Is Anyone using CNC at home

[Alexander]

@Mphenley I go through that battle with my wife on some things but never machines or tooling because one day I'll turn it into a business. I really like his home made 5 axis. I think it lacks rigidity big time though. The 5 axis I run at work has a big enough and strong enough table that you could park a ford ranger on it. I know this because I have had bigger and heavyer parts in there than that. What the guy in the video has been able to achieve is incredible what a craftsman. I have fantasized about building a miniature 9 axis multitask machining center in the past. But I am well aware that isn't a realistic project for me.

 

[Alexander]

If I had that setup he had I would just re-machine the aluminum parts of the 5th axis with steel and upgrade the mill to a higher quality model. Something with precision ground ways and a better set of spindle bearings. I had a chuckle about the hobbing. He made his own cutter and did it in a vertical mill with the cutter supported by only one end. I wouldn't have thought that could actually work. Hobbing a gear and setting up a single enveloping worm like that is really time consuming. He must be quite talented.

 

[Alexander]

A short video That I made of some cnc drilling and reaming on my cnc. I had to get creative with the tool holders and make my own to hold the drill.

 

[kylemp]

Nice, I think the nine inch nails shoulda been louder though!

 

[Alexander]

I have owned my hobby CNC lathe for 6 months now. Still no problems with any of the hardware or software. I have learned a few things that didn't come easily. I had to write my own peck drilling macro for G81 because the controller didn't have that built in. I found some info on the internet that really helped make that easy. I even used that macro to drill a 3/16 diameter hole 18" deep. This was just an experiment to see if i could use this machine as a gun drill and I say yes you can if the need arose. Keeping in mind I don't have high pressure oil for guiding gun drills it worked great. I have attached a video with the first half of my current project with some more video that gives you a better idea of the capabilities.

 

[PeterT]

Looking good Alex. Some questions:
- Maybe you mentioned it elsewhere, but what CAD program are you using?
- And then what's the in-between CAM converter that (I think) Mach ultimately sees?
- Is the Mach-# version you have for turning be the same as someone would select for milling?
- Have you tried any taper turning on steel yet to see how it does dimension/finish wise?
- re threading operations, does it really care IMP or METRIC, or is it just defined in the design/software & away she goes?

 

[Alexander]

Good questions Peter. Just a disclamer this reply is full of my opinion. There is really no right or wrong way to machine parts and I dont want to knock the way people write programs. I do not and would not recomend using a CAM program and post prosessor for 2 axis turning programs. Take a moment to think about how simple the geometry is on the lathe, you only need to program the simple x and z quardinates and asign a speed during those movements. I have a wonderfull example here.

These were programed using very simple code and without the use of any complicated g code generating software. Just my opinion but mach 3 is more than powerfull enough for any turning operatons. That being said @Danton has some expertise with fusion360 which is an inexpensive program for generating g code from a solid model. This machine has no noticible lash yet. Taper turning and radius turning is extremely accurate and the repidability is fantastic. To answer your question about meteric or imperial threading. I would say and i am guessing. If running the controller in imperial mode just convert the units to imperial use the same cycle. If you are going to cut lots of meteric threads I recomend running the controler in meteric mode and that will make things much easier.

 

[Alexander]

I wanted to upload 1 picture of the cap part to that little container I was turning in the video. Im really enjoying my sunday in the garage.

 

[Tom O]

everyone seems to like the Tormach but take a look at these Smithy's servo not stepper and profesional controls!

https://detroitmachine.tools/MT-1032

 

[Janger]

They look good. Are they well made? Anybody have any experience.? Way less than a Haas....

 

[Alexander]

There will be disadvantages. The first one that comes to mind is HAAS uses the same controller on all of there machines. That means the program you make will run on any HAAS machine and you dont need to learn a new controll. Which takes at least 40hours of class time. Not that you need special training for each controller but thats how long the courses are i have been on. If you want to master all the features it is a must. Just my 2 cents but that is half the machine for half the money when you are compairing it to haas. Still looks great for the money though.

 

[Tom O]

From what I have seen on the net they have not been out that long and there is nothing much on you tube about them I'm curious though what it would cost to bring one up here for transportation & duty costs. One guy on Cnc zone has a smithy lathe they are chating about.