On Friday 30 October 2015 07:03:00 andy pugh wrote: > On 30 October 2015 at 01:47, Gene Heskett <ghesk...@wdtv.com> wrote: > > Still trying to conjure up an automatic tool catcher > > Does it need to be automatic? The drawbar isn't.
I have visions of it being so. Something that would drop a wrench/socket on the drawbar, and a 1/4 second blast at full power of the motor. Let it turn half a turn before the socket hits a stop hard enough to break it loose. then a 100 rpm command till it fell out, insert the next tool, command 100 revs in the other direction to draw it back in, and let it hit the stop going the other way. Even at 100 rpm, I can't hold it so I'd think that would be tight enough. I can imagine doing all that in a classic ladder script, but shifting the head to low gear will need a major redesign of that gear shift mechanism. Something that can push-pull a lever while the motor is commanded to 5 or 10 rpm's. Slow & possibly spring loaded so the gears can mesh when the teeth are aligned without damaging them. If the artificially stiff crap is removed, (something I haven't investigated yet but suspect is all in that huge knob it almost takes both hands to turn) a windshield wiper motor ought to be able to handle that, with suitable mods to its parking switches. AFAIK, all its doing is sliding a gear up and down a splined shaft. From the noise, I'd have to say the gears are straight spur gears, with little or no end thrust to contain. Jon's (Pico Systems) pwm servo controller can make that motor do anything I want it to do, including a fwd to reverse (or back fwd) in about 1 second flat while running at 2500 revs. Use some of that power to run the spindle with the drawbar bolt locked. I don't think it needs more than 1/2 turn after breaking it loose unless the R8 is sticky. So far, that has been a very minor problem. My fingers on the top of the bolt once its loose have always been sufficient to eject it from that condition. > A c-shaped plate that could pivot across to catch the larger diameter > might suffice. I have a vision of a plate full of C slots, say perhaps 4 or 5, whatever it would take, to be swung as an assembly, to receive the falling tool, raise the head to clear the tops of the TTS studs, then turn the plate to bring the next tool under the spindle, set the spindle down onto it, and run the spindle the other direction to pull it in and lock it. Raise the head far enough to clear, swing the tool carrying wheel back out of the way, and go back to work with the next tool. Can you say an ATC for a G0704? That would take some tool table editing on a per job basis, to tell LCNC which pocket tool "14" is in, but that doesn't appear to be a major hassle. What would be considered, strictly on any one given jobs basis, to be the minimum number of available slots? 4? 6? This particular job only needs 3, and one of them is also a different file to load. > Something like > https://picasaweb.google.com/108164504656404380542/October302015#62113 >93457778332834 Page not found. > Though something like that could be persuaded to operate > automatically, maybe through a Bowden cable operated by a cam on the > side of the column, so that it pops in at the top of travel. > > > since I don't have > > the magic spell (or a vitamin supplement) that will grow at least 1 > > more arm. > > It seems to me that we probably still have the DNA for a prehensile > tail, it has probably been turned off rather than deleted. That would > be useful. Chuckle. :) Yeah, its probably still in the genome. Lots of "trash" DNA in there yet. We call a miss-fire, or a potential enhancement, a birth defect now-a-days. I have seen babies with 6 fingers and toes, all perfectly formed and 100% working, but they take them off! I have wondered to myself if thats the next step in the evolution of this tool designing and using critter that is us. ;-) Enhancing our ability to use the tools we can build? Sadly, thats not "PC" to allow that. I won't say flat out that we are playing God, but that 'corrective surgery' sure fits what I've observed. How dare we evolve? Cheers, Gene Heskett -- "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
