Wednesday 10 December 2014

Millicent gets an Upgrade to 5 Axis

I made the decision to add a 5th Axis to my Minitech Minimill 2 as a hobby project. 

I bought a second hand Minitech 5th axis trunnion table unit from fellow forum member Stewy, and assigned a little time each weekend to work on it.
The initial arrival was a worry as it looked far to big for my table.. but it worked out ok.

The BEFORE shot:

4th Axis off... Tool Probe off, XY table ready to fit the trunnion.

This position is the only way it will fit and still allow access to the tool probe.


Cutting forward of the table is impossible.. but the back 120degree of A and teh full 360 of B will suffice


The wiring!!:
I solved my 5V issue by using an external PS 5V 1000ma. It is wired it to a plug socket so that swop out will be easy if this dies (see white plug point wired in the back)
From the initial layout to get motion, the task of fitting it all in the original controller box seem daunting.. but a beer later it was solved.. sometimes resolving an issue requires walking away from it and coming back..


And its all in... Again a very tight fit..

I mounted the B driver board to left of the main 48V power supply


I wired it to the only space left, above the power inlet.

and all assembled and running! (still need to solve the A and B limit wiring)
And the Burn in running!!!
[video=youtube;R2eZlWv7vYA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2eZlWv7vYA[/video]
(one week later)
The scripting in Mach is complete and we have home and probe on all the axis and setting up all the G54 offsets


and after some dialling in she got her first wax!!


And finally she is cutting! (one week later)


and that outcome!