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DIY Programmable Coolznt Nozzle

magno_grail

Hot Rolled
Joined
May 29, 2014
Location
ca, US
My '91 VF-`1 did not come with the programmable coolant nozzle. I am too cheap to spend the $1600 so I am building my own.
The cables to the I/O board have the Spigot Up/Down, Turret CW/CCW, Tool#1 and Geneva marks. From these a micro-controller can determine which tool is being used and put out a PWM for a 1/4 scale model servo to position the nozzle.
The positions are stored in EEPROM and read in when powered up. The array is synchronized when the turret first reaches Tool #1. There are 256 steps for positioning. After one second the positioning speed increases. When the mill is powered off or there is a glitch in the power the current array of positions is stored back in EEPROM.

Instead of the single nozzle off to the side I am making a ring around the spindle (yes, it will fit through the turret door) with three nozzles. Loc-Line will connect it to the coolant manifold.

The programming is done, I have to make the hardware.
Although this is for a 16 tool turret it can easily be modified to 20.
Would this of interest to anyone else?
 
The servo is water and dust tight but it will be mounted on the side of the spindle enclosure in a box with the operating rod coming out such that the servo cannot be hit with coolant. There are metal extension shafts made for these servos so I could use one going through a seal in the side of the box. There are ball and socket link rods available made from nylon. An easy off-the-shelf option.
 
Very interested. I work in a shop in an engineering college. If you were willing to share any documentation you have for it, i'd love to try to build one for our TM1 as well.

Just got done installing a 10 tool ATC ourselves yesterday. Wish we had the haas factory mount for it, but it was $800. We bought all the same steel for $72 and built the mount ourselves.

Our end goal is to have this little TM1 running a pallet of a basic part to sell. We could then generate some cash flow for the shop (since student's don't pay anything to use it) and buy tools and equipment.
 
How much do you want to make yourself?
Do you have a programmer for Atmel ATtiny44 chips? The program uses all of the I/O but three are just LED outputs to show the state of the turret, spigot command and geneva mark to show the inputs are working. In order to have the user set the number of tools it would need more inputs unless there are a limited number of tool options (10, 16, 20,?) then I could use the three LED outputs as inputs to set the number of tools.
If you want to make your own PC boards I can supply the programmed chip or I can supply the complete board.
The 530, 520 and 820 cables carry the inputs. Are these the same on the TM1? And are they 2x8 shrouded headers (520, 530) and 6 pin (820)? To tap into the signals I am making boards with male/female connectors that go between the cables and I/O board.
You could make a simple single nozzle like Haas.
 
How much do you want to make yourself?
Do you have a programmer for Atmel ATtiny44 chips? The program uses all of the I/O but three are just LED outputs to show the state of the turret, spigot command and geneva mark to show the inputs are working. In order to have the user set the number of tools it would need more inputs unless there are a limited number of tool options (10, 16, 20,?) then I could use the three LED outputs as inputs to set the number of tools.
If you want to make your own PC boards I can supply the programmed chip or I can supply the complete board.
The 530, 520 and 820 cables carry the inputs. Are these the same on the TM1? And are they 2x8 shrouded headers (520, 530) and 6 pin (820)? To tap into the signals I am making boards with male/female connectors that go between the cables and I/O board.
You could make a simple single nozzle like Haas.

Ill have to look into the cable situation when I am in the shop later. Looking into programming the ATtiny44, it looks like we can use another arduino with the ArduinoISP sketch uploaded and some basic components to program it. I have done this in the past with other atmel chips without issue.
 
I was just telling my Son to make the coolant ring! I'd be interested in that part. Sounds like a cool project. Arduino based? or that other one. ;-) We do have the PC unit.. I guess I could eBay it for what... $500 / 600. LOL. Yeah. keep us posted. I want the ring solution too. 21 TC count on ours. Thanks for posting....
 
