Author Topic: China CNC 6040 - Setup, Testing & Review  (Read 177736 times)

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Offline metalphreakTopic starter

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China CNC 6040 - Setup, Testing & Review
« on: January 30, 2012, 04:02:10 pm »
Some of this is copy/paste from my blog:

Jan 16th: Ordering
So I’ve just ordered myself a CNC machine from China. It’s a “6040" model (that’s 60cm by 40cm working area) from ebay seller “amonstar”. So far so good. I’ve received a tracking number and the seller was quick to respond to my question about the watercooled spindle motor (needed to know if it was an ER11 or ER16 collet. It’s ER11). Will keep this blog updated with my progress. ETA for arrival is 7-10 days as long as there are no customs delays.
Can’t wait to get it set up  Already have an old PC with a parallel port, 17? monitor and everything else.

Additional Notes: tracking number took 2-3days to update as a valid number with info. This is the item: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/300550896456 ~$1750 delivered

Jan 22nd: Delivery (not quite...)
According to DHL it has cleared customs and is ready for delivery (hopefully on monday!).

Update: DHL passed the package on to Australia Post for delivery... AusPost left a card saying I had to pick it up as it was a 53.5kg package and they would not deliver!

Jan 24rd: Pickup
Drove down to AusPost depot to collect it. It was all in one big box but fit fine into the back of Mum's Ford Territory :) Would never have fit it in my car.

Click for bigger pics:
          

For the last week I've been a bit sick, but I had time to setup an old IBM/Lenovo desktop PC with Windows XP / Ubuntu dual-boot. I've got Mach3 that came on a cd with the machine (probably not a legit license...) and EMC2 in linux to try. Spent the last couple of days clearing out the store room in our house. Put up some pine shelving to make room on the table :)

Assembly of the machine is pretty easy. The side rail that the cable chain sits on, as well as the moving gantry part are packed separately in the box. 5 bolts either side secure the gantry and the cable chain is secured via a screw to the side rail. It only took about 15mins to setup including the PC and wiring.

Current Setup:


And a quick video running some sample G-code that was on the cd:



Still need to hook up the VFD controller for the spindle, and work out some kind of water cooling system. There is an included 24v pump that can be connected to the main control box (there's a switch on the front panel to control it) but it looks pretty cheap/crappy. I think the idea is you just run it with a large bucket/container of water or coolant. I've got a spare 2x120mm radiator and some pumps from a PC cooling kit I'll probably use to make a closed loop system with a small reservoir (Swiftech MicroRes).

Will see if I can get my first cut going tomorrow as it was about 10pm when I shot that video.

Some specs of the machine are on that ebay listing. It's not immediately obvious from the wording, but it has a step resolution of 0.05mm which is ~2mil ?? Should be good enough for some PCB stuff. Has a milling movement area of about 60cm by 40cm but the table itself is a little bit bigger. The specs seem to have been copied and pasted from a similar machine or something. Mine came with 3A steppers not 2.5A, and the 1000-8000rpm is for the 200w spindle, not the 0.8kW VFD one which goes up to 24,000rpm

Any questions, just ask. I'll add more info/vids as I go and learn more (i'm a complete noob to CNC atm).
« Last Edit: January 30, 2012, 04:10:53 pm by metalphreak »
 

Offline wkb

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Re: China CNC 6040 - Setup, Testing & Review
« Reply #1 on: January 30, 2012, 04:23:54 pm »
NEAT!

A colleague of mine gave me a EMCO Compact 5 lathe/milling machine a couple of years back.  Used to be owned by his late father who was into building his own clocks.  A very nice present indeed.  No CNC though.  In the meantime I got a large XY table (from China) and moved the milling head from the lathe bed onto that XY table.  A massive steel rod of a hydraulic piston has been converted (on a much bigger lathe  8) ) into the vertical support for the milling head.

