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Help needed. Boxford VMC 190 Conversion
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Hi All,?
Warning///CLUELESS///Warning I own a Boxford VMC 190 which I would like to convert to Mach 3 or 4. I am a complete CNC novice so please be patient!! I have been a manual machinist for many years but completely new to CNC.? Could someone please point me In the right direction of a good instructional guide or blog post etc about building a CNC machine? Id like to use Mach 3/4 as this seems to be the software with the most info out there.? I'm getting my head wrapped around the basics, such as? motion controllers, breakout boards, drivers etc etc but I'm struggling to navigate the minefield and am at the bottom of the steep learning curve.? If anyone could offer any advice or links to a 'how to' guide that could help me convert my Mill that would be great.? I'm not sure which version of the software would be best for my needs. I'll be mostly doing fairly basic '2D' curved shapes from steel plate that are complex to do on my manual machines. I may use it for more complex 3D parts as my skills improve.? My extremely basic understanding so far is I need to source a control board that works with Mach 3/4, Stepper motors (if i decide to replace the old ones), drivers, breakout board and/or control board, power supplies and Mach software. I'm struggling to understand what components are necessary and what works with what. Some of the wiring diagrams I have seen show controllers while other show breakout boards. Am I right in thinking that the control board essentially takes over from the PC and sends the signals to the stepper Drivers? The mechanical side of the build is second nature to me but the electrical and software side is very confusing. I use Fusion 360 on a regular basis for design work so I'm focusing on the next steps of setting up the mill with the correct hardware and learning the Mach Software and would like to avoid making mistakes by purchasing the incorrect components.? Any guidance whatsoever on a starting point for a clueless cnc noob would be greatly received.? My budget is ?500 Many thanks in advance and all the best, Paul.? |
开云体育Paul,I converted my Shizoka mill to Cnc.? Take a look at this. Let me know if you have any questions. Chuck -sent from my iphone -- On Jul 14, 2022, at 9:02 AM, Wes Weston <luapnotsew@...> wrote:
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开云体育Impressive conversion! Let's see.? The OP stated ?500 In US $ that is about $592. One ESS is $199. One C62 Mult-function board is $176 One MACH license is $159 ? That leaves $52 for 3 stepper motors, drivers, power supply and quadrature encoder for the spindle to be able to power tap. ? Not quite sure fits his budget. ? Searching for the Boxford:? ? Listed at ?21,500 ? So somewhere between ?500 and less than ?21,500 should be the real budget. ? There are a few forum threads on converting this mill to CNC.? I'd suggest first look around to see what size motors are being used.? On the commercial unit mentioned above and the home conversions. ?Consider that a fixed price regardless of the control system and software. ? John ? From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Chuck Kahler
Sent: July-14-22 4:49 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [MachCNC] Help needed. Boxford VMC 190 Conversion ? Paul, I converted my Shizoka mill to Cnc.? ? Take a look at this. ? ? ? ? Let me know if you have any questions. Chuck ?
? ? On Jul 14, 2022, at 9:02 AM, Wes Weston <luapnotsew@...> wrote:
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You can get cheaper motion controllers than the Ethernet Smooth Stepper (ESS). Since there is no need for lathe style tapping the index detection and subsequent motion initiation that is required for this process (that you get with Smooth Steppers) can be avoided. This means a general purpose motion controller will work for a milling machine/gantry router. A USB driven one will work unless you have a particularly electrically noisy environment or need the controller to be a long way away from the computer. A spindle encoder will not be required if thread milling is used to create threads. I am not sure if Mach3 can be made to do power tapping.
One omission from the price list is a PC to run Mach3 (unless you already have a spare). I use cheap, used but refurbished, Win10 touchscreen laptops from Ebay. Just set them up to never sleep when external power is connected. Another point is that the licence for Mach3 may not be necessary if you can do what you want in a few lines of code, the licence is only required if you go over the limitation in the number of lines. If you can break the required code into small sections you can load it in pieces to do a larger total path. This means you can get going without the license then get the license later when/if you actually need it. I have some spare bits and pieces that may be of use to you to cut your costs and all I would ask is UK postage being paid. I have some spare stepper motors and, if I can find it, a spare motion controller board that I used on my lathe until I required the need to tap when I replaced it with a Smooth Stepper. Martin |
开云体育John,?I didn’t realize how small the Boxford VMC was, Thanks for posting the link. It’s obvious my conversion is in a different size ?class than the ?Boxford mill Plus I really didn’t pay attention to the budget restraint.? Chuck? -sent from my iphone -- On Jul 14, 2022, at 5:15 PM, John Dammeyer <johnd@...> wrote:
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Hi Chuck, Many thanks for the link, great site, will give it a proper read. Looks amazing what you have done. Yes, the Boxford is a very small machine indeed and in a significantly lower class of machine tool to the shixuoka. Boxford CNCs are a UK made mill designed for educational settings to teach kids, they are small and very low powered but ideal for my needs on occasional parts that are between 0.500” and 3” in length and width and generally no thicker than .250”. |
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Hi John, ?500 budget is flexible, can go over. I have a spare computer I can use so that does not need to be covered in the budget. If I can leave the original motors in place I will do so but need to figure out if they are compatible with the new hardware I have to install. A used Boxford VMC costs between ?500 and ?2000 due to the obsolete software/hardware and their proprietary systems. The company does not like dealing outside of educational establishments thus the ?21K price tag for a new machine. I paid under a grand for mine in near mint condition. I’ve been searching around for conversions of the Boxford online but coming up short. Most people in the UK convert the Denford mills as there is more info about them, and Denford are a more open company. I contacted Boxford for a quote on an upgrade and they came back with ?5K. Way over my budget.? Paul |
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Martin, I’m all for the simplest way to get to the desired result. I will not be tapping or thread milling on the cnc, ultimately I’m a manual machinist so will use the other tools at my disposal for that. I really want the Boxford cnc for a small number of specific tasks that are laborious to do manually. I have a PC, it’s a reasonably powerful Dell that I can dedicate to the software alone. I think ill go for the licence just to have the full functionality and should I decide to sell the mill, the conversion with the software on the laptop should increase the return on the investment. As to spare parts you may have, if its ok, when I know where I am with what I need, I will drop you a PM if that’s ok with you? |