# My CNC Machines arrived



## PEU (Sep 6, 2007)

After a long wait my machines arrived today, what a royal PITA to move these from the street to my office in a 5th floor... 

Here are some photos, next week I will start cleaning, assembling and testing them.



































For size reference there is a metallic meter in front of the lathe, and yes on the mill table there is a 4th axis.

Im happy but tired, very tired 


Pablo


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## Radio (Sep 6, 2007)

In your office on the 5th floor? You realize you are insane, right?


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## PEU (Sep 6, 2007)

Radio said:


> In your office on the 5th floor? You realize you are insane, right?



You speak like you didn't know that already 


Pablo


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## jch79 (Sep 6, 2007)

SWEET!!! :rock: Congrats, Pablo... can't wait to see what comes out of it! 

john


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## DaFABRICATA (Sep 6, 2007)

LUCKY!!! I just got a milling machine not long ago. I can only dream of having those kinda cool tools!
Can't wait to see the stuff you turn out now!!!
I'm very happy for you, please share your progress...


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## will (Sep 6, 2007)

Neat stuff - good luck with the new toys..


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## TranquillityBase (Sep 7, 2007)

N_i_c_e!!! 

Is there a stepper motor on the Z travel? Hard to tell, from your pics.


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## PEU (Sep 7, 2007)

TranquillityBase said:


> N_i_c_e!!!
> 
> Is there a stepper motor on the Z travel? Hard to tell, from your pics.



I guess you ask about the lathe right? yes, but they came unmounted


Pablo


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## WNG (Sep 7, 2007)

Nice! I'm so envious Pablo! 
(of the new CNC tools, not the 5-story haul it took!)


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## greenlight (Sep 7, 2007)

that's far out.


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## greenLED (Sep 7, 2007)

So, PEU, when will we see your own section in the Custom Builders and Modders?


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## cy (Sep 7, 2007)

WOO HOOOO!!!


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## TranquillityBase (Sep 7, 2007)

PEU said:


> I guess you ask about the lathe right? yes, but they came unmounted
> 
> 
> Pablo


The Z axis, on the milling machine...Is the vertical spindle, motor controlled also?


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## Rothrandir (Sep 7, 2007)

Nice Poo!

What kind of accuracy/precision will you get with those? How are they programmed?


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## PEU (Sep 7, 2007)

@TB Yes the milling machine uses a NEMA34 stepper on the Z axis and NEMA23 on the XY

@Green I was invited, but declined for the time being due to my low activity, this may change in the future when I finish my oustanding projects (read pinehead/tail)

@Roth They are controlled by the pc using mach3 software basically a g-code compliant 6-axis numeric control, I use the same software for my CNC router.


Pablo


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## luxlunatic (Sep 9, 2007)

Congrats PEU, nice equipment there, look forward to see what you churn out with your new toys!


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## wquiles (Sep 9, 2007)

Outstanding!

Muchas felicidades Pablo - que disfrutes tus nuevos jugetes mucho!

Will


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## Ledean (Sep 9, 2007)

Wow that is a sweet machine .
How much did it weigh ?. 5th floor is a long way to go.


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## Data (Sep 9, 2007)

Those look very nice. Please post video of them running when you get them set up.

What is the diameter of the rotary table? A small collet chuck would make that sing for round parts.

Cheers
Dave


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## Ganp (Sep 11, 2007)

Congrats' Pablo,:twothumbs

That mill looks especially nice.oo: Does this mean you are retiring your own made one?



Colin.


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## Rothrandir (Sep 11, 2007)

Alright, you've had plenty of time to get chips flying by now.

We want vids!


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## greenLED (Sep 11, 2007)

PEU said:


> @Green I was invited, but declined for the time being due to my low activity, this may change in the future when I finish my oustanding projects (read pinehead/tail)


That'd be excellent - very much looking forward to your future projects!


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## PEU (Oct 4, 2007)

Today I finished the workbenches main structure, I may add some shelves underneat, but finally I can put the machines over them, hopefully next week, I need to hire help.











Each one is 1500x750mm (4.92x2.46ft) and were varnished 3 times (just the table) each table is two sheets of 15mm (30mm total) nice quality urethane plywood


Pablo


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## ICUDoc (Oct 4, 2007)

Looks solid Pablo- we all eagerly await some photos of process and product!


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## will (Oct 4, 2007)

The benches look great...

Do the CNC mahines use any cooling or cutting oil?

