October 2017 - Woody's Workshop

October 26, 2017February 19, 2018

First Ding on the Tormach PCN440

Well it had to happen …. first ding on the Tormach 440 which thankfully was not major.

I made a spring loaded pen from an old Parker Pen body and refill to allow me to sketch the XY movements of the mill on sheet of paper on the mill table. I forgot to reference the tool lengths and the pen buried itself into the table …. fortunately I had a sheet of MDF fastened to the table for protection but the pen dramatically disintegrated and distributed itself around the workshop.

A new pen has been made, better than the first one and no damage to the mill, just to my pride.

I must practice hitting the STOP button with my eyes closed.

First trial cut on Tormach 440 using Fusion 360 CAM

After a lot of research and testing I managed to run a small test piece in MDF using Fusion 360 CAM imported into the Tormach 440. Hand hovered over the emergency stop button but all went well. Getting there slowly.

There are so many boxes in the CAM settings for each function that is a worry what needs ticking where. Lars Christensen‘s Part 4 video on CAM helped no end. The other one to watch that was useful was the Library tutorial.

Battery replacement module for Chinese vernier scales

When I created the external 1.5V PSU modules for use with my DRO350 it struck me at the time it might be possible to create the same PSU in a dummy battery to fit directly into the scale battery socket.

I used the same AMS1117 regulator chip and decoupling capacitors mounted on a small pcb inside a short piece of K&S thin wall brass tubing. The pcb was milled on the Tormach 440 with hand written G Code and using a dental burr as the engraver. Once the pcb was soldered into the end of the tube I turned back the tube to leave the pcb proud of the tube to match the normal battery profile and spring contact in the scale battery socket.

It was a bit tight to put together but it works ! I am debating a full write up so look back in the future.