The small CNC is again such an eternal construction site that keeps me from the actual project. But without suitable tools or machines, such a project is also difficult to realize, unless you can just buy everything.
But I don't have the financial means for that and even my newer machines (the two 3D-printers and the CNC - the mill and the lathe I've bought many years ago) didn't cost half of an Apache HOCAS, if you would buy it.
But I hope that part is finished soon now and things are running, so I can use them for the real project. But who knows what will happen again. Those cheap machines have always their little problems and professional tools do cost so much, that you can really buy already finished HOTAS systems.
I mounted two printed turbine wheels on the motor to cool the engine better and to blow away the chips from the milling process. I reworked the turbines a bit on my lathe to have a clean rotation without any vibrations. There will also be added a turbine shell at the bottom one.
Had some trouble with the 3D-printer, respectively with broken cables again. Now I've had enough and changed every single wire, even the ones for the sensor and the stepper, to 230V flexible electric wires 😅.
There are 12 wire which go to my head, and as 1.5mm² wires are a bit bigger as the original ones, I splitted them in three sets of four wires each at the bend radius. Now I hope the constant cable breaks are history.
I also added a 12pol plug a while ago to be able to easily remove the head from the printer. I did the same for the print bed cables with a 4pol plug.
Now the work at the little CNC continues. I'm just making the housing for the mill-bed with an closable lid. This should prevent all those chips from flying arround all over my workspace while milling PCB's. After this the drag-chain system has to be done. Then the mill is also ready and I can finally do my HOTAS parts, I hope 🤔.
While the HOTAS parts are printing, I will do some learning in CNC milling and how to use the software for it. I want to make all my further circuits for the HOTAS with "self-milled" PCB's 😁.
P.S:
I'm also able to print with my favorite high temperatures for PLA again. I had to adjust many settings to be able to get good results after I switched to a new hotend and the direct drive. But now everything works fine again with the high temperature. I'm printing ordinary PLA with a temp of 235°. This way the parts, respectively their layers look much cleaner and the parts are also much stronger. The first layer is also much better to do with 235° nozzle temp and a bed temp of 60°, cause the filament applicates perfect to the print bed.
yes that's the model with the better frame. Mine has only those aluminium profile parts, but it was the only version of the 1610 that also had the offline controller. A 3018 would be a dream, cause you really can cut panels with it. The 1610 is much too small for that, but I have no more room in my workshop for a bigger one.
It looks like the CNC also uses g-code, but in another way as the 3D-printer. I'm still looking for a good alternative program to use with CNC. The one that comes with our machines should not be the best, as far as I have read on the web. But until now I had not much time to test it, so who knows.
Take a look at the Z-axis. On mine I wasn't able to reach the full 40mm in height if a cutter is attached. That was the reason I changed some things on my machine with selfprinted parts. I will rarely use this, but who knows. So I wanted to correct it before I have a need for it.
One thing that makes me sceptical is the PSU which is delivered with our machines. Maybe I will change this somewhere in future to a Mean Well PSU, like the ones that is used at our printers.
P.S:
And check your mainboard and your stepper drivers. On mine there was one smd capacitator broken off at one of the stepper drivers. I have ordered a new set with five drivers for only 9,99€. Haven't tested my own repair until now, although I have soldered the smd capacitor back, but tomorrow the new stepper drivers will arrive so I don't want to risk anything.
And I'm just thinking about a way to level the mills bed. I think that it has also to be as exact as on a 3D-printer. For sure this can also be done the hard machanical way while putting the CNC together, but thats not a lot of fun to do with those chevrons and the screws.
The work on the CNC continues after my project for it on TinkerCAD get lost 🤬.
It was the first time a project was really completely lost. Never had that before. It was still in my catalog of projects, but if I want to open it nothing happens, but an endless loading screen. As it's only the CNC I did not made a backup of all the parts before, like I did for all my HOTAS parts. And bingo, the most worst case happened. I should have known it 😅.
