You may think im crazy but here is my plan. Well so far this is my plan. It changes ever 4 seconds. I want to take a heavy duty drill press. Or even a mill it dont matter to me. And i want to retro-fit a Cnc Bed into it. It will be 4 axis machine. Id perfer 5 axis but that would cost to much.

The thing im working on right now. I want to build a make shift 2 axis Rotary. Kinda like those trunnian Rotary's. Now im not sure if any not to $$ software will support this.

The 4 axis there will be is:
Axis 1 and 2 will be X and Y.
Axis 3 and 4 will be the 2 axis rotary.

Hopefuly with these 4 axis's i can get any angle i want. I will control the debth of the drill bit by hand.

Well anyways any suggestions / questions let me know.

Well Started Designing Rotary today. So far im liking it. Im thinking of using a vacuum system to hold the balls down. Im not sure if this will have enough pressure to hold the ball down. What do you guys think?

I wonder if i can find a cheap industerial vacuum that would work for this. maybe on ebay.

A vacume table should work with the shape of the lower 1/2 of the ball..

I was planning on taking a peice of pipe and turning a bevel on the end of it. the pipe proby about 6 - 8" in Dia. With bowling balls somewhere between 9-10" dia.

Joe any idea what kind of vacuum i should be looking for? What kind do they use on the router tables?

I wonder if there is any simple thing i could get. Something that would just hold suction. kinda like one of those things you use to pump up basketballs in reverse? hehe.

This is kinda off the topic but we have a cnc router at work. a Small one. It only cuts 10"X5". But the controller on it just went bad and the company who made it aint around anymore. So i was wondering what are the chances of me being able to buy a new controller for it and using that? like one of those controllers from hobbycnc.com

You will need to find out a few things 1st.

1. what power supply
2. motor specs (Voltage and amperage)
3. are the motors bipolar or unipolar (how may wires)

Once you have this then you can spec out a controllor board to use and should be able to use another one.

Out of curiousity what brand if the machine?

Joe

Scheanberger or something crazy like that !

They are actualy still in business. But now they only make Cnc Profile Grinders. We actualy have one of there Profile grinders but they dont carry anything for there cnc routers or anymore.

the odd Thing is i think the power supply is on the same board as the controller. There is only 1 board on the machine. now ill half to check the motor specs tomorow.

I was just thinking about your bowling ball machine. I don't know a lot about bowling balls, but if the holes are perpendicular with the surface then to get perfect hole alignment you could build a ball holder that rotates the ball fairly easily.

Imagine the inards of an old ball mouse. Turn it upside down.

You would need two steppers with rubber wheels turning the ball on the two axis. You'd have to have it hold the ball pretty tight though for precise drilling.

Im going to have 2 rotary axis to turn the ball.

Well i checked out the stepers on our router. They looked real small. only abou 3" in Dia. and 2" in Depth.

All i could find on them was this:
Serial#KP56KM2-805
1.8 DEG/STEP
DC 2.31V
JAPAN

As for the Power supply i have no idea. Couldnt i just get a new Powersupply for the new Controller?

Also i couldnt tell very well how many wires but it looked like 4 wires.

A quick google search didn't pull up anything for me on that part number. If it has 4 wires it's more than likely a bipolar motor. For a replacement controller you'd probably be best with either a homebrew( http://www.pminmo.com if you're comfortable with this sort of stuff), or a Xylotex board. http://www.xylotex.com

Im having trouble with a few Design issues i gotta work out. I started Designing my Rotary axis today. The A and B Axis. Not sure which is which but that dont matter. im wondering if having the motor on only 1 side of the rotary is going to make it flex.

Also im having trouble finding bearing to use for my Rotary. Id use normal bearing but the weight of the ball would make it not very smooth. I need to find some type of turn table bearings. They most likely make them i just dont know where to look. Ill half to keep looking. If i could get some type of round rail system i could just ride bearing on it. that is 1 option.

So Far i have this. All those holes are going to be 1/2" All thread with nuts on the end. That will keep it nice and solid.

