I've been wanting to do this for a long time. Jeff Birt of Soigeneris, whom I bought the motion control system from, did a write up on the topic, but I just lack the courage to proceed, given my very limited knowledge in electrical works.  He did a PDF and have it posted on his website which you can view the PDF on his site here: http://www.soigeneris.com/Document/Gecko/Using_the%20Gecko_G540_VFD_Output.pdf.

​The idea is a simply one; using Gecko's VFD circuitry to output signal between 0V - 10VDC and feed that to the KBIC board. This replaces the existing speed control potentiometer.

From Jeff's writing:

What he said makes sense to me; we have live voltage of 240V on one end. Any accidentally grounding will send a nasty shock to the operator or fry the KBIC board. Also, when operating in auto mode, there is no reason to leave the speed pot connected since the pot is no longer in control of speed adjustment.

With Terence around and doing the same, I mustered up my courage and went ahead with the mod.  Here is a brief write up on my journey, based on the little I understand when Terence was trying to explain to me.

If you have any questions on this mod, drop me a note, I'll ask Terence for his input if its beyond me...

​Here goes:

​Knowing that I'm a total idiot with electrical stuff, Terence made me these - a wiring harness, completes with printed labels. Maybe can sell as a kit for those interested. 

The DB9 connector is for my Soigeneris' control box, which brought out the VFD to its back panel for neater connection.

The "kit" looks rather nice, much nicer that some of those I bought from companies abroad.

Some pics were taken before I start meddling with the components within the box.  Tend to forget what goes where after removing stuff...

Terence provided a sticker to mark out the hole location for the switch.  I screwed it up by pasting it more to one side... 

The square hole was more of a challenge to me.  So I decided to rough it out on the mill and finish it off with either a file or the jeweller saw.  As the plastic box flexes quite a lot, 2 pieces of wooden blocks were used to support from the bottom.  Quite a bit of filing was needed before I managed to squeeze in the molex connector.

Connecting the speed pot to the switch.  Basically just a follw the label and insert the connectors operation.  I'll have to slap myself if I screw up even this... 

I've forgotten to take pics while putting back the board to the box.  Its a tight squeeze but everything went in without a problem.

Having the ability to control the spindle speed in my gcode is really a dream coming true, all thanks to my buddy Terence.  The mod has yet to be completed as we need to tell Mach3 the speed the spindle is spinning at (calibration) so that it knows how much to put out for the speed commanded.  So the next part of the project involves making a tachometer that reads the spindle speed and output it to both the LED display as well as to Mach3 via its Index pin.  It is a tougher part for me as it involves electronics work.  But so far I managed, with lots of help of course! lol....

This stage was made so easy because of the fact that most of the things were done for me with the kit.  It turned out to be not as scary as I envisaged it to be.  Let me know if you are contemplating to do the same.  Send me some pics if you may, while doing it.  I'll post them up.

Meanwhile, have a 
Merry Christmas!!!

I continued with the work on the Base and completed it over 2 sessions of about 2 hours each.  I took it very slowly when milling the other slot with a 10mm slot drill due to the vibration and loud noise.  The feel on the handwheel while feeding didn't feel smooth at all.  This may be caused by the ER16 spindle chuck I'm using which extended the tool out quite a bit.  I didn't have that problem when using the Sherline's endmill holder but the largest holder I've from Sherline is 3/8"...  Some rectification was done to the Slide's slot as one side is tapered.  The 2 components now fit nicely together and the sliding one against the other is smooth.  4 more parts to complete before I can call this done.

Moving over to the start. The more I use the mill, the more confident I get in getting to the spot I want using the handwheels. The right limit of the slot was set with the tool maker's clamp on the right of the job against the saddle.

Moving to the left limit and setting the clamp.

Milling the 1/4" slot with the Sherline 1/4" slot drill. The Sherline's endmill holder in use here.

Slot done.

The 10mm slot drill in the ER16 collet chuck was employed to cut the counterbore slot. To set the depth, I plunge the slot drill to the depth of 1/4" and fit another piece of the toolmaker's clamp on the column bed.

