I live in WV and was wondering if there are any MACH minded people in this geographic area.  West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky

My Mill project has been neglected for way too long

archie =) =) =

Follansbee West Virginia is the home town of a fairly well known Mach3 user, "Hoss." He has many posts on CNCzone regarding CNC conversion of milling machines.

His website, http://www.hossmachine.info/about_me.html. is a pretty good read.

His current build is a long running thread on the CNCzone, www.cnczone.com, regarding a mid size mill conversion.

I think connecting with him would be a good start. He has a pretty good assortment of machine innovations such as various kinds of motors, various drivers, 4th. axis and even a tool changer and power drawbar with design plans available. Also, he has a ton of videos on Youtube of  various machine mods.

He has not posted on the Mach3 forum to my recollection, although he may have in the past.

Follansbee West Virginia is the home town of a fairly well known Mach3 user, "Hoss." He has many posts on CNCzone regarding CNC conversion of milling machines.

His website, http://www.hossmachine.info/about_me.html. is a pretty good read.

His current build is a long running thread on the CNCzone, www.cnczone.com, regarding a mid size mill conversion.

I think connecting with him would be a good start. He has a pretty good assortment of machine innovations such as various kinds of motors, various drivers, 4th. axis and even a tool changer and power drawbar with design plans available. Also, he has a ton of videos on Youtube of  various machine mods.

He has not posted on the Mach3 forum to my recollection, although he may have in the past.

Thank you mrprecise I have looked through his web site and there is a ton of things to look at. he about 4 hours away by car I will touch base with him. It would be a long trip.... It is funny because of where I live "in the valley" all the machinists I know are into or work with "heavy iron" and admittedly most are of retirement age have shops at home and never really embraced the "cnc thing" or their machines are Heavy cnc machines  at under 3000 pounds my cnc mill is considered a lightweight here lol

Hi Archie:

I am sure "Hoss" can inspire your mill project. Mach3 is also used on some pretty big "iron"; have a look at the monster drilling machine built by Zafar Salam, in the "Show and Tell" your machines section of this forum. Some of his "projects" almost stagger the mind.

Currently, I am working on the "modbus" program posted by Zafar, which uses an Arduino board for I/O, instead of a commercial PLC. So far I have (3) potentiometers working for Feed rate override, Spindle speed, and Jog %, and (6) push buttons for the typical start,pause, stop,reset, spin on/off/ coolant on/off. I have a big Mach3 CNC knee mill with a commercial PLC, but wanted to play with the Arduino for fun, and see how much I could get out of it. It will go on a Micro-mill project that is a "work in progress." Just running the little stepping motors on the bench right now, with the 2010 screen by Ger.
 
Have fun.

John

This is my mill
http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,6078.0.html

all the updated photos were uploaded to a web site I no longer maintain. I will have to take some more photos and update my thread. the boards i have in my mill,  there is 3 cnc4pc boards the breakout board a C23 I think a modbus server,  the card that plugs into plus an expansion card.  At this point I do not know why  I have all those cards in there.  I just received the Viper 200 so I can test the servos on the mill.    I also have 3 commercial PLC's that were given to me. (not for the mill )  I just replaced a lubrication line that was cut when it was moved. I still have to test the oiler.  also there is a Arduino indexer project on the zone that I find very interesting  I have 2 horizontal mills that need stand alone indexers for them plus a 4th for the bridgeport.

Thank You
archie =) =) =)

John
      I have most of the parts to build one of these.  spindle servo motor ect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlQgMk6te_Y

and I have 2  dividing heads.  one like this one and the next size larger one.

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/general_metal_working_machines/172314-servo_cnc_conversion_vertex_bs0_dividing_head.html

It has been really  cold here and I do not have heat in the shop so it is slow going right now  I am planning to test the oil pump for the bridgeport later today after it warms up a bit.

I am planning on using this pendant    Plugged into the modbus

http://www.cnc4pc.com/Store/osc/product_info.php?cPath=40&products_id=162

this looks really usable but price is really steep

http://www.cnc4pc.com/Store/osc/product_info.php?cPath=40&products_id=361

I am going to use a ethernet smoothstepper  with a laptop to get things moving after I get it up and running  I am moving toward this  with a touch screen.

http://us.shuttle.com/barebone/Models/XS36V.html

I have 4 mills  the bridgeport and 2 steinel machines (a horizontal and a vertical) which take NMTB30 tooling  and a K&T 2HL horizontal which takes NNTB40.

except for cutters the I have plenty of tooling for the K&T, the 30taper stuff I could use a bit more of. especially DA180 collects.

well I better get off here and out to the shop. 19 degrees at 7 am brrrrr there are plenty of non machining things that need to be taken care of this weekend so off I go

archie =) =) =)

Hi Archie:

Pretty impressive collection. You have enough stuff to keep a guy busy for years. I am in southern California, and the low 50"s seems pretty cold to me, but 19 sounds more like living in the Antarctic with the penguins!

I have been doing 4-axis CNC since the early 1980's, and would be glad to offer any info down the line. There is a lot of amazing stuff available for making those machines do "magic tricks."
My current attitude is, "simple is better."
We are on sort of the same track, as I have posted over my desk a note for my next CNC project for my Micro-Mill;
----------------------------------------------
NewEgg - 189.00
Shuttle XS35V3 Intel Atom D2700
.....
.... and all the pertinent specs
....
Size- 9.9" X 6.38" X 1.5"
----------------------------------
And, on my wish list is a Touch screen to mount the Shuttle on the back side.
Just takes money.

Favorite CAD/CAM software:
DraftSight, free from SolidWorks parent Company, Dassault Systemes, France. Simply superb!
CamBam; continuously being upgraded by the writer, Andy, and a great forum of users.
CutViewer Mill; watch my programs with a virtual cutter chewing away through a virtual material, showing the whole shebang, even crashes in 3-D.

regards,

John

I updated my build thread with some photos
http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,6078.10.html

archie =) =) =)