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There are a few companies that don't ship to Canada. I can't remember is Mcmaster is one of them or if it is MSCDirect that doesn't.
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Sep 1, 2016 20:52
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If you don't get McMaster-Carr in Canadia, I weep for you.
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Sep 1, 2016 20:59
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I think McMaster used to ship to Canadian business accounts, but they've stopped shipping to Canada for new accounts entirely the last time I looked into it. There really isn't a good Canadian option/alternative for this sort of stuff 
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Sep 1, 2016 21:03
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I use mcmaster, last time was just a few weeks ago; stopped shipping to Canada is hosed up if true
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Sep 1, 2016 23:25
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Anyone know of a Canuck source for a fly cutter with a smaller-than-1/2" shank? that Cross Border Shipping Struggle means the price will more than double if I gotta buy from littlemachineshop or micromark
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Sep 2, 2016 14:40
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Got a lathe? 10 minute job.
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Sep 2, 2016 18:43
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Ambrose Burnside posted:Anyone know of a Canuck source for a fly cutter with a smaller-than-1/2" shank? that Cross Border Shipping Struggle means the price will more than double if I gotta buy from littlemachineshop or micromark They are in the states but prices are in Canadian and they ship fast. I've bought a lot of stuff there. $70 min order though. Also could try accusize tools or head to Atlas and grab the sherline fly cutter.
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Sep 2, 2016 19:40
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No lathe unfort. Sherline fly cutter from atlas is probably the ticket.
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Sep 3, 2016 00:08
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AliExpress is okay for small tooling.
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Sep 3, 2016 00:25
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Ambrose Burnside posted:Anyone know of a Canuck source for a fly cutter with a smaller-than-1/2" shank? that Cross Border Shipping Struggle means the price will more than double if I gotta buy from littlemachineshop or micromark https://www.amazon.ca/Grizzly-H7537-Round-Cutter-3-Piece/dp/B006SJEKNU/
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Sep 5, 2016 05:59
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Never even thought to check amazon.ca because it's typically so thoroughly useless for this kind of thing, huh. Thanks~ New problem- I'm futzing around with engraving but Mach3 isn't reading my gcode properly. Cambam displays the text to be engraved properly, online gcode simulators display it exactly as I intended, mach renders it as hundreds or thousands of extremely-oversized overlapping loops and spirals. It seems to be mangling the generated G02/03 arc commands but I don't understand them well enough to fix it. e: hmm, it handles imported images just fine, for whatever reason it chokes on Cambam-added text. If I write the text in Paint and import it and split the Z-layers to pull the outlines for engraving, it's fine; Cambam text, mach3 does something weird and distorts + stacks all the arcs over a single point. Ambrose Burnside fucked around with this message at 00:08 on Sep 7, 2016 |
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Sep 6, 2016 21:53
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Ambrose Burnside posted:Never even thought to check amazon.ca because it's typically so thoroughly useless for this kind of thing, huh. Yeah, the selection on amazon.ca has improved significantly in recent years; for some items it actually seems like they still warehouse in the US and have some sort of consolidated shipping over the border. Really looking forward to a future where a Prime membership becomes worthwhile. The machining selection is pretty ok, bolstered by a partial catalog of Grizzly stuff. Free shipping is what makes a lot of the items make sense though; I'm eyeing a granite surface plate for $70ish - that's something that would cost the same if not more in shipping alone anywhere else. -- I finally picked up my Taig from across the border today, and the thing is a lot smaller than I expected. Still waiting on the electronics to arrive before I can do anything with it since I ordered it without a motor :< The fact that the design hasn't changed much in like 20 years is a bit endearing to me - they're still using threaded rod (that they lap on a machine with the paired nut), a literal light switch, and a weird arrangement involving tubing for stepper couplers. Even the packaging feels like something from the 80's; small parts are carefully hand wrapped in old Uline catalogs, and placed inside a cardboard box that has a handwritten list of contents. Almost no plastic or styrofoam; the machine is bolted down onto a wood base inside the cardboard box and padded with newsprint. It's actually a bit mind boggling that they're still in business, even with cheaper chinese alternatives that have flooded the market. Feels less like an inability to keep up or innovate and more like a preference to do things the old fashioned/tried and true way.
