TFS: Converting Chinese CNC Into Robotic TIG
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- čas přidán 2. 07. 2018
- A quick story about how and why Justin took his failed CNC machine and made it into a robotic TIG welder.
The first uninterrupted full run of the machine is at 8:30
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Not to worry... A $2000 NC plasma or a $500K German 5 axis mill does EXACTLY what you tell it to do! Even if I told the spindle nose to run as fast as it can into the trunion because I didn't home it first.
In any engineering job you should try to set aside time on a regular basis to "fool around" with stuff like this. It can seem like a time sink especially when things are busy, but in the long run things you learn can save time, make regular operations faster and it makes the job more fun. Of course there will be times when just getting customers stuff out the door is hard, but most places have slack periods, and if you've a notebook full of ideas of things to try you can make use of that time efficiently. Even if your experiments fail, you've still learned something, and probably opened up several other avenues for exploration that might not have occurred to you initially.
I used to manage an equipment service shop. I'd keep a notebook of tasks that needed to be done when things were slow. You have no idea how happy a Tech would be when I'd whip out the notebook and assign a job that the Tech suggested we needed to do. The buy-in was built in, and the Tech felt their suggestion was valuable. Win-win. Working on these rabbit holes can be a blessing in disguise...
It isn't just engineering there that kind of learning pays off. I work in a very complex business, and spending some time to learn about other areas of it has paid off over and over. I've worked for the company for 14 years now, and keep finding new layers of complexity.
This is how pioneers figure out to create greatness. Congrats man, I applaud your service to your country, and your courage to try something new. You made lemonade out of lemons 😀
Andrew Lang Thank you.
I’m 22 and very involved with learning as much as I can via CZcams and people with more experience than me. Any field I step foot in I thrive to learn as much as I can and consume anything I can because I grew up hearing from my dad that once I learn it nobody can take that away from me, this video was very inspiring and I hope to have that chance and knowledge to do something just as cool! Keep up the great work buddy.
Joey Turnage
*Never EVER lose that mentality.*
Just when I thought life gets boring at 48yrs old,I met a guy called Justin who inspired me to go out and buy a mig,Tig and a manual pipe bender.thanx Justin for all your inspirational videos .I'm a beginner but one day will be half as good as you:)
Joey Turnage
Your Dad definitely gave you some GREAT advice!
Good luck to you in all your endeavors!
Razor!
Another Veteran being awesome. Salute dude.
Justin, I am a robotic welder designer that has designed mig machines, spot welding and plastic welder (via ultrasonics) and your process was pretty much the same we use in the auto industry: design, build then perfect. The last part takes time on every machine I have had the pleasure to work on. The one thing you have to look out for is electrically isolating the fixture you are welding with from the main frame (in your case the CNC). Check out Micarta from Mcmaster. Make sure to isolate everything including bolts that attach the fixture to the CNC. Never thought of robotic tigging but THAT would be interesting.
Thank you for your service, love your collection of welders.
one of the BEST videos you’ve published, Justin. Your “Can Do” attitude is an example to all of us. Go Navy! Humble thanks for your service from a civilian. 👍👍👊👊
Good job justin and thank you for your service
This is an old video by now, but thanks for it. Not only is this really cool but its also inspirational :).
This morning I was wondering if anyone has done robotic tig welding and here I am. I have about 30 years in the tool and die industry and you HAVE inspired me.
Thank you and I'm now a new subscriber! Keep up the great work!
Thanks for sharing! I know the feeling! I built a unit from parts off the shelf from the parts room. It adds product to at a rate that can be controlled by computer 20 years ago. We still use it to this day. We built a new upgraded prototype and was built as a production model to be mass produced. It still puts a smile on my face when I think of all the people who said it “it couldn’t be done” or “it will never work”
Go Navy. Glad someone used the eduction that the government offers us. Retired Navy here. Keep up the good work.
Love it man, good stuff!
really cool story !! and motivating
Thank you for your service!
