A great New CNC Machine

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RobertD
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Model of CNC Machine: Centroid Acorn
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A great New CNC Machine

Post by RobertD »

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It’s been a while since I posted anything to the forum. In the past while I said goodbye to my Shark and bought the Centroid Acorn based CNC from Gary Campbell. The machine is fantastic, and has performed very well in the few small projects that I have completed in the last three weeks. Its first big test was the Cribbage Board that is pictured below. Using the same design files that were made originally for the Shark HD Pro unit, the Acorn routinely cut the times for each file in half. This was without changing any of the speeds and feeds that were initially established for the Shark. I’m very happy to have started my journey into CNC carving on the Shark it was a good teacher and training bed.
The Acorn with its milled cast iron frame and 7/8ths milled aluminum side plates and 1” aluminum gantry beam really beefs up the rigidity. Prior to delivery this unit milled out a 3/8ths piece of aluminum with no difficulty. I could go on but the YouTube videos say more than I can.
Two people assisted me in this endeavor, Gary Campbell and Michael Mezalick thanks very much guys for your patience and understanding. I look forward to many more posts of new projects, and trying to learn some of what this CNC System already knows.

Bob

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mtylerfl
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Re: A great New CNC Machine

Post by mtylerfl »

RobertD wrote:...
Using the same design files that were made originally for the Shark HD Pro unit, the Acorn routinely cut the times for each file in half...
Bob
Hi Bob,

Your project looks great and I’m sure your new CNC is great also!

I am left wondering how it is possible that your cut times were reduced by half if you made no feed rate changes in the files? Curious!
Michael Tyler

facebook.com/carvebuddy

-CarveWright CNC
-ShopBot Buddy PRSAlpha CNC

monitoringpost
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Re: A great New CNC Machine

Post by monitoringpost »

This was without changing any of the speeds and feeds that were initially established for the Shark.
I was wondering the same thing too, pray tell?

Craig

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Rcnewcomb
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Re: A great New CNC Machine

Post by Rcnewcomb »

Can you post photos of the machine?
- Randall Newcomb
10 fingers in, 10 fingers out, another good day in the shop

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IslaWW
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Re: A great New CNC Machine

Post by IslaWW »

Let me jump in and answer this for Bob. The short answer is "cubic dollars". The real answer is a collection of higher end, much stronger parts being pushed by a much higher featured controller. A controller that, instead of taking a second or more to get to its top speed, will get there in .2 to .4 seconds, depending on actual set feedrate. If you combine higher rapids (I assume) with higher torque and a tougher frame that can take the acceleration the result is a noticeable reduction in elapsed time for the file, even without changing the feeds. In other words, the machine RUNS at the set feedrate, not "tries to get there". Controllers like WinCNC and Centroid are light years ahead of most of the lesser featured controllers, especially those that use parallel or USB communication.

Bob's machine was a project file of mine that was documented on my YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/user/Islaww1/videos

Here is a few seconds of the machine running helical GCode arcs in the G18 plane:

Look for anything with "Acorn" in the title. Along with remachining the components to achieve tighter specs, it was rewired completely and upfit with 600+ ozin closed loop steppers and a Centroid Acorn controller.

Here is a video of a simple VCarve with clearance bit at 100ipm XYZ. As you can see, the tool runs at 100ipm and seldom slows. It does take a bit of torque and tuning to do this. Enjoy: Cutting starts at a minute, 30 seconds in.
Gary Campbell
GCnC Control
ATC & Servo Controller Controller Upgrades
GCnC411 (at) gmail.com

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RobertD
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Re: A great New CNC Machine

Post by RobertD »

Gary

You took the words right out of my mouth, and I could not have set it better!!!!!LOL

I was just going to say MAGIC, thanks for giving the answer I was going over my notes trying to get the info.

Should folks be interested PM me and I will send the times of a project on the Shark and then on the "Acorn"... its really something to compare.

Bob

monitoringpost
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Re: A great New CNC Machine

Post by monitoringpost »

Gary, thanks for your explanation.

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mezalick
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Re: A great New CNC Machine

Post by mezalick »

I had Gary rebuild my 10 year old Camaster Cobra...
Wow,,,now it runs 20% faster...

And I thought I was happy before...

It's the "behind the scene" things that make all the difference...

Best of luck Bob with the new toy..

