Acorn With Sherline chucker lathe, 5400 mill, and 4500 lathe.
Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2021 2:34 pm
Im researching the Acorn CNC 12 kit for use with a Sherline chucker lathe, 5400 mill with rotary axis and 4500 Sherline lathe. I want to get confirmation the Acorn will meet my needs before I commit to getting into it. Im not thrilled about a DYI electronics project but the cost is a big factor as Im a start up.
I'm a CAD designer, 3D modeler, prototype and model maker, fabricator, sculptor, inventor, and very capable builder of things I can build you anything you need but im NOT an electronics guy. Electronics scare me, LOL BUT tell me to this wire here, put that one there, connect this connector, mount this board in this box NO problem. Just don't tell me to get my voltmeter out, cuz then you've lost me. LOL BUT if you tell me exactly what to do I can do it even with a voltmeter. just don't tell me to measure the voltage in the XYX. Im looking through the install manual and its scaring me, LOL! I know Im gonna get stuck at some point ; (
Have many questions hope you all can help.
Im running CAM in Fusion 360 is there a 100% verified and fully working post from Fusion 360 to Acorn & Sherline Chucker lathe, 5400 Sheerline mill, and 4500 Sherline lathe. Running windows 10 on a workstation laptop. My priority is the chucker lathe and 5400 mill with rotary axis.
Im planning on running the control from my laptop. It's a Lenovo Thinkpad 530W workstation, don't have the specs on it right now. But will this be capable of running the controller without issues?
Ive see the intel Nuc suggested by Centroid. Down the line, if I go with a dedicated computer for the control, what is the cheapest option I can go with as far as specs for one other Nuc computes?
Do you absolutely need touch screen control or can you use mouse?
Need threading on the chucker lathe.
Can it do rigid tapping on the Sherline mill? How bout ID tapping on the lathe?
What encoder setup do I need to control spindle speed? and do you guys offer those components for the Sherline chucker lathe?
Indexed rotary moves on my Sherline 5400 mill, can it use and control Sherline 4th axis (rotary table)?
Dose it do conversational programming for both mill and lathe?
What optical encoder for the Sherline chucker lathe do I need?
Will it work on all 3 machines? 5400 mill, 4500 Lathe, & chucker lathe?
Does Acorn have the ability to switch machines on the fly? ( just unplug and plug?)
How are files posted on a thumb drive? can you post directly to the machine from software without a thumb drive?
Aside from the CNC 12 kit is there anything else I need? IF I'm running from my laptop do I need a drive board/box like a Gecko drive?
Is it ok to mount the power supply and controller card in the same box Or should I do a separate box for the power supply? How big should boxes be?
IF I need the Acorn Pro license for both mill and lathe does that mean I need to buy both mill and lathe versions for 159.00 each?
What is 4th axis paring?
I'm a CAD designer, 3D modeler, prototype and model maker, fabricator, sculptor, inventor, and very capable builder of things I can build you anything you need but im NOT an electronics guy. Electronics scare me, LOL BUT tell me to this wire here, put that one there, connect this connector, mount this board in this box NO problem. Just don't tell me to get my voltmeter out, cuz then you've lost me. LOL BUT if you tell me exactly what to do I can do it even with a voltmeter. just don't tell me to measure the voltage in the XYX. Im looking through the install manual and its scaring me, LOL! I know Im gonna get stuck at some point ; (
Have many questions hope you all can help.
Im running CAM in Fusion 360 is there a 100% verified and fully working post from Fusion 360 to Acorn & Sherline Chucker lathe, 5400 Sheerline mill, and 4500 Sherline lathe. Running windows 10 on a workstation laptop. My priority is the chucker lathe and 5400 mill with rotary axis.
Im planning on running the control from my laptop. It's a Lenovo Thinkpad 530W workstation, don't have the specs on it right now. But will this be capable of running the controller without issues?
Ive see the intel Nuc suggested by Centroid. Down the line, if I go with a dedicated computer for the control, what is the cheapest option I can go with as far as specs for one other Nuc computes?
Do you absolutely need touch screen control or can you use mouse?
Need threading on the chucker lathe.
Can it do rigid tapping on the Sherline mill? How bout ID tapping on the lathe?
What encoder setup do I need to control spindle speed? and do you guys offer those components for the Sherline chucker lathe?
Indexed rotary moves on my Sherline 5400 mill, can it use and control Sherline 4th axis (rotary table)?
Dose it do conversational programming for both mill and lathe?
What optical encoder for the Sherline chucker lathe do I need?
Will it work on all 3 machines? 5400 mill, 4500 Lathe, & chucker lathe?
Does Acorn have the ability to switch machines on the fly? ( just unplug and plug?)
How are files posted on a thumb drive? can you post directly to the machine from software without a thumb drive?
Aside from the CNC 12 kit is there anything else I need? IF I'm running from my laptop do I need a drive board/box like a Gecko drive?
Is it ok to mount the power supply and controller card in the same box Or should I do a separate box for the power supply? How big should boxes be?
IF I need the Acorn Pro license for both mill and lathe does that mean I need to buy both mill and lathe versions for 159.00 each?
What is 4th axis paring?