NexMill 15 -Part 4
More PC Stuff & a little "z"
If you've been following "theworkshop.ca" in general, it may come as a surprise that anything has been done on the NexMill-15, as I swore that all developement was halted due to Casting issues with patterns greater than 35" sq.
Well I have to confess that I have been poking at the mill with mild dis-interest, but did get some more basic stuff done.
This shot is of the gutted 486DX4/100 that is in perfect working order, but needed to have the video card re-seated.
Once I had the original system on the bench I thought I'd bump it up to a pentium MMX-200, that had been the mainstay in the shop for the last 4 years.
I didn't bother getting any pictures, but at the same time the original mill had a systems upgrade from a 486DX2/66 to a Pentium 150Mhz system. I wasn't able to shave so-much as a milli-second off of the cut time on the mill with the faster processor, in fact lost 2 full days of production, charting the various parameter changes within TurboCNC... TCNC is an Excellent product!!! The price has gone-up, but still a bargain!
This industrial type case will be used for the Gen-3 Mill that will start development, the day after the NexMill-15 is completed.
Both mills are running Legal copies of DOS 6.22 & Windows for Workgroups 3.11.
It was actually lots of fun loading an OS from Diskette, and recalling the days when MS-Office was a wrist-twisting 29 diskettes.
Check out the cool Retro-Keybrd, it has a PS/2 style connector with compressed foot print and integrated roller ball pointer. I found a stack at a PC liquidator in Ottawa (Trailing Edge Computers) & bought 3 @ $10 ea.
The Roller ball is too cool, and seemingly rare today as the glide point requires less maintenance... I think I'm going to start geeking-out... No, I've already started...
So the mill has been installed into it's rightful place along-side it's younger brother.
The drawer can now be used for tools, and the typical miscellanii that are required. I found an old cash drawer that goes back to the days when I worked for NCR... I think all the techs had stacks of these things in the garages.
So with a renewed interest in this project, I'm still optimistic that it'll be running by mid to late March.
The Z-Axis Prototype has been drilled, tapped and machined as required...
The rails exhibit parallelism within 0.001, and I'm well pleased. I recently acquired a digital caliper that claims to have a resolution of 0.0005".
Although it fit my budget (cheap) I have no illusions that it'll perform like an L.S. Starrett, but it certainly is a testament to the general accuracy of the original mill, as it cut the pattern being measured
This assembly is actually for the Small mill, but will be installed on this unit only long enough to make the patterns for it's own parts.
Since I have become so dependant on the mills, one will always be running while the other is undergoing service or upgrades (or so I hope)...
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