rcferguson
Full Member
Posts: 182
Machine: Carve King
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Post by rcferguson on Feb 23, 2019 21:39:43 GMT
I think this flight simulator stuff is really cool. Please keep us updated on your progress. Oh, absolutely. I'm learning a LOT from this forum, and hope to eventually contribute something useful myself!
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rcferguson
Full Member
Posts: 182
Machine: Carve King
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Post by rcferguson on Feb 26, 2019 15:48:23 GMT
OK, designed a mount to adapt the pneumatic cylinder to the injection machine, time to let the chips fly!
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Post by Bruce on Feb 26, 2019 16:56:12 GMT
Will this assist or replace the manual operation of the extruder? Impressive work. I'm guessing you have some machine building experience?
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rcferguson
Full Member
Posts: 182
Machine: Carve King
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Post by rcferguson on Feb 26, 2019 18:30:32 GMT
Will this assist or replace the manual operation of the extruder? Impressive work. I'm guessing you have some machine building experience? It will (hopefully) replace the manual operation. Nope, no experience. I am a total noob at this stuff, though I have always been a tinkerer. I have been working with 3D design for a few years since I got my Solidoodle, but this is my first foray into subtractive manufacturing. I did work in a machine shop for a couple years out of high school, but I was just a machine operator, just pushed buttons.
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Post by Derek the Admin on Feb 27, 2019 1:49:47 GMT
That’s really cool. I’ve always been drawn to injection molding myself. It’s great to see another maker making a product and taking it to market. I am really interested in watching the progress on this.
So the flight sim: are you building the controls so you can use them with some existing simulation program, or are you building that too?
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rcferguson
Full Member
Posts: 182
Machine: Carve King
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Post by rcferguson on Feb 27, 2019 2:40:13 GMT
That’s really cool. I’ve always been drawn to injection molding myself. It’s great to see another maker making a product and taking it to market. I am really interested in watching the progress on this. So the flight sim: are you building the controls so you can use them with some existing simulation program, or are you building that too? I'm no programmer, I'm building them for use in available sims. I personally like to fly IL2-Cliffs of Dover, but they will work fine for Battle of Stalingrad, War Thunder, Microsoft Flight Sim...basically anything that recognizes joystick inputs and allows you to assign/customize controls. Even race car sims or space sims that use the joystick. I've designed my USB controller so it shows up as a joystick with 8 analog controls and 36 digital controls. You can use my controller in your own custom designs, but the main reason I designed it was because I want to make a control panel that is reasonably priced, the only reasonable USB controller alternative that was out there was one made in the UK, and it cost close to $100 to buy and ship it over here. Mine is available on Amazon for DIY folks, but the main intent is to use it in my own control panel as a stand-alone controller. I'm busy finishing molds so I can start building these control panels and offering them for sale. |
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rcferguson
Full Member
Posts: 182
Machine: Carve King
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Post by rcferguson on Feb 27, 2019 18:35:29 GMT
Coming along nicely. I cut the vertical supports yesterday and they fit perfectly. After re-measuring some things I realized I need a little more clearance at the top where the cylinder sits, so adjusted a few parts, and will need to make a spacer as I don't have big enough stock to cut the top piece as on part.
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petek
Junior Member
Posts: 72
Machine: Power Route
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Post by petek on Feb 28, 2019 15:28:57 GMT
Very Cool rcferguson!! Keep up posting the progress on this injection molding. I never knew you could even buy DIY plastic injection machines!
1) Does the addition of hydraulics allow for larger plastic injection capacities? (>1.1 cu in)
2) Can you do Polycarbonate plastic injection with that? Teflon?
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rcferguson
Full Member
Posts: 182
Machine: Carve King
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Post by rcferguson on Feb 28, 2019 16:37:40 GMT
Very Cool rcferguson!! Keep up posting the progress on this injection molding. I never knew you could even buy DIY plastic injection machines! 1) Does the addition of hydraulics allow for larger plastic injection capacities? (>1.1 cu in) 2) Can you do Polycarbonate plastic injection with that? Teflon? I'm using this machine:
The barrel of the machine will only hold 1.1 Cubic inch of material... I suppose you could have a new custom barrel and plunger made (or make it yourself if you have the equipment), but I doubt you could increase it by much. Injection machine are spec'd in tons of pressure, I'm hanging my entire weight (220 lbs) at the end of a 30" pipe I put over the handle, and it takes 30 seconds to fill my biggest mold (about a 4-1/2" stroke), so I imagine the pressure needed would go up exponentially for a larger capacity. I don't even know if this pneumatic cylinder will be able to apply that much pressure, so this is just in the experimental phase. The cylinder I bought has an 8 inch stroke, so if it doesn't supply enough pressure, theoretically I could put a lever on the machine to use the full stroke of the cylinder to effectively (almost) double the pressure it can exert. Hoping to have something by the end the day to give it a try..