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Sep 7, 2016 02:17
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I'm diehard a sherline fan. Those Taigs look like toys comparatively, but people love them. This weekend I wired all 4 axes on my CNC box and finally got the motors spinning through mach3. What a pain that was. Now I have to do the testing to make sure it goes the correct distance. Hopefully that isn't a horrible slog of googling issues. I really would like to get my lathe running soon, and the mill shortly after.
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Sep 7, 2016 03:04
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I mean Taigs do look cobbled together in the worst sense of the word (the finish of the thing would improve drastically if they simply didn't haphazardly hand file the corners), but this http://www.deepgroove1.com/tagsherline/sherlinetaigcomparison.htm pretty much convinced me that Taig is the more rigid machine. Obviously the guy is biased because he sells Taig, but still... Now that I've done more reading, I wonder how much stiffness/rigidity matters in these smaller machines though; since they take only smaller diameter endmills, it seems to me like the mill only needs to be stiff enough to not deflect before the endmills do? I understand that mass/vibration dampening is another factor to consider, but minimizing weight is actually the primary consideration for me. My choices were essentially narrowed down to the little machine shop X2 or the Taig. The X2 still looks like a much beefier/rigid machine to me, but I ended up going Taig because  and the easier CNC conversion.
rawrr fucked around with this message at 03:31 on Sep 7, 2016 |
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Sep 7, 2016 03:22
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You're not going to do any hogging on either of those mills, but I haven't had many problems with my Sherline mill. His analysis is a little creative. The plastic gib he talks about is a composite that never wears out. It is crazy firm. The ways are also hardened steel, and the base is all hardened aluminium, so it isn't all flappy like he suggests. The Taig seems to be considerably bigger as well. Either way, both seem to be the go to for mini tools, at least before the Little Machine Shop Asian ones started hitting. I love the big communities the machines have. Makes sorting out issues easier, and the people at Sherline respond when you ask dumb questions.
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Sep 7, 2016 03:52
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Yeah, I'm already thinking about a lathe purchase, and I'm leaning towards a Sherline, as Taig lathes look waay too DIY. I realize I'm probably the only one, but if anyone else is interested in Taigs, their (unofficial?) youtube channel shows you a lot of their factory machines/calibration jigs, and how they setup/adjust the machines to factory spec https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXRDWAvfv-OJpjRqWyXGCIQ
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Sep 7, 2016 04:10
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rawrr posted:Yeah, I'm already thinking about a lathe purchase, and I'm leaning towards a Sherline, as Taig lathes look waay too DIY. Don't do it. Don't get a micro lathe. You'll very quickly outgrow it. Even the 7x10 lathe (which I have one) is pretty rinkydink for actually cutting metal. I've jammed up my headstock a few times because it simply doesn't have the torque to have a proper go at some steels.
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Sep 7, 2016 06:49
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Yeah if you go, go at least one size up over the "mini" lathes. But keep an eye on craigslist too, sometimes pretty big lathes can pop up for about $1k-1.5k because of how hard they are to move. Don't even bother with a micro lathe.
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Sep 7, 2016 13:51
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Got my CNC box all wired up for 4 axes. Gonna try to get everything dialed in in Mach3 early next week. Was talking to someone else in my field, and he suggested I used ecam over fuaion360. Ecam is an Italian cad/cam that seems much simpler than fusion, and apparently does everything I need. It's €100 , so not terribly expensive. I got the demo but haven't had time to really explore yet.
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Sep 9, 2016 12:56
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Thanks for posting on the Ecam, I'll check that out. If nothing else it would be nice to not have to deal with Fusion 360's cloud requirements and desire to update regularly without letting you do jack poo poo in the meantime.
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Sep 9, 2016 15:02
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started my tool and die program. my taig is suddenly making me feel extremely inadequate
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Sep 9, 2016 15:53
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Ambrose Burnside posted:started my tool and die program. my taig is suddenly making me feel extremely inadequate Tool and die, where you suddenly look at custom sinker EDM electrodes and say 'yeah, we could probably use those'. That and the bountiful wonders of electropolishing mold faces so you get that mirror smooth piano black bezel for ShittyHDTV 573_B.
