Tree Journeyman 425 mill retrofit

[mikebramel]

Looks like a great job

[slodat]

For the most part, the mill is ready to use. As I type that I realize I have some tidying up to do with the air stuff and the wire trough cover. And, I want to get a spindle encoder and rigid tapping going. And, when the interface board gets here I’ll give the closed loop on the spindle drive a go. And...

Used it for a real job tonight. The Y axis cover needed clearance for the position of the new motor pulley. There is a knockout in the cover. Used the probe to locate the existing hole. Mind blowing how well this works! I’ll make an appropriate cover for the opening.



As it sits now with chip shields in place. The table is really high when close to the quill. 48” in these photos.

[martyscncgarage]

Looks great! Where is the video of it cutting the part?
Marty

[slodat]

Started making some chips. Looks like I need to dial in the turns/inch a bit better. I may have forgotten to check it and dial it in. Things are looking good otherwise.



Sorted out a keyboard tray. This was a nice upgrade over it getting moved around a lot. And, cleaned the chip guards up and reinstalled. They make a big difference.

[slodat]

Had an issue where I thought my Z axis was accumulating error. After some help from the forum, I checked if I was losing steps between Acorn and DYN4. I had been through this before on my router. I incorrectly assumed this would get fixed based on my experience a year ago. Nonetheless, it was short work to modify the DMM DYN4 -> Acorn cables and switch to the Acorn step/direction signals on the DB25. Once I did that all was well. No more lost steps between Acorn and DYN4.

At that point I needed to go through the axis calibration and backlash measurement. That went well. Lastly, I dialed in my Hallmark ITTP again now that the machine was moving as the control commanded. I'm happy to say I made the part I've been using to test this all out. Part turned out good. Two sided part using two WCS. Fusion 360 for CAD and CAM. Really happy with Fusion for CAM on the mill.

Installed:

[martyscncgarage]

Strange you had the experience using the header terminals, but in any case, glad you are up and running. Congratulations on your build. Be sure to post it, pictures/video clip in the success stories forum!
Marty

[slodat]

The side of the mill control panel has an existing opening with a small cover. I mounted the new control pc behind this opening. This leaves the front panel of the NUC CNC PC accessible. It's on the far side from the spindle, so no coolant or chips to worry about. I sold the original Dynapath 20 stuff on ebay. All in all, I am very happy with the mill, the retrofit, etc. I highly recommend the Hitachi SJ-P1 drives!


The cover:


Some measuring and drawing:


Point and click:

[Reedfirst]

This machine turned out awesome!

[slodat]

I bought the encoder board for the Hitachi VFD a while back. I have the cable and have needed to hunt down the connector for the encoder. Was clicking around my email and saw the connector info. Ordered online from JST's website. I had to order 10, so if anyone seeing this has the same or similar Yaskawa spindle motor and needs to make an encoder cable, let me know.


Next up is sorting out a spindle encoder..

[gwiz]

Did you ever think of adding a simple tool changer to that mill?