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Hi All
Spindle Design. Only a draft but 90% of the design work is completed.
BT30 ISO Machine taper quick change pull stud system (Air actuator cylinder not shown)
ISO 30 is the smallest of the commonly used machine tool spindles (HSK a newer system is becoming more popular but tooling is harder to get and more expensive)
Water cooled for higher speed operation (Very few commercial spindles have cooling) This is a Plus.
At least 12,000 RPM (With low cost commercial bearings) operation, other commercial spindles using 9009 size 45 x 75 x 15mm 15 DEG angular contact bearings 15,000 RPM using high accuracy bearings. The Rear bearing is a dual row tapered roller (Tapered bore also to set the clearance).
I have allowed for Grease lubrication only. pressurised oil mist lubrication could increase the speeds by maybe 30% but a lot of work to do and the oil mist has to be dealt with it is a health hazard. The water cooling makes Grease work at higher speeds It will be interesting what sort of temperature rise we get?
If same size steel race ceramic ball "Hybrid" bearings are substituted, over 20,000+ rpm should be possible. More expensive.
Spindle body can machined from heavy wall tube And a small amount of bar sliced for the ends or bar stock depending on what is available in a makers shop..
The lightweight steel spindle is wound with water cooling tube metal epoxied on first, it is then is cast into a steel reinforced mineral casting. Mineral castings have higher damping than cast Iron. The casting can be modified to attach to an individual makers requirements easily.
The spindle body can be machined in two parts To assist builders with smaller lathes.
Not shown is a turned between centres mandrel….. not fancy just a piece of scrap bar coated with automotive body filler then turned in one setting to locate the two steel body sections and keep their axis perfectly in line while they are being glued together, it will be discarded when the main casting has been poured around the spindle body.
Formwork for the casting can be made from available material MDF wrapped in polythene works well and it does not stick.
This is not an east job to make; a fair amount of lathe work and grinding if a machine is available, or hand Lapping, Slower but doable.
The spindle nose taper will be ground in position after the spindle is completed.
The drive system planned is a 3 KW 2800RPM motor with VFD I have only shown one pulley but two would be better Maybe 3.5:1 geared up and 3.5 to one gearing down.
allowing for a VFD motor combination that can work effectively between 25 Hz and 100 Hz should give a reasonable torque at the lower speeds and the higher speeds required for small end mills.
The readily available ER Manual hand tightened collet, Chinese high speed spindles loose power at lower speeds.
I already have a set of bearings and the epoxy I will have to hunt up some steel and the Belleville washers.
I will have to buy a length of pre hardened (machineable) steel bar for the spindle itself.
Its a pity I don't have a cylindrical grinder, that will keep me busy lapping it to size.
Its getting close to dirty hands time…..Always fun.
What do you think?
Regards
John
Edited By John McNamara on 27/10/2014 12:37:00
Edited By John McNamara on 27/10/2014 12:49:43
..watercooled…
Yep..Mazak machines do that…also “wrap” the spindle motor round the spindle….
Very very agile.
….
Just don't have a watercooled machine in an unheated workshop, I know of someone who had a watercooled router spindle that cracked in cold weather over the weekend
Water cooled in unheated workshop….
Mmm guess thats why mazak used antifreeze. ….now if you want to talk about water freezing in the air mains…then yes it can be a pain
As does the coolant…now thats a real chore to thaw out….
Edited By jason udall on 27/10/2014 18:02:08
Hi All
The Spindle design is finished now I am starting work on building one.
Being the largest part I am starting on the body. Ideally made from a bar of steel about 120mm in diameter by 320mm long, something I do not have lying around the workshop. I did however have two chunks of steel that had been used as very heavy bench weights, they were covered in rust and had a handle welded on but they were big enough for the job including a join, so I set about grinding off the handles and then I skimmed them all round to see what sort of steel they might be? Once I skimmed them I knew they were not cast iron, the curly malleable chips proved that as did the shine of the surface. I was hoping the welds once skimmed off would leave soft metal, that was not the case the steel under the weld was very hard; the cooling weld had chilled the metal of the bar itself hardening it for a depth of maybe 5mm. That would indicate that the weights were some sort of carbon steel. They had come from a sheet metal works when it closed down, Maybe they were for making dies.
