Comments for Purple Crayon http://www.purple-crayon.com/blog Bringing fabrication to the home Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:29:05 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 Comment on The New PCBs Arrived Today! by joeboy http://www.purple-crayon.com/blog/?p=39&cpage=1#comment-76 joeboy Thu, 21 May 2009 05:15:09 +0000 http://www.purple-crayon.com/blog/?p=39#comment-76 Mike, Not sure what you mean by the "disconnect" warning. Sounds like something driver specific. We were using the EasyDrivers with custom software - driving them directly from the parallel port. I just posted an update to the original post - the short gist of which is it looks like our using unipolar stepper motors caused the problem. So - to my knowledge as long as you are using bipolar steppers you should be OK. Aaron Mike,

Not sure what you mean by the “disconnect” warning. Sounds like something driver specific. We were using the EasyDrivers with custom software – driving them directly from the parallel port. I just posted an update to the original post – the short gist of which is it looks like our using unipolar stepper motors caused the problem. So – to my knowledge as long as you are using bipolar steppers you should be OK.

Aaron

]]> Comment on Hand tapping station by joeboy http://www.purple-crayon.com/blog/?p=287&cpage=1#comment-37 joeboy Fri, 24 Apr 2009 23:44:14 +0000 http://www.purple-crayon.com/blog/?p=287#comment-37 Yeah, it is a lot of work. The time savings in adding the stepper to control the spindle of the larger knee mill comes in when we build the automatic tool changer. With an ATC multiple parts parts can be gang cut, drilled, and tapped without human intervention being required. During the tapping stage the stepper lets us turn the spindle synchronized with the downfeed advance - tapping without requiring a clutch attachment which generally has to be watched like a hawk while in use. So long run it is a huge time savings for our production machine - just sort of a pain in the short term. Yeah, it is a lot of work. The time savings in adding the stepper to control the spindle of the larger knee mill comes in when we build the automatic tool changer. With an ATC multiple parts parts can be gang cut, drilled, and tapped without human intervention being required. During the tapping stage the stepper lets us turn the spindle synchronized with the downfeed advance – tapping without requiring a clutch attachment which generally has to be watched like a hawk while in use. So long run it is a huge time savings for our production machine – just sort of a pain in the short term.

]]> Comment on Hand tapping station by scienkoptic http://www.purple-crayon.com/blog/?p=287&cpage=1#comment-36 scienkoptic Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:15:33 +0000 http://www.purple-crayon.com/blog/?p=287#comment-36 Ugh. That is too much work. I would certainly be looking for a timesaver. I have planned on upgrading my drillpress tapper, but the job I built it for is over and I don't need to do that volume any time soon. I'd probably go with an encoder and some stepper arrangement to get it done in the future. This would allow for faster tapping operations. I think. What you are describing sounds like a very labor intensive job. Ugh. That is too much work.

I would certainly be looking for a timesaver.

I have planned on upgrading my drillpress tapper, but the job I built it for is over and I don’t need to do that volume any time soon.

I’d probably go with an encoder and some stepper arrangement to get it done in the future. This would allow for faster tapping operations. I think.

What you are describing sounds like a very labor intensive job.

]]> Comment on Hand tapping station by jake http://www.purple-crayon.com/blog/?p=287&cpage=1#comment-35 jake Fri, 24 Apr 2009 03:44:10 +0000 http://www.purple-crayon.com/blog/?p=287#comment-35 wow....guys...when i get enough money together i can build my design i been waiting on for years...keep it up!! wow….guys…when i get enough money together i can build my design i been waiting on for years…keep it up!!

]]> Comment on Who is Purple Crayon? by joeboy http://www.purple-crayon.com/blog/?p=3&cpage=1#comment-34 joeboy Fri, 24 Apr 2009 01:01:35 +0000 http://www.purple-crayon.com/blog/?p=3#comment-34 Stephan, In anticipation for Beta testing the mill just underwent a lot of changes. Each axis was grown by a few inches and a bunch of little things identified in early testing were fixed. We are waiting to hear back on a vendor quote to make sure we can produce the new design before we post initial specs. Should be soon. We are committed to no vaporware – so we wont post specs from our SolidWorks models alone. Instead, we are going to wait until we have a mill running and can post specs measured off a running mill. Also all the pictures on the web site are of our current run of prototypes. We deliberately kept the number of shots of the new design to a minimum. Our plan is to post detailed photos of the new design with the specifications. Getting back to your question about specs, once we get some of the new version built there are also plans for destructive testing of a few mills testing rigidity, wear, glue strength, drop testing, and just generally trying to measure what it takes to break them. Up until now we have not had any real problems – but then we have been working with the units as prototypes and not doing things like intentionally dropping them on the floor. After destructive testing we plan on updating the specs again to reflect the results the tests, and add suggestions of worst-case usage. Stephan,