I was able to restore some earlier designs out of my recycler and with a programm that searches the HD for deleted files, so that I don't have to do all the work from scratch again. Now all needed parts are back again and the last missing ones I'm still printing. After this I will print all my HOTAS parts finally and nothing else!
Have already lost a lot of time with all those troubles with my printer and now this BS again. I hope I'm able to print all HOTAS until the summer arrives, so I can do the paintwork.
All parts for the little CNC are done now. I added a holding device for a "victim plate", which then gets holes for the profile nuts and bolts to clamp things on the bed. I made it to the sides of the bed to be able to really use the full size of the bed for working and not to waste space for holding down this "victim plate". The nuts are made in a way that they could put from the top inside the furrow, so there is no need to slip them in from the sides. I will also make some holding frames which can be screwed to this side mounts for fixing the blank pcb's I want to use.
I also added an extra frame arround the original motor mount which my fan duct with the two super white LED's is mounted to. I wanted to have something similar at my mill as I have it on my printers head to be able to exactly see what happend at the cutters head. If all works like it should the second fan in the duct blows away the chips from the milling process and you can exactly see the progress in the process, cause of those two LED's.
All parts except the drag chain itself are constructed by myself with the use of TinkerCAD. 😄 The big front-lid which should prevent chips from blowing out to the front is still missing and I'm not sure if I will mount it, cause it's a nother big part for printing and I want to see if it's necesarry at all. There is also a second fan inside the upper duct on top of the motor. Both fans should cool down the motor sucking air through it.
The cable that goes from the front mounted display is misplaced inside the right frame on top of the Plexiglas plate. It has a special tunnel for this. To prevent the cable from slipping out, I put ducted tape on it an painted it black. To have both sides similar and let the hole machine look a bit better I made the same at the other side and on the cable chain guide also. The back plate of the machine ( a rest piece of a cabinet back wall I had lying arround) has still to be painted in satin black.
The complete electrical parts has still to be done, but I can now use my printer to start printing all my HOTAS parts. 🙂
Second part of my Apache top grip of the collective. The first part I did back a few weeks with the old bowden system. This time I need no more brim arround, thanks to my convertion to direct drive and a few other optimations I have made. This saves the annoying remove of a brim and the deburring of the parts after the print. Since my rework I never had to use a brim anymore, even at larger parts, cause I can use higher nozzle temps as with the normal drive without drops or any kind of stringing, also if a part has very long travels at some points of the print.
Nonetheless I think about buying a bigger resin printer. I really prever FDM, cause of the greater effort printing with resin makes and the horrible smell it produces, but the print-times with FDM are sometimes ridiculous for the HOTAS parts. This part alone needs 26 hours to get finished with a 0.12mm layer heigth and the quality settings I want to have.
Only thing that keeps me away from it at the moment is the cost of a new resin printer (my original Anycubic Photon is much too small for this) and the cost of resin compared to FDM filament. The results aren't bad with my FDM now and I want to have all my HOTAS spraypainted anyway, so after printing with 0.12mm layer height and the paintwork there isn't anything to see of the FDM production process the parts was made with, but the time is really a big deal for so much parts I want to make.
With resin this part would only take 12 hours and I even could do two parts at once without expanding the printing time, cause for a resin printer it makes no difference how wide or deep the part you print is, only thing that really counts is the z-height (ok not quite but almost). I could for sure print also a second part with my FDM in parallel but this nearly doubles the time as oppossed to the same if you do it on a resin printer. That's really the only reason I want to have a second resin printer now. The quality resin is nicer, but if you rework a FDM part and paint the part after the print anyway it makes no more difference.
Edit: I already increased the print speed to 125% on my Ender now. But this is really the max speed I can run. Must be arround 70mm/s.
Pic-1: First Layers Pic-2: 3 hours later Pic-3: 6 hours later Pic-4: 16 hours later
The work on the Apache parts is progressing, at least as far as printing is concerned. In about an hour I can start to print the last part. After that I will print the Kiowa HOCAS and the collective of the Blackhawk. For the Blackhawk, I'm using a modified Thrustmaster X-Fighter grip from my inventory as the cyclic.
