Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Computerizing the Unimat

On Thu, 16 Sep 2004 02:38:50 -0000, you wrote:

>Dear Friends....Would anybody care to share their thoughts, ideas or
>experiences on converting my small Unimat SL 1000 to a Computer
>Controlled Machine? Have been considering setting this up in the Mill
>format to basically reproduce different fonts in plastic, or soft
>metals, one letter at a time if necessary, to be used on a manual,
>motorized engraving pantograph.

You will need 3 steppers. One (the largest) should probably be about
100 or so in-oz (I'm guessing) and be coupled to the main leadscrew.

The cross slide will need a smaller one, you can possibly do with
about one the size of an old floppy drive one, perhaps 15 to 20 in-oz.
That mounts on the cross slide directly.

The quill is the most difficult, and would probably be done well with
a worm drive, that would allow you the maximum "no damage to the
system" mod.

So, given that, you then run the motors in what's called bipolar mode,
and run them with something called a chopper drive. Don't worry, all
you need to do is to buy a board...

Most boards will need step and direction signals, and will be
interfaced to the printer port of a computer with a breakout board.

The computer tells the stepper driving the leadscrew to move x number
of steps, and the carriage moves left or right.

The steps in doing the engraving will be to generate the pattern with
a program, then have the program generate what's called G code (move
here, move there stuff). That's interpreted (often) by another
program that actually moves the machine's parts.

Harvey

>This is all quite new to me. I don't
>have much to share except questions to ask? Information on hardware,
>motor, configurations or software sources & ideas would be greatly
>appreciated at this time. Thank you all for taking the time to ponder
>this & your patience & understanding. Pete
>



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