February 17, 20232 yr Author Finally got a response from Taigtools. They should have it ready to ship by Tuesday (Feb 21). Cleared our more of my utility room. Moving the benchtop 3-wheeled Edison band saw in there with a metal cutting blade on it. Looking for a stand I can put my metal cutting miter saw on so it can live down there as well. Right now it sits on a bench that I'd like to have the space back from. 4D
February 18, 20232 yr Author Found an inexpensive miter saw stand at Amazon that should work for my metal cutting saw. Among the things I found in my utility room was a windshield I apparently ordered for the Suzuki Burgman 650 scooter I no longer have. Completely forgot I had ordered it but the original windshield was just a bit too short for my 6'1" frame and this was a taller option. I suspect I was intimated by how difficult it would have been to install when I got it and parked it in the utility/storage room. I mention it as I might see if I can use it as a "shield" between the PC workstation and the milling machine. A bracket I can use to mount it to the table is developing in my idea sketch book. 4D
February 18, 20232 yr Author Parallel port card showed up today. Got it installed in the PC. Found some fabric to cover the window in that room with. Looking for some snaps I know I have. I've got a thin wood strip to wrap the fabric around and want to snap it to the top of the window frame. Edison 3-wheeled bandsaw now has a metal cutting blade on it and has found a place to stand in the utility room. Seems like it runs quieter with the metal cutting blade on it than it did with the wood cutting blade on it. I should be able to cut mild steel with it. 4D
February 19, 20232 yr Author Fabric cut. Double sided tape applied to 1/4" thick plywood strip. 3 holes drilled for screws to hold snap heads on the strip. Fabric stuck to the tape, wrapped over the strip and over again to help hold the taped edge down. 3 snap heads screwed through fabric into the strip. Other side of the snaps screwed into top edge of the window frame. Fabric wrapped strip now snapped to the frame. Fabric hangs down to block the window. Will unsnap easily if I ever feel like crawling out that window. Next job is to move some shelves around to make room for the metal cutting miter saw and the stand coming for it. Thinking about finding a small shear/brake/roller. Not exactly sure why though. Nothing I need to make out of sheet metal.
February 20, 20232 yr Author Not so much a shop update, but a tale of tripping while going down memory lane. I've lived in this house since 2000. Much of what got left in the utility room turns out to be college sketchbooks, textbooks, portfolio, newspaper clippings, etc., that I've hauled from house to house to house. Much I can readily throw out such as old PCs and software boxes with programs that ran under DOS. Furniture I made but have no use for anymore. I've been knocking those things apart to salvage wood from them. Those things that are evidence of me are hard to let go of. Found a sketchbook progression I made of designs for a reclining lounge chair. The sketches date across 3 years. This design of mine never got built because I could never figure out how to mechanically overcome the gravity that made reclining back/down easy but made rising forward/up impossible without power assist. Despite 45 years of technological advancement I still haven't figure out anti-gravity. 4D
February 20, 20232 yr Author Got a tracking email from Taigtools today. No delivery date yet available, but forward motion non-the-less. Stand for my metal cutting compound miter saw should be here Friday. I also ordered some milling bits that should also arrive this week. Among the things found in my utility room is a chromed metal pipe with white plastic end caps something or the other. Was going to toss it out but realized it is raw material I can cut up and do test cuts on now. Edited February 20, 20232 yr by 4DThinker
February 22, 20232 yr Author Given that the mill is to arrive Friday, I figured it was time to put some finish on the table top. I've been using the table to sort out crap that was in the utility room, and when I cleared it off I notice the glue seam was a bit uneven in a few places. When I glued it up the bottom side was up and I made sure the boards were even then. Sure enough after taking it off the base the bottom was nice and even. I took the top out to my drum sander and after a few passes had the top flat. That uneven surface shows how uneven the butcherblock blank I started with was in reality. Shipped from China I guess I shouldn't be that surprised. Two coats of water based Minwax Polyacrylic, with a good sanding after the first coat on the bottom side. Just finished the second coat on the top side. I'll put one or two more on the top for good luck. Utility room now