Lathe Spindle and Z-rail measurements

(the dial indicator reads in metric, with 1um resolution) radially the spindle chuck-flange shows ca 14-15 um of runout. Axially there is more wobble, ca 20um. The Z-rails are very accurately aligned in the X-direction, I measured ca 6um error. Measuring in the Y-direction, there seems to be a 40-50um jump around 10cm from the … Continue reading Lathe Spindle and Z-rail measurements

Spindle details

By popular demand, some details on the spindle, spindle-motor, and VFD of our cnc-mill which just recently was able to do rigid-tapping. The motor is a standard induction motor from ABB rated at 1.5 kW and around 3000 rpm (at 50 Hz AC). It has a lot of model identification numbers: "1.5 kW M2VA 80 … Continue reading Spindle details

PCB Milling

I'm making photodiode (transmipedance) amplifiers, and here is the first PCB being milled today. In the foreground a test-run where the cutter-height was too low resulting in too thin or vanishing PCB-traces. Note how the PCB material is not held in place along the Z-axis at all. The PCB-blank is just located in X/Y on … Continue reading PCB Milling

LPKF Protomat S91 PCB-mill

Update: here's a picture of how the original spindle looks like. By popular demand, some pictures of the modified LPKF Protomat S91 PCB-mill (featured here). The spindle assembly on this mill has been re-built. The original has an LPKF spindle motor and a solenoid for pushing/pulling the spindle up/down along the Z-axis. This modification uses … Continue reading LPKF Protomat S91 PCB-mill

Rendering an image with VTK

For exploring and visualizing various pocketing or area-clearing milling toolpath strategies I am thinking about reviving the "pixel-mowing" idea from 2007. This would be simply a bitmap with different color for stock remaining and already cleared area. It would be nice to log and/or plot the material removal rate (MRR), or the cutter engagement angle. … Continue reading Rendering an image with VTK