New Machine Day

[Andrew M]

I finally mounted my Orange vise last night

Can we get a picture please, and vice model, so we can see how much table space it uses. Do you have a 4th axis on the table too?

I've got money coming my way shortly so I will be placing my order for a DEM in the not too distant future.

 

[rklopp]

Can we get a picture please, and vice model, so we can see how much table space it uses. Do you have a 4th axis on the table too?

I've got money coming my way shortly so I will be placing my order for a DEM in the not too distant future.

This is the Orange 16” model set up as a single station with TalonGrips. I suppose you could fit three in a pinch.

 

[Andrew M]

This is the Orange 16” model set up as a single station with TalonGrips. I suppose you could fit three in a pinch.

Thanks for posting the pics and info - it looks great!!!!

Are you getting to grips with the controller? Still happy with the machine?

 

[rklopp]

Andrew
Yes, I am getting to grips with the controller. It is definitely not intuitive compared to Haas. There is a lot more menu poking on the soft keys to get where I want to go. I can upload and download programs from USB, but for some reason can't do the same with a CF card, even though I pick the right device and do the same steps as for USB. The DEM and Fusion 360 play nicely together. It took a ton of soft key poking, but I was able to edit the keep relay for the chip auger so it is manual only, rather than automatic whenever operating at a feed rate. I prefer this for my style of working.

I do my tool length setting offline with a 40-taper socket and a surface gauge on a surface plate. That works really well when combined with a Haimer probe in the DEM. I had used this approach with my old Deckel, but it works better on the DEM because the Deckel did not have a global tool length offset table.

So yes, I am happy with the machine.
RKlopp

 

[rklopp]

Update: I am very happy with the DEM 4000 and am fairly comfortable with the Fanuc 0I-Mf+ control. The 10-hp Phase Perfect is a good match. This weekend I was loading the spindle up to about 50% load and the Phase Perfect was showing 50% of its rated current. The California Air Tools 60040CAD 11-cfm compressor also seems to be a good match, not cycling too frequently. I had a warranty claim on the compressor due to a blown hose, and C.A.T. could have responded more quickly because I was dead in the water, but it's OK now. The compressor is not a heavy duty industrial grade machine, but OK for a garage setup like mine.

I almost exclusively generate code using Fusion 360 and do sneakernet transfer via USB.

I put a Haas milling chuck in the spindle and the machine did not explode. Here is a "lathe" job in more ways than one. (It is a replacement handwheel for the lathe tailstock at the high school. A student broke the original. Don't ask... I did not form the keyway using the DEM.)

 

[Andrew M]

Do you use a Renishaw / other brand probe, or a manual Haimer etc for workpiece setting? What about tool setting?

I'm getting closer to ordering a DEM, just need an electrician to turn up to work out the switchboard electrics.....

 

[rklopp]

Do you use a Renishaw / other brand probe, or a manual Haimer etc for workpiece setting? What about tool setting?

I'm getting closer to ordering a DEM, just need an electrician to turn up to work out the switchboard electrics.....

I use a Haimer manual probe that I keep parked as tool 20. I set tool lengths offline with a surface gauge and a dummy 40-taper socket upside down on a surface plate. Tool radii are set manually. I am of course living with the risk of fat-fingering a number.

I DIYed the electrics, since no available electrician around here is likely to have a clue about buck-boost transformers and phase converters.