Woody – Page 54 – Woody's Workshop

April 25, 2018June 14, 2018

Tormach Tool Height Caliper 3V Battery Modification

Background

As part of my purchase package of the Tormach PCNC440 I ordered their granite block and height caliper. This meant I could measure and set tool heights directly into the tool table on PathPilot via the caliper USB connection. See the image below which shows the granite block, caliper and the associated dongle box.

This concept works really well and saves manual entry typo errors when measuring tool lengths. I have found one problem however and that is the caliper eats batteries at an alarming rate. These are CR2032 button cells which are not dramatically expensive, but the cost does start to add up. There is the added frustration of the caliper potentially not functioning at a critical moment when a new tool needs to be measured.

It struck me as strange that a device talking via USB should be dependent on a battery when 5V is available from the USB interface. The fact that this did not happen suggested to me that the connection from the interface box to the caliper did not have through continuity of the 5V supply. This wasn’t surprising given that the caliper runs from a 3V cell.

Investigation

I connected the caliper via a standard USB cable directly to a variable power supply connected onto the 5V power pin on the USB cable. Varying the power supply from 0V to 5V showed that the caliper would work quite reliably over a range of 3V to 3.8V but above this the display would blank or just show 8888 at high intensity so masking the actual reading.

I found a couple of 1N4148 signal diodes in my component stock and put them in series with the 5V feed from the power supply to act as a series voltage drop. This brought the working voltage delivered to the caliper back into the 3V to 3.8V range where it functioned without any problems.

Implementation

So the question was now as to how to implement this modification elegantly ? ….

Be warned that the modification to be described involves a change to the USB dongle box supplied with the caliper and as such will invalidate any warranty. Mimic what I did at your own risk.

The dongle box has four screws on the bottom cover and removing these reveals the controller pcb. Take care not to loose the three blue switch activator rods in the process. On inspection of the pcb, the USB cable entering the box has all four standard USB connections but the cable exiting to the caliper has the 5V lead (red) disconnected.

I found a pin quite close by to the output lead that was marked 5V. This was a possible feed for my two diodes. On measuring this I found it was at a lower voltage than expected suggesting that there was perhaps some circuitry between this point and the incoming 5V. I therefore chose to ignore this and looked instead to the input connection cable. I found the +5V connection (red) as it connected to the pcb. I connected the two diodes in series to this cable termination and then ran a connecting wire (orange below)across the board to the 5V output (red) cable which was previously not connected.

These modifications are shown below albeit with hot glue over the diodes and connections.

Modification to Tormach digital caliper dongle box

This completed the modification. I checked out all the voltages while the pcb was still outside the box and also checked the caliper was still working. I replaced the pcb back into the box and screwed the lid in place.

One final thing I did which is not necessarily essential but felt like a good thing to do, was to put a tantalum capacitor across the former battery contacts in the caliper battery compartment. This would act as decoupling should there be any ripple on the new supply to the caliper. See the image below. Note that the tantalum capacitor is polarised and its + lead goes to the former + battery contact (on the right as shown below).

While this is a potentially useful thing to do, it has the disadvantage that you cannot put a battery in the caliper if you want to use it ‘off line’ when not connected to a USB port. You could however plug it into USB charger via the dongle lead.

The other minor thing I did was to fit a small cable tie to retain the caliper connector in place as I found it easily become disconnected.

On putting the setup all back together, the caliper was working well with a nice contrast to the LCD display. Tool table updates work just as they did before so no issues there.

If you do this modification you might want to experiment with different diodes or the number of diodes needed to the drop the voltage from 5V to within the caliper normal voltage range. Note that you need to use small signal silicon diodes which will have around a 0.6V voltage drop per diode. Don’t use Schottky diodes as these generally have around 0.2V and so you would need at least 3 times as many to achieve the same overall voltage drop. You could try LEDs as they all seem to have different voltage drops but they tend to need a high drive current which if this is the case, makes them unsuitable for this application.

You could of course go really elegant and build a small integrated power supply chip into the dongle box such as the AMS1117. These are available in various fixed output voltages including a 3.3V version (which is popular for Arduino projects and available from Amazon). You can also buy a ready made 5V to 3V module based on the AMS1117 from Amazon. I like the AMS1117 and used the 1.5V version in my power supply modification to the Shumatech DRO systems.

Here is a printer friendly (and slightly updated) version of this article : –

Tormach Digital Height Gauge Modifications

The Small Print Again

I repeat once again that this modification will invalidate your warranty on the caliper but it will save you the cost of batteries.

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April 20, 2018April 25, 2018

Back to It, ducting and mill turning (again)

Back from France

Two weeks in France flew past and all we seemed to do was jobs around the place. Weather pretty mixed but one very hot day which of course was the day before we left. Surprise surprise. It has since been very hot out there but equally the weather here has been excellent.

