Tools/Metalworking/Mill
Hacksburg's mill is a Jet JMD-15 Mill/Drill with a 1HP motor and R8 collet. It is a rebadged Rong Hu RH-30, and more information may be availible online for that model. A very basic overview of the mill and some safety information can be found in the Milling Class Slides.
The mill was converted to CNC by adding Kollmorgen NEMA34 stepper motors (Model CTP32NLF99KAAOO) to the X, Y, and Z axes using custom mounts. The motors are powered through DM860 micro-step motor controllers controlled by Grbl running on an Arduino Uno.
CNC Milling
Our CNC mill is controlled by Grbl. When your CAM software has an output option for Grbl, use it. Otherwise, Grbl understands LinuxCNC/MachineKit G-Code and you can use a setting for that. If you have neither option, you can use a generic setting. LinuxCNC/MachineKit try to obey standard G-Code.
User Interface
The mill uses bCNC for DRO, manual jogging, and g-code sender.
Manual Jogging
| Setting excessively high jog size can cause commands to be buffered and the machine to crash! Do NOT set jog step higher than 0.5 mm or 0.02 inches! |
|---|
Keyboard jogging works only when the Canvas or any non-editable field is selected. If you are in the text editor or in the command line, press <Esc> to select the Canvas.
| Key | Command |
|---|---|
| Right arrow | Pan +X |
| Left Arrow | Pan -X |
| Up Arrow | Pan +Y |
| Down Arrow | Pan -Y |
| PgUp | Pan +Z |
| PgDn | Pan -Z |
| + or = | Increase step by one unit (=current decade) |
| - or _ | Decrease step by one unit (=current decade) |
| 1 | Set as step the step1 (default 0.1) value from the configuration |
| 2 | Set as step the step2 (default 1) value from the configuration |
| 3 | Set as step the step3 (default 10) value from the configuration |
| * | Multiply step by x10 |
| / | Divide step by /10 |
There is also a pendant controller that can be used to send jog commands as well as G-code start and pause. To use the pendant, select the pendant icon from the toolbar on the Control tab (look for the hand icon).
Feeds and Speeds
- Aluminum
- 1/4" two-flute endmill, 1400 RPM, 4 IPM works well. Feed rate is limited by machine vibration.
