PM30 CNC conversion begins

Hopefully the bigger thumbnails are working better for people. If not, i can just throw them on here as attachments.

Slowly have been cleaning up this enclosure box. It's funny, every time i do something like this, i grossly underestimate the size of enclosure i need and the time it will take to wire it all up. But I'm just about done all all i need is one more encoder and motor cable pass throughs and it will be done until the motor upgrade.



I was hoping just some standard14/3 cable would suffice, but that motor controller is throwing out some crazy noise so i need to source get some shielded cable for it. Making a plasma table for a friend in the past, i knew exactly what it was so tracking down all the weirdness was pretty easy. the steppers do not have shielded cable as of now, but everything that carries a signal is choked in the enclosure and drain wires have already been routed. So if issues pop up with those, it should be a quick fix.

As i didn't have time to get any steel to make a stand yet, i figured i would start on the motor mount. Didn't spend too much time on modeling everything, just enough to get this and a spindle lock done. But just looking at it, it appears that the head extender will be moved up on the priority list if i ever want to add a pneumatic cylinder to this.



Roughly 1.85 from the center of the drawbar to closest point of the motor with it backed up almost touching the ways is not much to work with. This may be a long shot, but does anyone have a decent cad model or dimensions of the mounting holes for the head that I can have? i really don't feel like taking it off again to get them.


EDIT: for this guy on youtube who has done some pretty extensive mods on his PM30.

Battle Resistant Outfitters YouTube

On one of his videos he includes a 360 file for a head spacer which I had someone convert to a stl so I can open it in solidworks. this channel was a good find even though some of the upgrades like the 5hp motor is overkill I feel, but he does fully admit that.
 
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Wouldn't call that professional by any means. I wish i got a bigger enclosure so i could put everything on din rails and use wire raceway to hide it all...

Slowly I'm designing the enclosure. This is what i have in mind right now for the lower portion



Originally i was going to buy some 2,5 inch tubing, but then i went to go buy it. Holy crap has steel jumped up in the last year. So i have a bunch of 1.5" .120 wall tube already laying around. So that made my decision for me right there.



I still need to figure out what i want to do for doors on this, but i've got most of the structure for the base done. It may be another week or two before i get back at this, but slowly i will get there.
 
Looks like a cool, fun project!
I sure as hell had fun building a CNC 4-axis VMC out of my Grizzly Mini-Mill a few years ago.
 
Back from travel and work has calmed down, so I'm finally getting to this again. Due to the stupid high price of any materials right now, i scrapped the sheet metal pan and sides and went with an 8mm underlayment for everything. I much would of preferred to use thicker plywood, but a guy i new had a few extra sheets laying around so i got them for free, so i cant complain.

I painted the chip pan and then fiberglassed it. I also changed it up and added slope to it so it all drains out to one side just so I don't have any pooling under the mill. All the walls were painted in an oil based paint that poly coated which should be fine.



Still need to add the roof so i can place some led cans in there for extra lighting and place the last wall, but it has been a good weekend of progress so far.

Now this is where i need some help. I cant decide on a pump to use for flood. Just seeing what is out there, it looks like im going the high volume low pressure route. There is an 1/3 hp submersible pump in a friends shed that i can have. Looking at the specs, it says it can do 2500GPH and has a 25' head height. That will suffice i imagine, and if not, ill just upgrade it and keep that as a wash down pump on its own switch so i dont have to make any bypasses for it. Very open to pump options. I do prefer 220 as any real pump over 1/2 HP (7ish amps at 110) would draw to much power on my already tapped 15 amp lines. And risking tripping the breaker that the PC is on running the program is not a good option.


While i wish i can say this is my only project, like almost everyone else, i've got something else that also eats up my free time.



My current 3d printer is about 10 years old and on its last legs so instead of upgrading that or going with something generic like an ender, I've decided to start putting together a voron 2.4. Highly recommend this or a ratrig for someone who is looking to upgrade theirs for something a little different. The only thing is you have to enjoy the assembly and wiring process...
 
2500 GPH is about 41 GPM. Just for reference, I utilized a pump that provided about 4500GPM and a 10 or 15 lift capability for an outdoor water feature. That water feature was a river about 100ft long sloping down a hill. It was amazing to hear and watch the water run down that hill over those rocks, and I will say it was a LOT of water. I would think that your pump will be fine. If you consider that it will empty a 5 gallon can in 8 seconds, if my calculations are correct. Restricting it down to flow through nozzles may be more of an issue.
 
41 GPM is the other concern too. With the restrictions and 1/4 loc line, im thing maybe in the 20 GPM is what i will be seeing. That may be high, i just dont know how restrictive the system will be. But if it is in the 20 range, there is only a 1 inch drain and that would get close to maxing the drain rate with the very basic calculations i did.

What are everyone's thoughts to those a diaphragm style pump? Im not a pump expert by any means, but looking through them, it looks like some can do 1.9 GPM at 100 PSI. Im more looking for the chip clearing aspect and with a smaller orifice nozzle and this sounds a lot better than 20 GPM at 5PSI with a 1/4 nozzle. Best part is they run on dc so i can use a switching power supply and pull it off my 220 already going to the machine and not have to worry about my 110 amp load.

