Upgraded Mega V Machine With a DW 618 Router.

[Bryan]

Hello ,

I am a new member and a Millright Mega V 35x35 owner

After ordering this machine and waiting 4 weeks to receive it.

It was a tough decision between buying the Power Router and the Mega V machine. The Mega V won since it had a 4th Axis and a larger foot print.

I decided to upgrade from the DW611 to the DW618 Router.

The main reasons are:

1. Lower RPM on the lowest speed setting with the 618
Also much easier on the cutting bits.

The 611 is 16,000 to 25,000 RPM.  the 618 is 8,000 to 16,000 RPM

2. Double the power and Torque

3. A much quieter Router motor even at full speed!

4. Lower spindle RPM means longer tool bit life too.

 This was not an easy task since this machine was not designed for the larger Router mount and space was tight!

I bought the beefy DW618 mounts for the Power Router from MillRight and designed the adapter plate from 1/4 Thk 6061 Aluminum Alloy.

In order to make this all work was far from easy.

Things wanted to occupy the same space everywhere.

Overall, I have to say this machines Aluminum extrusions on the X-Y Axis and the Alum T-plates are excellent, construction is robust throughout the machine and beefy where it needs to be!


The mount is almost finished just a few small tweaks to do.

I still have to finish making the portable aluminum alloy base for which This machine will rest, which is on 4" ball bearing castors two are locking.

And machine better more permanent adapter plate spacers, I also need to slightly raise the height to .025

or so taller from the base plate.

Right now they are 5/16 nuts and 1/4 SS washers for a height of .380 probably go to .400 to just enough to clear the limit switch screw heads, also mill a little larger holes to access the adjustment screws.



The adapter plate is attached with 4 1/4-20 grade 5 bolts

I drilled and tapped 1/4-20 threads into MillRight's base Z-Axis plate this is the best way to attach the adapter plate to the base plate.

Great care was taken to machine and attach this adapter plate to the base Z-Axis plate, even small positional errors are multiplied to the Router, mostly angular errors.

Since I already have a larger manual milling machine with a DRO readout, very good accuracy is achievable.

The key is a highly accurate setup is with your starting holes and a square adapter plate milled on all 4 sides.

I have yet to use my machine yet, once my base is done and Assy is complete, won't know how good all my efforts will turn out.

Time will tell the story, Hope it is a good one!

Bryan  "The Tweaker" 

[Bruce]

Thanks for the detailed post. 👍

[Bryan]

Thanks,

Bruce,

My original intent was to redesign the entire original Z-Axis plate enlarging it to fit the much larger Power Router mounts. 

But it did not turn out that way, I scrapped two nice plates of 6060 Aluminum, partly because I did not take my time, I have too many half finished projects on my plate. No stress here!

Next time I will machine test runs in much less costly materials, tweak if needed.

So I changed directions and designed the adapter plate, I got it right on the first try. It was quite the challenge though.

But I crave these kinds of problems.

When I consulted my Assitant, she was a great help to me, her pic is my Avatar. She is only 3 yrs and 4 months old But quite intelligent. (Humor)

It will take some time getting used to having a CNC Machine to do complex work for myself, once I finally get my machine up and running.

Today, I realized that this adapter plate could now be made by my new machine. This could have been my first new project. Oops!

At one time we had 3 exotic parrots. 

I had to Re-home one an (African Grey) we had him 21 years (miss him very much) since his feather dust was causing severe issues with my wife's lungs she was very sick last year and is lucky to be alive this year. she is doing very well now. (This is the much condensed version).

On a sad note we lost our other Bird a Blue and Gold Macaw, this year due to an illness and due to Covid, she died young at only 40 years old.

She is buried in our back yard.

She is missed Greatly too! Wife still cries over her 😥

I will be making a head stone on my new CNC machine soon for her grave marker, I already have a design in my head.

This Forum has so much talent and knowledge I have picked up much from it already, having never spent so much time on such before.

And everybody is great to work with too.

Soon I will be asking software related questions to you all cause I will need some help in this area!

Thanks,

Bryan

[jpjavery]

Very nice job! I have been considering this also, as I actually have and extra 618 laying around the shop, and would like the lower RPM's. Keep us postde and give us an update after a couple of weeks with the set up!

[Bryan]

Thanks JpJavery!, I hope to have it running soon.

Check out my latest post on Mega V Screw threads issues.

Perhaps... I am Too strong armed when tighting some things???

