Optimum Optimill MH50V CNC conversion

I spent the better part of today restarting things as I was trouble shooting my Probe Basic setup so it wasn't a proper stress test.

But I intend to leave the computer and cabinet running for a day or two while I work on the more mechanical stuff in order to see how it works before we can call this a success.

In legacy mode the network card would always stop working within one day if I left the computer on.

A quick update to just say that I have not disappeared image missing /media/kunena/emoticons/smile.png

I'm working on the mechanical parts of the CNC conversion with bearing block mounts, ball screw mounts, central lubrication etc. I've posted most of that content in my thread over at Hobby Machinist ( link ) as it's not really LinuxCNC related.

But here are a few photos of what I've been working on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most parts are done now, just the bearing block and ball nut mount for the Y-axis left. As I'm doing them in steel it takes a while to manually mill them.

It should also be mentioned that the Elitedesk G2 Mini has been working fine without any errors after I switched over to UEFI mode. I've had the servos connected to the control cabinet running some of the LinuxCNC g-code samples over and over as a stress test.


 

Unlogic wrote:

I've posted most of that content in my thread over at Hobby Machinist as it's not really LinuxCNC related.

And jealousy sets in ...
It is controlled (or gona be) by LinuxCNC, so we would like pictures.
I uploaded pictures and videos of an ordnance disposal tank i retrofitted (well, i did 2) and got over 600 views here
forum.linuxcnc.org/show-your-stuff/50574-retrofitting-a-tank

Okay here is a more detailed post of the progress I've made since finishing the electronics cabinet.

I intentionally did the mechanical stuff last as I knew it would force me to tear down the mill a few times in order to get measurements and test the new parts which in turn would prevent me from milling other stuff.

Two years ago I started collecting parts for a central lubrication system and the parts had been sitting in a box for almost two years. But now that I was about to pull the machine apart I figured it was time to install it.



I purchased a clone of SKF Lincoln metering device from Aliexpress and specified that I wanted 6 mm fittings.

I thought that meant M6 threads but instead the block arrived with 6mm crimp fittings using some type of ferrules I knew I'd never be able to find locally.

This meant I had one chance to tighten the connections before the ferrules would be wasted. I also needed to adapt the connections so I that could use the push in fittings for 4mm hose with M6 thread that I had already purchased.



 

 

As I have no lathe this meant lots of cranking on the rotary table but in the end I had 13 adapters made so that I could install the fittings and test the metering block.

 

First I thought the block was faulty as it seemed to be completely blocked but it turned out to just be full of partially dried grease which took a while to flush out with the way oil I'm using.

Next up I removed the few ball oilers that came with my machine using a small screw (the machine only had 4 of them for all axis combined).

 

I then made adapters that I could push into the holes where the ball oilers had been converting them to a M6 thread.

 

 




 

A continuation of the previous post.

 

 

 

 

 

With the central lubrication stuff prepared I decided to turn my attention to pulleys and belts.

I knew that I would need a reduction an all axes and I knew that there was different type of belts and pulleys to choose from. However this turned out to be a much deeper wormhole than I had anticipated with all kinds of new "cool and superior" type of belts and pulleys listed here and there but with very varying availability. In the end I settled for something that I knew was gonna be around for the foreseeable future, high grade HTD 5M pulleys and polyamide belts from Norelem in Germany.

And as I still don't have a lathe I had to bring out the rotary table again in order to make the precise center holes in the pulleys matching the ball screws and servos. This took a while especially in the smaller steel pulleys where I had to be very careful to avoid too much mill deflection.

 

 

 

On the larger aluminum pulleys I added two threaded M8 holes in order to simplify the attachment of a puller in case I need to remove them from the ball screws.