there is a little trick where we can take a photo of an instrument cluster and if we can then find something on the panel that we can get a Dimension of then we can get reasonably accurate measurements for the rest of the items on the panel including their relational mounting positions, pretty clever stuff.

As many Instruments, even Military ones can be looked up on the internet to check there specifications including face and housing dimensions, this gives us a great way to dimension up a photo of a real cockpit. The Technique is known as PhotoGammetry and you can get pretty accurate results with it. PhotoGammetry is also used in crime scenes and road accident scenes for collection of evidence so it is handy thing to know about and you may even be able to use it to build your next project that might otherwise seem impossible to cut accurately.

So what I did was take a photo of my Dash, Import it into Sketchup, Scaled the photo against some reasonably accurate measurements of the what I photographed and then trace the area I was interested in, I did not really take too much care as it was merely a proof of concept with some scrap wood at this stage but I think you will agree the result is not too bad for a first rough attempt for demonstration purposes, In fact this cut would probably be good enough by the time you used some foam padding and vinyl covering on the pod etc. I also took profile pictures from the left and right side of the dash as it also has a curve/arc from the face of the dash to the glass, so you can see the delima when trying to build something that you want to sit there snug.

Here is the scaled photo in sketchup

Here is the cut piece of material traced in sketchup and G-Coded with Sketchucam to see how it might fit on my dash board.....Not too bad for a roughie !!



Anyhow, something I thought may be of interest to some builders out there and wanted to share.
I will now carry out some more accurate measurements and take my time and do some careful sketchup tracing to get an even better fit and build this thing.

Cheers Glenn.

 

Yep Craig, thats PhotoGammetry, it really can be a handy thing to know about when faced with tricky situations when dimensional data or angle data simply is not available.

With all of us carrying a high resolution camera in our pocket these days it means you can almost design anything to fit a wiered unknown shape at the drop of a hat and a little bit of software knowhow and an OpenBuilds Mill too LOL!!

Glenn

 

Yes Gray, I certainly have and realize this will be problably esential when I get to Aluminium as it will be important to get the chips out of there fast.

I was hoping the air stream from the cooling fan in the router would have helped but not so. I have an air compressor in the workshop so I will have to get a little flexy nozzle line and mount it to have a play, I reckon you are on the money though and that will do the trick for sure, it will also help keeping the bit cool when milling more difficult material, might look at adding cutting fluid misting with that option too.

Although I think maybe a full aluminium bed would be a better option then but I certainly will setup a liitle air nozzle.

Cheers Glenn.

 

Thanks for that info Jestah, I actually went to purchase a nozzle today, as I want to also grab a keyless chuck for my drill press, was going to buy a few different size endmills too but the engineering shop I went to was still closed for the Christmas break and not reopening till tomorrow.... just my luck.... will have to drop back in tomorrow.

@Moag, not sure if you are in Sydney but McJing tools is a great shop to visit, prices are pretty good to, its like a toy shop in there !! Heaps of router bits and related stuff.

They also have a web site McJING Tools Online although I doubt he has everything listed on his web site.

Cheers Glenn

 

No Problems @MuchoBurrito, I tried to give plenty of detail..... I am very happy it inspired you.

You will be very happy with that machine, I have been having a ball with it, learning so much as I go.
It's my favourite tool in the shed now and I LOVE it to death, I would sleep with it if I could !!! LOL

Here is a pic of a my latest product I have produced on it.
This is a an Aircraft Simulator Control Panel and has been completely manufactured on my little mill and was the reason I built it.
All Cutting and Engraving has been done on the Mill so that should give you a pretty good Idea as to how accurate and to what precision you can work to on this baby.
This panel is made of Acrylic and Aluminium and has a Copper Clad/Fibre Glass Circuit board on the rear, All cut on the Mill as I said.
You are only limited by your imagination with this machine.

.