Great video and information Thanks Justin
thank you for your service.
Right on man...good job! 👍 Very motivating.
That pretty bad ass dud keep up the good work.
wowwww, thanks mate for inspiring us, you rock
I love your instructional video's. I am a 100% disabled vet as well. We normally have little classes here in my garage for other disabled vets to get the basic welding. We all have a blast at it. Good luck to you and I hope to meet up one day. God Bless.
I made a tig torch cooler out of my tile saw pump a 5 gallon bucket & a clamp. I set my welder on 250 amps & went to town, nothing got even warm. My torch was getting toasty at 175 after a couple minutes
Nice job sir. Thank you so much!!
Hey man, great video! This would be a great intro to vocational classes at the beginning of the semester.
Strokers Garage Haha... never viewed it that way but I guess it could work.
You should look into adding a jetline arc voltage control to maintain the arc distance and allow it to compensate for minor variations.
Congratulations ! We did something similar for tubes.
Golf clap. Strong work.
Congratulations, and have confidence! A curvy 3d part is a challenge for anyone doing something like this, using any kind of equipment. You do need safety sensors. You do need every thousandth of an inch of accuracy you can achieve in positioning. But you can certainly achieve those things if you decide you decide to do it. And now that you've done 3D, step back and consider that solid, accurate straight-line welds are the meat and potatoes of most fabrication. Take advantage of what you've achieved in the easier part of the exercise.
Funny you had so many issues with the Cnc I remember my old machining teacher telling us how used to get a lot of Chinese machines when he was in the rio mines in Africa apparently they were a tenth of the price that the German lathes and mills were and did require a fare amount of setting up but were really good once they were dialed in
Another excellent Video. Thankyou. I am looking at hooking up my tig to my CNC. Can I ask am I right in thinking I should not use HF start, would this blow my CNC controllers ?
That's awesome bud, that just goes to show ya don't let anyone ever tell ya you can't.
my new hero!
You are very patient but quite imaginative. What you did was not that easy
I like you Justin. Keep going!
It's not stupid if it works. I look forward to you rotating the torch head and auto feeding wire next. Well done.
Bravo!
Cool - BTW, I call those "Doh" moments.
Would it be easier to set it up as a MIG welder?
Shortly you'll want one or two more degrees of freedom so you can complete the welds, rather than backing off at the ends. Really good use of what you had, but thought of a great way to combine. These videos are why I subscribe - great work!
James Wyatt I'll most likely play with it some more in the future. I'm hooked on engineering solutions.
The video is very tempting for me to try it out. But....let me give my machine a chance of life.
That’s cool!!! Thanks
Justin
If you use Mach3 software to control your steppers or servos, you can use an app called copy-cat which allows you to make complex paths easily. You just position your torch where you want it and hit enter (I think) and it records the x y z co-ordinates at that point. Go on to the next point and repeat. Pretty soon you have generated a torch path. Mach3 demo software is free and it allows about 500 g-code commands. That should be plenty.
An arc gap controller works well, too. You dial in the voltage and the z axis moves up or down to try to match the specified voltage. TIG controllers are stupid expensive. I have always wondered if you could modify a plasma gap controller to work. Plasma voltage runs about 10 times what TIG runs so a smart person (not me!) should be able to make a voltage divider. Plasma controllers are dirt cheap. With an arc gap controller, the torch will allow you to weld complex shapes since the torch is forced to keep the voltage constant regardless of the contour.
I used it years ago to weld irregularly shaped medical devices before CNC was readily available to real people.
Have you thought about plasma cutting fish mouth chassis tubes with CNC? Bend-tech software has all the right pieces if you know a smart person (not me!).
Bill B
Boom 💥Awesome Video !!
MilkyCereal83 #Booya! Thanks buddy!
All you need now it's auto wire feed for tig and you have an auto welder... Well done!
My control box on my plasma table goes tits up every time my high frequency comes on my tig machine.
Monkey Fabrication Garage If I had the advice to offer, I would. I thought my table would dry with high frequency starts but it's all good.
