For the Intrepid Weekend Hobbyist

This website is currently under construction. Its purpose is to function as a forum for sharing technological ideas.

From the simplest of circuits to complex systems evolving much like a single celled organism to a complex life form, this website is about the physical sciences and engineering concepts used by the author. In bringing his ideas to fruition, he had saved a defense contractor millions in inspection oversights and engineering mistakes .and was responsible for the win of a multimillion dollar contract with the DOD  

The mill as we know it has been in existence since man started working with wood and metals. They are widely used in commercial and industrial Arenas for parts fabrication, creating signs, and many other uses. 

Over the past few decades, more and more weekend hobbyist are not only finding ways of bringing them into their homes but are finding many ways of developing their own machines. The concepts and mechanics of a typical mill are simple enough but when it comes to accuracy, repeatability, reliability and many other attributes of the mill,science plays more of a critical role in the engineering of a mill; no matter the intended simplicity of its design.

The mill, regardless of its simplicity or complexity, employs many laws of science; but this goes without saying and is true in much of what can be devised. The mechanics are designed and built to obey the laws of motion, momentum, force, pressure, Fourier's law of heat conduction, etc. 

The electronics must follow kerchief law for current, ohms law for voltage, resistance, power, etc. So you see, there is more science to these things than many realize and not just anyone can build a reliable machine; fewer have access to a well-equipped machine shop or have the knowledge to do so which begs the question; why do it 

There are already many machines commercially available.

Simply put; these machines are either too expensive, don't meet certain dimensional requirements, are too big, are too unstable, or generally not suitable.

When stepper motors became available, they were seen as a low-cost safe low-voltage means of controlling and driving these machines and hence the primary reason for their development. In the 70s, the use of stepper motors had become so popular that many hobbyists were building them into their own machines and they could do so without breaking their budget. More recently however, some of these weekenders we're getting more inventive by using other materials such as Woods, plastics, phenolics, etc. The use of these other materials were soon to be found troublesome when their creations made up of Poplar and Pine would scorch from the motors heat and their creations would fall apart.

Stepper motors inherently produce a lot of heat that can't be dissipated away from materials other than metal, unless the motor itself can be heat-sinked. This is usually unpractical due to the cost of the material needed for the purpose and there is the hardware that will carry some of that heat to the surface it is mounted to.

Although much will be discussed about the mechanics, recommended materials, assembly techniques and sources, focus will be on SAFETY and the electronics of

The RIG.

Before getting into the nuts and "volts" of things, it cannot be expressed enough the importance of following safety precautions.

• Wear goggles or safety glasses when cutting, drilling, soldering, or any activity that can lead to eye-injury.
• Unless you want to be known as STUMPY, wear short-sleeved shirts and comfortable un-baggy clothing while working with any machinery with exposed moving parts;.
• keep work area clean and uncluttered.
• Use lead-free solder when soldering and solder in well-ventilated area
• Don't have food or drinks in work area, especially when working with electricity
• Don't have unterminated or unconnected open-ended powerlines at any time; lest ye be called Sparky!

Just to mention a few

In the pages to follow, you will find some of the mechanics worked out on paper and much of the electronics tested in the authors working prototype machines. The mechanics of the prototype rig were precision cut for optimum accuracy and performance yielding an accuracy greater than 5/10000 of an inch. Although this kind of accuracy is uncommon to be found in the basement of a weekend warrior, it certainly isn't unheard of.

Although the mechanical parts were cut to tight specs, the electrical control of the rig plays an equally important role in allowing the machine to work with any degree of accuracy. This is the area where most of this website will be devoted to as it is one area where so many machines are flawed.

You can have the most accurate and tightest rig on the planet but if certain steps aren't done to maintain the overall accuracy of the machine while it is in use, the 5/10000 of an inch accuracy you might crow about can and will suffer greatly.

With that said, here is some useful information that you may benefit from...

CHEERS!