Background Air Extract System

I have often been slightly concerned about fumes in the workshop. You know the pervasive smell of cutting fluid and welding smoke etc so first job back was to install a background extract system. My colleague Dave arrived this morning and between us we put in a fan and ducting to vent through a custom roof tile (shingle ?). OK the draft won’t rip your clothes off but it will just keep the air moving especially in winter when the hatches are battened down.

Mill Turning Tooling Jig

Having tested mill turning with a Heath Robinson set up I have been accumulating parts to create a proper custom jig to fit on the 440 table. This will take 3 turning tools, 3 ER16 collets for drill bit holding, a centre drill and a boring bar. Currently it is drawn in Fusion 360 but there are one or two issues to sort before committing to CAM. More to follow once it is fully underway.

G53 Tool Change Location Update

Another update (not yet resolved) is my G53 tool change routine which has a slight weakness. As previously mentioned the Tormach post processor does not always put a WCS following a tool change. To overcome this I was hard coding a G54 after the new G53 tool change routine. The problem is that occasionally I might not be using WCS G54 but any one of the eight other available references. So some extra code is going to be needed to make the WCS a variable that mirrors the WCS being used. Head scratching so far reveals that the post processor sees the WCS as a number from 1-9 and then converts this to G54 through G59.3 in a separate sub routine. I need somehow to overcome this. More to follow on this one too.

Sign Off

Anyway good to be back in the UK (and the workshop), great weather for the last three days and it looks we are going to sit out on the terrace tonight with steak and chips washed down with a glass or two of red. Takes some beating.

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March 31, 2018May 31, 2018

Tormach Post Processor G53 Edits for Tool Change

The Tormach PCNC440 is a lovely machine and is more than big enough for my present needs. The one problem I had encountered was when coming to a tool change on a CNC job sometimes there was not enough Z height to get the TTS collet out of the spindle. This was particularly difficult when using larger diameter drill bits in a chuck style holder.

Once in program there did not seem to be any option to break the run and do a G30 or similar. What I really needed was a move of the spindle upwards and outwards to get it clear of the job and allow TTS access.

Reading up in Peter Smid’s excellent CNC Programming Handbook I could see that care was going to be needed to ensure that any movement was first of all a Z action and then X and Y to avoid the danger of crashing the tool into the job or its fixtures.

I had some discussion with John Saunders at NYC CNC and John was working on a video around this subject. He helped enormously.

The end result is to use G53 machine coordinates to first do a Z and then and X and Y to move the tool up and to the side for tool change access.

This involves edits to the post processor in three places. The first two edits (Lines 44 and 66) are there to give an option for this movement in the drop down selection box. (The line 24 edit is an earlier modification to allow Mill Turning – see separate post).

tormach, post processor, G53 — Line 24, 44, 66 edits

g53 tool change edit to post processor — Change that appears in the Property selection box where the Custom Tool Change option now appears

The third edit gives the instructions for this as a G53 Z move than a X and Y move (Lines 543-538). Note that I later found that I had to add a G54 after the G53 movements as some CAM actions did not include a G54 as part of a tool change.

custom tool change edit — Line 534 to 538 edits

I later on decided it would be nice to include this G53 movement at program end so this is a fourth edit (Lines 1404 – 1405) and not forgetting the change for Mill Turning edit (Line 25) there are five changes in total.

cnc g53 tool change edit — Line 1404 to 1405 edits

That concludes the changes. I recommend that you spend time watching John’s videos on Post Processor edits on NYC CNC.

If you can’t read the edits then drop me an email and I can send you a full listing.

Note that these are changes to the Tormach standard post processor code and if you are tempted to do this you should do a ‘Save As’ on the original code and only edit the newly created and saved file so you have a fall back position. Likewise I accept no responsibility in documenting this and putting you up to potential mischief messing with your machine and causing damage.

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March 29, 2018March 30, 2018

You say Vise and I say Vice but we agree that Clamps are Clamps

When I put together the package of items that I would be ordering with the Tormach PCNC440 I probably made a mistake. I wanted a machine vice (vise if you over the Atlantic) and the recommended size for the 440 was a 4″. However a jaw set was not available with this size the same as it was with the 5″. After checking with Tormach I ordered the 5″ in the belief that it would be usable.

The 5″ is serious lump of metal and really only fits on the 440 table long ways on. The jaw set is really nice however. Sad to say that none of it has been used so far and if I am honest it is unlikely to be used. A large and heavy white elephant sits in the corner of the workshop. It is going to cost more to freight it back to swap out than is economic. Offers gratefully received !

