Shop Sabre SideKick 8 w/Drill Unit & Scribe

[slodat]

I've bought a Shop Sabre SideKick 8 new two years ago.

It came with the WinCNC control. I've not been happy with the control since the first time I powered it up. In all fairness, Shop Sabre's customer service and support are truly top notch. My converting to Centroid Acorn CNC Plasma control is in no way negative commentary about the Shop Sabre team. I do have some thoughts about choices with the machine that I'm sure will come out in this thread.

I ordered the full suite of Centroid products for this conversion - Acorn, of course the Plasma THC kit, wireless MPG, and the Ether1616 I/O expansion. This will be my fourth Acorn build. I also have a router, mill, and lathe running Acorn. I'll do my best to document my Acorn conversion here in hopes in may be of benefit to others.

My Shop Sabre has a lot of the options they offer. I will be doing what I have to do to maintain that existing functionality:

• Drill Unit: It has a pneumatically operated quill that drops down. Then the Z axis is used like it would in a milling machine for drilling. I intend to use the analog out to control speed of the drill unit.

  

• Air scribe: I haven't used this much up to now. I want to get this working well so I can use it when it makes sense.
• Control over plasma current: I have the Hypertherm option card. Not sure if this is supported by Centroid yet. If not, maybe I can help get it going.
• Fusion 360 Post Processor: Ultimately, I'd like to be abe to post one file and have it able to handle all three functions listed above. Not sure where the Fusion post is currently or what it's capabilities are.
• Laser Pointer Zero

One thing I'm really looking forward to adding is a Z axis brake. Currently, the Z axis crashes down on power down. Teknic offers a spring applied, power off brake that can be added to an existing motor.

Control cabinet:

For some reason, the control enclosure door hinges down to the ground. This makes it nearly impossible to work on the machine without sitting on the door and potentially messing it up..

One of the Clearpath servos:

[slodat]

My first question is.. do folks recommend the C86ACCP when using Clearpath servos with Acorn?

[ShawnM]

So you're finally doing it huh?

When I got mine (used) I had never used WinCNC and didn't want to learn another controller after using Acorn for a few year already on my router.

I hate the enclosure and the door, for simple fixes I had to lay a furniture pad on the floor and lay on the shop floor to work on it. UGH! For the BIG rewire from WinCNC to Acorn I unbolted it from the frame and placed it on a small table I made about the height of a 5 gallon bucket so it faced up and I sat in a my cushy chair and rewired it. (you can remove the door with one screw)

I didn't use the Ether1616 board and don't have the VFD for the drill motor but if your enclosure is the same size as mine it'll be REAL tight to get all that in there. You may have to mount some things on the door and side walls. You may need a larger enclosure all together.

I opted NOT to use the C86 board as it only complicates things and it's just not needed and just another failure point in my opinion.

A brake on the Z axis would be a nice addition to the machine, I use a 2x4 block of wood under the Z axis before I turn it off and it does the same thing a brake does.

Good luck with the retrofit. Please start a Google photo album so we can follow along.

[Joey]

Wow the Shop Sabre Looks Brand New.
Nice clean machine.

Roland Put together a Fusion Post for Acorn Plasma. You can find the Post here : https://centroidcncforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=7660
The Fusion Post was created before The M39/M40 scribe macros were created. Not sure if that will need to be added to the Post.


Is there something that Holds the material during the drilling operations?

I've Heard mixed reviews about the C86. I don't think Centroid suggests using the C86 currently because of the issues customers had had with them.

[cnckeith]

https://centroidcncforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=5531

[cnckeith]

and see page #65 of the plasma manual for clearpath specfic instructions.
https://www.centroidcnc.com/centroid_di ... manual.pdf