A little CMM

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Moray
Posts: 282
Joined: Thu Apr 26, 2018 10:16 pm

A little CMM

Post by Moray » Tue Sep 18, 2018 8:42 pm

A few years ago, I needed to copy some components, and doing it by hand measuring/plotting was proving to be take too much time, so a solution was needed. Commercial CMM machines were definitely out of budget, so after some thought, a plan was hatched. This machine was the result of that plan-
26789176111_c73a54d1f2_c.jpg
For time purposes, I bought a generic chinese 3040 router, chucked all the supplied electronics back on eBay, and built a new control box using a KFlop and Kstep. The 200W spindle was replaced with a dummy spindle to mount a touch probe, and tests began. Just using open loop control was not resulting in good enough readings, despite much fettling to get everything running with as little play as possible, so a set of 1 micron glass scales were purchased. Once fitted, X and Y were re-configured to run closed loop, and I got results good enough for what I need.


Inside of the control box -
44049244354_f51b7fdfe3_c.jpg
Nothing that fancy on the control box. KFlop/Kstep mounted up top with a bodged together breakout board to the right made with what I had lying around at the time, so I could get the probe wired in easier. From left to right on the DIN rail, are mains fuses, mains neutral terminals, Earth terminals, E-stop relay (it's only a basic setup, so it's just a generic relay that switches the main PSU), 24VDC PSU for e-stop/control circuits (aka just he probe on this!), 24V terminals, 0V terminals, 5VDC PSU (for KFlop and scales), and finally the E-stop circuit connection point (which was simply bypassed in that photo, as I hadn't added a stop button). Then at the bottom is a just a nice basic and reliable linear power supply to power the steppers putting out around 45V.
For anybody interested, my original build thread can be found at http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index. ... 732.0.html

It's not been used for a while, but I've got some more bits I need to copy, and I'd like to do it all via KMotionCNC, as it's the final machine relying on Mach3. Which is why it's been dug out from it's corner in the workshop, and into the house, so I can write the required software in comfort.
Last edited by Moray on Thu Jul 25, 2019 8:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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TomKerekes
Posts: 2527
Joined: Mon Dec 04, 2017 1:49 am

Re: A little CMM

Post by TomKerekes » Tue Sep 18, 2018 10:23 pm

Hi Moray,

Perfect for testing the probing :)

Thanks for sharing.
Regards,

Tom Kerekes
Dynomotion, Inc.

Denis#
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue May 01, 2018 8:08 pm

Re: A little CMM

Post by Denis# » Tue Dec 04, 2018 8:22 pm

Hello Moray! Did you get this project on K-Flop/KMCNC? Very interesting to see!

Moray
Posts: 282
Joined: Thu Apr 26, 2018 10:16 pm

Re: A little CMM

Post by Moray » Tue Dec 04, 2018 11:39 pm

Denis# wrote:
Tue Dec 04, 2018 8:22 pm
Hello Moray! Did you get this project on K-Flop/KMCNC? Very interesting to see!
The machine now runs under KMCNC, and the probing software is a work in progress. There's a thread about the software here
I'm currently working on probe calibration, which is forcing me to remember trigonometry :?

Rasta
Posts: 31
Joined: Fri Mar 08, 2019 8:24 pm

Re: A little CMM

Post by Rasta » Fri Mar 08, 2019 9:57 pm

this is agreat project! keep up!
regards
Mariano

Rasta
Posts: 31
Joined: Fri Mar 08, 2019 8:24 pm

Re: A little CMM

Post by Rasta » Sun Sep 20, 2020 8:34 am

Hi Moray;
Have you made any more developments on this machine?
thank you
Mariano

Moray
Posts: 282
Joined: Thu Apr 26, 2018 10:16 pm

Re: A little CMM

Post by Moray » Tue Sep 22, 2020 5:20 pm

Hi Rasta,

in short, no.
Due to various reasons, I've been working pretty much flat out for the past 6 months, so all these side projects have been on hold. I finally got a new machine in and working last week which should reduce a good bit of my current workload, so I'll hopefully get back to this soon.

Rasta
Posts: 31
Joined: Fri Mar 08, 2019 8:24 pm

Re: A little CMM

Post by Rasta » Sat Oct 15, 2022 9:08 am

Hi Moray, have you made any progress in the cmm project?
Thanks
Mariano

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