In anticipation for Beta testing the mill just underwent a lot of changes. Each axis was grown by a few inches and a bunch of little things identified in early testing were fixed. We are waiting to hear back on a vendor quote to make sure we can produce the new design before we post initial specs. Should be soon. We are committed to no vaporware – so we wont post specs from our SolidWorks models alone. Instead, we are going to wait until we have a mill running and can post specs measured off a running mill. Also all the pictures on the web site are of our current run of prototypes. We deliberately kept the number of shots of the new design to a minimum. Our plan is to post detailed photos of the new design with the specifications.

Getting back to your question about specs, once we get some of the new version built there are also plans for destructive testing of a few mills testing rigidity, wear, glue strength, drop testing, and just generally trying to measure what it takes to break them. Up until now we have not had any real problems – but then we have been working with the units as prototypes and not doing things like intentionally dropping them on the floor. After destructive testing we plan on updating the specs again to reflect the results the tests, and add suggestions of worst-case usage.

]]> Comment on Hand tapping station by joeboy http://www.purple-crayon.com/blog/?p=287&cpage=1#comment-33 joeboy Fri, 24 Apr 2009 00:29:12 +0000 http://www.purple-crayon.com/blog/?p=287#comment-33 Thanks for the tip. We bought a larger knee mill to CNC to make the Cassius mills. Adding a stepper motor to control the spindle of our production mill is already on our long, long, to do list. One of the features we are going to be prototyping is using an aluminum bed for the X axis with a tapped grid of mounting holes. With the production mill CNCed drilling the hole grid is easy enough but we are still trying to figure out the best way to tap all those holes. Glad to hear the technique is working for you I really don’t want to have either of our fallbacks in production – either a clutched tapping attachment, or worse yet hand tapping. Thanks for the tip. We bought a larger knee mill to CNC to make the Cassius mills. Adding a stepper motor to control the spindle of our production mill is already on our long, long, to do list.

One of the features we are going to be prototyping is using an aluminum bed for the X axis with a tapped grid of mounting holes. With the production mill CNCed drilling the hole grid is easy enough but we are still trying to figure out the best way to tap all those holes. Glad to hear the technique is working for you I really don’t want to have either of our fallbacks in production – either a clutched tapping attachment, or worse yet hand tapping.

]]> Comment on Who is Purple Crayon? by Stephan Buchholz http://www.purple-crayon.com/blog/?p=3&cpage=1#comment-32 Stephan Buchholz Thu, 23 Apr 2009 21:56:30 +0000 http://www.purple-crayon.com/blog/?p=3#comment-32 do you have any spec's for this yet? do you have any spec’s for this yet?

]]> Comment on Who is Purple Crayon? by Henry Ford Sr. http://www.purple-crayon.com/blog/?p=3&cpage=1#comment-31 Henry Ford Sr. Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:15:05 +0000 http://www.purple-crayon.com/blog/?p=3#comment-31 U guys f-in rock keep it up. newsletter????? or just e-mail me when ur ready to sell theses mills I'M READY! U guys f-in rock keep it up. newsletter????? or just e-mail me when ur
ready to sell theses mills I’M READY!

]]> Comment on Hand tapping station by scienkoptic http://www.purple-crayon.com/blog/?p=287&cpage=1#comment-30 scienkoptic Thu, 23 Apr 2009 14:41:29 +0000 http://www.purple-crayon.com/blog/?p=287#comment-30 also see arrowantennas.com and his SAMs also see arrowantennas.com and his SAMs

]]> Comment on Hand tapping station by scienkoptic http://www.purple-crayon.com/blog/?p=287&cpage=1#comment-29 scienkoptic Thu, 23 Apr 2009 14:38:14 +0000 http://www.purple-crayon.com/blog/?p=287#comment-29 I've got one of those. I also bought a cheap Harbor Freight drillpress and put a dc motor on it. With a basic stamp, a motor controller and some limit switches, I have a motor driven tapper that starts the tap once the spindle is lowered and reverses the tap once the tap gets to the bottom of the run. nice for many holes to be tapped. not very elegant code or implementation, but it works. I’ve got one of those.
I also bought a cheap Harbor Freight drillpress and put a dc motor on it.
With a basic stamp, a motor controller and some limit switches, I have a motor driven tapper that starts the tap once the spindle is lowered and reverses the tap once the tap gets to the bottom of the run.

nice for many holes to be tapped.

not very elegant code or implementation, but it works.

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