Pleasure to meet another Veteran, see you at the next meeting...
hi, my name is Hayden and I am just turned 15 and was looking to get a new welder to start welding and was looking at the Hobart 500559 Handler 140 MIG Welder and was wondering if any would recommend something different under 500$ any advice will help.
How many TIGs or inverter do you need to do your job?!? 😁. Btw, I also have the Everlast. I very satisfied with it. Good video
that's awesome
All you need is an A axis and do tube welding all the way around, or O2 bungs etc
Sicktrickintuner That would be cool
Where in the world does one get the tungsten stick out gauge block from? That's pretty awesome!
Make one. I'll show you in the next vid.
That would be awesome!!
I don't think you have enough welding machines Guy! Lol
Ro-Tig.... dam
nice man.
so cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
cool !!!
Definitely appreciate your approach on this one... thanks for sharing. Putting things in perspective can take you a long way. Nice job man!
From one Navy vet to another, THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE JUSTIN!
Ray Goff, NMCB 5, Seabee Battalion, Port Hueneme, Ca.
Thank you for your service!
I am curious as to what your rating was in the Navy?
And how long you served?
As a First Class Petty officer my guess is that it was like at least 8 years - iirc, right?
USNR 10/67 to 10/73 ATN 3rd class (Aviation Electronics Technician - Navigation)
Went thru Reserve Basic @ NAS Memphis and (across the road) NATTC Memphis in Jan thru May of 1968. Good basic education in electronics which helped me a lot as an automotive service technician a few years later and while I was still a "Weekend Warrior" @ NAS Glenview. Safer choice for me to join the reserves and pick the branch I would serve with, rather than waiting for the draft and possibly ending up in the Army and get sent to Viet Nam.
I was in SONAR for a few years and crossed to Engineman. Made 2nd in 3.5 years. I probably would have made Chief in 8 or 9 years if I was able to stay. I was doing well. They retired me 1 month before my 4th year.
Whoops, thought I saw 3 chevron stripes on your left sleeve in that photo. 3.5 years is quick advancement to 2nd class P.O. - at least back in my day.
Good job man. Now go build yourself a robot arm and make it perfect! You can do it!
i see the HTP is missing in the line up ? is that the one on the cnc table ?
ZILA Sure was!
that is a fine machine ... now that you made your cnc table into a cnc welding table you need a cnc cutting table with an htp cutter on it .... LOL
ZILA Definitely one of my favorite machines. I thought a few times about converting the CNC into a plasma table. I might still do it if I can find the time.
That’s his secretly favorite machine Pete lol
Welding Junkie He was the first guy to see me use it haha.
Cool
Look up garmin lidar here.
If you can make the lidar and the CNC welder "talk to each other", you'll print money.
Thanks for the inspiration, I'm also a vet that is unable to work at my normal job do to a service connected injury. This gives me some needed motivation.
brenton freeman Thank you for your service. It's tough learning life all over again, but theres always something one can do - just gotta find it. I wish you the best!
The Fabrication Series thanks for your service and thanks for the response, i have been trying to figure out what my next move is going to be, I've been following you for a while and it's a push in a direction that I needed. Thank you and you can probably guess what I'm wanting to do.
So the next question is, have you gone through different stick out lengths, feed speeds, amperage levels, etc, to demonstrate what's good, what's marginal, what doesn't work?
Edit - did you use filler for this test?
Dude we’re you an HT?
well said, i tell my kids all the time you can do anything, the only limitation is you.
I see a FFG in the background were you stationed on one?
pgf202 Sure was. 48
Nice, I was on 50 from 99-03 , sadly they have all been decommissioned or sold to other countries.
5 axis dude, you need it.
You should try doing it with mig and make a 3d printer with a welder
Inspirational
I going to be designing and building my own SXS soon for school and I currently have a tig welder but I am shooting for a chrome-moly buggy and am in the market for a tig welder I thinking I am going to spend around $800-$1500USD what welder should I get?
