Todays Project - What did you do today?

[vtsteam]

Installed LinxCNC on my old 1998 Thinkpad 600E laptop, and am gradually working out the connections, configuration, etc. for cutting something on a small gantry type mill.

[vtsteam]

It worked!:

[DaveH]

Well done

DaveH

[PixMan]

Tell me more about LinxCNC, please. I have a Prototrak Plus control on my Alliant mill and the only CAM system software I know of that will output code the control will use is BobCAD. They have a special cable to mate a PC with the control, but if the LinxCNC is cheaper and has a configurable post processor I could save the cost of BobCAD software.

[vtsteam]

Pixman, sorry I misspelled it's LinuxCNC -- formerly known as EMC2. And it's free. Also open source.

I use free SketchUp to draw with, and free Sketch-U-Cam to write the G-code with. I don't know if all those (or any of them) would suit your needs. I run them both under WINE in Puppy Linux.

I understand that CAMBam can also output G-code from a DXF -- will be looking into that shortly.

LinuxCNC is a Linux based CNC program. It can be tried out on a LiveCD -- meaning that you don't have to install Linux on your hard drive to try it out -- it will run off of the CD. However it will be fairly slow on the CD.

Eventually you would install it to HD, and it would run faster. I have it on an ancient computer, and though the Linux OS runs slowly, the CNC Program itself runs fine. In other words, it takes a long tie to open programs, open windows, etc in the OS, But the CNC program itself keeps up with the requirements of cutting very well -- even on a Pent III computer with 290K of RAM.

In fact an older single Processor computer -- pent 3 or 4 would probably be preferable to a dual proc more modern one. It must have a parallel port (or accept a parallel port card) and I would guess that a Pent 4 machine of about 1Ghz or so and half a gig of memory would suit it best. You still have to check the computer for latency -- a test for this is provided with the liveCD.

[f350ca]

Very cool, Im starting to like this CNC stuff.

[vtsteam]

I like it f350c if I can still twiddle handles most of the time, and if it is free software, and on a dumpster bound computer! Which it all definitely can be.

[vtsteam]

This is what the default interface of LinuxCNC looks like. But there are also alternate interfaces if you don't like this one. I do like the 3D display however, so will probably stick with this one.

[vtsteam]

And this is what Sketchup (ver. 7.1) looks like with the Sketch-U-Cam plugin added while I was drawing the part.

The panel in the lower right ((near 0,0) is the one that G-code is generated from. The others were just doodles to get the parts placement right. That's how I work -- stuff scattered all over the place!

[dallen]

redid the flywheel casting

Ok, here's some photo's

first up is the pattern it got wet and warpped Friday night.


So I used it anyway.


Then I tried to straighten it out.


The inside of the Furnace, yes it been used hard and put up hot!!


The crucible I used today this is its fourth melt


The Burner setup with RedNeck Damper Control, which is a hell of a lot cheaper then a Honeywell setup and more dependable.


stove up and running with ingots preheating


its kinda hard to take stills of the pour when your working alone, so here's the shot of the finished pour.


Sorry no shot of the shake out in the still's I took today hope to post a video of it later this evening

Shot of the broken runner after I cut the gating off the art, note color of the iron


Crucible after clean out not as clean as I would of liked it to be, but I was working alone


Part in the lathe after a small trim job


Today was a good pour, the mold filled, the iron was machineable, and the part looks like it may be ok, so far I haven't found any slag hole of hot tears or shrinkage problems.

Yesterday I sliced a piece off of a hunk of DuraBar Cast Iron (Durabar is a continues cast product and is very consistent and absolutely the best to work with if you have to machine cast iron) which is some really nice iron to work with, stuff saws like cutting butter I mean my little 4X6 grizz Horizontal saw smiled at me when I put the bar in it and turned it on and less then ten minutes later I had my slice, the riser that I cut off the Flywheel casting today cut like DuraBar it was that soft.

DA