I`m having a couple of backplates made for me from EN1A mild steel. They will be ready to screw on with enough material left on the face to machine the 55mm register on for a chuck (or any size register). They are working out at £25 each (which is the same price as a 80mm backplate casting) If anyon...

Hello! I have noticed some subtle rings in the surface of a 30mm OD piece of mild steel when facing off. I have been taking a finishing cut of 0.05mm at 10mm/min and about 1000rpm. I originally put this down to the tool I was using as I successfully faced off the same bar a couple times whilst playi...

Morning! Have you tried measuring it with the nut at different points along the screw incase there is any localised wear? and also check for movement in the bearings as the entire leadscrew could be moving. I`m not sure if the ballscrew nut is preloaded, I suspect it may not be, in which case 0.05mm...

Wanted: Starturn 4 Yamakawa 3 jaw chuck outside jaws.

ta

Mike

I have seen green ones on the web.

Nope, thats how it came. The one in the picture for this starmill page is red and the one of the front of the Denford Brochure too . Maybe green were later ones.

The machine is only a few years younger than I am

Its a shame it wasnt green though as it doesnt match my novamill...ha

Got this working easy tonight. 5V on the red and green wires and the yellow signal wire in to the breakout board.

Weren't they always red?

Has anyone incorporated the spindle sensor in to mach3?

Thanks

Mike

Just fired up my Starturn4 on Mach3 tonight and all went well. I used the original spindle driver and replaced the power supply, drivers and steppers.

The conversion went well so looking forward to turning some metal! )

Both Rhonmac and diycnc do plug and play 3 axis units for about £300-£400 all boxed up in an enclosure that is about 1/4 the size of the denford one. All you need then is to use the old spindle driver in its own box. If I did another I would just buy the bits and do it myself (as I am with a lathe) ...

You would have to design in some adjustment to get the gears meshing just nice on assembly and use high precision gears from HPC or similar.

I asked him about just the harmonic drive but he didnt reply. Dont forget to ask for the ratio you want, I went for 100:1

Mike

Then maybe a worm gear mechanism would make a more interesting project and with some clever preloading you could take the backlash out.

Mike

Hi Laurent, All my 4th axis work has been done with gcode so far in mach3. I believe deskproto can accommodate a 4th axis but I havnt tried it. The more I practise with gcode the more I prefer it for simple jobs compared to using a 3D programming package. The 4th axis in your link is from the same g...

I have it running ok. I added a relay in so I could use the original on/off buttons on the front panel, the original relay being on the control board that is now removed. I`m just thinking of different ways to interface an emergency stop in to the motor control.

I cant see any make or number on the board

I did the same thing

If you do go for the ebay one I would suggest asking the guy to quote on a unit without a chuck and without a stepper motor (so you can fit a double stack one). And maybe even not assembled, as you will end up taking it to bits anyway

Hi John, I have my doubts that the ebay man is using this supplier but from their data sheet I think the closest is the XB1-40-100-C, and the unit price was Euro 235 for a one off. Which was a surprise as most prices coming from china are in dollars and 235 dollars might have been a winner! I did th...

now on ebay....

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/180858914275? ... 1555.l2649

Does anyone know if an emergency stop can be incorporated into the spindle controller. There is a unused pair of pins coming out of the controller and I was wondering if this was some kind of inhibit terminal like I have on another DC motor controller.

ta

Mike