Engine Run Stand Project...in progress

[TJS]

Here are a couple pics of my engine run stand project. This is my second one. The first one I made many years ago before cnc plasma cutting was all welded together and I could not disassemble it for storage. For the second one I used some plans that were online but I have changed that design around a little to my liking.
I cut out all mounting and castor plates. I also have motor mount brackets I need to cut out, but I had these factory GM ones laying around so I will use those first. I have to built a radiator upright, mount plates and a dash control board. Also have a battery box file I made. More pics.to come as I progress.

[adbuch]

That's a great looking setup TJ! I like the "figure 8" weld beads on that one mount. What kind of welder are you using? Thanks for sharing your project and I look forward to seeing some follow-up photos as you progress.

David

[TJS]

David,
I am using a Miller Dynasty 300DX machine. I did some tig weave.

[DieselFumes]

Very nice! Looks well built, rock solid, and YES those welds

[TJS]

Designed a control panel. Not cutting it out yet until I get the gauges, switches and indicator lights.

[adbuch]

[TJS]

Inkscape 1.2. I think what you are looking for is in View ==> show/Hide and there are check boxes with many choices for rulers, toolbox control bar and other preferences,

[adbuch]

Inkscape 1.2. I think what you are looking for is in View ==> show/Hide and there are check boxes with many choices for rulers, toolbox control bar and other preferences,

[adbuch]

TJ - I figured it out. View, Widescreen toggles the tool bar from the right side of the screen to the top of the screen. Thanks,

David

[TJS]

Sorry. Yes I have widescreen checked. I did this a while ago and sometimes I forgot how I got there.

[TJS]

Used the pen tool for the control panel. I have the hashed letters for the easyscriber on its own layer. I am trying to get a pause after that operation. I added a code snippet. It does not work yet. I need to pause after the easyscriber so I can change over to the torch. I am able to hit the pause button in commandcnc then stop.Then I can swap the torch home myZ. Then hit run from line which in this case is 3166 but that is too much human intervention. Here are a couple of pics.
Note: I am using rotory tool countour method for just the pen tool. When I do the acutal cut these will have an actual cut operation except the hash letters.

[djreiswig]

I think you might want M0 instead of M01, unless there is a switch telling it to pause.

[adbuch]

Yes - I agree with djreiswig. M1 is for pause with "Option Stop" selected, otherwise it will skip over an M1.
M0 is program stop. It will pause program regardless of option stop switch position. I use both of these regularly with my cnc mills and lathes.

David

[adbuch]

Designed a control panel. Not cutting it out yet until I get the gauges, switches and indicator lights.

runstandcontrol panel.jpg

Also - TJ - that is a great screen shot!! It's so much easier using Paint.net. Glad you got it figured out.

David

[acourtjester]

I have used the M01 stop, I am using UCCNC controller. This did exactly what it should have, Linux may not use the M01 code.
the attached Gcode is the a knob I cut with a center punch in the center a stop for increase of amps to cut the outside. It stops at line N0330 for the change on amp and hit cycle start to complete the cut of the outside.

2.75 knobAA.rar

(2.23 KiB) Downloaded 54 times

[adbuch]

I have used the M01 stop, I am using UCCNC controller. This did exactly what it should have, Linux may not use the M01 code.
the attached Gcode is the a knob I cut with a center punch in the center a stop for increase of amps to cut the outside.
2.75 knobAA.rar
DSCN0398.JPG

Tom - I am not familiar with the UCCNC controller, but perhaps it uses these commands differently. Thanks for showing your work! Those are some great looking knobs.

David

[acourtjester]

It had been talked about here before some software packages work with different codes. I use G31 for the probe action and LinuxCNC uses a G38 for its probe action. I have also used it with Mach 3

[TJS]

Reporting back. The M0 worked. Well as what I expected anyway. It put it in "pause" and commandCNC was waiting to "resume" as the "resume" button was highlighted. This still does not allow me to perform any manual interface such as bring the Z up and put the consumables on and then do a Home Z and Zero out the Z for plasma cutting. I have to hit the "STOP" button in CommandCNC. Then this allows me to swap the consumables, Home Z, un-disable torch, turn on my Hypertherm 85 and such. Then I can go to the line right after the M0 and press "run from line". This will work fine. Thanks for all the help. I will continue to post here of my progression.
T.J.

[djreiswig]

You could probably put all of the moves in your gcode so you can just swap the consumables and hit resume.

[adbuch]

I'm not that sophisticated, so I would probably just use two separate programs and zero them to the same location on the table. I used to do something similar where I had 2 of the Plasmacam 4x4 tables with the torch on one of them and the engraver attachment installed onto the other on. I did the engraving first, then moved the piece to the other table to do the cutting. I wasn't using the second table that much, so I sold it last year and now I miss it. So now I will need to physically swap out the torch for the engraver ( and visa versa) the next time I have a project requiring both processes.

David

[djreiswig]

Or mount the engraver on a slide next to the torch and program offsets into the gcode. I try and make things as automated as possible. Let the electronics do the work.

[adbuch]

Or mount the engraver on a slide next to the torch and program offsets into the gcode. I try and make things as automated as possible. Let the electronics do the work.

I could mount the engraving attachment on the side next to the torch with offsets as you suggest. The downside is that I would loose the ability to cut (or engrave) the full X extent of the table. But thanks for the suggestion.

David

[TJS]

I have the easyscriber. It mounts in place of the consumables, hence I need to stop and change over to torch cutting. Right now with testing, the way I have it should work fine without getting fancy with code.

[TJS]

Oh. One more question. This might be for SheetCam though. Is there anyway to decrease the plung safety clearance for just one operation (layer). I have my Job Options Plunge safety set to 1.0 for rapids. Thus what is going to happen with the easyscriber on (contour operation to work in CommmandCNC), is that every little hash mark for the letters it comes up one inch. This is a lot of time. I am wondering if there is a way to override this in the code or post somewhere just for this operation.
Thanks.
T.J.

[adbuch]

TJ - How are you coming on your engine run stand? I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out, and maybe a video of it with an engine starting and running.

David