Very open to ideas from people who know more before i commit to plumbing this up. So feel free to show me the error in my thought process.
 
i think this is finally in the last stages here. Testing the pump, it drained a 5 gallon bucket way faster than i wanted it to. So i added 2 smaller nozzles to slow it up even more and now it is doing about 10 to 15 GPM which is manageable. Should of measured it, but i was too busy checking for leaks and trying to keep water off the machine.

For a tank, I've got some ammo cans and will be using them to contain the fluid. I am thinking that if i seal this up nice and tight, i can help control the evaporation and help keep the odors down as well. (dont mind the fiberglass hanging over that i never got around to trimming and just painted over...)



Im wondering what everyone's thoughts are to this.



Each ammo can has a volume on roughly 10 gallons, lets say 7 of them are useable with the pump and 8 without it. If I use 2 ammo cans and link them with tubing towards the bottom quarter, i can have one can trap all the chips that make it into there and have a single spot where any oil will settle. Then a second can with the pump in it that will essentially always be clean, or at least much cleaner. But that will mean i have 15 gallons worth of tank, plus almost another gallon in the tubing/filter. Seems a little over kill, but not sure. I've only had mist before so this is a new one to me. I'm going to start with 1 for now, but just a little thought i had.

Now this bothers me every time i see it.



How i managed to not make the manifolds level, and that the second elbow didn't go perpendicular just irk me.

Thats it for now. Shouldn't be too much longer for this to get completed so i can get onto the nice to have items such as the motor and bearing swap



Now don't forget to turn the lights off on your way out.
 
Pumps. Flood cooling. A Messy Subject!!!!! What does all of the cutting debris do to a diaphragm style pump as the coolant is recirculated? Do the small holes that these systems usually have also get plugged up?

I have two flooding pumps that came on my machines. The PM940M-CNC and the PM1440GT both have flooding pumps. Because of the mess I have yet to actually fill the PM1440GT, but I have put a lot of coolant through the 940 and it works ever with lots of debris. It works well. There really needs to be a strainer/filter in the system, but I have yet to figure out what I want to install and where. Anyway, the coolant is directed by one of those flexible plastic hoses and nozzles ("pop bead style"). The hose that came with the mill was large diameter (3/8 dia?), but more importantly it leaked a lot and at the same time had a flex plastic tube inside the pop beads... which was suppose to stop dripping at all of the flex joints, but did not. Someone (maybe me) had twisted the hose at some point and so it had multiple kinks which prevented flow no matter how much I worked with it and straightened it. I pitched it all out and bought a good 1/4" dia. pop-bead hose and parts by Loc-Line .... with smaller nozzles no plastic tube liner and which did not leak much. I think the final nozzle I am using is about 1/16 dia, but I may have cut a bit pff the end ... or drilled it out to make it a bit larger. Now the pump will shoot a stream clear across the mill table >20 inches! However, the nozzle does some times clog with debris from earlier cuts so the filter is needed.

The two pumps are constructed in a similar manner. A steel box reservoir with a lid to hold the liquid has a motor mounted to the top with a shaft doing down into the box to the very bottom. There there is a simple spinning blade style pump. The mill and stand collects the used coolant and it drains via a large plastic tube back to a port at the steel box. It works well.

Both of the pumps that came with my Mill vaguely looks a little like the one that PM sells as an accessory, but this plastic version is not the same. https://www.precisionmatthews.com/shop/coolsys/

My pump, without the tank, looks a little more like the following one, but my motor is just a normal motor. Not submersible. https://www.amazon.com/AMT-5380-95-...lling+coolant+pump&qid=1634158397&sr=8-7&th=1

The key in these pumps are that they sit very close but not in contact with the bottom of the reservoir. So you do not actually have to fill it up all the way, but more importantly much of the larger debris can settle to the bottom. I also think it is important that the pump its self is not too tight fitting internally so as to pass the debris.

By the way, I would not want a submersible pump. This is not like it is going into water. Coolant gets really foul after usage and cleaning the coolant out and off of the pump is very messy. My pump and reservoir is inside my Mill stand so getting it in and out is also messy as I have to tilt the steel box reservoir. It holds about 1.5 gallon.

I am thinking the filter should be something like on uses for the oil in a car.

Good luck.
 
Its funny, i have that exact coolant pump in my a list on amazon right now. I was looking for maybe a 1/4hp though just to get more pressure. Talking to some much more knowledgeable people, they steered my away from the diaphragm pump. And leaned me towards the style of pumps you mentioned as well. This pump was going to get thrown away, so i might as well use it up until it dies. Its made to handle larger solids, so it should last longer than i want until its time to use a proper pump i imagine?

As for filters, i've seen quite a few videos of people using whole house filters past the pump, and it is the DIY thing to do on the forums. So im giving it a try. A mesh filter should trap most of the bigger chips at the drain and the water filter, the smaller.

If its an epic failure, well at least it was a learning experience.
 
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