One benefit of the smaller pieces is that I can work on them more easily. drilling and boring a piece 330mm long would not be easy, a piece 150mm long is a lot easier to work on. I started out drilling a 14mm hole in the centre of the bar using the lathe, I happen to have a drill long enough so I drilled straight through, although it could be just as easily done from both ends even if it does not line up perfectly it does not matter it will be close enough. I then passed a 25mm drill through making the hole big enough for a small boring bar, that I used from both ends as it was not long enough. the hole was widened to about 45mm. Finally the hole was big enough for a big boring bar that can handle the overhang required to pass right through the work without chattering.
The setup in the 4 jaw chuck is not ideal with a large overhang for such a large piece I kept speeds down and the cuts light to reduce the chance of the work moving in the chuck. Before the finishing cuts were taken I re-trued the bar in the 4 jaw chuck very carefully (both) near the chuck and at the overhanging end to make sure the work piece was running perfectly true.
The final step were to bore the 100mm deep x 75mm diameter recess for the stack of 4 angular contact bearings that will support the work end of the spindle. I made the fit a firm push fit rather than a press fit to make adjusting and servicing the spindle. Once the pocket was complete the outer edge and face of the spindle body was turned assuring it was concentric with the bore and that the face was perfectly square the same the bearings also press against a 5mm step at the bottom of the bored hole, this was also finished turned in the same setting.In this design there is no threaded nose piece to preload the bearings instead an end cap is bolted on the face using packers to set the preload. This will be done later.
If you study the photos you will notice there are sparks flying off the tool as I make the finishing cuts. The cuts were taken at 1200rpm (And this was on a 110mm diameter that's about 1360 surface feet per minute cutting tough carbon steel even the hard bits left by the welding were peeled away) As fast as my lathe will go using a three thou depth of cut and a feed of .002" and I got a very nice finish…. Using a ceramic insert! My neighbour is an engineer and he gave me a holder and some tips. All I can say is wow! the metal just fell away as sparkles leaving a very nice finish. if you get the opportunity to try a ceramic insert you will be surprised. Don't try this with a carbide insert it will not survive. Ceramic inserts do not like interrupted cuts they will chip my friend warned. And they do like speed. below 600 RPM the finish was not as good. I think its to do with the heat, the metal appears to be wiped off I guess its physics at work.
Over the weekend I hope to prepare the other half of the body……
Images to follow.
Edited By John McNamara on 13/11/2014 13:51:50
BT 30 Spindle Front Half
Boring Pocket
Ceramic insert at 1200 RPM
4 75mm bearings will be used
Clamp is for vibration damping
Edited By John McNamara on 13/11/2014 14:03:45
Really cool job you did on the Epoxy/Granite tool grinder, and now the BT30 spindle.
I have aan old Deckel G1L pantomgraph frame for which I am making a new BT30 head. THe support arm is in progress and will be E/G. Look forward to your next update.
Regardsm
Mark
No coolant with the ceramic toolbit?? Amazing cutting and finish.
15000rpm sounds pretty fast. You will need to make sure the rotating parts are very well balanced, including the tooling – how do you plan to do that? The tool holders that are balanced for that sort of speed are pretty expensive. The speed suggests small cutters (in a large toolholder) and the relatively limited power (3kW) will limit the speed with bigger cutters.
I'm looking at the central pull shaft with its Belville washers and the words "whirling shafts" come to mind. There's very little defining the radial position of the thing at its middle and it's very long. Every shaft has a critical speed at which it will whip.