Gunnar get the HTP Pro Pulse it’s same as the dynasty 210 DX maybe better. If you are stuck at that budget get a used maxstar 210 DX if you don’t do aluminum. If you do everlast 210 ext if all else isn’t possible for last resort
Gunnar For your price range, I usually recommend an Everlast because it will deliver plenty to get started. Most people don't need more than 200 amps. The 210EXT or 200DV will do the job well within or close to that budget. My top two machines (for higher budgets) are the HTP Invertig 221 (used in this vid), Everlast 255EXT, and the top is the Fronius Magicwave 230i. The first 2 are over $2k, the Fronius is over $4k. All of them will destroy a Dynasty. The Fronius will take a dump on a Dynasty with style added for insult.
The Fabrication Series I agree with you. I love my Invertig 221 like I love to breath but My Dynasty DX does have a 60% duty cycle at 210 compared to the invertig at 20% at 210 amps and it’s $500 more for the 110v option which is more for stick...But I’ve done mostly aluminum so I buy my tigs based off that..I’d skip right to fronius if I had the money. But The Dynasty holds its own against them. I don’t own everlast but if I bought one it would be the 255ext. Everlast and the dynasty have same duty cycle. The Dynasty 200 is junk with a weak duty cycle.
Welding Junkie I started ignoring duty cycles all together. It's a nice reference, but realistically, its irrelevant unless you're into actual continuous use. The other factors like pulse and bias (if equipped) change it up even more. The 221 has never given me a gripe and I've (very seriously) tried to trip it and break it.
My old Dynasty would throw fits regularly. I got tired of that machine and with its legacy of "end all be all - OMG a Dynasty" in mine and everyone else head, I was very disappointed with it. There is so much better for the consumer out there and numbers are just a reflection of how the manufacturer tests them.
Are you going to try manually feeding the wire in? That would be cool to watch. You could have the rod mounted at a fixed point and have the machine move towards it. Having the feed and amps set up corectly it should melt it in time to keep moving forwards. Darn it why are you so far away. Would mind helping you with that. Now I have to wait for the next vid. LOL
Danylo66 I'm working out a wire feeder system in my mind now. Maybe I'll get something together if I keep up with this
Cool looking forward to it. Don`t give up.
And Have a great 4th of July.
Now really scramble your brain. Add two more axis so the torch can stay perpendicular to the work piece. Fusion 360 is capable of setting up CAM for that and don't know what controller your using buck Mack3 works fine on 5 axis. Best of luck with it. Cheers.
The next step is to set up a wire feeder and feed Mig wire into the weld. We used to weld seams like that welding flat sheets together before rolling it into a tank. Have a look at these, I've worked on machines like these that have wire feeders: czcams.com/video/-9fST0VkY8k/video.html & czcams.com/video/KWlQW0Xm6N4/video.html
Now just connect a mig with no earth for wire feed, fully automated tig!
Send this to the chanel AvE
Question: Why do you have sixteen welders?..............Answer........Because you haven't found the seventeenth one yet! Hello my fellow welder hoarder.
Bryan Lawless Its actually because we teach welding here at the shop, but I do like seeing all of them grouped up on the shelf. It's pretty cool.
All you need is second hand 6 axis robot which you buy cheap becouse all the big manufacturing firms are sacred of them and been brain washed into only buying new ones. I have about 20 robots some were bought for scap cost including cloos comau and komasu easy to program and will weave. What got me into it I was making a lot of my own fabricated products so I built a 5 axis robot without knowing about the second hand market back in the 90s
make subtitled videos You are a crack but for me I am from Spain it is impossible for me to understand you. and I try hard to believe me. a greeting . very good videos this is taken from Google translator. Hahaha
Kinda pointless without a 5axis head....
Anybody with $10k+ and hours to burn can do it. lol
TheDistur Anyone with less money and a drive will do the same. I can definitely say that it could be done for waaaaaayyy less than 10k.