PM-932 Conversion -- It's Alive!

[cjones6108]

So after more than two years of pondering, purchasing, piddling along, in between woodworking projects large and small, piddling pondering and purchasing some more, etc. etc., I finally today have declared the 932 conversion to be operational. I reattached the way covers and powered up the CNC controller, and danged if it doesn't work! Amazing!

Haven't tried actually milling anything yet, just fired up the software and verified that all the axis motions worked. Next will come some configuration and calibration, and study on G-code and such, about which I know nothing, but then, it was the same when I bought the milling machine ... and the lathe ... and the welder ...

Special thanks to JBolt for his collection of parts drawings -- as I predicted, those saved me at least a century of development time, and his insights to some of my questions along the way, and thanks also to several others here for their insights.

It's not finished of course, but with it somewhat operational, now I think the real education begins.

 

[markba633csi]

That looks great! What software are you using?
-Mark

 

[cjones6108]

Software is kind of an open question at this point. Inside the controller (the wooden box to the right) is a Raspberry Pi with the CNC hat card (from Protoneer). On the Linux image there are several things to feed it G-code. I'm currently trying to fool with bCNC, which is pretty good, if I could get it configured for my mill. I'm not getting it to cooperate yet -- All three axes go backwards from what I want, and while this is theoretically software-configurable, I'm not getting it to work.

For CAD, I've been using Fusion 360, though I've just read on another part of the forum that Autodesk is cancelling that one, so I think I'll have to learn something else. Bummer; I was just starting to get sort of confident with Fusion...

Any suggestions from anyone would be welcome; although as a philosophical position I tend to favor open-source applications over proprietary licensed stuff. Case in point: Fusion 360, wherein Autodesk gets to change the rules whenever they like . . .