I made a similar ball and ramp quick release toolholder for my NMTB30 nose. Although there are many std pull studs out there, by the time you factor in the ball bearings and the closer, many of them are simply too big to fit in the space available so I ended up making my own (small) pull studs. You probably have more space than I did but even so it may be a challenge to find something that works.
BTW, there are insert grades that are designed for interrupted cuts. If you find you are suffering from damaged edges, it may be worth checking what grade you have and getting something better. You don't generally use coolant with inserts in our applications. The heat generated is key to the cutting effect so coolant would be counterproductive and can cause thermal shock effects. The exception would be parting off, where our machines lack the power and rigidity to run at "design" speeds.
Murray
I've never used a ceramic insert myself. They seem to be capable of "several orders of magnitude" reduction of machining time compared to carbide. I doubt any of us have machine tools in our sheds that are anywhere near capable of exploiting them but perhaps one day(!)….
Interesting intro article here.
Murray
Hi Muzzer
Yes it is fast and balance will be problem if vibration is an issue I will have to send the spindle out for professional balancing.
I have just finished machining the body parts and am almost finished the spindle rotor itself. The Bellville washers are supported by the pull stud and to resist whipping note the solid area in the middle of the washers I placed the support piece there to reduce the length of the slender pull stud, it is a sliding fit in the bore of the spindle and on the stud. If necessary I could use two dividing the shaft length into thirds, although I do not think that will be necessary.
I did not use the ceramic inserts for heavy cutting just finishing, the power requirements for finishing are smaller than you may think, at high speed the metal is so hot it is effectively wiped off. Coolant is not recommended due to heat stress on the tip.
Regards
John
Nice work! Your quick change system Muzzer…..
Why not give it a try John aka bogstandard2
Maybe you could cludge up a quick clamp to test if the material is suitable? Then If it works make a proper holder.
Dimond should work fine sharpening it. The inserts I have are just squares with 90 degree edges, without a chip breaker, to be used in a negative rake holder. I am still on my first square out of a small packet.
Strangely even if there is a small chip on the edge unlike carbide which will make a terrible mess the ceramic insert was still OK for finishing it kept on working.obviously not so good if turning up to a precise corner radius but Ok for turning down a shaft.
Regards
John
PS I am setting up a Website using Joomla, A bit of a learning curve but after a week of trial and error it is starting to take shape! If you are thinking of setting one up Joomla is worth looking into. Joomla is Open source supported software (Free) They claim about 3% of the sites in the net use it, that is quite a few million sites….
You can set up a basic site without using programming code. (it is menu driven) I have been following the (British) video tutorials (given by one of the founders) there are links on their site. There is also a link to siteground who offer quite inexpensive hosting plans. They offer a free 90 day fully functional demo website… Yes it is on the web so you can share the URL with your friends.
I have no personal connection to these organisations.
Regards
John
Are computer generated designs copyright?
Hi All
I know this post is not quite Model engineering, Although most of us at one time or another had an Idea they thought had merit and have wondered on the we may go about producing it. It does deal with new technology the subject of this thread. I also know that many of our members have worked or are still working in Industry and may have pondered on some of the questions I ask below.
As a class of 69 person, when I started off a design was put on paper and the "plans" were put in a safe place. Sure, others could copy a design by measurement and make a physical copy but the original was often better because of the difficulty of reverse engineering the design. More importantly reverse engineering is costly and very time intensive. The same applied to the music industry and records. You needed a record pressing plant to make records in the pre digital age. Anyway music is copyright material and protected somewhat, at least from commercial copying. Ahem the Internet there.
These days paper drawings are mostly used for a quick sketch and the final drawings are drawn and stored on a computer.