Slot done. I went at 0.25mm per pass to minimise vibration. The cap screw sit flush with the top surface of the Base.

The centre hole enlarged to 6.4mm to tap 5/16" BSF.

Testing fit. No side wobbling encountered. I'm pretty pleased :)

The instruction calls for the 2 x 2BA holes to be done on the drill press.  I was running out of time to set up the drill press (its under the bench...) and so stand the part in the vise and carry on.

Locating the side and dialed to the centre of the workpiece.

Centre drill and drill through with a 4mm. I'm at the limit of the z travel...

A piece of card stock used at the back to check if I'm right in the middle. Not too bad..

The part was then flipped over to drill and tap the other 2BA hole on the other side.  This completes the work on the Base.

View from the back where the 2MT Arbor will be screwed in from.

The front. I'm wondering if the screws are a little too long. The drawing shows them as almost flushed with the surface. Can those who did this confirm if I need to shorten the screws?

The rest of the work will be mostly done in the lathe.  From the plan, I'm left with making the 2 adjustment screws, the Centre, and the 2MT Arbor.

I'm hoping to get back to the shop real soon!

Blessings to ALL!!!

It started with me checking out Graham's mod on installing the precision leadscrew on his Sherline that I ran across his other work in acrylics.  He has a done tremendous work on illuminated acrylic plates with logos and lithophanes.  I was so captivated by his work that I promised myself that I will give them a shot.

To see how a beautifully made lithophane looks like, visit www.ghqp.com.au and select Lithophanes from Photo Gallery.

Ok.  Now onto my version.  I've this favorite photograph of my elder girl, Alicia, taken by her teacher when she was in Primary 1.  I love the pic so much that I want this to be made into a Lithophane.  It didn't turn out much like what was shown on Graham's site but hey, this is my first attempt.  It can only get better with my next right?  I sincerely hope so.

Enough of talking, onto the pics we go...

The pic was scaled to 75mm x 100mm as I do not want to spend too much time on setting up the workpiece on the mill.

After importing the pic into BobArt, the depth was set to max of 1.5mm leaving the resolution default.   2 sets of Slice Planar were selected, first with a 6mm ballnose and the second, 3mm ballnose.  The 6mm was to take out as much material as possible, leaving the 3mm for the details.

For the 6mm ballnose endmill, the stepover was set as 1mm.  For the finishing, I went with 0.5mm.

On hindsight, I should have go with a stepover value of 0.15mm for the smaller endmill, like what Graham did.  This should bring out more details, though I'm not very sure if that's the problem.  Maybe the picture size is a little too small...  If you have the answer(s) for me, please leave a comment.  Thank you.

I've 3 pieces of this Opal coloured acrylic, courtesy of Terence.  Thanks buddy!  As I reached home rather late this evening, I didn't want to spend too much time  thinking of how I should setup the work.  From the pic, you can see the lazy man way.  I did probe various spot of the workpiece using fingers; no popping or bending of the workpiece felt.

To zero the Z axis, I use the little 10-20-40 block I bought from Arc Euro Trade as the base for the tool to contact against.  The block measures 10.7mm.

Some details showing.

Her face coming through...

First pass done.  Though there were ridges everywhere, I kinda like the effect...

More obvious looking from a distance.  Look at the "snow" next to the mill!  Messy...

Work continued after tool change.  I almost screw up here.  I forgot to touch off  after tool change and hit the stop button instead of feed hold!  After touching off, I tried resuming the job by clicking on Cycle Start.  The spindle plunge straight down into the work!  Thank God it was at the waste area that will be cut off later.

After bringing the spindle back to zero on all axes, I kept my fingers crossed while hitting the Run From Here button.  Though reading so much of complain on this function, I encounter no problem with it.

More details showing with the 3mm ballnose endmill.

Starting to take shape.

Just look at how close I am to the end of Z axis.  I'll have to work out a jig if this is going to be something I want to do for longer term.

End of cut.  The details on her face didn't come through very well.  The mozzaic wall that I intentionally kept in the pic wasn't presented nicely too.  Sigh... Need more information on how to do a proper Litho.  Anyone can lend me a helping hand?