has room for the compound miter saw and the base I ordered for it. As that saw throws metal chips when used I want to rig up a deflection panel behind it to keep them from bouncing back off the bare concrete wall behind. Aim them down to the floor where I can quickly clean them up with my shop vac. In my garage shop I have a radial arm saw with a plastic box behind it I've attached a shop vac to. When the vac is on there is no blowback when that saw is used. I'd like to come up with the same result for the metal cutting miter saw. So far I've sketched out several strategies for connecting metal pipes and tubes with CNC cut details. Planning on visiting the fab lab I retired from to see if I can take some assorted metal cutoffs from them to experiment with. First thing I'll likely try making on the metal cutting mill is a good brass version of the push button depth stop collar. I have some brass bar left from my first two tries. The direct comparison of results between using my current CNC vs the new metal CNC mill should prove this investment was for a tool I can use to do many more things with and expect good results. 4D
March 13, 20232 yr Author The USB to parallel adapter to run the mill arrived today. Haven't plugged it in to test it yet but noticed it came from a different company than the one I ordered it from. The original company must have ordered it and had it shipped to me. 4D
March 14, 20232 yr Author Aggravation: Believing you have finally gotten to the point where you can run a new machine only to discover that the plugin (for the USB adapter) is defective and ignored when Mach3 loads up. Went through every suggestion in the user manual provided under "problem solving". Only thing I can think of is that when the plugin was being installed it looked for an internet connection which the PC wasn't hooked up to and was unable to check to see if it was the latest version or some such. Grrrrr. Edited March 14, 20232 yr by 4DThinker
March 14, 20232 yr Author Started from the beginning. Uninstalled mach3 and deleted every trace of it. Hooked up the internet to the PC. Went step by step through installing, adding licensing file and config files for the Mill. Ran the installer for the USB adapter using a fresh copy of it from the web. This time it took its time checking the web to get updated driver files before finishing up. Saw no error during the install process. Adapter has two LEDs one green and one blue. Green is on to show it has power. The blue should come on when mach3 is speaking through it to the mill controller. A double click on the Mach3 app gets me a sequence of damage driver messages which it then ignores before opening up. I turn on the mill controller, reset mach 3 and no blue light on the USB adapter. No communication through the adapter and parallel cable to the controller. I've had experience with parallel cables that have bad connection(s). Could be that. I can't plug the USB adapter directly into the controller as it isn't the right sex. Found a Mach3 user forum with mixed opinions about using the adapter with win10x64. Most claim they never could, with only a few claiming they can. Next step will be trying the Vista PC with the adapter to see if it'll work. That should prove my win10x64 PC is the where the problem lies. If I still can't get a blue light then either the adapter isn't fully functional or the cable is bad. Open to any other suggestion. 4D
March 14, 20232 yr Author I'll add that I do have a spare Probotix controller. Frankly I'd much rather use LinuxCNC with the mini-mill. I'll still need a PC I can install Linux on that has a parallel port on it which leads down the same rabbit hole. 4D
March 14, 20232 yr 11 minutes ago, 4DThinker said: Open to any other suggestion. Sorry, just now catching up. Just to be clear, the CNC was supposed to have a parallel port to connect to the PC but came with a USB female port?
March 14, 20232 yr Author The CNC has a parallel port. It is the PC that doesn't. The USB to parallel adapter is supposed to let me use a USB port to speak from Mach3 through USB to the parallel port on the controller. So far I haven't gotten it to work like it claims it can.
March 14, 20232 yr This doesn't look good- maybe you have seen it- http://www.mycncuk.com/threads/8446-running-mach-3-with-a-usb-to-parallel-adapter
March 14, 20232 yr Author 18 minutes ago, lew said: This doesn't look good- maybe you have seen it- http://www.mycncuk.com/threads/8446-running-mach-3-with-a-usb-to-parallel-adapter Hadn't seen that link but a quick glance tells me they have gone down the same rabbet hole.
March 14, 20232 yr Author Bought and tried a PCI parallel port already. No on-board parallel port drivers for win10x64 exist out there. Microsoft's effort to put parallel port support behind them.
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