I'll never be a really proficient ME I think, but this kind of stuff is really useful also for the EE-gone-ME-hacker   :P
 

Offline metalphreakTopic starter

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Re: China CNC 6040 - Setup, Testing & Review
« Reply #2 on: January 31, 2012, 04:54:17 am »


First cut today. No water cooling on the spindle yet so only quick runs before it heats up at all. I put the cutting bits I used for each one above, except they're on the wrong sides   ::)

Offline Hypernova

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Re: China CNC 6040 - Setup, Testing & Review
« Reply #3 on: February 01, 2012, 02:37:57 am »
I like how the test pattern is just the chinese character for "carve"
 

Offline metalphreakTopic starter

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Re: China CNC 6040 - Setup, Testing & Review
« Reply #4 on: February 01, 2012, 05:45:38 am »
I like how the test pattern is just the chinese character for "carve"

Haha that's cool. I didn't know what it meant  :P It was just on the CD with the other software.

Offline GeoffS

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Re: China CNC 6040 - Setup, Testing & Review
« Reply #5 on: February 01, 2012, 10:20:21 am »
Glad to see you hd no problems with your 6040, I still have to get mine set up properly.
I bought it last year for about the same price as you paid, Mine came via courier, not AusPost, but as I wasn't home at the time, I had to go to the depot to collect. Fortunately it was in two boxes so I was able to lift it. A few months houssitting meant I couldn't get it set up.

Mine didn't ship with the USB sourced 5V cable for the parallel port interface on the controller which caused some problems. This was traced to the low voltage present on the PC parallel port. I ended up using a wall wart 5V supply to fix this.
Mine also had/had a dead controller board for the X axis. As there was no success getting a replacement from the seller, I've decided to use a different controller (Gecko G540) but a lack of workshop facilities has slowed progress to a crawl.

Hope to get it finished soon so I can get it off the kitchen table  :D
« Last Edit: February 01, 2012, 10:25:25 am by GeoffS »
 

Offline metalphreakTopic starter

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Re: China CNC 6040 - Setup, Testing & Review
« Reply #6 on: February 01, 2012, 10:26:43 am »
Just ordered some bits from http://www.mctinfo.net/

They sell these Diamond Cut multi-flute bits for routing PCBs (de-panelising, cutouts etc) http://mctinfo.net/router-bitscat_20.html

Also grabbed some microdrills (0.8mm 1mm 1.2mm 1/8") from them.

International Postage is capped at $7.95 flat rate which is excellent :)

I'm considering getting some stuff from CTC Tools like a set of ER11 Collets, but so far all the bits I've wanted to buy will fit the 1/8" collet that came with the machine.

Trying out CAMBAM tonight to cut out a rear panel for my PID Temp Controller project.


GeoffS: that sucks man. Which seller did you buy from? They all seem to just resell random gear so I don't believe any of them specialize in CNC stuff. The ICs on the breakout board all run from 5V, without it, they might still kind of function through voltage leakage from the parallel port I/O. There's a header on the board internally as well so you could wire in a mains supply 5V unit inside. Have you checked for any loose wiring on the motor control board? There's 6 jumpers on mine to set it at 3A, and some dip switches for microstepping (none of it labeled... so I haven't messed with it).

This place sells replacement boards: http://www.carving-cnc.com/cnc-accessories.html Apparently they're the official YooCNC distributor...

If you've already got the gecko stuff you should be set. I've not had any issues with my control box so I won't be replacing it just yet.
« Last Edit: February 01, 2012, 10:35:24 am by metalphreak »
 

Offline GeoffS

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Re: China CNC 6040 - Setup, Testing & Review
« Reply #7 on: February 01, 2012, 10:45:12 am »
Thumbs up for CTC, I've bought a fair bit of stuff from them, mostly endmills and inserts for a the lathe and mill.
I bought some ER11 collets from another eBay seller as CTC were out if stock at the time.

