What would YOU want in a CNC conversion?
Posted by
amoss_70
on 2003-09-13 23:36:28 UTC
I'm starting a web company to sell CNC conversion kits for Asian
mills and lathes and am curious about what you would want/pay for a
kit.
Of course all the parts are new and everything except the bearings
are US made.
Currently here's what I got:
.001 ballscrews
factory preloaded ballnuts
servo motors and drivers
power supply
all the bearings and other mechanical hardware
HTD drive parts
And the brackets machined from ¾ 6061
The overall idea is to have a kit that the average guy can put
together alone in a single weekend with regular shop tools, and get
some solid CNC performance. The manual will be a great pictorial
onto itself and walk a customer through the steps.
As far as performance you could expect something in the area of a
120 IPM rapid traverse with a crappy PC and a 180 IPM with a strong
fast PC (1 GHZ +) running MACH2. Realistic machining speeds will be
somewhere in the 20-40 IPM range for a 3/8 end-mill on the top end,
the limiting factor being spindle RPM, the cutter simply cannot
remove the material any faster. Anything faster and the edges look
like crap and you'll start snapping cutters (remember the CNC unit
will try to push a cutter through anything, something WILL give and
it's usually not the servos). If I ever decided to upgrade the kit
to a more "Industrial" environment I would look at adding a 3400 RPM
motor, that would produce some much better feed rates. Of course the
machine can be ran all day without problems, I currently run mine for
hours at a shot and nothing gets hot to the touch. Resolution will
be 1/10000 theoretical and customers can easily expect 1/1000
repeatability, probably somewhere in the .0004 to .0002 range can be
realistically expected.
If you have any ideas please send me an email. Thanks
Aaron_Moss@...
mills and lathes and am curious about what you would want/pay for a
kit.
Of course all the parts are new and everything except the bearings
are US made.
Currently here's what I got:
.001 ballscrews
factory preloaded ballnuts
servo motors and drivers
power supply
all the bearings and other mechanical hardware
HTD drive parts
And the brackets machined from ¾ 6061
The overall idea is to have a kit that the average guy can put
together alone in a single weekend with regular shop tools, and get
some solid CNC performance. The manual will be a great pictorial
onto itself and walk a customer through the steps.
As far as performance you could expect something in the area of a
120 IPM rapid traverse with a crappy PC and a 180 IPM with a strong
fast PC (1 GHZ +) running MACH2. Realistic machining speeds will be
somewhere in the 20-40 IPM range for a 3/8 end-mill on the top end,
the limiting factor being spindle RPM, the cutter simply cannot
remove the material any faster. Anything faster and the edges look
like crap and you'll start snapping cutters (remember the CNC unit
will try to push a cutter through anything, something WILL give and
it's usually not the servos). If I ever decided to upgrade the kit
to a more "Industrial" environment I would look at adding a 3400 RPM
motor, that would produce some much better feed rates. Of course the
machine can be ran all day without problems, I currently run mine for
hours at a shot and nothing gets hot to the touch. Resolution will
be 1/10000 theoretical and customers can easily expect 1/1000
repeatability, probably somewhere in the .0004 to .0002 range can be
realistically expected.
If you have any ideas please send me an email. Thanks
Aaron_Moss@...
Discussion Thread
amoss_70
2003-09-13 23:36:28 UTC
What would YOU want in a CNC conversion?
Chuck Knight
2003-09-14 06:56:56 UTC
Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] What would YOU want in a CNC conversion?
piggy
2003-09-14 07:42:45 UTC
Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] What would YOU want in a CNC conversion?
Antonius J.M. Groothuizen
2003-09-14 08:26:09 UTC
Re: What would YOU want in a CNC conversion?
turbulatordude
2003-09-14 09:00:42 UTC
Re: What would YOU want in a CNC conversion?
turbulatordude
2003-09-14 09:10:44 UTC
Re: What would YOU want in a CNC conversion?
Don Thigpen
2003-09-14 19:11:19 UTC
Re: What would YOU want in a CNC conversion?