Hi, Can anybody confirm the purpose of the screw that's fitted to the bottom of the BT30 drawbar? On the drawings there's no mention, other than the thread size. From my understanding, its purpose is to give you something to hold when tightening the Bellville spring compression nut at the top of the...

That clamp/stop on the right looks interesting! Did you machine the yourself? It looks like it's sitting on raised pads, and has tangs to fit the T-slots? What material is it made from?

Cheers
Jon

I've just been chatting with the waterjetting company I use, and it dawned on me that I could get them to cut the raising block from ground tool steel. It'll already have two parallel ground faces, and even though they do really good cutting (so minimal taper from the waterjet), I don't really care ...

In short, yes, they're available. But, it comes down to budget. We use a modular type, where the cutting tip mounts onto a shaft which is mounted to the BT30 tool holder. There's a wide range of shaft sizes (and of course diameters to match the tool tips) - they're Japanese, very high spec, and very...

Are these tables still available, or where/are they a 3rd party item?

Thanks
J

Oh that's special... First; did you laser/water cut and weld the parts yourself? Second; I want one! I'm not a fan of the original design - it puts too much stress and force (the full force the cylinder) on the casting - this approach is much cleaner and more refined. Plus it seems a better idea for...

Hi I've had a similar issue, but found it much harder to diagnose. When I first got the Novamill, it was showing a limit switch issue. I was replacing the original top card with a Mesa IO card, so thought it would be an easy job. After temporarily rewiring the limits, e-stop and guard inputs to the ...

Haha, thanks Pete - a thumbs up for the keyboard then ;) I'll hook it up to an Arduino to start with then, and just read the output data... Nicely, there's a very lazy USB HID library for Arduino (Keyboard), so worst case I can use it to read the data from the serial port and spit it out as a key co...

Hi I'm wanting to use one of the (physical) milling tutor keyboards with LinuxCNC... First question, what is the pinout of the serial port/DB25? Does it emulate a keyboard etc or some other type of serial device etc? From what I understand the pinout is straight, and then a regular DB25-DB9 adaptor ...

New block of terminals to terminate the home limits, e-stop and guard loops. All seems well, but this X axis limit issue is persistent. I traced the length of the X home limit wiring and tested continuity at every stage, without any issues. It seems to only flake out when the panel is powered, indic...

Some design/redesign thoughts... The existing stepper drivers are okay as is the spindle driver for initial work. Long term I'll put some better drivers in and likely even replace the steppers - but better to get the machine running and decide if it's worth the time and money! By keeping the old ste...

So, wiring loom fitted... One snag, I found the 96-way plug on the Baldor had badly soldered pins so the connector wouldn't go on; some pins higher than others and some at angles. I ended up removing the board and heat sink and removing the board from the heat sink to straighten and get even pressur...

New cable loom to plug into the Eurocard 96-way plug. TE connector housing with TE crimped connectors. Printed heatshrink (yup, have the machine for that) and will be using mesh wrap once the loom is complete. The limit switches need rewiring as the MESA is sinking not sourcing, but that's an easy j...

I've been replacing the controller and upgrading the Novamill to LinuxCNC - making good progress and has been fairly straight forward. I've got two other machines to do the same thing to, so will use this thread as much to document it but also show my approach too.

Onwards!

Hi Genius idea... I was eyeing up magnetic drill presses online, but thought I was just over doing it. I might print something similar and drill it in situ. Notice you drilled just two holes? I started making a new cable loom this evening, so getting back into working on the mill. Replacing the elec...

Looks good! It's on my to do list... I've stalled on the power drawbar, as I need to figure a plan of action to remove the head and refit plus align it again. Plus a snafu with incorrect measurements on the artwork, so I need to make a new plate :-/ How much did the spacer cost you in the end? Also,...

Hi

What's the plan for shimming/aligning the head?

Jon

Hi Barry Looks good! What was your reason for mounting on the right hand side vs the normal left hand side? I've sourced a cylinder, but no brackets, so need to fab some. I've not had chance to get the new plate made, was holding off so I could get the cylinder mounting holes cut at the same time. B...

Hi Barry

The bolt sizes I measured:

M10 x 35mm
M10 x 25mm
M8 x 40mm

Think the M8 is for the cylinder brackets, so 4pcs
The 25mm for the plate, so 3pcs
The 35mm for the clevis, so 1pcs, plus washers as spacers (hence the length)

And washers all round!

Jon

Hi Barry I'm remeasuring the plate and the cylinder positions to correct myself as well. I scaled the original drawings and measured the bolts for the plate-to-head and the clevis, and the cylinder brackets from memory they're all M10, but I'll draw up a BOM when I have the sizes to hand. I've not s...