#linuxcnc Logs
Mar 09 2021
#linuxcnc Calendar
12:12 AM mrec: is anyone using a mini mill with linuxcnc?
12:19 AM mrec: the cross table is a bit small to fix a stock on it
12:19 AM mrec: I think about getting an aluminium plate and drilling/tapping holes for that purpose
12:19 AM roycroft: i have a sieg x3 clone
12:19 AM roycroft: i've not done the cnc conversion yet, but heaps of people have
12:19 AM mrec: are you using it already?
12:19 AM roycroft: i've had the machine for over a decade
12:19 AM roycroft: i use it almost every day
12:19 AM mrec: mine has a similar size, the CNC part is okay
12:20 AM roycroft: fixturing can be tricky
12:20 AM mrec: I'm milling aluminium sometimes steel it's all good.
12:20 AM roycroft: since you have a small machine, you'll be taking light cuts
12:21 AM mrec: fixtures are the main problem (I'm getting along with what I have ... but I'm looking for an improvement)
12:21 AM roycroft: you could grind the ends of the step clamps down a bit
12:21 AM mrec: I thought about fixing a big aluminium plate on it and tapping holes as mentioned
12:21 AM mrec: the grinder is on the way ... I guess it will arrive in 1-2 weeks
12:22 AM roycroft: you would lose strength, but they may be overkill for what you're doing, and sacrificing some strength for greater ease of fixturing may make sense for you
12:23 AM roycroft: i've never gotten around to making a fixturing plate like that
12:23 AM roycroft: mainly because it's a lot of work without cnc
12:23 AM mrec: for Acrylic I'm using small plastic clamps, I've never tried them for aluminium (10-30mm)
12:23 AM roycroft: probably i'll make one as soon as i do the cnc conversion
12:23 AM mrec: I have converted mine with a 3d printer, now I'm changing the printed parts to aluminium
12:24 AM mrec: the plastic parts are good, and main parts are held by large steel screws
12:24 AM roycroft: anyway, look at the issues you have with your machine not as limitations, but as challenges to find more clever ways to make your parts
12:25 AM mrec: I'm absolutely fine with the machine.. just fixture I need to learn more about it
12:25 AM roycroft: that's a big part of machining, and it takes years to get really good at it
12:26 AM mrec: did you do some aluminium milling?
12:26 AM roycroft: not often, but once i do the cnc conversion i'll be doing quite a bit of it
12:27 AM roycroft: it's all manual now, and mostly steel
12:27 AM mrec: the question would be, do you have any experience with a downcut bit?
12:27 AM roycroft: not on a milling machine
12:27 AM roycroft: i have a lot of experience with downcut and upcut router bits
12:27 AM mrec: with steel?
12:27 AM roycroft: no
12:27 AM roycroft: with wood
12:28 AM mrec: ok that's a hole different topic then I guess
12:28 AM roycroft: indeed
12:28 AM mrec: whole*
12:28 AM roycroft: and i'm not going to try to translate it
12:28 AM roycroft: because i don't think it would translate well
12:28 AM XXCoder: steel you would use normal or climb cut. dont think theres tools for steel that can do upcut
12:28 AM XXCoder: erm downcut
12:28 AM mrec: our vendor in Taiwan has a downcut bit... certainly I think it's useful for sheet metal
12:29 AM XXCoder: nice! yep!
12:29 AM roycroft: with sheet metal there's always going to be a rough surface
12:29 AM XXCoder: when I worked at one place, plates lifting havbe always been a problem
12:29 AM roycroft: there are some fancy hybrid downcut/upcut router bits for wood
12:30 AM roycroft: the top of the bit is downcut and the bottom is upcut
12:30 AM roycroft: if they're centered on the wood they leave a clean cut on both sides
12:30 AM XXCoder: roy yeah
12:30 AM roycroft: those are really expensive
12:30 AM XXCoder: compression I think its called?
12:30 AM roycroft: i've not tried any
12:30 AM roycroft: yes
12:30 AM mrec: roycroft: sure that would translate the same way to metal?