There are two main ways to store a drawing on a computer, as a bitmap which is simply an array of coloured dots (pixels) like on the screen you are viewing, or in vector form. All the manufacturers of Computer Aided Design software (CAD) use vectors to store the image. A vector is a line or arc in XYZ space between two or three points. Most often the definition is accurate to twenty or more decimal spaces, very accurately indeed. As well as the Vectors describing the image of the work there is a set of instructions telling the recipient reproducing machine how to interpret the information – CAD files are big because of this. This information stored on a file can replicate an article accurately with far better than millionth of an inch accuracy, and this information can be copied and stored on a 50c disk or sent anywhere via the internet in a few seconds. Possession of the software image allows the holder to insert the program in a CNC machine and reproduce it as many times as needed.
There are many third parties involved in the production of a work. Laser Cutting for instance is most often done by specialist contractors. You give them a file and they return the work often completed in a day or maybe two. For a 50c disk they can reproduce your work and sell it to all comers.
Laser cutting is unusual in that it actually does copy the drawing as a flat image cut out of a flat sheet. The same applies to water jet and plasma cutting, different technologies that achieve the same result.
Interestingly if you study the sculpture you see in public parks etc. many of the objects will have been almost certainly reproduced from laser or other cut sheet. Was the drawing covered by copyright or only the art object ?
Creating a design is a lengthy process, typically a small design will take several weeks, larger projects years. The ability to actually do it takes a lifetime – you never stop learning. There is a huge amount of effort embodied in creating a design. Is this a case where a clearly genuine creator has no intellectual property rights at all?
While I have focussed this discussion on cutting a true copy of an image on a flat sheet, there is also similar design work in 3D , (3D printing) and more broadly 3D machining with cutting tools. All of the methods share the same design efforts and all are subject to the same easy to copy scenario.
I think that the patent/copyright system has some catching up to do in this area. The information below sets out my expanded thoughts.
Background:
Recently I have been working on a machine that is mainly made from laser cut steel. maybe 90 % of the mass. It has been my primary objective to produce the machine as a flat pack that can be easily shipped and assembled. Or even better ship 10 % of the machine and locally produce the 90% with local laser cutting contractors. avoiding unnecessary shipping.
Thinking about this process raises several issues, in particular the intellectual property rights I have embodied in the design.
My research indicates It is generally agreed that the copyright right to works of art remains with the artist even after the work is sold (unless the right it is assigned to the purchaser). this covers paintings movies novels sculpture etc. But what of a set of CAD files hand drawn and created by me that represent the design in digital form? Just like a digital painting, a very popular art form these days…..
I have attached a link to a short paper that contains the following…
It covers 3D printing in the main but is worth reading
Continued………
Edited By John McNamara on 13/02/2015 14:12:37
Quote from above link: " Copyright automatically protects those works from the moment they are written down (or painted, or filmed – the technical term is “fixed in a tangible medium".
Copyright also protects an “original” work that is not unique in the world as long as the author as unaware of existing versions. In most cases, copyright protection lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years after her death. Finally, copyright infringement can be an expensive proposition. The law allows rights holders to assume – without the burden of actually proving harm – damages of up to $150,000 for wilful acts of infringement.8 All of this means that copyright is very easy to get, lasts a very long time, and is expensive to infringe upon.
In contrast, patent covers useful articles – things that do things. Essentially, patent covers the types of things that you would look to an engineer or scientist to produce: machines, technical systems, and compounds. Unlike copyrights, you need to apply for a patent before you can get any protection." End Quote:
OK my reading of this is the machine itself is not covered by copyright? But what of the CAD files and G Code that are used to produce it? Do I have copyright protection for those documents?
Are they not the print in the book that may not be reproduced?
Or the font in the book that is copyright. for example… You cannot get "Arial" from Google fonts because the design dating back to pre war is owned by the Monotype corporation. You have to pay a fee to use it. fair enough. (?Pre war the font was made from type metal it was a physical object that was protected by copyright.)
When you go to a public library you may not copy more than a small percentage of a work due to copyright.
Any movie digital or film is protected or any photo.
Or the riff at the start of a particular rock song; a recent case to Look up "Men at work" "down under" vs "Kookaburra sits in the old oak tree" and the old bird won.
