[Noisebridge-discuss] getting that goddamned mill to work

Tue Sep 29 01:43:33 UTC 2009

Jesse,

Thanks for the note! We would welcome your expertise.

Come by tonight we will be poking at the MaxNC electronics. (I just set up a
wiki page: https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/MaxNCMill, also found some
pinouts we can check).

Cheers,

Jon

On Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 5:57 PM, Jesse Welz <welzart at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> I have never posted to this list before and a discussion of interest to me popped
> so I thought I'd post one. It is really coincidental that I was just going through
> the process of researching what is needed to get that mill going. I consider myself
> more of machinery hacker than computer hacker [although I am working on remedying that]
> and when I saw that others are looking to get that mill going too this will be perfect.
>
> Johnathon Moore was showing me around Noisebridge for the first time and I noticed
> the little mill and lathe right away as something I would love to mess around with even
> though the machines I used to run as a machinist where way bigger and scarier. Johnathon
> told me that a few people had messed with it to no avail and since moving into the new
> space and seeing it there, while also now
>  understanding the theory of DoAcracy present at
> noisebridge I thought I would start doing something. I was doing some research and wanted
> to put together a team or group or guild to work on things machinist related at noisebridge.
>
> > Waitaminit, I thought we was leet hakerz! Looking at the linuxcnc
> > setup, it's pretty straightforward to interface with a parallel port
> > if we can find the stepper and encoder signals.
> >
> > http://www.distinctperspectives.com/emc2installsetup/page4.html
> >
> > I've done that before on another project and it went pretty well:
> >
> > http://www.flickr.com/photos/headrotor/3549404637/in/photostream/
> >
> > If I have permission to poke at the mill controller boards I can take
> > a look
>  tonight.
> >
> > Someone want to find a PC with a serial port and install the linuxcnc
> > ubuntu image?
>
> I think that running EMC2 [the linuxcnc milling software] would be totally feasible. This
> is already being done by some including this guy <http://www.timeguy.com/cradek/cnc>. Like Jonathon Foote points out I think it
> really is just configuring it correctly with a the parallel port pins on the mill. If this is still
> not working there is also another less preferable option of running an app called Mach3 <http://www.machsupport.com/> which
> through some forum surfing I have seen some other peeps running this software on our exact mill
> and I believe there is even pre-configured modes for certain kinds of mills which include the
> Maxnc - 10. The issue with this software is it runs on windows and I have seen the general
> feelings about windows around noisebridge and think that an open source
>  Linux based software
> would be more conducive to noisebridge's mission.
>
> There is a box next to the mill, I did not check for a parallel port but could this
> machine be used? It seems that there is general interest and more than just me thinking about this
> mill.
>
> I noticed that during the move the enclosure around the controls for the small lathe got
> smashed and now the crux of the meager noisebridge machine shop machines are out of commission. I would
> like to re-build that enclosure out of aluminum so we can get that machine back up. Does anyone have
> any objection to me doing this? I am a skilled fabricator and will do fine job of it.
>
> I am also very interested in starting a noisebridge machinist guild which I think would be very useful
> at noisebridge. How many times have you been working on a project and needed a small plastic or metal
> part that just doesn't exist. Wouldn't it be cool to have prototyping
>  abilities for this kind of shit.
> I used to do that kind of work and would be thrilled to start doing it again but for fun this time. Plus,
> I have some of my own uses for small custom parts anyway. Does anyone else have machine shop experience
> and want to get involved or has no experienced but is very interested in the process of building stuff
> out of metal or plastic?
>
> Jesse
>
>
> On Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 2:26 PM, Ani Niow <v at oneletterwonder.com> wrote:
>
> >* In the shop we have a small blue CNC only mill that would be wonderful for
> *>* making custom circuit boards and machining small metal parts. No one has
> *>* been able to figure out how to run it however. A group of us tried getting
> *>* LinuxCNC (http://linuxcnc.org/) to connect to it but the trouble is it
> *>* doesn't support the controller used in the mill. Wish we had figured
>  that
> *>* out earlier before spending so much time on it. The only other option was
> *>* using a DOS based program that came on floppy disks. After hours of trying
> *>* to get FreeDOS to even install, people gave up.
> *>* Been doing some research on it and it seems that the official DOS software
> *>* has been replaced by a much improved Windows version with some neat
> *>* features. It's not free though and is not cheap either at $242 (
> *>* http://www.shop.maxnc.com/product.sc?productId=23&categoryId=8).
> *>*
> *>* As I see it there's three options on getting this running.
> *>*
> *>*
> *>*    - Fuck with the DOS version enough (which likely is hard to use with a
> *>*    horrid UI, not to mention it's fucking DOS) to get it working
> *>*
>     - Write a driver to support the controller inside the mill or replace
> *>*    the controller to make LinuxCNC work
> *>*    - Suck it up and buy the Windows software
> *>*
> *>* Given it's a $2,500 machine that was donated to us, $242 seems like small
> *>* change. I'm sure people have religious reasons for not running Windows and
> *>* by all means don't use the mill because of it or write a Linux driver for
> *>* it. Until that happens I would absolutely love to figure out how to use a
> *>* CNC mill.
> *>*
> *>* I'm willing to gather pledges and get the software, alternatively if anyone
> *>* knows where we can get it for free (maybe someone else with the same
> *>* machine) then please go for it. Do-ocracy and all.
> *>*
> *>* Until then, I'm pledging $20 to The Software For the Mill
>  Fund.
> *>*
> *>*
> *>* -Ani
> *>*
> *>*
> *>*
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> *>*
> *>*
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