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Sep 10, 2016 01:05
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So Xmas came early courtesy of the DHL lady: Paid around $400 + $100 shipping for everything above. Notable is the FPGA based standalone 4 axis controller that's compatible with an MPG. It's kinda what inspired the build, since I've always felt that needing a separate PC and having to run Mach3 was a bit fussy. If this works, I should theoretically be able to just plug in a thumb drive to load g code. Wanted a cheap baby's first test indicator, but the cheapest one was a...MitutDyD. Everything else is relatively brandname though, Meanwell power supplies and leadshine DSP stepper drivers. 
rawrr fucked around with this message at 03:16 on Sep 10, 2016 |
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Sep 10, 2016 03:14
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The big thing about using the DTI is repeatability. Make sure that it hits the same number over and over and over again when you're indicating on a surface. As long as it reads consistently, barring any nonsense like you crashing the arm, then you should be good to go. Also the DTI holders can be a real bitch sometimes, so you may be better off just chucking the DTI itself into a collet or drill chuck.
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Sep 10, 2016 07:14
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What controller is that and where did you order everything?
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Sep 11, 2016 18:19
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Has anyone used a grbl shield to control stepper drivers? I think I've seen that it's possible and it would be nice to escape the built in driver's current limit of 2.5 amps for doing up my mini mill at some point.
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Sep 11, 2016 18:23
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My Rhythmic Crotch posted:What controller is that and where did you order everything? I ordered everything off Taobao (Chinese eBay) - they now offer a consolidated shipping service where you can have everything shipped to a local address, and they pack everything up into one box and send it to you. The service charges around $20 for the first kg, and $5 for every .5kg after that for shipping (no other additional handling fees). They ship to Canada through DHL, which only took about 4 days to my door. Shipping to the US is slightly cheaper. If anyone is looking to do the same I can do my best to help; you can pay for both shipping and products with a credit card. The controller is this one: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/New...2572296482.html except it's ~$130 shipped locally on Taobao. The MPG is an extra ~$40. The controller seems to work quite well so far; I haven't loaded any G code since not everything is hooked up yet, but I'm able to jog the thing with the handwheel. The HUGE downside is that the UI and button layout is completely unintuitive and the English translation is terrible, but my hope is that after everything is properly configured, actually setting up and running a part shouldn't be too painful (it even has an auto tool length offset feature). At least, not painful enough for me to want to opt for a Mach 3+smoothstepper setup instead. I got the steppers from automation technologies, and they seem to work pretty well with the stepper drivers at 48V; the steppers idle at around 35c and the drivers seem to stay at 30ish.
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Sep 11, 2016 19:17
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I got my entire CNC setup from automation technologies. Their kits made it so much less hassle for me to figure out what I needed.
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Sep 11, 2016 21:10
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Yeah I would've done the same, but I've heard lots of good things about digital stepper drivers and wanted to try them out, so their kits didn't make too much sense to me. I have the motion controls working now. The controller isn't actually that bad to use in practice (the UI is less bad than I thought), and seems to run gcode post processed for mach3 by fusion360 just fine (I don't have machine 0 set up and had no idea what G28 was, so that threw me off a bit a first). So if anyone is on the sidelines not wanting to get into CNC because of the fuss/costs of needing a separate PC to run it, this standalone controller could be a good option in terms of keeping all the controls neatly in a box. Instead of a spare PC + monitor + smoothstepper + mach3 license, you can look into a standalone controller for around the same price as the mach 3 license alone. Mikeselectricstuff did a review of a slightly cheaper unit (one without handwheel support), and he seemed to be pretty pleased with it too.
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Sep 14, 2016 19:46
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Heads up for anyone interested, Inventables is about to release a new version of the X-Carve so the current one is discounted. Also the $500 off sale for Carvey has been extended to the 30th.
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Sep 14, 2016 23:10
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Is anyone here a Mach3 wizard? I'm trying to do the steps per inch config. I use the auto calibrate feature to tell it to move 1 inch, but the motor only turns like .052" and then it sets the steps per inch crazy high so the motor overloads. Jogging, with steps per inch at 2000 works great, but it doesn't move accurate distances. Not sure if it is mach3 issue, or an issue with the settings on my motor controllers or what.
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Sep 16, 2016 13:07
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Brekelefuw posted:Is anyone here a Mach3 wizard? Does the same thing happen if you do manual G-code input like G0 X1 or G1 F10 X1? I can't think of a reason why that would happen with the auto calibrate alone.