An Arduino is overkill, the program is under 2K bytes.
One way I could setup the number of tools with only one jumper switch is to wait for tool #1 then count the number tools until #1 comes around again. Once the list is set up and the jumper removed it would bypass the tool number initialization. You would have to single step the tools around the carousel once.
Another possibility I can look into is using the AUX CNT keyboard button to set the upper and lower positions of the nozzle for each tool. When the positions are different the nozzle would move up and down whilst the tool is being used. It might be handy for deep drilling to keep the coolant from just spraying on the side of the part or high on the tool.
 
An Arduino is overkill, the program is under 2K bytes.
One way I could setup the number of tools with only one jumper switch is to wait for tool #1 then count the number tools until #1 comes around again. Once the list is set up and the jumper removed it would bypass the tool number initialization. You would have to single step the tools around the carousel once.
Another possibility I can look into is using the AUX CNT keyboard button to set the upper and lower positions of the nozzle for each tool. When the positions are different the nozzle would move up and down whilst the tool is being used. It might be handy for deep drilling to keep the coolant from just spraying on the side of the part or high on the tool.

I was talking about using an arduino as the programmer for the tiny rather than buying a dedicated programmer for it. We have literal boxes full of arduinos sitting around.

Sounds like a cool feature to move it up and down. I completely forgot to look at the cable situation for our machine. I will be using it most of the day tomorrow, hopefully I remember to take a look.
 
I checked the AUX CLT button and it is used for the through spindle coolant (M24). Presumably, anyone who has TSC would not use this nozzle, so I can use it to set the up/down limits for and oscillating nozzle.
 
I checked the AUX CLT button and it is used for the through spindle coolant (M24). Presumably, anyone who has TSC would not use this nozzle, so I can use it to set the up/down limits for and oscillating nozzle.

Interesting. Though, not all tools/tool holders support TSC. Our machine doesn't have it anyway.
 
Mine does not either but it has the buttons on the keypad.
This is a 3D model of the nozzle. I plan to use Loc-line 90 degree nozzles so there are options on diameter and aim. A Loc-line ball-1/8NPT connects it to the manifold.
The pictures show the nozzles in the up and down positions, 2.9" and 7.9" from the face of the spindle.
The tightest restriction is when picking up a tool so the three nozzles had to be mounted with one pointing toward the carousel.
The coolant ring mounts at the top of the cylindrical section of the spindle and the pivot blocks mount below that. A swash plate rotates around the spindle to move the pivot blocks.
The servo will have to mount below the cover plate behind the spindle, possibly to the left of the manifold and move the pushrod fore/aft to rotate the swash plate.
 

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Wow, wasn't expecting the multiple nozzles. I was thinking of the single long nozzle version. This is even cooler than I thought.
 
I have had several occasions when cutting around a post it got in the way of the stream.
I decided on a wedding band clamp above and below the swash plate to keep it located on the spindle. Three nylon tipped set screws in the swash plate will give a way to adjust the clearance and something to slide on.
A problem that I have run into is the block for the set screw will hit the previous tool if the nozzle is in the counter clockwise position (full down). A few ways around this, move that screw to the other side of the track, use four screws located so they do not interfere, pick up when a tool change will happen (shot pin off cable 520) or move the back side nozzle (and maybe the front side also for symmetry) away from the tool.
The tool change is the worst option in case the swash plate gets stuck. Plus it requires another cable and interface with the I/O board.
I prefer the symmetry of the nozzles so using four set screws appears to be the best solution. It is easier to centre a ring with three screws over four but it is a small price.
 
the newer VF mills have multiple jets and before buying my last new mill I turned off the P-cool to see if I really needed it and that was two years ago ,, I ordered the new machine without P-cool and have never wished I had it ,,, by moving the jets all around the spindle and at a lot less angle to the spindle its not a big deal ,, I get better coverage with the 4 or 5 spaced out jets than I ever would with the P-cool jet
 








 
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