12:30 AM roycroft: compression cut
12:30 AM XXCoder: never use compression on metal
12:30 AM mrec: I think the downcut bit was not so expensive in Taiwan ... 20-30$
12:30 AM roycroft: i think it would be challenging
12:31 AM roycroft: chip clearance is more of an issue when maching metals
12:33 AM mrec: roycroft: what kind of oil / grease do you use for your machine?
12:34 AM mrec: I'm starting to have some doubt about the 3M grease we use for it it's really thick
12:35 AM XXCoder: for my 3d printer I use vecra 2
12:35 AM XXCoder: good for cnc? dunno
12:37 AM mrec: I also applied it to the 3d printer here, it helped a little bit the biggest problemw as that the belt was touching the aluminium profile it produced some audible noise
12:37 AM roycroft: i use vactra 2 for the ways on both my lathe and my mill
12:40 AM XXCoder: cool
12:40 AM XXCoder: ill never run out of vactra 2
12:40 AM XXCoder: i need to re-lube my mini, its at over 100 hours
01:46 AM -!- #linuxcnc mode set to +v by ChanServ
03:27 AM Deejay: moin
04:46 AM miss0r2: g'day
04:49 AM sensille: morning
05:18 AM miss0r2: Either this maho 500w mill has an incredible oil economy.. or it does not lubricate like it is supposed to...
05:18 AM * miss0r2 is starting to get a bit worried
05:30 AM miss0r2: I just had the worst strange error ever !
05:30 AM miss0r2: Made my cad. generated the CAM, sent via serial to the cnc (the way I always do).
05:31 AM miss0r2: it runs the first few operations acording to plan
05:31 AM miss0r2: then halfway in one operation it decides to race across the entire workpeice at 7mm depth (the depth it was currently working at) and that is when I hit the E-stop
05:31 AM miss0r2: I could not for the life of me recreate the tool movement in my simulator.
05:32 AM miss0r2: Then I got to comparing. *Apparently* a blip accured during the serial transfer, so it managed to loose a - (negative)
05:32 AM miss0r2: that is all it lost.
05:32 AM miss0r2: and now the workpeice is ruined. Luckily only two hours into it, but still! I've never had that happen before
05:40 AM Tom_L: morning
05:41 AM Tom_L: what baudrate?
05:42 AM Tom_L: i had to add pauses between transfers on my friends old machine
05:42 AM Tom_L: even at 4800 baud
05:43 AM miss0r2: its 9600
05:44 AM miss0r2: I've never ever ever had issues before
05:44 AM miss0r2: But this is a serious one
05:44 AM miss0r2: :)
05:45 AM miss0r2: I have to ship these four units tomorrow. Now I have to remake one... *sigh*
05:45 AM miss0r2: and the work that is lost is manual lathe work.
05:46 AM Tom_L: could be line noise too
05:46 AM Tom_L: maybe a compressor etc started at that moment
05:48 AM JT-Cave: morning
05:48 AM Tom_L: hi jt
05:48 AM miss0r2: Hmm. I guess anything is possible. but the compressor is at a good distance (I hate the noise) :)
06:10 AM rs[m]: miss0r2: you are lucky, such an error could easily crash the spindle
07:26 AM miss0r2: rs[m]: Indeed
07:27 AM miss0r2: but as I ever only do proto types/small productions, I always have my hand over the e-stop button. so perhaps I could've catched a z-movement error (perhaps maybe ect..) :D
08:01 AM rs[m]: i managed to rapid a 20mm carbide tool into a stop that failed to retract, that resulted in a busted spindle bearing
08:20 AM gloops: dambit
09:21 AM gloops: spindle adaptor for wood lathe fits anyway, the old myford ml8 may ride again https://ibb.co/gZXKvjP
09:24 AM gloops: 12tpi @ 1'' to 8tpi 1''
10:29 AM enleth: miss0r2: see if the controller supports a different serial line discipline (that's a specific industry term for this), the default is XON/XOFF with no real integrity checks, but some hardware supports other options
11:40 AM Vq_ is now known as Vq
12:08 PM sensille: this looks promising https://i.imgur.com/Q4lIqox.jpg
12:16 PM sensille: a belt might be the easiest way to connect them
12:20 PM * JT-Shop thinks he should actually do some work today
12:45 PM Loetmichel: **MUHAHAHA** ... Wife just went into the kitchen and started cussing like a sailor. $me:"Hey, if you pupils heard that back when you were a teacher..." Her reply: "Who do you think i learned those words from?" (she forgot our dinner in the oven . "Coal" would be kind to describe the results. A high five for delivery services)
01:01 PM roycroft: you konw, loetmichel, veegee was looking for a source of coke the other day for a project
01:01 PM roycroft: i told him that folks generally make it out of coal
01:01 PM roycroft: so you might send him your dinner
01:31 PM * JT-Shop finally discovered the secret location that he had put the blue teeth head phones...