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Sep 16, 2016 18:28
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What do you mean by 'doesn't move accurate distances'? If you're telling your axes to move a set distance (either by gcodes or jogging carefully) you should always be able to get a repeatable movement. If not, you've either got backlash or are losing steps on your motor. If backlash isn't the problem, try entering the motor tuning window and editing the values manually. Start by setting a low velocity setting to make sure you're not losing steps, say a few inches per minute. Find your correct steps per inch setting either by trial and error or by calculating. I'd recommend calculating it to get the exact value, provided you know the pitch of your leadscrew and the microstepping resolution if you've got one, see below. Once you've done that, ramp up the speed/acceleration to whatever levels won't cause you to lose steps. I just ramp up until my motors stall, then reduce the speed by ~30%. Note that many stepper motor drivers have adjustable microstepping resolution, typically set by means of dip switches on the motor driver. Microstepping should more or less always be used (helps reduce vibrations) but a too high value can give you low speeds because ,mach3 simply can't output pulses fast enough. If you change these settings on a motor driver you also have to update your steps per inch value.
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Sep 16, 2016 18:32
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Everything I know about Mach3 calibration literally comes from this one video, but you may find it helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOvGv9aRKFs If you're doing the same thing it seems to be asking for the measured error (theoretical - actual) rather than the full distance of movement.
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Sep 16, 2016 18:35
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Hah! that's the only This Old Tony video I haven't watched yet. I am trying to tune the motors. I did the calculation to find the steps per. I had it at 20tpi x 8 microsteps x 200 steps per rev = 32000 steps per inch, but that seemed crazy and my motors were not happy about it. I later removed the microstepping, and used just 4000 steps per inch so the motors didn't scream at me. The auto calibrate moved the axis .052 once, and about .592 the second time. If I used those numbers to calculate steps per rev, the number was crazy and the motors would get mad when jogged. I will mess around some more tonight or this weekend and see if I can figure something out. Also, I will take a video of the setup (and awesome tupperware cnc box) if needed. Brekelefuw fucked around with this message at 21:16 on Sep 16, 2016 |
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Sep 16, 2016 21:12
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If it's that far off maybe your steppers are missing a crazy number of steps (i.e. because your acceleration is set too high)? I fiddle with my machine casually and so far I'm noticing that I need to set acceleration (AND deceleration) super low to prevent skipped steps.
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Sep 17, 2016 01:44
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CrazyLittle posted:Don't do it. Don't get a micro lathe. You'll very quickly outgrow it. Even the 7x10 lathe (which I have one) is pretty rinkydink for actually cutting metal. I've jammed up my headstock a few times because it simply doesn't have the torque to have a proper go at some steels. They're watchmakers lathes. They don't do threading, and they are not intended to do more than shave off 5-10 thou at a time, regardless of material. If that's what you want and you're making a bunch of tiny parts, go for it. But yeah, I bought one and I regret not buying one that was more like this: http://littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=5100&category=1271799306
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Oct 23, 2016 00:38
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rotor posted:They're watchmakers lathes. They don't do threading, and they are not intended to do more than shave off 5-10 thou at a time, regardless of material. If that's what you want and you're making a bunch of tiny parts, go for it. But yeah, I bought one and I regret not buying one that was more like this: http://littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=5100&category=1271799306 the LMS 7x16 is just an extended 7x12, so if that's all you need just get the harborfreight one that's like 1/2 the price. If you're willing to pay the LMS prices you should get an 8x16 lathe instead http://www.grizzly.com/products/8-x-16-Variable-Speed-Lathe/G0768 This is bad. you've got me looking at bigger lathes now. I want that 10x22 variable-speed CrazyLittle fucked around with this message at 05:44 on Oct 23, 2016 |
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Oct 23, 2016 05:27
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CrazyLittle posted:This is bad. you've got me looking at bigger lathes now. I want that 10x22 variable-speed Same here. I'm impressed at the value of the G0765 which seems like it would make a good starter lathe but at the same time the Weiss WBL-250F adds a boatload of capacity and features for only another $1000. Nevermind the fact that I have nowhere to put these things.
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Oct 23, 2016 16:25
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Yeesh, benchtop lathes have gotten expensive. My harbor freight 8x12/14 lathe that I got for $360 is currently $1000 (without a coupon)
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Oct 23, 2016 20:25
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