With my first Litho done, I tried placing it against light source to see if I can have it miraculously appear as those I saw on Graham's website.  Said to say nothing close...  Being known to have thick skin, I'll still show them here for your comments or criticism.

From the use of different light source and intensity, I found that the brighter the light source, the more obvious the mistake(s) made on the Litho.

To bring out more details and get rid of the cut lines, I'll be experimenting with different depth, sizes of ballnose end mill, and stepovers.  If there is anyone reading this with experience in making Litho, I would love to hear from you.  You'll likely help me "stepover" all the pain in testing with different settings.  This piece took me almost 2 hours to complete.  This is excluding time taken in generating the toolpaths, setting up etc.

The Sherline spindle runs at max of 2800 rpm.  If this is too slow, I've the 10k pulley set that I can install.  Also, I've the Proxxon IB/E spindle that I can put on the mill for up to 30k rpm cut, but that will have to wait till I fabricate the mount to adapt it to the mill.

Ok, hitting midnight soon.  I've to get up early tomorrow to prepare for church.  Till the next session, be blessed!

I've to blame Terence again (seemed like he is so nice to pin all the blames on...).  He mentioned that his mill couldn't cut a true circular pocket while he was working on the turner's cube on his mill.  His remark reminds me of the video posted by Hossmachine.  He was testing the backlash compensation settings on Mach3 by milling circular pockets.  This stirred me to do the same test as the backlash comp in my Mach3 setting was just done a couple of weeks back.

The test was done on the same piece of aluminium stock used in the afternoon to test DOC.  The Circular Pocketing Wizard in Mach3 was used to generate the GCode for a 20mm diameter circular pocket.  As the test was to see how round will be the circle, I set the DOC each pass conservatively at 0.25mm.

Mid way through pocketing.  The feedrate I set is painfully slow at 150mm/min.

Done finally... 

4 measures  were made.  The closest to the diameter I set: 20.24mm.   Why the 0.24mm from my 20mm diameter?!

My circle is not very round too - I'm out by 0.03mm.

2 things I've to get settled before I start on any projects using this mill:
1) Motor Tuning - to make sure that when I say move 10mm, the table indeed move 10mm (or within a certain range which I'll try to figure out what's good enough).
2) To measure backlash again - Maybe 0.03mm is good enough but let's see how much more I can bring this down.  Again, no target set yet.

I've a video taken when the mill was making the 2nd last pass.  I am wonder, if any kind soul out there can help answer, if the sound created by the endmill plunging into the workpiece is a sign of things not done right. 

Do drop me a comment please.

Ok, I'm supposed to get ready the Sherline Lathe so that Terence can pick it up tomorrow night.  I want him to try playing on a lathe before deciding which one to buy.  Problem is, I'm feeling really tired.  I'll try setting it up tomorrow morning if time permits.  Got to reach Alicia's church by 9.30am.

I am tempted to go for the Wabeco D4000 when Terence asked me if I am thinking of letting go of the Proxxon PD400.  This presented an opportunity to go for the lathe I always wanted but settled for my 2nd choice due to budget.  I'll have to give this some thought given the uncertainty in the market.  Also, I've not explored the full potential of the Proxxon.  It will be a waste to swap it out at the moment.   I'm rather divided...

I've to blame Terence for this.  I've not been a diligent guy when come to testing things.  We chatted via Whatsapp till late last night and among many things on machining and machines, we spoke about the rigidity of the Monster Mill.

He was sharing that he felt his mill breaking apart when he was mill deeper (can't recall how deep), so much so that his son ran into his shop to see what happened.  I was rather disappointed when I hear this as I had just bought the column and had it installed.  Before I dozed off, I make a mental note to do some testing the next morning.

As I'm quite a "chicken" myself when come to machining, I set the maximum depth of cut (DOC) to be 1mm for the tests.  This was the max I think I will go when using the mill as I'm not in control, so to speak, when codes are being run. 

The stock was setup using the low profile clamps I bought together with the milling plate.  A piece of aluminium I have lying around was used.   DOC to test will include 0.5mm, 0.75mm, and 1mm.

