Thanks to Chuck Fellows

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chucketn

chucketn

Senior Citizen
Joined
Dec 17, 2009
Messages
1,326
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Location
Near Jonesborough, TN
I wanted to post to thank Chuck Fellows for his thread on the Arduino based Dividing Head/Rotary Table Controller project. I built his controller and applied it to my Vertex 4" Rotary Table and this afternoon used it to cut a pair of 46 tooth change gears for my buddy's Atlas lathe.
I have attached pics of the RT setup and the rough gears as they came off the mandrel. I still need to package the controller in a case to protect it in the shop, and of course the gears need fettling.
Thanks again to Chuck for sharing his creative abilities and opening doors for us lesser mortals!

Chuck

controller on a board.jpg


stepper adapter.jpg


mandrel.jpg


gears1.jpg


gears2.jpg
 
Hi Chuck

Did you buy all the electronic parts in from local supplier ?
I have become a bit confused with the rotary table/ arduino projects listed on the forum, what is the title for the original Chuck Fellows build ?
Thanks, Emgee
 
xpylonracer said:
Hi Chuck

Did you buy all the electronic parts in from local supplier ?
I have become a bit confused with the rotary table/ arduino projects listed on the forum, what is the title for the original Chuck Fellows build ?
Thanks, Emgee
Click to expand...

This is Chucks' s original thread http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/showthread.php?t=17896

And this is my chuck fellowes inspired version that has a more sophisticated, higher performance interrupt driven interface. All the downloads are at the top of the first post.
http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/showthread.php?t=24118

I even left Chuck's name in the file name in his honour :D
 
xpylonracer said:
Hi Chuck

Did you buy all the electronic parts in from local supplier ?
I have become a bit confused with the rotary table/ arduino projects listed on the forum, what is the title for the original Chuck Fellows build ?
Thanks, Emgee
Click to expand...

I ordered the Arduino Uno, the display shield with buttons, stepper driver, and stepper from E-bay. I made the adapter for the stepper to the Rotary Table. The cutter is also home made. I turned a straight concentric ring hob from Drill Rod, gashed it to make teeth, and hardened it.
My second set of gears didn't come out as good. The Arduino was being powered from a 9v battery and the battery died mid stream. The Arduino started changing values, stopped responding several times.
I had to stop several times and reenter the # of steps. one time the # of steps changed arbitrarily. At the end of the gear, the display went blank but it kept moving the RT. Everything looked good until the final cut. Always happens that way, doesn't it?So, I'll take it inside and reload it. I configured 5vdc wall wart to power the Arduino in the shop. I'll play with it some more before trying another gear.
I have a big button module on order, hard to hit those little buttons...

Chuck
 
Last edited:
Again, I'd like to thank Chuck for posting his RT/Dividing head project. I have now used it to produce 7 of 8 change gears needed by my bud for his Atlas lathe.
In producing these gears, I have found the need for a couple of additions to Chuck's method. One, I would like to be able to enter the # of divisions from a keypad rather than press a button 64 times to create a 64 tooth gear.
Second, I found the need to be able to reset the current count of divisions a handy feature. I created the hears with a straight hobb on my mill. This presented the need to be able to reset the count as the best result was obtained by stepping one direction for x teeth + 3 steps while cutting to 1/2 whole depth, and then cutting in the reverse direction, cutting to whole depth.

Chuck

DSCF0260.jpg


DSCF0261.jpg
 
Hi Chuck,

That looks good. What make/model/size of stepper motor are you using. Also what make/model of stepper driver are you using. Did they come from the same Ebay supplier, if so who did you use. I have an Arduino running the Chuck Fellows software but have not sourced suitable stepper motor or driver to use with it. I have a vertex 4" RT which I intend to use.

Many Thanks,

Colin
 
Colin, the stepper and driver came from e-bay. The stepper is from CIRCUIT SPECIALISTS, their 57BYGH310 at $28.89. The stepper driver is a TB6560, that I purchased from e-bay years ago for another project. The Stepper is a NEMA 23. Chuck F's thread has more specs on them. I power the driver with a wall wart salvaged from some electronic devise. I believe it's 18 volt.
My X2 has X axis power feed that made the job a lot easier. The cutting tool is a concentric ring hobb made from drill rod or silver steel. I ground a lathe tool to fit a tooth profile on a sample gear, turned, gashed and hardened the hobb. The same hobb cut all the gears without re-sharpening, but could probably use it now.

Chuck
 
Chuck, Thanks for a quick response.

Have now got a driver and stepper motor ordered. Just need time now.

Rgds,

Colin
 
Well, the gears are done. Finished the 96 tooth today. My bud will have to cut the double key in them, I'm wore out. Grass is getting tall enough to hide my two Chug pups, so I've got to get after that and a million other outside chores before the cool down this weekend.
Again, thanks to Chuck Fellows!

Chuck
 
Chuck,
What settings did you use on the TB6560 as regards current, stop current, steps (excitation), decay. I have a 220nm stepper (8-wire) with voltage of 7.5v and current of 2.5amp/phase and resistance 3 ohm/phase. So not a lot different to yours. I intend using one of the many spare laptop PSU's I have around. These are Toshiba 19.5v at 4.62 Amps.

The stepper can be run as bipolar series or bipolar parallel, I am not sure what the advantages/disadvantages of the two choices are.

Rgds,

Colin
 
Twizseven said:
Chuck,
What settings did you use on the TB6560 as regards current, stop current, steps (excitation), decay. I have a 220nm stepper (8-wire) with voltage of 7.5v and current of 2.5amp/phase and resistance 3 ohm/phase. So not a lot different to yours. I intend using one of the many spare laptop PSU's I have around. These are Toshiba 19.5v at 4.62 Amps.

The stepper can be run as bipolar series or bipolar parallel, I am not sure what the advantages/disadvantages of the two choices are.

Rgds,

Colin
Click to expand...
Hi Collin
this is a agood article I think you will enjoy it
http://www.piclist.com/techref/io/stepper/connections.htm

cheers

Luc
 
Twizseven, I used .5 A, torque settings 100%, excitation 1, and decay0%.
That translates to sw1 off, sw2 on, sw3 off, sw1 through sw6 of the blue dip switches on.
can post a picture of the driver if needed, an a pdf of the driver dsta sheet.

Chuck
 
chucketn said:
Twizseven, I used .5 A, torque settings 100%, excitation 1, and decay0%.
That translates to sw1 off, sw2 on, sw3 off, sw1 through sw6 of the blue dip switches on.
can post a picture of the driver if needed, an a pdf of the driver dsta sheet.

Chuck
Click to expand...


Chuck
you are not using Mach3 set up instead
don't get it
cheers
Luc
 
I hadn't checked in here for a while so I was surprised at the number of replies. I still have my Arduino dividing setup, but I have since converted my mill/drill to CNC, so I use Mach3 and and the dividing head as a 4th axis. I can now write g-code to cut the entire gear, making multiple passes and indexing automatically. Also makes helical gear cutting a lot easier.

Using a number pad to enter the number of divisions to the Arduino would be a nice feature and not that hard to do.

Glad to see some folks making use of the Arduino. It sure does make dividing operations a lot faster and less error prone.

Chuck
 
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