2 ms·
Ha! Yes, even more accurate. I just motorized my quill feed, and today's plan is to find the speed it resonates at, and program it to skip that speed band.
by theelous3 5y ago
Ha! Yes, even more accurate. I just motorized my quill feed, and today's plan is to find the speed it resonates at, and program it to skip that speed band.
- robomartin 5y agoWhile we own a full machine shop at our company I still have a very, well, unique, garage. At the moment I have my old manual Bridgeport knee mill and a Haas VF2 right next to it (along with a prototype-scale SMT line and other goodies). I've been going back and forth with the idea of turning the Bridgeport into a CNC/manual hybrid. I like the idea very much, but I also love full-manual machining. I've used such a hybrid in the past, with both a motorized knee and quill. You could still disengage the quill and simply grab handles and machine manually. The control they used was the Acu-Rite Milpwr G2: https://acu-rite.com/controls-readouts/millpwr-g2/ https://acu-rite.com/controls-readouts/millpwr-g2/ It's really nice, but fairly expensive (I think about $25K by the time you are done). One of the arguments I read against converting a manual mill this way is that the ball screws create a situation where manual machining can be more difficult due to the low friction and back-drivability. A machine builder told me it would be a better idea to trade it for a Bridgeport Boss, which is actually designed as a CNC machine. Having the VF2 next to it I don't generally feel the need to make lots of parts on the knee mill. Like it or not, it makes a mess. That's why I keep thinking that the right level of automation might be to only motorize the x and y axis for quick and accurate hole location and simple machining operations and leave the quill and knee fully manual.