I've been on to carving-cnc but for a $17 board, they want $40 to ship it!  They won't use EMS for shipping despite it being slightly cheaper and a lot less hassle than DHL/Fedex.

Are you using Mach 3 to run it all? Try lazycam, it's pretty good.
 

Offline metalphreakTopic starter

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Re: China CNC 6040 - Setup, Testing & Review
« Reply #8 on: February 01, 2012, 10:51:55 am »
I'm using Mach3 at the moment because it was on the CD, and the instructions for setup were all for Mach3. I've managed to work out what the correct settings are for EMC2 but I keep getting errors in regards to the realtime engine it uses under linux. Might be my PC or the linux setup, but it seems to work fine anyway (not sure if there's any significance to the error then). My mission for the next week is to try all the CAM/Control software  ;D
« Last Edit: February 01, 2012, 10:56:41 am by metalphreak »
 

Offline GeoffS

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Re: China CNC 6040 - Setup, Testing & Review
« Reply #9 on: February 01, 2012, 10:59:31 am »
EMC works as long as you install it from scratch, Trying to make it work with an already installed Linux will fail.
Despite being a Linux tragic, I'll stick with Mach 3 as support is fantastic and there are lots of free addons,

Check out the Vectric software. Not cheap but well worth it.
 

Offline metalphreakTopic starter

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Re: China CNC 6040 - Setup, Testing & Review
« Reply #10 on: February 01, 2012, 11:17:35 am »
Yeah I installed it using the Linux CNC install CD. The PC i'm using only has an 80GB HDD in it which is fine. Installed XP on a 24gb partition first, then LinuxCNC on another 24gb partition, with the rest of the space FAT32 to share files between both OS. XP first, then Linux means you get a working grub boot menu :) (set to XP default, 30sec menu timeout)

I've attached the settings images I got with my CD in case anyone else needs them. I'll get a screenshot of my working EMC2 settings as well sometime.

It's 320 steps per MM. From what I can tell, they are 10mm ballscrews, 200steps/rev steppers (1.8degree), and 16microsteps on the controller. So thats 200x16= 3200 step per 10mm. This is all the info you need for EMC2. Make sure you change the step pulse to 10000ns (10uSec) otherwise you'll get crappy movement and missteps on the machine.
« Last Edit: February 01, 2012, 12:09:25 pm by metalphreak »
 

Offline GeoffS

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Re: China CNC 6040 - Setup, Testing & Review
« Reply #11 on: February 01, 2012, 11:34:26 am »
I didn't any documentation or software with mine so thanks.
FWIW, there's a good quick intro to setting up Mach 3 here.

 

Offline aluck

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Re: China CNC 6040 - Setup, Testing & Review
« Reply #12 on: February 01, 2012, 12:38:45 pm »
Guys, what are you going to use it for?
 

Offline ivan747

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Re: China CNC 6040 - Setup, Testing & Review
« Reply #13 on: February 02, 2012, 01:09:15 am »
Why does it use a parallel port? Is it just a standard format with a standard port, like gerbers?
A good way to use it on a newer computer is to get a parallel port PCI card. Cheap, generic PCI cards of any kind work OK, but you absolutely have to keep those drivers around because finding them online is like treasure hunting. These cards usually are either fully supported on Linux (and sometimes you still can't get some them to work perfectly) and some just don't. I've had fun trying to make some of them work together with some programs.
 