01:35 PM Jymmm: his ears?
01:38 PM Eric__: I keep losing my headphones too. Most recently they were on the headrest of my office chair
02:21 PM JT-Shop: I can usually find 3 of the 4 sets I have but for lengthy jobs or mowing I like to listen to music
02:29 PM Tom_L: JT-Shop, spoke machine still on a standstill?
02:31 PM JT-Shop: I'm working on what parts I can while I wait for the pneumatics to arrive
02:36 PM Eric__: That reminds me that I have a set of headshokz that I need to look for
02:36 PM gloops: spindle adaptor for wood lathe fits, allows me to marry old rusting stuff to other even older rusting stuff https://ibb.co/t47ffPP
02:37 PM SpeedEvil is now known as Guest53746
02:38 PM XXCoder: lol
02:39 PM gloops: very sturdy machine
02:42 PM JT-Shop: Tom_L, you getting any rain yet?
02:53 PM roycroft: have any of you ever repurposed a raspberry planting bed?
02:53 PM roycroft: the raspberry plants in one of my beds died back to the ground last year, and they never produced well nor were they very tasty
02:53 PM roycroft: so i decided to rip them out and plant blueberries there instead
02:54 PM roycroft: i've found the entire bed is a gnarled matt of roots
02:54 PM gloops: blueberries need acid soil
02:54 PM roycroft: am i going to need to just pull all of that out and buy a couple yards of planting soil to refill the bed?
02:54 PM roycroft: i have a big bag of peat moss to mix into the bed
02:55 PM XXCoder: i suppose you could "cook" em out by using horse scat
02:55 PM roycroft: that will take the ph right down
02:55 PM XXCoder: then let it rest and it will be rich soil. but then i might be misremembering
02:55 PM roycroft: i'm going to pull the big roots
02:55 PM roycroft: i just wonder if the little bits i leave behind are going to start growing raspberries and cause a mess
02:56 PM roycroft: i need to get the blueberries planted asap
02:56 PM roycroft: no time to cook the old stuff out
02:56 PM roycroft: chicken manure would be a lot better than horse manure for that, btw
02:56 PM XXCoder: ahh ok
02:56 PM roycroft: horse manure is mild enough one can almost mix it directly into an existing bed and not burn anything
02:58 PM XXCoder: i read that its a method to get rid of horsetails plants, but then that plant loves very poor soil
03:00 PM gloops: rotavator would pulverise the roots, and bring them to the top, probably just rake them off then
03:01 PM * JT-Shop has plenty of chicken poop if anyone needs any
03:16 PM roycroft: i've considered putting the tiller in the bed and having a go at it
03:17 PM roycroft: it's a raised bed, and the rototiller is pretty heavy, but i could manage
03:17 PM roycroft: i could build a little ramp for it
03:17 PM roycroft: if i did that and removed all the roots, the bed would only be 1/2 empty, not totally empty
03:17 PM roycroft: and i would only have to buy 1 yard of planting soil
03:18 PM roycroft: it's definitely something to consider doing
03:18 PM roycroft: what could take me a day to do by hand would take 20 minutes with the tiller
03:19 PM roycroft: i should go finish making the new table for my belt grinder this afternoon
03:19 PM roycroft: still no bites on the edge sander i have for sale, but putting it up for sale motivated me to make a long table for the belt grinder, which i've been meaning to do since i made the grinder
03:20 PM roycroft: the new table is 2' long and 8" wide - perfect for the kind of edge sanding i did on the machine i'm selling
