How many of you have built enclosures for your mills? I am wondering how much they hinder set ups and access to the mill. Each design I come up with winds up being very complex.

Rick

I don't find that mine hinders setup too much, but there have been a couple times I wished I had made it possible to open the sides for long parts.

A Enclosure is pretty much a necessity, especially if you are using Flood Coolant

To me the Problem was Figuring out the right door for my needs, I am constantly moving around hand Clamps (Hand Spring Clamps) for some of my setups..

I am using Flood Coolant and have a Sliding Door on mine, Slides right or left..

here is a pic ,I have since put the mill in the middle of the Enclosure and took off the little knob to allow Sliding in both directions.....works well for my needs as I only need to slide it open wide enough to get my hand in there to move clamps around as its running

Brian,

What type of "floor" did you end up putting in your enclosure for the coolant? We need info and pics

Rick,

When I built mine I thought the same way you are and in doing so, I built mine with a very wide door so that I had complete access to whatever I wanted to do. I'm now in the process of finally getting around to making my side access doors (on both sides) to be able to do longer work and most of all, take the X axis table off for maintenence.

You can see mine here in this forum but I don't have the side panels done just yet, pics of that later...:

http://taigownersclub.forumotion.net/pics-f13/show-your-enclosures-t57.htm

Dave....I just Water proofed the floor with Sealer...

I angled the floor toward the front and left to where I put my Drains......went the Quick and Easy Route

I just shot a video, not sure how good it is but people can get the idea anyway, Kinda tough to Run the machine, move clamps around and shoot video too....

I will have it up on here in a few

Here ya go.....Taking the 2nd pass on a Flamed side cover...

11ipm, .080 DOC, 10000 rpm, .125 ball endmill

Don't Laugh,I don't claim to be a Cameraman.......

Cool Brian, thanks for sharing-

Dave

Thanks Dave....

I have 2 Taig Mills now both with G540's Running Everyday and they never miss a Beat..

Sure glad I went with the 540's this go round.....I have not heard the Humm of missed steps yet

These are Great Little Machines...

I used 3/4 MDF, and just started cutting. I don't do flood yet, and if I do, I'll be applying caulk and sealer liberally. Until then, I'm free-machining wax and delrin.

Pics of the enclosure being built are on my site. It measured out to 48 inches wide by 30 inches deep by 32 inches tall. I should have made it two or three inches taller, just to accomodate a better handwheel on the z axis. I added an acrylic screen across the front, with a couple of hinges, and now 75% of the noise is contained in the enclosure.

http://www.johnbearross.com/prototyper.html

Best,
JBR

Very nice Work JB...

I dabbled with 3D for awhile and though its really Cool what can be Done, I just don't have the Time or Patience anymore to run the 1-3 Hour Programs.....

Thanks for Sharing....Very Nice

I just Looked again....34 Hours Wow.....You have some Patience my friend

Yeah, the 34 hours was a rookie mistake, but machine times are still pretty high when I'm doing finish passes. I've worked out better milling strategies, and use longer cutters from bitsbits.net, but it still takes the better part of a day to do a tank hull.

I've had to learn patience, trust me, and even now I have to resist the urge to stick my head in there and see how it's cutting.

I do tiny stuff, as you can see. My roughing passes in Delrin are at 10 ipm with a .125 end mill, and finish passes are with a .031 ball at 15 ipm. Needless to say, sometimes I just have to hit 'start' and go on with the rest of my day when a finish pass is being done.

Best,
JBR

Thanks for Sharing JB..

What Drivers you running on your Mill...?

Just the standard Xylotex 269 oz/in 4-motor setup. I had issues with binding and missing steps over 20 ipm, so I just go low and slow, now. God knows how slow I'm going to have to crawl when machining 360 brass or 6061 aluminum.

Best,
JBR

I had a xylotex a few years ago and had the same issues, Since i have gone to the Gecko G540 I have not missed a step yet....So Nice to have the confidence to run 30-40 ipm Rapids and to not hear That Dreaded Humm..

Some of my parts are 12 - 14 inches long so a Faster Rapid is Nice to have

Brian,

I'll have to sell a few prototypes, and upgrade my box with the revenue. Is the 540 plug and play, or do I need to solder? I'm not an EE type, thus the reason for the Xylotex box package and motors.

Best,
JBR

John,

The only soldering on the G540 is soldering the DE9 plug on your stepper extension cables. I just added a new page to my website last night: http://soigeneris.com/cncparts2.aspx . You can order the stepper extension cables with the ends already installed (the motors I sell have a 4-pin Molex connector on them). If you get the G540 from me I'll solder the DE9 on the other end too. The stepper motors, power supply and such is here: http://soigeneris.com/CNCParts.aspx .

In a few weeks I'll have a complete 4-axis drive box available as well.

BTW. I used a Xylotex 4 axis box on a project I built last year and it does work well. The G540 is MUCH, MUCH better though.

I've had both, the xylotex never gave me a problem. never missed a beat but would not reach the speeds the 540 runs. I have had what i believe to be a driver issue with the g540 (I am not 100% positive it is the driver yet) I need to be able to tear it out and do without the machine to be sure. I had no problems running the xylotex over a year (I gave the xylotex to my grandfather for his cnc project) The 540 i believe to have gotten a bad driver from the start (This could happen with anything you buy) I didnt really notice it until i did some 3d work. For the diference in performance I would say if money is tight go with a xylotex, If you got the extra money go with the gecko 540 you wont be sorry.

Jb.... I bought mine from Camtronics as a plug and play setup....Much cheaper to do it yourself if you can

Jeff offers a Nice Package deal also

I agree If you don't mind staying under 20IPM the Xylotex is fine,

Well, 20 ipm will have to do for now, but I appreciate the heads-up on the fact that there is something better waiting for me out there. I'd need a high-speed spindle to keep up with the higher feeds, but for now, 10K RPM and 15 ipm will have to do. As my needs increase, though, I will have to upgrade.

Best,
JBR

Thanks for the suggestions about the side access doors. I will include those...

Rick