Milling with the Large CNC

I Turning On The Machine

Turn on the machine using the switch located

on the lower unit.

When the machine has completed booting up

and the home screen appears, press F4 to select the

Jog menu. To Continue, rotate all Emergency Stop

nobs clockwise until it releases outwards, and then

press the blue Emergency Reset Button (right side of

control panel), followed by the ESC button. The light

on the blue emergency reset button should go out.

II Getting ready to mill

The first thing you must do is home the ma-

chine. Press the button labeled ZERO on the top left on the control board.

The machine will move to the top left of the bed.

To load a cutting tool, press the Tool Change button, as shown in the image

at right. The head will move towards the controller. Make sure the collet is clean,

your tool is inserted sufficiently, (at least 1” should be held in the collet), and

the collet is securely tightened.

Secure your material to the table. Double sided tape is not adequate.

Before you mill your part you must warm up the spindle. To do this, press

Main Menu, then Execute. Use the ar row keys to highlight SPINDLE WARM

-UP. Press Enter and then the Green Start Button. The head will move to the

zeroing location and the spindle will start to spin. Make absolutely certain

that the tool is tightened properly before operating the spindle.

III Loading your file

You must save your .pim file to a USB stick. It much be named as a six dig-

it number between 100000 and 899999. An example would be 123456.pim.

Once you insert your USB stick, from the Main Menu go to Utilities and

then Explorer. Use the arrow keys to navigate to your file on your USB stick.

Tool Change

Tool Height

Zero Machine

Once it is highlighted, press the C key to copy it. Then use the arrows to navigate to the prg

folder on the Hard Disk. Once prg is highlighted, press V to paste your file into that folder.

Remove the USB Stick and return to the Main Menu.

III Setting the Origin

You now must set the origin of your part. You control the speed of the head using the

Control Dial on the bottom section of the controller. Start at 20% to get a sense of how it

moves. From the Main Menu navigate to the JOG screen by pressing F4. Using the Axis

Control Keys to the left of the Control Dial, move the head so that the center of the tip of

the bit is just touching the top of your material at the point that is at the origin in your rhino

drawing. Do not move the machine in the X or Y directions unless the bit is clear of the

material.

Once the bit is located at the origin, and while still in the JOG menu, press USER,

LOAD ZERO OFFSETS, LOAD G54, X G54, Y G54, Z G54. The X, Y, Z tabs should

change to reflect that the origin is LOADED into the machine. Once all three are set, press

EXIT 3 times to return to the JOG screen.

You should now lift the bit by pressing the +Z button on so that it is clear of the

material.

IV Simulating your run

You must now simulate your file to make sure the run will be successful. From the Main

Menu navigate to the Simulate screen. Press F5 to look at files on the Hard Disk. Use the

arrow keys to highlight your file. Make sure both the number and filename are yours. Once

highlighted, press Enter then Theoretical Path, Graphics, Clear Screen. You can now turn the

Control Dial to 100 and press the green Start Button. If your simulation runs cor rectly

and there are no errors, you are ready to mill your part. Make sure you Reset the Control Dial

to 20 before moving on.

V Milling your part

You can now Mill your part. From the Main Menu select Execute. Use the arrow keys to

highlight your file and then press Enter. If your file is not visible make sure that you are look-

ing in the Hard Disk.

Before moving on it is crucial that you set the feed rate to 20 or less on the Control Dial.

This insures that the machine doesn’t move rapidly in an unexpected fashion.

You can now start the machine by pressing the Green Start Button. To stop the machine

moving at any time during the run you can press the Red Stop Button directly below the start

button. THIS WILL NOT STOP THE SPINDLE FROM SPINNING. TO STOP THE SPIN-

DLE ONCE A RUN HAS STARTED YOU MUST HIT THE EMERGENCY STOP.

Once the spindle has started and the part has begun to cut, you can use the Control Dial

to adjust the speed of your cut.

VI Turning off the Machine

When you are ready to turn off the machine, from the Main Menu go to Execute,

Memory and highlight the Good-Night Program. Press Enter, and then the Start Button.

The machine will move to the back left corner. Once the program completes, press the red

Emergency Stop Button on the Controller and then turn the power switch to the off posi-

tion.