Offline GeoffS

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Re: China CNC 6040 - Setup, Testing & Review
« Reply #14 on: February 02, 2012, 04:06:55 am »
Why does it use a parallel port? Is it just a standard format with a standard port, like gerbers?
A good way to use it on a newer computer is to get a parallel port PCI card. Cheap, generic PCI cards of any kind work OK, but you absolutely have to keep those drivers around because finding them online is like treasure hunting. These cards usually are either fully supported on Linux (and sometimes you still can't get some them to work perfectly) and some just don't. I've had fun trying to make some of them work together with some programs.
The CNC controller requires step (pulse) and direction signals to each of the stepper drivers, these are supplied via the parallel port.
By format I assume you mean from the PC to the controller? There is none, just the timed pulses that are input to the stepper driver boards  to drive the motor. The software on the PC, Mach 3 in our case, uses G-Code as the input and it creates the necessary output signals via the parallel port. (G-Code is created via a CAM/CAD package).
Parallel ports are pretty rare these days, fortunately the CPU requirements for Mach 3 are not excessive so an older machine will work just fine. [My CNC PC is a Pentium 4]. Most addon PCI parallel port cards will work but there are some chipsets that causes problems. USB to parallel port converters definitely do not work.
 

Offline aluck

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Re: China CNC 6040 - Setup, Testing & Review
« Reply #15 on: February 02, 2012, 07:36:17 am »
USB to parallel port converters definitely do not work.
So all laptop owners are out of question...

Still, my question is - what is it useful for? My irrational part always wanted to get one of those CNC devices, but couldn't get approval from the rational one.
 

Offline metalphreakTopic starter

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Re: China CNC 6040 - Setup, Testing & Review
« Reply #16 on: February 02, 2012, 08:06:40 am »
So I was reading through my emails this morning and came across this one from Larry Hodson from Midwest Circuit Technology:

Quote
Thank you for placing an order with us today. We do appreciate your business.

I happened upon your post in EEVblog Electronics Community Forum. Since you have a new machine I will add a couple of end mills in with your order, you never know when they may come in handy.

Wow. Thanks Larry :) Definitely putting Midwest Circuit Technology on my preferred list of suppliers.


aluck: you can use it to make many different things. Precision cutting of MDF/Perspex/Aluminium panels, milling 3D objects (well 2.5D on a 3 axis machine), making PCBs through isolation milling, engraving signs, and so on.

Offline GeoffS

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Re: China CNC 6040 - Setup, Testing & Review
« Reply #17 on: February 02, 2012, 09:28:11 am »
USB to parallel port converters definitely do not work.
So all laptop owners are out of question...

Unless you've got a REALLY old laptop like mine (2003 vintage). Actually no laptop is suitable due to the power saving features that screw up the pulse timings. The PC I use is an IBM thinkcentre that cost me $60 at auction.

Quote
Still, my question is - what is it useful for? My irrational part always wanted to get one of those CNC devices, but couldn't get approval from the rational one.

I'll be using it for wood carving and, if it's up to it, aluminium cutting. I already have a lathe and a mill. The mill will get the CNC treatment one day. The trick is to buy one and then find a use to justify the expense  :D
 

Offline FreeThinker

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Re: China CNC 6040 - Setup, Testing & Review
« Reply #18 on: February 02, 2012, 12:27:33 pm »
+1 about desktop only parrallel port, spent many (un)happy hours trying to get mine to work on a laptop and failed. Ran 'out of the box' on a desktop. TIP. Reformat the hd and install a fresh copy of windows then install mach3. You will have far less problems if you do, windows runs all sorts of junk in the background and this can effect the port timings which is not good. If  you keep the desktop pc running only windows and mach3 you will be sweet. Shout out to the developers of Mach3, a masterpiece in software (and taming windows) ;D
Machines were mice and Men were lions once upon a time, but now that it's the opposite it's twice upon a time.
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Offline baljemmett

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Re: China CNC 6040 - Setup, Testing & Review
« Reply #19 on: February 02, 2012, 01:13:03 pm »
So all laptop owners are out of question...

Unless you've got a REALLY old laptop like mine (2003 vintage). Actually no laptop is suitable due to the power saving features that screw up the pulse timings.
One option for laptop owners might be to check whether there's a proper docking station available for their model -- not a USB-based 'port replicator'-type thing, but one of the docks that hooks up to the system bus (typically through a honking great multi-way connector).  The one I have for my few-year-old Dell Inspiron provides a parallel port on the back, which presents as a PCI device rather than USB; the other advantages are that you can configure different power saving for the docked system to alleviate the timing issue, and can leave the dock cabled in permanently just for tidiness.
 