And im going to have 1/2" Drill Rod supporting the whole Ball Compartment. The ball holder is eventualy going to spin for the last axis. Soon as i can find a good way to do that.

Im just not sure if its going to be stout enough. Drilling Bowling balls puts alot of down pressure. I think the A and B axis is going to put alot of unstoutness.

Well I spent some time designing today. Got some Good Progress. Still not sure if its stout enough. Well here is a pic. The round thing is the ball of course. With this Design i can mill a hole in 1/2 of the ball which should cover the whole easily.

Things i need to still think about:
Which Controller / Servo's. I think i should go with big Servo's because i think turning the ball will take alot of strenght.

Good Way to hold the ball Down. Not sure if the vacuum Idea is strong enough when the A and B axis are tilted.

If its stout enough.

Very Interesting concept, I can see it working with the 4 axis now, the tray the ball sits on rotates and also the table that sits on will swing then the whole thing slides, then the Z Axis comes down.

Joe

What you think Joe? If i tiped it up on a 90 in the Axis i think i would need a good holding device.

what about going with a sprocket on the end of the swinging table?

Im not sure what you mean.

I was actualy thinking about putting a Timing pulley at each end of the swinging bed. and putting equal pressure on both ends of it to not get deflection.

Good Idea, can also give more leverage.

Any More Progress on the design?

Joe

Alittle bit. Kinda got held up with house work. people want the walls painted b4 the holdiays. Personaly i like the drywall look :-)

Im gonna try and get some work done on it tomorow. Hopefuly no one bugs me with something stupid to do instread.

I have been thinking of a new design consept that im going to look into. My new Idea i think will be alot more stout. Im thinking of having a big turntable that the ball sits down into. And the part the ball sits on turns as the rotary axis.

I think this design will make it alot better. I will start to get into that this weekend hopefuly.

Looking forward to it, Let me know if i can help out.

Joe

I got very little done over the weekend. I did do alittle bit on Friday. Here is my idea so far. I only got about a hour done so its not even close to being done. The idea is the Ball spins on the A axis and the table turns on the B axis i believe. I was thinking that i could put a platform under the ball with the shape of the ball to give it support. Maybe even have bearings on it. I think it would be alot more strong than my other idea. And that extra pipe on that is for the stepper motor to connect to and then i would use timming pulleys. This would insure even pressure on both sides.

The entire table would turn. not sure how this is best pullet off with bearings but i have some good ideas.

Here is some progress i made today. worked on it for a few hours. Hope you like it :-)

first pic of the main body of it. It has the top plate removed from it to show the parts inside.

This second picture is the main body with the top plate on it. Im going to add some supports on the open side of it.

this third pic of with the ball house in it.


Let me know what you guys think. Arg. Those photos turn out kinda bad. guess i shoulda used print screen cuz render make it look bad.

these are just sugestions unless you have already done something like it.

1st picture i would make a 0.20" stepdown in the top and bottom pieces for the vertical (Cyan color) pieces to set into will keep them from moving or bowing, and the bearings vertical center pieces (white color) you have the on the back side i would move the notch to the inside to alow for the presure of the bottom spinning plate.

In the other pictures i would just make sure everything in inerlocking also make it easier for assembly and lining up.

Joe

It is step down like you suggested. I do like your idea to put the bearing shafts in the inside.

I started testing out cad cams today. Id use mastercam but the verison id need costs to much. Started working with mach2. I cant seem to find a way to import 3d files into it.

If jyou send me some files i can see what i can do for you and also maybe cut some prototypes and take some pictures.

saw this on the zone, looks kinda promising for what you want to do.

Joe

the only draw back im having right now is software. The nc's will be pretty simple.

Im thinking about buying this. Let me know whatcha you guys think. Seems like a good deal.


http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-NEMA-23-Dual-Shaft...1QQcmdZViewItem

This picture shows my exact idea. I am looking into the cnc toolkit as i see it works with 3dmax and i had alot of 3dmax experience in tech school. I think the cnc toolkit may be the fix to my problems !!! Who knows. Anyways im gonna start messing around with shit when ever i get my router and get to cut some part so most likely few weeks and you will get to see prototypes !!