Michael
Michael Mezalick
https://www.youtube.com/user/mezalick
mm@mezalick.com

DLWOODWORKS
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Re: A great New CNC Machine

Post by DLWOODWORKS »

IslaWW wrote:Let me jump in and answer this for Bob. The short answer is "cubic dollars". The real answer is a collection of higher end, much stronger parts being pushed by a much higher featured controller. A controller that, instead of taking a second or more to get to its top speed, will get there in .2 to .4 seconds, depending on actual set feedrate. If you combine higher rapids (I assume) with higher torque and a tougher frame that can take the acceleration the result is a noticeable reduction in elapsed time for the file, even without changing the feeds. In other words, the machine RUNS at the set feedrate, not "tries to get there". Controllers like WinCNC and Centroid are light years ahead of most of the lesser featured controllers, especially those that use parallel or USB communication.

Bob's machine was a project file of mine that was documented on my YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/user/Islaww1/videos

Here is a few seconds of the machine running helical GCode arcs in the G18 plane:

Look for anything with "Acorn" in the title. Along with remachining the components to achieve tighter specs, it was rewired completely and upfit with 600+ ozin closed loop steppers and a Centroid Acorn controller.

Here is a video of a simple VCarve with clearance bit at 100ipm XYZ. As you can see, the tool runs at 100ipm and seldom slows. It does take a bit of torque and tuning to do this. Enjoy: Cutting starts at a minute, 30 seconds in.
So Gary, can this be done to my PRSAlpha? If so, what kinds of $$$ are we looking at?

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martin54
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Re: A great New CNC Machine

Post by martin54 »

So Gary, can this be done to my PRSAlpha? If so, what kinds of $$$ are we looking at?

Pretty such any sort of upgrade/modification can be made to any machine, what it costs really comes down to what you want the machine to be able to do: Better. faster, combination of the 2 or anything inbetween. What sort of improvement you get will some degree depend on what you spend :lol: :lol:

So whats your budget ??

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IslaWW
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Re: A great New CNC Machine

Post by IslaWW »

Sorry Don, I have been out of town on a training mission and have not been keeping up with the forums. I also have not heard from Martin, who is apparently my new business manager :D :D

Your machine is the same 1st gen PRS like my first machine was. Even tho you would most likely benefit greatly from a controller upgrade, a number of inherent weakness' in that frame design would make me hesitant to recommend any performance enhancements. An extremely high center of gravity on the gantry that is not mounted on linear rails, coupled with an unreinforced Y plate that is extremely prone to flexing, running on preloaded V rollers that have most likely exceeded their adjustability, would not be a good candidate for hot rodding.

If you couple that with the fact that the only thing actually holding the gantry on the machine is gravity and a pinion mounted on a gearbox that shouldn't be subjected to those kinds of loads, adding more power would most likely lower cut quality and introduce more flex if cutting speeds are increased.
Gary Campbell
GCnC Control
ATC & Servo Controller Controller Upgrades
GCnC411 (at) gmail.com

DLWOODWORKS
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Re: A great New CNC Machine

Post by DLWOODWORKS »

Gary, thanks for the reply, and the phone conversation we had about this.

Yes, there are things I've learned over 10 years of using this machine on how to compensate for all its inherent flex. The place where it is REALLY prevalent is when cutting plywood. I have to do a climb/conventional cutting process to get good clean cuts, ON THE LINE. I cut at 6IPS two passes in a climb direction leaving a 1/32" skin. I then do a full depth conventional cut to cut the part out. When I take the parts off the machine you can really see where the climb cut flexed the machine at least 1/32" away from the cut line. Hence, my name for the CNC; FlexBot. I use the same technique when cutting solid wood. It takes longer to cut but I do get really nice cuts this way.

I'm sure a newer, more modern machine wouldn't have these types of flex problems and I might be able to cut even faster then 6IPS. Can't afford a new machine right now so I'll get as much mileage out of this one as I can.

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rink
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Re: A great New CNC Machine

Post by rink »

Good evening everyone.
As a result of Gary Campbell’s post above, I went out and looked at WinCNC and Centroid setups. Very nice rigs and one of their claims to fame is they the have their own CPU. Therefore they don’t rely on the computer’s CPU which might get distracted sometimes.

I have a Nextwave CNC Piranha and I don’t use a computer with it. It has a pendant and I save toolpaths on a USB drive and run them from the pendant. So…does my Piranha have its own CPU, since there’s no computer involved?

Just trying to learn about CNC technology and the various options available.

Thx, rink.
I want to be unique like everyone else.

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