I got to wondering if anyone has ever fitted an Accuset or similar digital setworks to a non-WoodMizer mill, like a home made mill or such.
What got me thinking about this was that I was looking at these digital fence readouts (http://www.wixey.com/fence/index.html) and thinking how I could adapt one of them to the crossbeam on my Mobile Dimension mill.
Then I got talking to a friend that also has a MD mill, he cuts on it all day and says he's tired of cranking the mill left-to-right, so I told him I'm sure I could come up with a DC gearmotor to power the left-to-right movement, and fit it to the existing shaft.
Then that got me thinking... if I was going to have the movement powered, why not have a programmable setworks so if you're cutting 1-1/2" all day long, you can just push a button to have the mill move over an 1-1/2", plus 1/4" kerf automatically? Oh, that was my other question... is the kerf on the Accuset programmable?... and if so, what's the biggest value you can program it as? Does anyone know of any other digital setworks that might work?
Thanks,
-Norm.
Yes it can be done. However, the setworks that the Cook mills use would be much easier to adapt to the MD mill. They also use off the shelf parts, making it easier to find then Woodmizer's accuset and related parts.
The kerf on Accuset is programmable by .001", but I don't know the outer limits.
I would be willing to bet getting a linear transducer (I believe that's what it's called ::) ) and a PLC and doing your own programming would be easier than trying to adapt an Accuset. There are other ways to track location, like using a servomotor on the adjustment, and programming those values into your PLC. My friend that builds the stone sawing equipment does a lot with these controls, and has made antique hand operated machinery fully automatic. They can be highly repeatable. Cool stuff.
Dave
Thanks guys,
backwoods, I'll check out those Cooks setworks... off the shelf sounds good.
Dave, we've got a lot of PLC-controlled machines at work... drilling machines, etc. The latest one we hatched up is an automated feed for a wide, motorized paper cutter... the machine feeds paper and looks for a black line printed on the paper and when it sees one, it stops and triggers the cutter... then repeats... fun stuff. Anyway, I know I could do it with a PLC, but I figured if I could buy something off-the-shelf for a reasonable price... or better yet, scrap something out of some machine used for some other industry (like an old CNC milling machine), then that might be an easier route... I'll check out these options, thanks!
-Norm.
Scrapping is good, I don't think there is anything on the saw that didn't come from the scrapyard.
Dave