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Patron drive for December (Patreon)

Published:
2022-12-02 20:35:39
Imported:
2026-06

Content

Hey Patrons!

Here's the latest link to the Patron Drive where you'll find all my files for my projects. Drawings, 3D models, spreadsheets, whatever I happen to generate while working on stuff. It's all here:

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AjEukTfa9GrpamCleuS0qbU1Gaw?e=0A3QTW

If you're new here, that link is valid for 30 days, at which time I post another one here in the main feed. Enjoy!

Comments

Michael Lawson

I'm so excited! I just watched both the Steam Engine and the Big Steam Engine video series, and I was sad that there wasn't more! Well, then you announced the model steam locomotive, and I am SO excited! I'm looking forward to following along for as many weeks as it takes. This is awesome!

Piotr

Hi Quin Here is a brief synopsis of a project I am working on which might be of interest to you for one of your videos. I will do a much fuller description in due course. Objective: To provide precise motorized movement of the head on my standard chinese-import mill (a Warco WM18) without replacing leadscrews. Avoiding replacing leadscrews keeps the project at a beginner level. This is of no use to you personally as you already have a head lifter. Method: Replace the handwheel with a stepper motor. Control the movement of the motor with an Arduino-type microcontroller (I'm using a Teensy 3.6) interfaced with the Z-axis DRO and a user keypad. Prerequisites: A conventional import-type mill with a difficult-to-reach head movement handwheel on the side, and a Z-axis DRO. A powerful stepper motor and compatible driver and PSU. A Teensy with suitable user-maintainable software and a TFT display. (I'm using an Adafruit 3.5 TFT"). An adapter plate, easily made by the user, from ?mm flat plate. Some standard stepper cogs and drive belt. Note that no specialist parts are required. Construction: Removal of handwheel. Manufacture of the support plate. This a piece of ?? x ?? ? steel plate with 2 larger holes. This plate will fit vertically on the RHS of the mill column One hole fits over the handwheel mounting boss. The other allows the stepper motor to be mounted on the LHS of the plate. Manufacture of an adapter from the mill handwheel shaft to a standard belt-drive cog. Manufacture of a belt tensioner. Fitting of a stepper shaft extender and a stepper cog. Manufacture of a DRO interface, a DB9 3-way "T". Manufacture of a microcomputer controller with input capability. I will publish my code when I finish testing. Operation: The operator inputs movement commands via a standard USB keyboard and/or buttons to the microcomputer which issues commands to a stepper driver which moves the head via the cog that replaced the handwheel. The teensy controls the head position precisely and accurately by monitoring the DRO signals. Comments: Very precise control of the head position is theoretically possible, possibly down to the 5 micron level, due to the DRO monitoring. Backlash is not an issue. Why would you want this precision? No idea. The native operation of the DRO is unaffected. The entire installation can be easily backed out. The basic setup of the mill is not disturbed at any point, a factor which is of great interest to newbies. The stepper motor can be reused in any future CNC conversion. The use of a belt drive allows me to add a further 8:1 gear reduction for extra precision. Obviously the device could be built without a belt drive, like the conventional CNC approach, if desired. I particularly like the idea of having one button that takes the head up out of the way and another which takes it back to the previous position. There is of course also a "stop immediately" button. So far I'm planning on the following buttons: Up/Down 5, 10, 20, 50 microns (sorry, all metric here) Up/Down continuous slow/medium/fast "stop immediately" Set microcomputer internal DRO position to match the native DRO position. For development I've also implemented a USB keyboard. Current Position: 01. Adapter plate made. 02. Cogs and cog adapter acquired & made. 03. DRO signals unscrambled. 04. Stepper motor, PSU, and driver acquired. 05. Software written. 06. Simple operation demonstrated. Occasional DRO pulse lost, 5 microns on some moves, probably due to wiring deficiencies. 07. All extremely crudely put together just as a proof of concept. Future Phases: 02. Tidy up. Box the electronics and refine the wiring to eliminate RFI coming in. 03. Find out what the correct use of the DRO Z pulse is and employ as necessary. 03. Make the tensioner spring-loaded to remove the need for periodic tightening. 04. Add small steppers to enable the software to automatically unlock and lock the head for each movement. 05. Rework the cog design to eliminate the need for a cog spacer.