Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] how to build a mini mill???

>
>
>Dan
>relied on some shareware as a cornerstone and I don't know if it's still
>available.
>

I don't know which program he used, but TurboCNC is the current favorite
for low cost control. It's a shareware program, and full registration
only costs $20. It's not crippleware, either!

>>I am very interest to build a mini mill, but i don't know how to
>>start. would anyone guide me thru to start build a mill.
>>

Go to a store and play with a mini mill. You'll notice that they are
usually already driven by screws, attached to handwheels. (Take a close
look at the Harbor Freight mini mill, if you have the chance. Its
viewable at the harborfreight site,
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=44991 )

Take a look at that photo. You'll notice that the mill is moved,
already, by turning a handwheel attached to a screw drive. This is key.
Whatever you can turn by hand, you can turn with a motor. What you'll
do is hook up a stepper motor or a servo to this screw drive, and turn
it that way. It's a relatively simple thing to do. On my homebuilt
unit, I used high pressure air pipe (the kind with the spiralling fibers
inside the plastic tubing) and some worm clamps to attach the motor
shaft to the drive screw, directly. My stepper motors have more than
enough power to turn it directly. Very simple, indeed. If you prefer
something more "professional" looking, there are couplers available
commercially. Check McMaster-Carr.

Then comes the hard part -- the electronic interface. There are
companies that sell these in various levels of completion. You'll see
the name Mariss mentioned on this list...Mariss sells boards that will
interface to your computer and drive those motors. These get put
together into a "black box" that goes between your computer and the
motors themselves. I've chosen to build my own, which is why it isn't
finished yet!

OK...you've got your mill set up to be driven with the stepper motors
and hooked up to your computer. Now what? Well, this is the part
that's fun. There's a program that you run on your computer, which will
send the proper pulses out through the parallel port, to that "black
box" that controls the motors. (TurboCNC, mentioned above) You set it
up, by telling it how much distance a pulse represents, or how many
pulses in an inch...that sort of thing...it depends on which program you
use. After that, the g-code will tell it to move 1 inch...the software
calculates that 1 inch = 20046 pulses, or some such number, and sends
that many pulses out through the port.

It seems complicated, but it's pretty easy to undertand if you just
break down the "layers."

-- Chuck Knight