At the CNC there is also further work to do, because I still have to make all the wiring and all my stock solid cables are of course a bit too short, because of the used drag chain. Therefore, I have to extend some, which I really hate.
Soldering without being able to rest my arms somewhere has become a real torture due to my health restrictions and as much as I used to like doing this fine work, it's even harder for me now. Unfortunately the table is full when the CNC is on it and so I can put my arms nowhere. Working lying on the floor is probably also not a solution. The workshop is simply too small for an old, battered man 😂.
Small update for anyone who prints my Apache collective. I've made a construction mistake at the bottom trigger section! This is really not good for FDM printing, cause it's a pain to remove the support at this particular place of the part. I used a Dremel and did some "corrections" to it 😂. Sorry for this!
Maybe block supports at this little section (the hole is small enough to print it without support or reconstruct this part a bit. I will make an update to my parts at this section at a later time, cause I have still so much other work to do, but as strong as the whole print is, I think it will never break and it's very unlikely to need a spare part somewhwere in future. 😅
My new little love is ready now 😍. Ok, just seen I still missed some small screws to fix the frame arround the motor mount and two at the drag chain holder 😬. But's that's done within minutes, the holes are already there. The ER11 milling chuck can still easily be removed. I only must unscrew the frame arround the motor mount to do this. But I will very rarely have a reason to do this an change this chuck with anything else, cause this machine is mainly meant for PCB making. I also corrected the z-height 25mm up, to be able to use the full z-travel. Don't now if I ever need it, but I want to have it 😅. I used a printed frame part for this.
Now I have to construct a small housing for the PSU with a lighted 230V main switch on it. I don't want to have the PSU always attached to the 230V power network. The little microswitch on the mainboard will always stay in the on-position and the CNC 's power will only be switched with a big switch on the PSU, which is placed to the right side of the mill then.
The first picture is what i got and the rest what i made from it 😄:
Good luck with the CNC , I started years ago with a CNC for hobby parts.. and it's been an addiction ever since. I think i've build 4 now, working on my 5th the story never ends.
Found your thread while searching the web for a DIY AH-64 Collective. Ever since the early acces release of DCS AH-64D I've been thinking about getting a collective or making one. Not sure yet which route to take, I've been thinking about using an existing base to start with like the one from Virpil. But on the other hand.. If I'm going to build the grip myself, why not also spend time on the base.
I found an AH-64 collective handle on Grabcad, but it's not really to my liking. I'll be keeping my eye on your thread!
thanks! If you like you can have my STL's as a start. They aren't perfect, cause this was my first HOTAS project and I also made some mistakes, especially in case of the removability of the support after the print, but maybe it's easier to have something to start with as to build from scratch.
The new little love is on it's place and working 😍! Homing also works like a charme with the three endstop switches, even with the offline controller only. The projects will saved to an SD-card and then transfered to the CNC, which runs independently from a PC. I wanted to have it this way (and make it the same with all my 3d-printers), because i didn't want the computer to have to run all the time when producing a part.
I made some addons for the power supply with a lighted power switch, an external reset button and integrated an cinch-plug for a removeable probe system.
Now the work at some PCB's for my HOTAS could also begin, provided I learn the creation of circuits and how to mill them properly, also. 😅
The print of the Apache collective is finished (some of the supports where really hard to remove - sorry again to all others that made it also - but those are my first selfconstructed HOTAS 😬) and I've started with the first part of my OH-58D Kiowa cyclic.
I would love to give your grip a try! Maybe it's a good start, it sure looks better then the design I have now. Just let me know how I can get the files. It sure is handy to have the grip on order to see what to do with the collective base. When I look at the Virpil base and read some of the user feedback I'm afraid the handle is too long to mount an AH-64 collective on it. I have some ideas for a collective base, and it's not that difficult to machine one I guess.. better to give that a try then to spend so much money on a collective...
, I started years ago with a CNC for hobby parts.. and it's been an addiction ever since. I think i've build 4 now, working on my 5th 
the story never ends.