One word came to mind when I saw this "BADASS"!
Clean and organized came to MY mind. A Powermatic 66 and a round pole sander in the pic and I don't see a speck of wood shavings!!
One word came to mind when I saw this "BADASS"!
One word came to mind when I saw this "BADASS"!
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Here's a machine that can be built for under $5k - I know because I built it just over a year ago. I used high-quality linear tables found online and a Chinese indexer (which I had to completely rebuild). The cuemaker who owns it provided the NSK air spindle. He loves the system, and now uses it for his main CNC machine station. Jake Hulsey and Royce Bunnell have both seen it in operation, and could give their own assessment regarding self-build vs turnkey-buy.
TW
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Thomas
That picture was taken from almost the exact spot I was standing in when I first saw that machine.
I was impressed by the machine. Nice, clean and simple.
I was also surprised at the use of the import index fixture. Of course, I wasn't surprised when you said that you had to completely go through it to straighten it out.
I'm sure you remember, but I was down there with my business partners, Don and Anita Owen. Don ordered a cue from the owner of that little machine you built. He has since received the cue and absolutely loves it. I'm sure much of it was made on that machine.
Thomas...bring me one next time you visit Jerry McW... Thanks! I'll buy you a nice Chinese dinner!
True that.concerning the x & y axis on that machine, you can't purchase ANYTHING turnkey for less than 50k that will hold the tolerance that those stages will. Both have high end ground screws and short travel. That combination is hard to beat.
If you spend 10k on a turnkey machine you might get 3k worth of parts. The short axis on the machine in the pictures retails for $3k plus.
You can buy the stages on Ebay but be diligent with stage model #'s as some of them have cheaper screws and are made to run with linear encoders which afford you the luxury of a lesser quality screw.
Not sure how i feel about the chinese rotary but i have stockpiled rotaries that i've bought on ebay. They retail for 6-10k and i have some brand new still wrapped in plastic that i paid from 200-400 for. I like to work on the cue while its in the machine With the chinese rotary "like 6:1 ratio" i'm afraid i'd rotate it by accident when putting inlays in. I like the 60:1 holding torque.
I think that machine can be built with electronics, motors, rotary and tailstock, vacuum table, computer and mach for less than $5k. That leaves 5k to buy a real spindle and cadcam
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With the chinese rotary "like 6:1 ratio" i'm afraid i'd rotate it by accident when putting inlays in. I like the 60:1 holding torque.
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Prefer Japanese and would like the restaurant to be Aragawa in Tokyo, Japan - plus you include airfare (wife will be coming too). Otherwise we'll need to negotiate further.
TW
I'd be good with a couple of their $600 (usd) Kobe steaks.
TW
Anyone have any experience using these IA actuators? The one shown looks like a IS series and they are supposed to have an integrated motor onto the ball screw. Are you able to take off the back cover, strip the motor off and mount a stepper?
I sent Thomas a PM a couple of days ago but he is probably a busy man. Anyone else have any info on these? Thanks for any help!
IA = Intelligent Actuator
Yes, most all of them are too old to actually cross reference to a model # but there website is useful in defining travel, leadscrew diameter and pitch based on the spec #s on the stages.
Rule #1 is they are almost always smaller than the pictures on ebay show:grin:
All that i have seen came with thk or iko linear rails. There also not skimpy with size. The smallest linear rail i have seen in one of these is 15mm where as the parkers will sometimes have 9-12mm. Huge difference in rigidity and pc of mind.
Most of them have very fast (16mm on average) rolled thk ballscrews but have very nice end support bearings. The one TW got was lucky, as it has a finer pitch ground screw. The higher pitch sucks for us because it means resolution will be lower unless we gear reduce.
Best bet is to ask the seller to remove the top cover and take pictures of the screw. They come off real easy with 4 little screws.
The safer bet is to go with the parker 404xr as they are fully enclosed and much more available. Still use the same caution as above.
My search is over, thanks everyone for there input.