I have my mini-lathe set up on a wood top also - I have given that a few coats of polyurathane. It cleans up fairly easy.


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## PEU (Oct 4, 2007)

The mill came with a cooling pump setup, but I think I will leave it uninstalled, at least while the floor is tiled wood 

I need to move to a proper shop 


Pablo


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## will (Oct 4, 2007)

The shop I worked in was small, The owner kept his small sailboat inside ( 14 foot boat ) turned upside down. It was a wooden hull, he put a plastic dropcloth on top to keep the chips and dust off the bottom. That seemed like a good idea. The boat was next to a milling machine. We did a fair amount of flycutting on aluminum ( flycutting is used to flatten or remove material from the entire surface of a block of aluminum ) The chips came off pretty hot. We did not realize that the chips that landed on the plastic dropcloth were melting the plastic and fusing to the varnish on the hull. 

The lesson - no matter how carefull you are - something can go wrong. That looks like a wood parquet floor under your benches.


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## PEU (Oct 4, 2007)

will said:


> The lesson - no matter how carefull you are - something can go wrong. That looks like a wood parquet floor under your benches.



Yep parquet floor  already had an incident with oil impregnated titanium shavings... so Im more carefull now, but is never enough as you say...


Pablo


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## DM51 (Oct 5, 2007)

Radio said:


> In your office on the 5th floor? You realize you are insane, right?


LOL, I'm glad I don't live on the 4th floor.


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## Kevin Tan (Oct 5, 2007)

COngrats Pablo!!! Nice toy u got there.


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## cat (Oct 5, 2007)

Radio said:


> In your office on the 5th floor? You realize you are insane, right?




A 5th floor office would be right for me - solve my security problem.  Only problem is I need to move bikes in and out. :shakehead


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## PEU (Oct 5, 2007)

DM51 said:


> LOL, I'm glad I don't live on the 4th floor.



There is a funny story about who lives in the 4th floor below my office (its a mixed building with offices and homes)

The woman in the 4th floor is an opera teacher, so almost every day I can hear her or the students singing something if I turn my radio down.

One day time ago, I don't recall if it was a customer or a friend waiting for me at the reception, he heard the opera tunes from apparently nowhere.
When we finally met he told me with a semi concerned voice about he heard something very weird, I guess he avoided the word ghost to not sound stupid, but I knew what he was referring to, I explained and we had a big laugh 


Pablo


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## Tritium (Oct 5, 2007)

Peu,

Now you have done it. I have a severe case of TES :sick2: as a result of your continued machine threads. I have spent the last 5 days on CNCzone.com .
Man is this going to get expensive. O well I think I'll start by CNC'ing my mini lathe and mini mill then on to a CNC router. 

Thurmond


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## PEU (Oct 8, 2007)

Im giving the workbenches the final touches and some reinforcements in the legs. The workbench design uses heavy duty bolts to join all the parts, so I used some leftover pieces of wood to give these bolts some help.
Also recycled the old table I had in that place as an undertable shelf (the grey ones)

Now I need to decide on how to route the cables from the table to the bottom and finally load the machines, hopefully in a couple of days.


Pablo


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## will (Oct 8, 2007)

Pablo 
as long as you have the different pieces of the workbench stacked one on top of another that is the best verticle support attainable. Putting additional blocks on the benches will increase the lateral strength and prevent side to side wobble. The best way is to use a piece wood or steel going from the top corner on one side to the bottom corner on the other side. Some where along the line I remember an old saying - a triangle is the best shape for ridigidy, you can't change the angles without changing the length of the sides. Take a look at any open steel bridge - lots of triangles..

( Keep in mind - I tend to over build )


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## Illum (Oct 8, 2007)

greenLED said:


> So, PEU, when will we see your own section in the Custom Builders and Modders?




you and roth...
if this goes on we can expect threads instead of "my new light, pics inside" to "my new lathe, pics inside" very soon....:candle:


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## PEU (Nov 5, 2007)

Minutes ago, 4 hired heavylifters put the machines over the workbenches, now the cleaning & setup can start:















Pablo


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## will (Nov 5, 2007)

Pablo - are those rubber mats underneath? If they are - are they oil resistant? I made a mistake some years back - the stuff I used disolved after a while .


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## PEU (Nov 5, 2007)

will said:


> Pablo - are those rubber mats underneath? If they are - are they oil resistant? I made a mistake some years back - the stuff I used disolved after a while .