Bryan

[jpjavery]

I just finished reading that post. I have actually had the some issues with screw heads stripping out, most notably the screw that tightens the clamp that holds the router to the Z-plate.

[Bryan]

Nov 2, 2020 15:56:26 GMT Bryan said:

Hello ,

I am a new member and a Millright Mega V 35x35 owner

After ordering this machine and waiting 4 weeks to receive it.

It was a tough decision between buying the Power Router and the Mega V machine. The Mega V won since it had a 4th Axis and a larger foot print.

I decided to upgrade from the DW611 to the DW618 Router.

The main reasons are:

1. Lower RPM on the lowest speed setting with the 618
Also much easier on the cutting bits.

The 611 is 16,000 to 25,000 RPM.  the 618 is 8,000 to 16,000 RPM

2. Double the power and Torque

3. A much quieter Router motor even at full speed!

4. Lower spindle RPM means longer tool bit life too.

 This was not an easy task since this machine was not designed for the larger Router mount and space was tight!

I bought the beefy DW618 mounts for the Power Router from MillRight and designed the adapter plate from 1/4 Thk 6061 Aluminum Alloy.

In order to make this all work was far from easy.

Things wanted to occupy the same space everywhere.

Overall, I have to say this machines Aluminum extrusions on the X-Y Axis and the Alum T-plates are excellent, construction is robust throughout the machine and beefy where it needs to be!

View AttachmentView AttachmentView AttachmentView Attachment
The mount is almost finished just a few small tweaks to do.

I still have to finish making the portable aluminum alloy base for which This machine will rest, which is on 4" ball bearing castors two are locking.

And machine better more permanent adapter plate spacers, I also need to slightly raise the height to .025

or so taller from the base plate.

Right now they are 5/16 nuts and 1/4 SS washers for a height of .380 probably go to .400 to just enough to clear the limit switch screw heads, also mill a little larger holes to access the adjustment screws.

View Attachment

The adapter plate is attached with 4 1/4-20 grade 5 bolts

I drilled and tapped 1/4-20 threads into MillRight's base Z-Axis plate this is the best way to attach the adapter plate to the base plate.

Great care was taken to machine and attach this adapter plate to the base Z-Axis plate, even small positional errors are multiplied to the Router, mostly angular errors.

Since I already have a larger manual milling machine with a DRO readout, very good accuracy is achievable.

The key is a highly accurate setup is with your starting holes and a square adapter plate milled on all 4 sides.

I have yet to use my machine yet, once my base is done and Assy is complete, won't know how good all my efforts will turn out.

Time will tell the story, Hope it is a good one!

Bryan  "The Tweaker" 

[Bryan]

Been a awhile since I have posted about the DW618 Router upgrade.

I am having some software issues and a steep learning curb learning Fusion 360 software.

I have not created any new files yet to fully test the machine and the Router upgrade yet.

Though, I have used Millrights test file that mills the Millright logo.
 
Even though the machine stops milling halfway thru the file giving me streaming and software errors.

The letters that it did mill were nice especially at the lower end of the speed range with no bog of speed whatsoever.

I used a 1/4 Ball mill our based from Mill Right
with good results. I used a piece of scrap plywood.

More later.

Bryan

[Bruce]

Have you tried a new USB cable?

[Bryan]

Hi Bruce,

Yes I have tried several USB cables problem still exists.

After talking with tech support they suggest the problem is when using some laptops that the USB ports are not properly grounded they are floating and they pick up electrical noise causing all kinds of file transfer errors and data corruption.

they also said using a powered USB Hub helps to eliminate this as well.

In the past I have seen similar issues like this before with other equipment, I just forgot this!

I have an old Dell desktop I will be connecting the control box soon.

Using the laptop was a temporary idea as I was planning to use my Dell desktop anyway.

Updates to follow later.

Bryan

[btreichel]

Bryan, I had occasional problems when carving and discovered that closing out the motion display (shows the bit moving on the pc) stopped the problem. I use an old win7 laptop, and I could see the the update rate on the screen was laging reality. When that happened, trouble could occur,

[asumasensei]

Nov 20, 2020 23:53:10 GMT Bryan said:

Been a awhile since I have posted about the DW618 Router upgrade.

I am having some software issues and a steep learning curb learning Fusion 360 software.

It has been touch and go with the time available to me to play with my CK v1. Each time (3) I have to relearn Fusion because it's honestly too much for me to retain before I have to get back to the other projects life has been throwing at me lol

Lars Christensen is an absolute god at explaining everything and I have to revisit his videos for a refresher each time.

The First Video