CNC arrives.... :)

[Jim Becker]

Jim Love the pictures and explanation, it is so informative of how the process goes especially for us regular joes that don't have large crates and big machinery delivered all the time. Curious about the power, Does it not come with a power connector ready to plug into the wall? Is it just one 220v for whole machine or one for spindle separate? Thank you

Most 240v industrial machines do not come with "plugs". (None of my Minimax machines nor my Stubby lathe came with cords/plugs, either) The 240v requirements with the spindle is for a four wire circuit which is used to provide 240v to the spindle plus 120v to other components through one connection. Only the Stinger I in the Camaster line has a separate 240v connection that's just for a spindle if someone opts for that over the standard router body. Many folks actually hard wire these larger machines and use a cut-off switch in the circuit to kill power. I personally prefer to have a disconnect at the machine. The short pigtail means the machine can easily be moved without having to deal with a long cord.

[Jim Becker]

I'm not sure I understand the statement above; not in use? I don't get it.

I am not stopping other projects which require other tools and assembly, etc. The CNC adds to the mix for sure, but there will be some times when that big flat surface may be needed for non-CNC activities, as strange and repulsive as that might sound.

My plan is to try and successfully cut something today, but I'm not feeling well and may need to deal with that over all else.

[Keith Outten]

Jim,

I'm not sure I understand the problem you are having but you might check the Extents button on the menu bar of the software.

[Jim Becker]

Jim,

I'm not sure I understand the problem you are having but you might check the Extents button on the menu bar of the software.

The physical on/off switch is "touchy". If it's "on" and gets nudged slightly to the "more on" side of things, the power drops. I don't believe this is a software related thing based on the behavior. But I'll certainly look at what you suggest for sure!

[Ted Calver]

Hope you feel better soon, Jim. I'm looking forward to more pictures of that beauty. You know they make yellow zip ties, right?

[Brad Patturelli]

Most 240v industrial machines do not come with "plugs". (None of my Minimax machines nor my Stubby lathe came with cords/plugs, either) The 240v requirements with the spindle is for a four wire circuit which is used to provide 240v to the spindle plus 120v to other components through one connection. Only the Stinger I in the Camaster line has a separate 240v connection that's just for a spindle if someone opts for that over the standard router body. Many folks actually hard wire these larger machines and use a cut-off switch in the circuit to kill power. I personally prefer to have a disconnect at the machine. The short pigtail means the machine can easily be moved without having to deal with a long cord.

Thanks Jim I guess I don't know much about bigger machines, I assumed they were just like 110v machines but came with a different plug. Some other companies I talked to had separate connections for spindle and the rest of the machine, thanks for the informative answer.

[Mark Bolton]

Thanks Jim I guess I don't know much about bigger machines, I assumed they were just like 110v machines but came with a different plug. Some other companies I talked to had separate connections for spindle and the rest of the machine, thanks for the informative answer.

In our situation we have a 40amp 240V direct wire feed for the spindle, a 20 amp 240V direct wire feed for the machine, and then of course the 15A 120V circuit for the PC. The only thing with a plug on it is the PC and associated components. We opted to run a dedicated panel to that side of the shop and also equipped the entire panel with surge suppression and then wound up installing a buck and boost transformer to deal with an over voltage condition from our power utility. Everything hard wired.

When the thing is sitting there you begin to think of all the ways you can protect all that cash piled up in one spot lol. It really opened up an entirely other level of machinery power supply for us coming from the world of feeding conventional equipment. Im sure its no different when you wire up any other high end piece of equipment with electronics and all sorts of gee gaws.

Our power goes out here frequently (rural area) and can be quite nerve wracking

[David Falkner]

I am not stopping other projects which require other tools and assembly, etc. The CNC adds to the mix for sure, but there will be some times when that big flat surface may be needed for non-CNC activities, as strange and repulsive as that might sound.

My plan is to try and successfully cut something today, but I'm not feeling well and may need to deal with that over all else.

I'm the same way on the large flat surface and sometimes the CNC sits for 3-4 days without being used because it simply isn't needed for the current run of projects. Right now I'm spraying a short production run of 25 trophy bases so everything that was in the way of that is now sitting on the CNC. Yesterday the bases were on the CNC having 4 pockets and 4 holes cut into each base. Today the CNC is just a temporary storage surface. Ugh!

Hope you feel better soon!