Good question, please let me know how can I test them, I have some spare pieces I can use for tests.

Thanks for the heads up


Pablo


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## will (Nov 5, 2007)

I would just soak them in whatever fluids you will be using - 

I use kerosene for aluminum. cut a few small pieces and put the pieces in a jar with the fluid., just let it sit and check it every now and then. 

Rubber seems to break down - think 'O' rings and petroleum lubes.


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## HarryN (Nov 27, 2007)

Nice tools Pablo. I just started reading a bit on the forum again and came across your thread.

I gained a real insight into just how much machinery you have there when you said the Z was driven with NEMA 34 steppers. That is healthy. Since it is mach III driven anyway, maybe a simple enclosure would be handy to contain noise and dust.

Thanks to you, I have also started my journey down the "do it yourself router build" road. I can now hold a reasonably intelligent conversation on the subject, but probably not add much to it. You can find me on cnczone under my very secret internet name "HarryN". :laughing:

The funny thing is, I will spend less building that thing, then I did trying to build flashlights. In any event, hopefully my router will make it easier / cheaper to make prototypes. Production cnc milling of Al is outside of the range of my build.


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## 65535 (Nov 27, 2007)

Pablo for the plastic, if it isn't oil resistant rather than removing it and replacing it you can just lift up sides and put plastic over it in 4 pieces that overlap, and tape the seams or glue them.


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## PEU (Nov 27, 2007)

HarryN said:


> Nice tools Pablo. I just started reading a bit on the forum again and came across your thread.
> 
> I gained a real insight into just how much machinery you have there when you said the Z was driven with NEMA 34 steppers. That is healthy. Since it is mach III driven anyway, maybe a simple enclosure would be handy to contain noise and dust.
> 
> ...



Welcome to the club!! if you tought that flashlights were expensive, wait till you start playing this new hobby 


Pablo


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## PEU (Nov 28, 2007)

Today I finished assembling all the electronics for the mill, I dont have an extra PC for the machine room, so in the next few days I will try to assemble a frankestein PC from parts to test the machine at least. Im happy


Pablo


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## HarryN (Nov 28, 2007)

Tritium said:


> Peu,
> 
> Now you have done it. I have a severe case of TES :sick2: as a result of your continued machine threads. I have spent the last 5 days on CNCzone.com .
> Man is this going to get expensive. O well I think I'll start by CNC'ing my mini lathe and mini mill then on to a CNC router.
> ...



Thurmond - I would just skip on ahead and make a big cnc router. The big costs are in the electronics and stepper motors anyway. Buy beefy now, skip the wimpy stuff.


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## PEU (Nov 30, 2007)

Its alive!!!

http://www.veoh.com/videos/v1563504cWsNARXP


Pablo


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## HarryN (Dec 2, 2007)

Hi Pablo - I watched the video - thanks for posting the link.

I noticed that the spindle motor also has program speed and direction - is this also a stepper motor ? I have been wondering how to have a spindle do thread tapping, and obviously, my router isn't going to do that. complex of dance.


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## 65535 (Dec 2, 2007)

I would imagine you would need a stepper motor for automatic tapping, but I think manual tapping is pretty good myself.


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## X_Marine (Dec 2, 2007)

Ok, we got that teaser video.... lol
Many thanks for posting.

But now,, we want to see some action, material flying, etc.. lol
Great job!!
Very envious indeed.. 

Please keep us well posted.
ThanX
X..


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## Data (Dec 2, 2007)

Pablo, nice machines. Those should make some nice stuff. :twothumbs


HarryN, to make threads on Pablo's machine, all he needs is a thread mill. A single form thread mill will work very nicely for external or internal threads. You just need a circle interpolation program.


Cheers
Dave


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## PEU (Dec 2, 2007)

Data said:


> Pablo, nice machines. Those should make some nice stuff. :twothumbs
> 
> 
> HarryN, to make threads on Pablo's machine, all he needs is a thread mill. A single form thread mill will work very nicely for external or internal threads. You just need a circle interpolation program.
> ...



Or I can use the CNC Lathe next to the mill that is waiting to be cleaned and tested 

I can't wait to make chips, I need to figure out how to remove the drill chuck that came installed and put the R8 collet system. 
Hopefully this week I will do more advances!!


Pablo


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## HarryN (Dec 2, 2007)

Data, thanks for the link. My challenge is a particular hole I thread sometimes - M1.5. I need to check again, but I think it is on the edge of that cutter working.