I Would like to assert that the use (IE reproduction) of the design I have created would infringe on my rights under copyright law, and further that partial copying beyond a small portion of the work as with books also infringes. The laser cutter is simply my paint brush or pencil. once it starts to draw my unique brush/Pen/Laser strokes it has to be with my permission.
I would be very interested to hear of other members experiences in this area
My argument is that it is not possible to use the CAD file and G code to replicate the object without infringing.
Once you issue a cease and desist order claiming copyright protection, how does the person reproducing the design claim it is their work, if they cannot and clearly you can how does the infringer defend themselves?
OK they can change it slightly… Or can they? they cannot if it is a book a font or a piece of music etc as mentioned above.
So If I give the file to a laser cutter and order a run; does it mean that that person can then reproduce the item any time for anyone without my permission or is the design my property?
Lets look at the process. the drawing is loaded into the CNC system. for reproduction the same way a book is loaded into the typesetter pre printing. The cutter cut's the drawing into a sheet of material creating an image. When its finished the reproduced design is sitting on the bed of the cutting machine, faithfully reproducing my drawing in full, at that point a copy of my drawing exists. it is not a machine just a reproduction of the drawing. It might become a machine later… or a sculpture? that may occur later. however until something is done to it is a copy of my drawing. and that is not allowed under copyright.
Continued………
Edited By John McNamara on 13/02/2015 14:29:29
Continued from previous page…..
How could a copyist argue that the design reproduced in full is his property?
The output of a CAD program is indeed a piece of software, a unique set of instructions that replicate a unique image created by a person. even if the software is never used and sits on a disk it is the originators property, I am arguing that the originator owns it and no person has a right to have possession of it without permission. Without it no replicated image can be made at all
Just like a fingerprint it would be easy to prove that the image stored on media was generated by the unique set of instructions. thus proving the copyright work in this case a CAD file had been stolen. proving the copyright work in this case a CAD file had been originated by a particular creator.
The mathematical description of an image in a CAD file has many thousands to millions of variables. I am sure an expert mathematician would find little difficulty in proving uniqueness. The originator also will have contemporaneous notes sketches etc. to prove the he or she is the originator of the work.
The online Oxford Dictionary defines Software as….
"The programs and other operating information used by a computer:"
"Other operating information" covers a lot of ground
A CAD file is not a bitmap. It defines the lines and arcs mathematically object by object. it is a set of instructions. not an image file. I would really like to see this tested in court. (or maybe there is already precedent)?
I was rather hoping that more of our forum members has knowledge on this subject?
Here is another article worth reading – it deals with what is software….
Continued……..
Edited By John McNamara on 13/02/2015 14:42:00
Copyright v. Patent < Law < Software Pluralism
Some tests:
Has the CAD drawing at any time been owned by its creator?
Has the creator of the drawing at any time had copyright rights attached to the drawing?
I would like to emphasise 'any time'.
If the creator did have copyright rights at any time, at what exact time and in what circumstance were those rights extinguished if they are seen to be extinguishable ?
If it can be proved that without the drawing a copy of the drawing could not exist, how did the copy representing an original work come to exist? Was the original drawing used?
Was the image represented by the file copy lawfully obtained ? If not is the originator entitled to remedy ?
Possession of an illegal copy is an offence at all times more so if it is used for financial gain. Is that gain a proceed of crime, subject to confiscation of the copy and the weight of the criminal law system?
I am sure there are more…..
Under British law property rights date back to the Magna Carta in 1215 800 years old this year !
In the US there is also the US Constitution. Both these documents were written to protect citizens from the state, giving them unalienable rights.
I cannot comprehend how an image created on a computer does not have the same entitlement to protection from plagiarism as an image created with a pencil.
Regards
John McNamara
Edited By John McNamara on 13/02/2015 14:44:51
I think you've made a simple thing very complicated John!