03:20 PM roycroft: the platen is not nearly that long, but that's ok
03:37 PM Tom_L: JT-Shop, no not yet
03:38 PM Tom_L: it's rather windy here though
03:41 PM JT-Shop: here too
03:43 PM Tom_L: 30% chance by tomorrow night
03:44 PM Tom_L: if it rains in Oklahoma, it might land here though
04:09 PM roycroft: we had a nasty wind/rain storm yesterday, when it was supposed to be nice and sunny
04:17 PM -!- #linuxcnc mode set to +v by ChanServ
04:27 PM -!- #linuxcnc mode set to +v by ChanServ
04:35 PM -!- #linuxcnc mode set to +v by ChanServ
04:37 PM andypugh_ is now known as andypugh
05:08 PM SpeedEvil is now known as Guest21051
05:58 PM -!- #linuxcnc mode set to +v by ChanServ
06:17 PM JT-Cave: what's the difference between zero cross and random cross for a ssr
06:20 PM Tom_L: i'm pretty sure zero crossing are used for ac circuits
06:21 PM Tom_L: otherwise they wouldn't shut off
06:21 PM JT-Cave: me takes another look
06:21 PM Tom_L: me does too :)
06:22 PM Tom_L: used alot in dimmable lamps
06:23 PM Tom_L: they switch when the voltage is near zero where a normal ssr will switch at any phase angle
06:24 PM Tom_itx: https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/237833/a-question-on-zero-crossing-versus-random-fire-ssrs
06:24 PM Tom_L: there
06:26 PM Tom_L: you can also get zero crossing optos
06:26 PM JT-Cave: interesting
06:27 PM Tom_L: i used a zero crossing opto on my toaster oven
06:27 PM * JT-Cave goes to read the pullets a bed time story about the sky falling
06:27 PM Tom_L: on a dimmable circuit, if it's not zero crossing the triac will switch on and stay on
06:28 PM Tom_L: thus not dimmable
06:30 PM JT-Cave: dimmable as in variable voltage?
06:31 PM Tom_L: of sorts
06:31 PM Tom_L: more or less 'on' time in the ac sine wave
06:32 PM Tom_L: as i understand it anyway
06:32 PM JT-Cave: ah ok
06:32 PM Tom_L: compare it to a chopper driver (gecko) for current
06:33 PM JT-Cave: hmm looks like everyone has settled in for the night
06:33 PM XXCoder: not me
06:33 PM XXCoder: its 4 pm
06:33 PM Tom_L: now wait for someone to come along and correct me :)
06:33 PM internut: Tom_L: You're wrong
06:34 PM Tom_L: thanks
06:34 PM internut: anything I can do to help
06:34 PM * JT-Cave wonders what time zone XXCoder is in as it's 6:22 pm here
06:34 PM XXCoder: pacific
06:34 PM JT-Cave: you're lagging by 22 minutes...
06:35 PM Tom_L: what are you working on?
06:35 PM XXCoder: lol timezones i dont bother with minutes
06:35 PM XXCoder: 'except for few very rare cases, minutes is always same
06:43 PM Tom_itx: JT-Cave, the lower right box is my toaster oven triac circuit: http://tom-itx.no-ip.biz:81/~webpage/toaster_oven/control_sch.png
06:43 PM Tom_itx: http://tom-itx.no-ip.biz:81/~webpage/toaster_oven/blinktest1.jpg
06:43 PM Tom_itx: lower left board
06:43 PM Tom_itx: http://tom-itx.no-ip.biz:81/~webpage/toaster_oven/blinktest2.jpg
06:43 PM Tom_itx: it works.
06:45 PM Tom_itx: http://tom-itx.no-ip.biz:81/~webpage/toaster_oven/triac_top2.jpg
06:45 PM Tom_itx: closeup of the board
06:45 PM Tom_itx: opto is on the bottom
06:46 PM Tom_itx: http://tom-itx.no-ip.biz:81/~webpage/toaster_oven/triac_bottom2.jpg
06:50 PM CaptHindsight: how many extra days are Fedex packages taking this week? (not international)
10:03 PM skunkworks: I need a surface grinder in the basement..
10:04 PM XXCoder: nice