Offline GeoffS

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Re: China CNC 6040 - Setup, Testing & Review
« Reply #20 on: February 02, 2012, 01:33:32 pm »
The real problems with laptops is not a lack of a parallel port, my IBM Thinkpad has one, but issues with the power saving features resident in a laptop that affect the timing of step/direction pulses.
 

Offline aluck

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Re: China CNC 6040 - Setup, Testing & Review
« Reply #21 on: February 02, 2012, 03:29:54 pm »
you can use it to make many different things. Precision cutting of MDF/Perspex/Aluminium panels, milling 3D objects (well 2.5D on a 3 axis machine), making PCBs through isolation milling, engraving signs, and so on.
Is it suitable for making really big aluminum jars? We need to make waterproof boxes for equipment. Usually it's a cylinder about 8-10 cm in diameter and about 10 cm high with threading on top of it. Then there is a top cover that screws into the cylinder, making it waterproof.

As we do not need large quantities of those jars (maybe we will need up to 20-30 in a month), we are going to make them out of aluminum.

Is CNC a good tool for that? Or should we use an ordinary lathe?
 

Offline robrenz

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Re: China CNC 6040 - Setup, Testing & Review
« Reply #22 on: February 02, 2012, 03:53:03 pm »
you can use it to make many different things. Precision cutting of MDF/Perspex/Aluminium panels, milling 3D objects (well 2.5D on a 3 axis machine), making PCBs through isolation milling, engraving signs, and so on.
Is it suitable for making really big aluminum jars? We need to make waterproof boxes for equipment. Usually it's a cylinder about 8-10 cm in diameter and about 10 cm high with threading on top of it. Then there is a top cover that screws into the cylinder, making it waterproof.

As we do not need large quantities of those jars (maybe we will need up to 20-30 in a month), we are going to make them out of aluminum.

Is CNC a good tool for that? Or should we use an ordinary lathe?

A CNC mill is not the ideal machine for a cylindrical object like that regardless of the size of the mill.  Yes it is doable but not economical and not doable on this size machine.  A full size CNC lathe is what you want but with all that said, you need to buy the container you described it will be immensely cheaper.

Offline metalphreakTopic starter

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Re: China CNC 6040 - Setup, Testing & Review
« Reply #23 on: February 10, 2012, 09:32:20 am »
Milling bits arrived from MCT  ;D



All in individually labelled cases which is great. They all have set rings fitted with the bit size labelled (apart from maybe two which have blank setrings) which is something you don't usually get buying from ebay/china.



2.5mm Diamond Cut "Chipbreaker" to be used for routing/depanelising PCBs (also have 1.0/1.2/1.5/2.0mm)



60deg "MIL 8-12 Universal" engraving bit which looks a lot better than the standard V cut bits.


Progress has been slow lately as I've not had much spare time to play with it. I've setup the watercooling system with the included pump. It's just a plastic container with the pump sitting on top, with the tubes feeding in through holes in the lid. It's just a temporary setup for now because that pump is loud and irritating. Sounds like one of those cheap 12v air compressors  :o Plenty powerful though as I found out when I pinched the tubing, which popped it off the pump fitting, causing a stream of coolant to reach across the room  ;D

Offline metalphreakTopic starter

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Re: China CNC 6040 - Setup, Testing & Review
« Reply #24 on: February 10, 2012, 03:45:33 pm »
Getting ready to mill a PCB :D



1.6mm depth cutout to fit this piece of copper clad board.



Nice snug fit - gently tap it into place with a mallet or a hammer. This stuff is nice and flat. Not sure where I got it from, probably either Jaycar or Altronics.


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