David

[Jim Becker]

Sadly, I did not get into the shop today as I was entertaining medical professionals who ultimately determined I was "largely normal". (yea...right...just ask Professor Dr. SWMBO about that!) That entertainment will continue on Monday morning. That said, I'm now figuring out what I want to try and cut first after setting up a temporary spoil board. It surely will be fore the aforementioned Professor Dr. SWMBO since she's my boss and 55% owner of the business. LOL I'll be drawing a few things up tonight I suspect and will spend a little time tomorrow after food shopping in the morning trying to no break cutters.

Brad, every manufacturer is going to have their own uniqueness about how electrical things are handled. On the Camaster machines above the Stinger 1, there seems to be a preference for a single power feed for the whole machine including the spindle. (that may or may not be true with the really big ones that have major spindle arrangements...but I haven't explored that) Mark's machine, from a different vendor, did split the power into two feeds as he noted. When you get above a certain size, you may or may not be looking at three phase power, too.. But I do suspect it's going to be common for the non-desktop size machines to not come pre-terminated for electrical just like many industrial machines are handles as I mentioned in my previous response. Oh, and folks with vacuum systems have separate feeds for those systems. A few, like Black Box setups will run on single phase power, but larger vacuum systems definitely get into the three phase arena. The most important thing about this is "do not prewire" for a CNC until you actually buy a CNC and have the site prep instructions from the vendor. It could be costly if one doesn't anticipate accurately. Run generously sized conduit, etc., but hold off on wire and terminations until you absolutely know what the requirement will be.

[Mark Bolton]

The most important thing about this is "do not prewire" for a CNC until you actually buy a CNC and have the site prep instructions from the vendor. It could be costly if one doesn't anticipate accurately.

We were lucky and had nearly specific information with regards to what we needed at the machine location. I had everything in place which was why we were leveled and making moves in just a couple hours. Generally speaking even in a small machine install it never hurts to just run a large-ish sub panel (we opted to run a full 200amp service to the machine side of the shop) to the machine location. Your going to have all sorts of other ancillary loads in that area and will want to plug in all sorts of other stuff anyway. Having a nice oversized sub right beside the machine will never be a mistake. Wire is cheap.

[Jim Becker]

I only meant that it's important to understand the actual requirements of the machine being purchased before doing something like pre-wiring. In almost all cases, there will be some lead time between ordering and receiving. And it's all too easy to, um...decide on more machine at the last moment, which can change the specification. An example might be deciding to go with the next size up spindle relative to kW/HP that can in-turn bump you up another 10 amps or more. On my machine, the 1.7kW spindle I bought requires 30 amps. The next size up (3kW, I believe) requires 40 amps.

I absolutely agree with the premise of having a generous availability of power in any shop whenever possible. I have 200 amp service to my shop, myself. Given I'm a one-person hobby/small business operation, I'm not going to come close to that in simultaneous usage, but will get higher than ever with the CNC, PC, DC, HVAC, lighting, compressor kicking on periodically and potentially a vacuum system in the future going at the same time. I got lucky with the electrical for the CNC...it was a straight less than 10' shot down the wall horizontally for the conduit directly to the DC/Compressor closet where the panel is. No easier pull was ever seen!

[Keith Outten]

Jim, I misunderstood that the problem was the physical switch. I was thinking about a software switch but obviously that isn't the problem.

Concerning wiring all my machines use plugs so I can disconnect them when electrical storms are in my area. I would hate to lose my CNC or my Laser Engraver to a lightning strike. The only thing that will protect a machine from lightning is if it is totally disconnected.

One more piece of advice, don't connect your shop computer to the Internet EVER.

[Scott Buehler]

Congrats! Good looking machine

[Jim Becker]

One more piece of advice, don't connect your shop computer to the Internet EVER.

I do appreciate the reasons you recommend that. Because I am using my network to transfer files, I've already connected the machine, but auto-updates are turned off. I'm working with three/four different computers and all my drawing/design work is done on my Macs in my home office. I'm not a fan of USB sticks and prefer network transfer/storage. But I also lock things down pretty carefully just as I have had to do over the years because of the work I did with the Federal Government as a vendor.

[Mark Bolton]

So may be an entirely different thread but why never have your shop machine connected to the net? I know several local machine shops and large melamine shops that a running all their stuff through the cloud so their draftsman can work from anywhere and load files right to the shop floor? My control machine is connected as it kind of has to be because we do do some design work on the floor and some of the software has to be connected to work as well as to access common libraries of tool databases, cabinet component libraries, and so on.

Interesting topic. How do you transfer files to your machine computer? Wired lan? Wireless lan that has no internet? Surely not via thumb drive?