Everything is falling apart nicely

Everything is fine, just needing some improvements. The Bridgeport spindle is being sent off for a 9/16" through hole to be gun drilled 24".

Real men make their own collets! Sometimes out of wood using a cnc machine!

Variable speed drive

Tear it down and build it back

I have been terribly busy so here's whats been going on. New vacuum system.

 New toys! 6 core AMD computer by Asus. This will make CAD/CAM programing much easier. New tools.

 This will be the communications for the new mill. The old electronics cabinet is being reused, but all the old copper must GO!

Transformer bowling. Anyone need a 100lbs of transformer?

Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, oh my!

Alamo CNC is attacking social media like a turtle in a snail race. Check out Alamo CNC on Twitter, Facebook,  on Linkedin, and it's fancy new homepage found at www.AlamoCNC.com

C32 to C5 with a 203V and a VFD

This is how my day is going today.

It's like an electronics lego kit.

Shapes 'n things

Yesterday Pinto successfully ran his first cuts on the CNC router, and I was not there to keep an eye on him so it was pretty cool to see this when I got back from laying asphalt. 

Router upgraded again, hopefully the last

The linear guide bearings needed a minor adjustment, which again improved the performance of the machine by reducing error at the tool tip. I still need to find a way to clean the track in front of the bearings while they roll...

Also, everybody meet Daniel Pinto. He will be interning at Alamo CNC a few hours a week. His job will primarily be to maintain and operate the wood router while I run the CNC milling machine.

Fazio follow up

Very nice all acrylic sign. It will not fade for many years to come.

Fazio Floors 2

A fantastic looking 4' x 7' all acrylic sign. 

Some more detail on how it was made. I had to make two separate cutting operations because the lettering was longer than my machine!

A stepped edge was used to inlay the grey squares. 

Reminisce for a moment

Tonight I reunited with a Solidworks drawing I created all the way back in the spring semester of my freshman year at Texas A&M. It is a supreme plesure to see this drawing considering the multiple hard drive crashes I've had over the years. In August of 2004 I had a this part quoted for 1 unit to be made of aluminum (desktop size), and the cost was somewhere near $800. I have always dreamed of having this piece made, and the dream may soon be coming true...

Can anybody name the vehicle this design came from???

UPDATE: I kept digging and found the original files including this Photoworks rendering!

CNC mill coming in for landing!

It has been a great weekend! Weeeeeee

This 33 year old Bridgeport BOSS 5 CNC milling machine just found a new home after sitting idly for 10 years in Buda, TX. It is in excellent condition, but it's not currently 1978 so excellent is not going to "cut it" if you get my drift. Approximately 400ish pounds of perfectly good electronics (including a hole punch type tape  reader) will be removed and replaced with modern motor controllers and a desktop PC that's lying around somewhere. Existing pneumatic controls for both motor/spindle brake and power actuated variable speed spindle (belt type CVT) will be commanded by a new PC Breakout and board (BOB) on top of the existing relays. Possibly/definitely expecting to see a servo driven lathe chuck/rotary table combo which makes the 4th axis, and opening vast opportunity in machining capability. This is a fun challenge because the chuck rotation must range from 1 RPM to 2000ish RPM while retaining .001" rotational accuracy on the face of a 6" diameter part. The high RPM allows for lathe style cutting operations. I'm hoping the following sentence combined with the auto spindle brake will allow strong lathe cutting.  A custom PID controller must be set up using an angular "encoder" attached to the spindle shaft. This will finely control the position of the spindle and allow the cutting tool to stop on a dime, and then reverse with sufficient angular accuracy in order to tap holes automatically. Yeah that's going to be fun :-/

MEOW

First production run

I actually made 5 of these in one run, but two of them were just not as pretty... This is a test of a design, they will be 8" larger on the next run. 

This project was delivered today. Customer is very pleased!!!