This from the FAQ on the website: "WHY ARE NYLON, POLYCARBONATE, PET AND PVC MATERIALS UNSUITABLE FOR THESE MACHINES?
⇨Polycarbonate and PET plastics typically require higher melting temperatures than 500 deg F. for injection.
⇨Due to the unique properties of Nylon, we have been UNABLE to get it to work in our machines.
⇨PVC plastic can emit TOXIC vapors when heated and PVC can corrode the steel parts of the machine. "
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rcferguson
Full Member
Posts: 182
Machine: Carve King
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Post by rcferguson on Feb 28, 2019 17:48:35 GMT
Had a bit of a setback starting yesterday afternoon. Could not for the life of me figure out why my tool kept plunging into my stock when I tried to bore a hole. Checked everything... dimensions, GCode, machine zero, etc. Was about at the pulling out my hair stage! Played with it some more this morning, finally decided to skip the bore and try the next operation, doing a contour of one side. Same result. Measured it and it looked like the tool was going about 4mm into my stock, when it should have been starting the first pass .2mm above it. Check my tool paths several more times, ran it, then noticed a "bump" noise when the head retracted in the Z before moving. AHA! I realized that my clearance height and retract heights were too high!. Because my vise is so high I had to move the router as high as it would go in the mount, and pull my tool out enough to cut the whole 1-1/2" height of my stock. There was only a few millimeters clearance between the end of the tool and the top of my stock when the machine was at HOME. The first thing it does when starting the run would be to retract to the clearance height, which was several millimeters above the home position. The Z axis was hitting the physical top limit, loosing steps, then driving down to what it thought was the starting height, which was now several millimeters below the top of my stock. Poor tool got some abuse, I had to pry off the chips a few times, but it seems to have survived. Damaged area of my stock is not a critical dimension, just for clearance, so no big deal, but I will definitely be paying closer attention to the clearance and retract heights in the future.
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viddall
New Member
Posts: 33
Location: Maryland
Machine: Power Route
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Post by viddall on Mar 4, 2019 20:07:04 GMT
What's the smallest cutter you're using for your mold making?
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rcferguson
Full Member
Posts: 182
Machine: Carve King
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Post by rcferguson on Mar 4, 2019 23:01:07 GMT
What's the smallest cutter you're using for your mold making? I use a 1mm flat end mill for some of the smallest stuff. So far I haven't needed anything smaller. The next smallest tool i use is a 2 degree taper with radiused end approx 2mm wide at the bottom. |
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rcferguson
Full Member
Posts: 182
Machine: Carve King
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Post by rcferguson on Mar 4, 2019 23:10:42 GMT
So, I finished the adapter today and went out to try it. Didn't get very far because I misunderstood how pneumatic valves work. I bought a "3-way" valve, thinking it had an input for pressurized air, an output to go to one side of my cylinder, and another output to go to the other side of my cylinder. I figured when the button was out, air would go to the bottom of my cylinder to retract the plunger, and when I pushed the button, air would flow to the top to push the plunger down. Wrong! Apparently I need a 5-way valve... one inlet, two outlets, and two exhaust ports. They really need to clarify this terminology! Anyway, got one on order from Amazon, it'll be here Thursday, and I'll give it a test.
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viddall
New Member
Posts: 33
Location: Maryland
Machine: Power Route
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Post by viddall on Mar 5, 2019 10:20:43 GMT
What's the smallest cutter you're using for your mold making? I use a 1mm flat end mill for some of the smallest stuff. So far I haven't needed anything smaller. The next smallest tool i use is a 2 degree taper with radiused end approx 2mm wide at the bottom. What feeds and speeds settings do you have your 1mm tool set up? I've had a bit of a hiccup setting up my feeds and speed for my 1.7mm tool. I've gone through a couple of end mills, and currently I'm cutting and feeding at the speed of a turtle. Thanks for sharing your progress. |
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rcferguson
Full Member
Posts: 182
Machine: Carve King
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Post by rcferguson on Mar 5, 2019 15:23:30 GMT
I use a 1mm flat end mill for some of the smallest stuff. So far I haven't needed anything smaller. The next smallest tool i use is a 2 degree taper with radiused end approx 2mm wide at the bottom. What feeds and speeds settings do you have your 1mm tool set up? I've had a bit of a hiccup setting up my feeds and speed for my 1.7mm tool. I've gone through a couple of end mills, and currently I'm cutting and feeding at the speed of a turtle. Thanks for sharing your progress. A turtle would be fast compared to this thing. Think snail! I cut the teeth of this gear at 200 mm/min, .1mm depth of cut, 16,000 RPM. Takes about three hours to do this operation. I bought a couple boxes of cheap 1mm end mills on Amazon ( www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073TXGGKX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) I've broken a few, once when I set the feed too high, and the rest when I had Z issues and it plunged too deep. But they are so cheap, and they cut just fine, so it is not a big deal.
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