What's the Oddest Machine You Have Powered with LinuxCNC

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21 Aug 2024 13:23 #308286 by my1987toyota
 The title say it all. I am genuinely wondering. What is the oddest machine you have either seen or powered yourself
with LinuxCNC? So far mine has been
a Pick and Place machine
a CNC 4 axis foam cutter soon to be 5 axis

Not that odd I know. But still. I know there's got to be some really interesting ones out there.
I figured this topic could help new people who will probably wonder just how capable LInuxCNC is.
So come on, what do you got?
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21 Aug 2024 14:10 - 21 Aug 2024 14:23 #308291 by Todd Zuercher
What do you mean by "oldest machine"? Do you mean what machine have we had running Linuxcnc for the longest or the actual physical machines? I know there are people out there who have CNCed ancient manual mills and lathes with Linuxcnc, so nothing I have would be any contest for them. But I do have machines that have been running Linuxcnc for more than 10 years.

Oops, I misread the question it is Odd not Old.  (maybe it is time to have my eyeglass prescription redone.)
The oddest machine I have under Linuxcnc control is an 8 spindle gang router with 8 separate Z-axis and spindles mounted on a 12ft long gantry (11 joints of movement).
Last edit: 21 Aug 2024 14:23 by Todd Zuercher.
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21 Aug 2024 14:23 - 21 Aug 2024 14:25 #308295 by my1987toyota
For a second there I thought I had misspelled the title or something. LOL
Sounds like a cool machine Todd.
Last edit: 21 Aug 2024 14:25 by my1987toyota.
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22 Aug 2024 16:51 #308413 by RotarySMP
Photos or it didn't happen :)

You guys describe these machines without showing us. That is torture.
Cheers,
Mark
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22 Aug 2024 19:09 - 22 Aug 2024 19:18 #308428 by Todd Zuercher
Here Is a picture of it. 
 
Attachments:
Last edit: 22 Aug 2024 19:18 by Todd Zuercher. Reason: Had a bit of trouble getting the picture to work right.
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23 Aug 2024 08:33 #308446 by mighty_mick
Hi Todd, can you explain what does this machine do? I didnt understand.

Thanks.

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25 Aug 2024 19:08 #308627 by RotarySMP

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26 Aug 2024 13:19 - 26 Aug 2024 13:32 #308702 by Todd Zuercher
It is used for decorative wood carving (signs, plaques...). Carving 8 pieces at a time. Originally it only had a single Z axis. with a hand screw for fine adjustment of each spindle height. This was difficult to maintain and adjust the Z depth between each spindle for varying material thicknesses or when changing tools. So I recently rebuilt the machine with a separate closed loop stepper motor, ball screw and linear guides on each spindle. I also replaced the old single servo, 12ft torque tube, rack and pinion drive system for the Y axis with new larger linear ways, two ball screws and 2 servos. Then after doing all of that work I found out that the majority of the slop in the old system wasn't due to compliance in the old drive train, but fex in the bridge. So I stiffened the bridge, and it is greatly improved. (The X also got new ways, and replaced a belt driven lead screw with a direct drive ball screw and added tool touch probe and probing routine.)
Last edit: 26 Aug 2024 13:32 by Todd Zuercher.
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26 Aug 2024 17:53 #308723 by Todd Zuercher
Coincidentally that machine was also the very first machine I ever setup/retrofitted to run Linuxcnc (EMC2 at the time) and it has been running it the longest. But back then it started out as a simple 3 axis control with 3 step/dir commanded servos using software stepgens and no control of the VFDs. (The operator had to manually start/stop the spindles/VFDs.)

Then few years later I added a Mesa 5i25/7i85S combo, to add encoder feedback to close the position loop in Linuxcnc and fast hardware step-generation. Soon after that I used Mb2hal, to add control of the 8 spindle VFDs to Linuxcnc.

I have nearly a 20yr history with this machine since we bought it new, with more than half of those years running EMC2/Linuxcnc.
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27 Aug 2024 07:01 #308772 by mighty_mick
I wanna ask a question. What are you using as controller?(SBC or normal computer). Since i didn't setup a machine with normal computer, i am wondering about this topic. I usually worked with SBCs, so i didn't use parallel port or that kind of stuff. Is it hard, what do you think?

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