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## Data (Dec 2, 2007)

emuge.com offers a thread mill down to the 0-80 size but you would need the accuracy of a VMC to use it (+-0.00015").

Another option may be to get a small tapping head.


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## sawlight (Dec 2, 2007)

Data said:


> Pablo, nice machines. Those should make some nice stuff. :twothumbs
> 
> 
> HarryN, to make threads on Pablo's machine, all he needs is a thread mill. A single form thread mill will work very nicely for external or internal threads. You just need a circle interpolation program.
> ...


 
Been there, not that impressed!!! They work great on tapered threads (pipe) but on the fine threads for flashlights single pointing on the lathe is the better way!!

Nice machines!! PC based G-code, WOW!!! You'd have thought they would have some sort of conversational interface out by now!!! I ran the old Hurco mills, and was right in the middle of it when Fadal came out. Even Fanuc has worked up some conversational systems!!
The fourth axis (I am assuming you will call it B) is going to be awsome for this kind of work!!! Set up a ball nose endmill, rotate B and you can gouge, grove, spot, well, about anything Surefire has thought of, it's done!!
I am very very fortunate!! I spent many years doing that type of work, and have machines at my disposal at several machine shops!! One of which is three blocks away from my house!!
Neat equipment, I look foreward to seeing you're projects!!


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## PEU (Dec 4, 2007)

First machining:
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v1584913msF9FgyD
(I just uploaded the video, it may take some minutes to be available)

I discovered that the collet chuck arbor (R8) I purchased is not compatible with the machine lock bolt, the thread size is different, I will go tomorrow to the CNC shop that I use for my runs, they will help me adapt it or make a new bolt. Not a big deal, since I still can use the drill chuck for simple jobs 

I cant wait to make something with the 4th axis, I have some e-series bodies ready to be used as blanks for some creative job 


Pablo


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## sawlight (Dec 4, 2007)

Pretty neat!! That should be slicker than snot for what you want to do!!!! Programing the fourth axis is really pretty easy once you get over the initial fear factor!!

I wish I could remeber what the thread size was for the drawbar, but it's been too long!!! Shouldn't be hard to make a new on though, and the collets work so much better than the chuck.

Looks like you are well on you're way!


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## HarryN (Dec 5, 2007)

Thanks for all of the threading inputs guys. 

Pablo, coming back to your specific mill, do you happen to know how the spindle is driven. It looks like it it can be programmed for direction / speed sufficient to run a tap. Can you tell if it is a servo or stepper motor driving it - or something else ?


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## cmacclel (Dec 5, 2007)

PEU said:


> Yep parquet floor  already had an incident with oil impregnated titanium shavings... so Im more carefull now, but is never enough as you say...
> 
> 
> Pablo





Just buy some of this

http://www.bltllc.com/g-floor_main.htm

I have it under the lathes in my shop.

Mac


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## PEU (Dec 13, 2007)

Harry, AFAIK is a brushless DC motor
MAC, shipping these from USA kills the deal 

I made my 1st 4th axis machining, I still have a lot to learn, but Im sure you guys will enjoy the video I made 

http://www.veoh.com/videos/v1635783c7ehCSnW


Pablo


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## Brlux (Dec 13, 2007)

Nice machine. I have an SX3 which is the non CNC version of that mill. I got it from Grizzly and I like it a lot. one of th first things you will need to do is remove that chip guard if you want to use the R8 collets. 

It is powered with a DC brush less motor, unfortunately the minimum rpm it will do is 100 but that is still rather slow. The LCD readout of RPM is handy. It taps nicely and has buttons on the end of each of the quill feed handles that can be used to reverse the spindle direction.


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## X_Marine (Dec 15, 2007)

Great new vids, love the beveled text and know you can't wait to get a full handle on the 4th axis usage.

Your gonna need some colored lights for the video with alum or brass or even ti curling off there.. lol

Your really making it hard for a single fella not to play Santa for himself this time of year.. lmao

Please keep us posted.. pics and vids along with your opinions are really appreciated. :goodjob:

ThanX
X..


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## Splat_NJ (Dec 17, 2007)

I hate you, Pablo. 
--
Splat


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## Hallis (Dec 22, 2007)

those were awesome vids Pablo  Grats on the new tools. too bad you're a little far away for me to come hang out and check them out  so please keep the videos coming. I cant wait for your first totally self-done run of lights  

Pablo's Pocket Rockets!!!!

Take Care

Shane


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