Squaring the Machine (0:00-2:46)
0:00-2:46: “Hello. Hello. Welcome back to another training video. This should be the last step in our startup checklist sequence from our CNC operations checklist. Um, in this video we’re gonna actually focus on checking for squareness of the gantry, powering the machine, homing the machine, as well as doing a spindle warmup routine in preparation for setup and operations. So let’s get all that covered. First thing, let’s talk about squaring up the machine and show you how that’s done. Now the easiest way to do that is when you first pound your machine the first time, um, your gantry may be at any position in future videos. I actually brought this here so we could easily wipe off our profile rails and clean and maintain the spindle. And so I’m just gonna push it back towards the tool rack for these Maverick four foot wide platforms. So if you have a Maverick four by four or four by eight system, um, the machine is actually going to home itself in the back right corner. And so if we can get the machine close to that back right corner area, it won’t take as long to actually home the system when we get to that step. Whereas if you have a Maverick three by five system, it’s gonna home in the front left corner. So we’d wanna make sure to push that system towards that corner before we power it on. Now the other thing we can do by pushing it manually is we can check for squareness and let’s show you how that’s done here on the backside of the system. So I’m on the right side of the machine behind the gantry next to the tool rack. And as the machine is able to move freely with no power turned on, um, we can use that to check against our mechanical stops. So if I simply pull the system until it hits those mechanical stops, okay, um, and what I can do is I can pull each side to see if it bounces off of the stop. What should be happening is both of them should be making contact at the exact same time and both of them will, um, rest against both contacts at the exact same time without trying to again bounce off or flex off of the stop. So if I simply try to pull the machine, okay, this isn’t flexing at all. So this is up against the stop this side I’m pulling, that’s not flexing at all either. So these are both resting against the stop. So I know that this gantry is square to the machine, um, just by checking it against those hard stops. So this is now ready to turn on. Now checking for squareness is not a, an essential step to actually operate and use the machine. It’s just an overall good practice to do occasionally if you want to make sure that again, the machine hasn’t gone outta square from any crashes or,”
Powering On the Machine (2:46-4:33)
2:43-4:34: “the machine hasn’t gone outta square from any crashes or, or just being used on a day-to-day basis. So feel free to put that as part of your, um, startup routine. Um, if you just need to check for squareness. Now let’s move on to the next step, which is actually powering on the machine. And that is also here on the right side of the system up against our power box. I’ll show you where that is so we can turn it on. So right here, um, where the power comes in directly into the machine, on the side of this power box, we have our main power switch that we need, simply need to flip. So if we turn it to the on position, that will turn and power on the machine and our controller. Once we have power to the machine, we can actually check information on the back of the gantry. Uh, so here we have all the air regulators and information to make sure the air pressure is working correctly. So here we have our air intake and we have our three regulators used, uh, for the machine. This one is for the auto tool change sequence and it’s gonna be around 90 PSI. This one is for the cone clean and it’s gonna be around five to 10 PSI. And this one is to open and close the dust shoe during the auto tool change. And this is gonna be usually around 60 PSI now that we’ve checked off the power on CNC task as well as check air pressure, air pressure and regulators, we can go on to the final stages of, uh, setting up the machine or starting up the system. So the first thing is make sure that your emergency stop switch, if it’s pressed in, make sure that it is released. Okay? So therefore whenever we perform any tasks, it’s still not locked in an emergency stop.”
Homing the System (4:33-6:55)
4:32-6:55: “it’s still not locked in an emergency stop. Alright, the next one is actually what’s called homing the system. Now, based on where the machine is at at this time, it can take longer or shorter to do this procedure, which is why we moved it down to that corner where it’s going to perform the homing routine. Uh, so it does it in a, you know, a quick manner. So here on the controller interface, it automatically loads into this interface for the Delta controller. When we power on the system, um, in the home screen is where we’re going to be performing the startup system tasks, and we have, we have two steps that we need to do on our checklist that is homing the system and warming up the spindle. Now, I don’t know if you can see this very well, but right now you have this button is brighter than the rest of these buttons. These are kind of all grayed out. The only ones that are not grayed out is the home button, the reset, and the home system button. Um, and so everything will actually become active, something that we can click on once we have homed the machine. And so if we click on the home system or press it with the touch screen interface, it will automatically home. And we can see that the axis are moving in the Z axis first, then the X and Y until it reaches these proximity switches and then zeroes out the digital numbers, uh, to become the exact physical location of the proximity switches on the physical machine. Now that the machine has finished its homing sequence, um, we’re now ready to finish off the last step on our checklist, and that is the warmup spindle procedure, which is right on the same screen as the home system. So right here, we just finished this sequence. Next we need to do the warmup spindle. Now when we click on this, the system is automatically gonna ask us which tool number we want to use. Regardless if this is an auto tool change or manual tool change system, um, if it’s a manual tool change system, the machine will come to you and ask you to perform a tool change. Whereas for auto tool change, this is automatically gonna go pick up the cutter. So let’s click on a spindle warmup and it’s going to ask us, okay, specify a warmup tool that we want to use for this spindle warmup sequence. Um, if this is the one we do want to use, we can press the play button to continue.”
Spindle Warmup Procedure (6:55-10:02)
6:53-7:37: “we can press the play button to continue. If we want to change this number, we can just click on the number itself and that will then allow us to bring up a, a number pad where we can change the number. For example, if I wanted to have two instead and push enter, you can see it repopulates it with two. Now in our tool rack right now, we loaded the cutter in tool number one, and again, from this operator standpoint, you have from left to right is one through seven. So on the far left that we’re gonna be grabbing is tool number one. So let’s make sure this number here on the screen reads one And now we can push play and this will proceed to pick up the tool and warm up the spindle.”
8:04-10:02: “So after the spindle warmup procedure, this is automatically gonna be shutting off. What this does for us is it automatically, um, ramps up at multiple intervals. So it starts off at about 8,000 RPM and it’s steadily gonna work its way up to about the 20,000 plus RPM. The spindles that we use on our machines are rated for the horsepower that they have between 12 and 24,000 RPM. Um, so we’re gonna be making sure that we get up to the higher RPM range that spindle is designed for to make sure that the temperature of the internal bearings and track system are at the, again, are at the right temperature, uh, so that we can put load, um, with the cutter and put it under stress without damaging any of the raceways or the bearings or anything like that because everything is to the right temperature. So you want to perform a spend a warmup procedure every time we turn on the machine. And after it’s done, it’s automatically gonna shut off just like you saw here and it’s just gonna stay at this stationary position. And we are now done with the start up routine. One final note on the spend a warmup is the type of tools that you can use because you’re gonna be ramping between eight 8,000 and 20,000 RPM in that range. You need to make sure that the cutters that you put into your tool holders or into your manual tool change, um, call it and call it nut are rated for the actual speed that’s going to be rotating in that spindle warmup routine. So for example, no spade cutters, forer bits, drill bits, anything like that. Uh, nor pretty much all any normal route of it profile that you use for, for C nnc, whether if it’s a, a spiral, um, end mill, um, a v cutter ball cutter, surfacing cutter, usually standard cutters will work. It’s just to make sure we have the, uh, proper mass in the spindle during that warmup routine to ensure that it warms up to the right temperature. Anyway, thanks for watching and we’ll see you guys in the next training video.”