From the GWizard Calculator, I'm supposed to go at feed of about 200mm/min.  Being a "chicken", I cut it down to 180mm/min to "play safe".  This may be what Bob Warfield said not to do many a times about babying the cut.  Since I'm in "discovery" mode, I'll just use what I'm comfortable with.

The aluminium plate being setup for the cut.  I hammered it down when tightening the cam screws on the right.

Touching off to find Z=0 using the Mach Blue function.

The first slot on the right was a mistake.  I typed G0 instead of G1... Thank God I started at 0.25mm DOC.  Otherwise, I may have a broken endmill.  FYI, my rapid was set at 500mm/min.

The 2nd slot: DOC 0.5mm, F200, 2000 rpm.

The last 2 slots from right to left:
DOC 0.75mm, F180
DOC 1.00mm, F180

It seems to me at this point that I've the mill trammed along Y and that the mill did its job well with even up to 1mm.

I've no intention to go beyond 1mm.

Back track a little, I was using the A2Z ER16 to 3/8-16 adapter.

Spindle speed was adjusted using the Tachometer I bought from eBay.  This is my 2nd piece as the 1st one broke after just a couple of use.

Now for test cuts along X axis.  DOC 0.5mm, 0.75mm, and 1mm.  Feed of 180mm/min used throughout.

The cut pattern at the cut surface shows that the mill is pretty much in tram along X too.  I'm so happy!

I've taken a video using my iPhone showing the 1mm DOC.  Pardon me for the last part of the video.

That's all I've this Saturday.  If time permits, I'll start the Lithophane of Alicia's Primary One photo later of the day.

I promised myself I've to at least get the mill trammed this Saturday. Got up real early today knowing that I would spend at least 2 hours reading and replying to mails, watch those YouTube videos on machining, and do the usual business one does in the morning.

An hour or so was spent tweaking the column with aluminum shims and dial test indicator to get to a level of accuracy I am after (I'm more realistic now...).

I'll go into a little bit more as the pics are presented.

First order of the day is to reduce the play between the Z axis saddle and the column dovetails. A new piece of A2Z super gib was used. Play was considerably reduced, at least visually. The knocking sound I once experienced when I brought the column back from Mike was gone.

Marking out the excess to be trimmed.  I wanted to leave more behind but it will hit the motor mount at the top of the column.

Same done on the other size.  The gib is inserted from this side.  A little tricky for my clumsy fingers...

Since the Sherline vise was already mounted, I use it to hold the gib and saw off the excess with a hacksaw.

After touching up the sawn ends lightly with a file.  Some way oil was applyed to the blue strip before installing.

Tramming the column started right after. I clamped down my largest square on the table with the Sherline step clamp and ran the DTI up and down its blade.

I started off with 0.2mm of misalignment along 120mm of travel.  After putting in the first piece of shim I was done to about 0.1mm.

This is the best I could manage - 0.02mm.  Good enough for me at this moment.

Turning the square over by 90-degree and indicate front and back tilt.  I'm off by about 0.17mm.

This is much much better.  The shim was placed at the back of the column.  From this pic, you can see the shim (in red) on the right side of the column from the previous step.

The aluminium shim bought locally.  You wouldn't believe how much I paid for these.  bought them 2 years ago after searching online from a company base in Simei.

Using Terence's Traminator to tram the tilt of the spindle.  Since everything (or almost) are aluminium, I use the 10-20-40 block bought from Arc Euro Trade to set the indicators.

The tramming of this part was done using the 2 set screws holding the A2Z spacer block.  Clever idea from the folks at A2Z.

The table is a little too small to check the front/back tilt.  So the glass plate was drafted into service.

The bottom of the spacer was shimmed to level the 2 indicators' reading.  A little more tricky than the column.

All done and ready for action.  Time for photoshot.

The Pendant from VistaCNC is really fun to use.  There are more function available than I need.  Good to have around the mill.

I'm now all set for action.  First order of the day would be to make a Lithophane of my elder girl when she was 7 years of age.  Really cute.  Will post about that when I get to it.  Hope that it wouldn't be another long time before my next post.

Blessing to all!