What to do ? Looking around I found that Arc Eurotrade offer a range of machine vices. In particular I liked the look of the SG Iron Milling Vices as they have flexible jaw positions and had a ‘pull down’ action of the jaws on closing. They do not offer soft jaws but at a pinch these could be made as and when needed. I ordered a 100mm (4″) version and it is a nice piece of kit, seems solid, but not as heavy as the 5″ Tormach.

The vice did not come with any useful fixing clamps so what to do ? I had already made a tooling plate for the 440 table that has M8 holes on a 25mm matrix. The plate also has additional 4mm tooling pin holes within the XY limits of the spindle movement. The vice sits nicely between the M8 mounting holes and just needed some simple ‘L’ clamps to hold it down.

Designing and making the Clamps

I designed something suitable on Fusion and did a 3D print of a prototype on the Sindoh 3DWOX to do a trial fit. This seemed to work fine so production of four metal ones was now needed.

Fusion 360 drawing of the clamping block

A debate now ensued. Options at this point were : –

Use the Fusion model to CNC/CAM repeat produce four individual clamps which would need three set ups to face and cut.

Use Fusion to extend the model to have four clamps in one piece of stock to be cut to length as needed but machined using a full CNC program of all four on one piece of stock. Each clamp would still need facing after cutting

Use the single clamp already drawn in Fusion and use WCS increments to hop along the stock and create four separate clamps for cutting off as needed. Still would need facing after cutting.

Finally given their simplicity there was the option to run them on the Myford manual mill ….

Outcome

Well my hand goes up to say I funked it and made all four on the manual mill. I cut four pieces of stock (24mm x 19mm) to 40mm on the Kennedy hacksaw and faced the ends to length on the Myford mill. I jigged the Y position while sitting on parallels in the machine vice before cutting the clamping step on each. Next came an 8mm hole central in the slot before mill extending it out 2mm either side. Job done.

Would it have been faster on CNC ? I don’t really know. If I had drawn the ‘four in one bar’ version I think it would as there would have been only one setup apart from the facing off. If I had done the WCS based version of a single clamp then four set ups would have been needed, one for each WCS plus the facing. Either way both of CNC options would have increased my knowledge on CNC and I could have chalked another ‘result’ on the 440 fuselage mission tally board.

No excuses I know, but there is just something about manual milling and the intimacy of being in touch with the metal ……

The finished clamping blocks were made to suffer heat and then an oil dunking to blacken them off to make them look almost professional.

Tooling Clamp for milling table — Vise Tooling Clamp

Vise in place showing clamps and tooling pins

vice, vise, tormach pcnc440 — Wide view of vise in place on 440 table. Note the NYC CNC training course handle finding a home.

So all of that was a bit of a ramble but you get the gist – CNC or manual.

Placement Tooling Pins

In closing the last thing I made was a couple of top hat tooling pins that sit in the tooling plate and align the vice position. This ensures the vice clamps can sit symmetrically either side of the vice. It makes for a quick set up if the vice has been off table. Note in the picture below the small piece of shim to get the alignment correct. (Lazy man syndrome creeping in again).

So the shop is now ready and better prepared to cut metal. Note also the NYC CNC training course produced vice handle being pressed into service on the new vice. Thanks to Kevin & John for that – was it nearly a year ago ???

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March 28, 2018

A Parallels Rack in Fusion and Sindoh with free Spagetti

Some time ago I made a rough and ready wall mounting rack for my parallels so they would sit to hand adjacent to the Myford manual milling machine. I used double sided printed circuit board for the construction and while not elegant it worked OK …. until after I had finished it when I found two of the set lurking in a box with a half finished job. I had not allowed for them in the construction and being OCD me, it annoyed me to have two lose ones that did not fit in the grand order of things.

An idle half day lead to a Fusion design to replace the tired old PCB disaster. This lead to some thinking on how to design it. I wanted a rack that sat on the tooling board with the parallels stacked on it with a slight upward angle to keep them in place. I chose therefore to draw it slightly strangely with the ‘back’ at an angle and extruded it accordingly. See below.

All well and good you might say. Less messing with angles etc.

I squirted the job into the Sindoh 3D driver software and then tried to be clever and print it with the backside down on the printer bed …. or at least what I thought was the backside down. You will no doubt spot that that this is not a simple rotation of 90 degrees but I didn’t.

The printer began producing spaghetti that was not bonding to the printer bed. After three re-tries I took a closer look at my design and realised that the only part of the job that was in contact with the bed was the leading edge (red arrow below). The rest was airborne at an angle all due to the way I had chosen to draw the object and rotate it.

Reset brain and reset printing so it would be now vertical. All was good and my nice new rack sits on the tooling board.

A little bit more brain engagement next time perhaps ?

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