Stumbling Warp9TD Smoothstepper
Update 10/1/12 (see below)
If you have been reading me for awhile, you know I purchased a USB Warp9 TD Smoothstepper for my Taig CNC mill controller. The link in the sentence above is to the last time I posted on the Smoothstepper.
It has been running wonderfully well until my last project. I was doing several roughing tool changes then a long three hour run with a 0.005″ ball end mill. When I was stopping the spindle motor for a tool change I was getting a glitch that would give me an E-Stop in MACH3. I would also get communication errors with the Smoothstepper saying MACH3 hadn’t “talked” to it for awhile on the USB port so it would go into a lock up state. Very frustrating as it required a Smoothstepper power off reboot and trying to salvage the run somewhere in the middle of the program.
Thoughts of ripping out the Smoothstepper and going back to parallel port did cross my mind. But I am more analytic than that. What had changed?
I remember reading one of the issues with the USB version and why Warp9 TD is producing the LAN version is noise issues on the USB line. The USB interface was never designed to survive interference as well as a LAN interface that in typical applications may run hundreds of feet through noisy environments. So I looked where I had routed my USB cable.
I had recently neaten-upped my cabling and run the USB along with a lot of power wiring along the side of my computer and in parallel with my power surge protector strip. I am a control systems expert and I know better. My USB cable has no industrial strength shielding. Yes, there are some USB… Continue reading
Rhino Crazy
I have spent the last couple of weeks deciding what I was going to do to upgrade my CAD/CAM software. Not the software I use for Over Head Routing. I have one of the best for my purposes and cost restraints in the form of Vectric Aspire. I use it a lot and always find new things I can make or design using it. Aspire is not going to go away for something better in its class for a long time.
As the title suggests my struggle has been what do I do with my aging (over six years old) McNeel’s Rhinoceros and its CAM plugin, MecSoft’s RhinoCAM. I use this combination to do the things that Aspire was never designed to do in CAD/CAM, A few example projects are the stepper motor heat sinks on HB2, a complicated replacement gun part in aluminum, and the detailed A3 locomotive driver wheels I machined from stainless steel.
Rhino really rocks in the drawing department. Well, that is what it is, a 3D drawing program. I started with Version 3 and somewhere along the line I upgraded to version 4. It’s been in Version 4 for quite some time, but there have been updates on a regular basis. Version 3 was fun but when V4 arrived, I knew it was a real pro users program. I am now running the Beta for version 5 and it is another major leap.
Rhino sells for around $1000 new and about half that for upgrades. So I have probably $1500 invested in Rhino over 6 – 8 years. I don’t know where V5 upgrade will be priced, but I will be there.
MecSoft RhinoCAM is a special edition of Visual Mill that runs inside Rhino as a plug in. It is NOT a… Continue reading
Grizzly Disk Sander/Grinder Switch
Quite awhile back I purchased a Grizzly G7297 12″ disk sander/grinder. It is one of the most used power tools in the shop. Sometime I just have to grind something off flat or square and this is a fast and accurate way to do it.
The switch is apparently the weakest part in the machine. It stuck in the always on position. As you can see the points are badly burned. The concept was good as it is a double pole single throw (DPST) switch. Both power and ground are broken when switching off. But not good when they weld both sets of points to their mate.
My assumption is this is the same switch used for 220 volt A/C models.
The switch is mostly plastic and the toggle has a plastic part that can be pulled out to supposedly lock-out the switch from functioning. I never used that function and I hazard an assumption that almost no one else does either.
I saw no good reason to use an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) switch as a replacement. I could have ordered a DPST toggle but I had a 20 amp single pole on hand. My shop is wired correctly for 120VAC and the power cord has a safety ground so no real need for a double pole switch. I wired my switch to break the hot side.
I had to fabricate a plate to cove the huge square hole that was in the junction box cover for the original switch. Not much of a task for a machine shop.
Mini-Lathe 21 tooth change gear.
I received a 21 tooth gear in my mini-lathe upgrade gear stock shipment by error. At first I didn’t know where it could be used. None of the stock gears in a mini-lathe are 21 tooth. (See picture).
The upper 20 and 25 tooth gears are a part of the reversing system. They are small bore with no key way.
The lower two 20 tooth gears in the picture have a larger bore and a 3mm key way. So do the 21 tooth gears I accidentally received. I thought the 21 tooth gear may have something to do with metric threading.
I did some research and I found the identical 21 tooth gear recommended for replacing one of the 20 tooth gears to get closer to cutting certain metric thread sizes. Which one depends on the thread desired. Only one (1) 21 tooth gear is required. Both 20’s are used for some threads.
The mini-lathe because of it’s 16 TPI lead screw can never make all metric threads exactly on pitch.
So the mystery gear is no longer a mystery. The original 20 tooth gears are steel so they are not replaced in my upgrade kit.
PD400 Tail Post Clamp
I purchased the adjustable control handle and bolt more than a year ago when I was rebuilding a camera head mount for my daughter. In fact I bought several with the proper bolt size for this application. I was going to experiment a little.
As you can see in the third picture, the original Proxxon PD400 design uses a simple socket hex head bolt for use with a large hex wrench. Of course the wrench can fall out of the socket and is always difficult to find when you need it.
The handle shown was a bit too “fat” to just replace the bolt. So today I did a bit of minor grinding of the tail post to provide clearance for the “fat” part of the handle. About 15 minutes work with a Dremel type tool and the handle fits perfectly. I can’t even see the grinding area.
The handle is spring loaded so the position can be easily adjusted by just pulling up on the handle and re-positioning.
It works so wonderful I can’t imagine why Proxxon didn’t do this as a standard assembly. Actually, I can’t understand why I waited so long to make this simple modification.