I'm no expert but my thoughts are:
Copyright is in the original work, not in derivative work. You paint a picture, I photograph it. The picture is your copyright, the photo is mine. You own the copyright in the CAD file, not in the output others generate with it.
The pragmatic answer is that you need to licence the design files in the same way you would licence a piece of software, and should consult an expert as to how this can best be done.
Neil
(This is why promoters try to control photographers at exhibitions and stop people making bootleg recordings of live music).
Edited By Neil Wyatt on 13/02/2015 14:49:09
Hi Ian
I am not sure it is that simple I wish it was. I have spoken to a few people in industry on this and their views differ. What I have yet to find documented precedent. I have thrown the question up in here hoping to get a better grip on the subject from the wide experience of the forum members.
Artworks and Publishing Music too are clearly documented, New tech lasers 3D print files etc. are from what I have been able to learn so far in a grey area.
Yes it would be nice to hire an attorney, fine for big business, not so easy for a small project, several hundred dollars an hour is out of the question.
Regards
John
Edited By John McNamara on 13/02/2015 15:07:53
John
It would be normal to cover this as intellectual property (IP) rights in the contract between you and your contractor (the guy doing the cutting) or with anyone who works for you…. We write a cad system and sometimes create customer specials on top of the base system; the IP ownership is always explicitly declared in those contracts.
For a long time we, and other vendors, did not sell but only rented our software in France becuase selling required us to make all of the source code available under certain conditions….. Happily this anomally went away after the EU got it's teeth into it.
I suggest you include a clear statement of what terms you are allowing other parties to use your design for and what they are not allowed to do with it..
Mark
(Nightmare city) I personally don't know that much about copyright law other than what I've read, but there is another protection avenue (Design Registration) I have several designs registered with the patent office under there design registration department, funnily enough , (Most if not all are now lapsed) this basically covers the look of an item, and costs far less than a patent, it does not cover what it does.
I have also been involved in a couple of patents, I think part of the problem is the patent office its self, I honestly believe if I applied for a patent for the wheel and I worded it cleverly enough, I would get at least past the first hurdle, I have also read several patents recently that obviously infringe prior art, yet got granted, they are supposed to look for prior art! and if such exists you will not a get a patent, however this prior art thing is a very vague area, your product must also show innovation, another problem can be how long does a patent last, I think off hand its 20yrs but I might be wrong, I do know that drug companies register for a patent for new drug xxxx, however after registering their claim, they then hold back until someone tries to infringe said patent, before then pushing for the patent at this point they start legal proceedings, if they win any monies made by the infringer are seized.
My own experience of this was with a DIY tool that's now sold all over the place, quite simply we new we had a good idea, and lots of big retailers wanted it, our problem was we where a one product company, so the large retailers where reluctant to deal with us due to shelving and supply issues, so they sent us to a supplier/manufacturer, who made lots products for the Diy trade, they also loved our product, in fact so much so they made us an offer we simply could not refuse, this offer was for our tooling, intellectual property, and all existing products (50,000), and was financially an absolute joke, it didn't even cover our tooling costs, this offer also came with a warning, no ifs no buts, take it or we will take your product to our factory in China, and keep you in court until you run out of money, oh and use your product to fund the lawyers who we employ…………. this was in a face to face meeting, I still cant believe I didn't kill the bloke there and then……..
Edited By Involute Curve on 13/02/2015 15:52:49
we eventually settled after some threats, which didn't involve lawyers, but also included no ifs or buts, but we never got what we should have……….. B*******'s
So If I give the file to a laser cutter and order a run; does it mean that that person can then reproduce the item any time for anyone without my permission or is the design my property?
.
John,
I think this brief quotation from your post sums-up the whole problem.
By no means a full answer, but I hope it gives you some food for thought.
MichaelG.
Copyright is in the original work, not in derivative work. You paint a picture, I photograph it. The picture is your copyright, the photo is mine. Edited By Neil Wyatt on 13/02/2015 14:49:09
If I photograph my latest issue of ME can I flog the pictures then?
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