Equipment/CNC Model Mill/Training

Equipment / CNC Model Mill / Training

Roland Mill Training

This page documents the process for being trained to use the, and the list of members who have completed that training.

Summary

Training takes place in three main steps:

• Group Training of 1-4 members, going through the equipment and how to use it (~1hr)
• Individual Training Task, where an individual member is set a task to complete to prove and improve understanding (~30min each)
• Project Oversight, where more experienced users oversee the projects being undertaken when cutting (first 2-3 projects)

Training on the mill is run by the mill Owners. The mill Owners are a group of people responsible for maintaining and training on the mill, and hence have been trained to train, and trained to perform the weekly and monthly maintenance on the mill.

Booking

Sessions are advertised on http://meetup.makespace.org

• For discussing training, or requesting additional slots if needed, use the mailing list thread: Training : Roland Mill

Notes:

• You can only be trained if you have your name allocated to a slot (groups will be restricted to four at a time, so please don't make up additional spaces)
• You must do the group and individual training on the same day

Trained Users

The following members of Makespace are owners of the mill, so are trained to use and teach use of the Mill:

• Stephen Woolhead
• Paul Osborn

The following members of Makespace are trained and qualified to use the Mill (note, they are not qualified to train others however):

• Alexis Mather (Stephen Woolhead, 4/04/2013)
• Rachel Rayns (Stephen Woolhead, 10/04/2013)
• Henry Gomersall (Stephen Woolhead, 10/04/2013)
• Andrew Dunn (Stephen Woolhead, 10/04/2013)
• Edward Imhagwe (Stephen Woolhead, 10/04/2013)
• Kim Spence-Jones (Stephen Woolhead, 10/04/2013)
• Chris Voth (Stephen Woolhead, 11/04/2013)
• Chris Abri (Stephen Woolhead, 11/04/2013)
• Joe Tapply (Stephen Woolhead, 11/04/2013)
• Dave Ansell (Stephen Woolhead, 16/04/2013)
• Gaye Soykok (Stephen Woolhead, 16/04/2013)
• Martin de Selincourt (Stephen Woolhead, 16/04/2013)
• Andy Fisher (Stephen Woolhead, 16/04/2013)
• Mark Tillotson (Stephen Woolhead, 16/04/2013)
• Tom Ingham(Stephen Woolhead, 17/04/2013)
• David Esteves (Stephen Woolhead, 17/04/2013)
• Wayne Keenan (Stephen Woolhead, 17/04/2013)
• David Bebb (Stephen Woolhead 9/5/2013)
• Patrick Greaney (Stephen Woolhead 9/5/2013)
• Paul Osborn (Stephen Woolhead 9/5/2013)
• Adrian Carr (Stephen Woolhead 9/5/2013)
• ST John (Stephen Woolhead 14/5/2013)
• Anne Harrison (Stephen Woolhead 14/5/2013)
• Maciek Piatek (Stephen Woolhead 14/5/2013)
• Tim Thornton (Stephen Woolhead 14/5/2013)
• J. Antonio Barragan (Stephen Woolhead 14/5/2013)
• John Sturdy (Stephen Woolhead 16/5/2013)
• Peter Provis (Stephen Woolhead 16/5/2013)
• Steve Upton (Stephen Woolhead 16/5/2013)
• Moin Ali(Stephen Woolhead 16/5/2013)
• Dan Tidhar (Stephen Woolhead 21/8/2013)
• Jason White (Stephen Woolhead 21/8/2013)
• Adrian van den Heever (Stephen Woolhead 21/8/2013)
• Stacy ??? (Stephen Woolhead 21/8/2013)
• Toby Moncaster (Stephen Woolhead 28/8/2013)
• Arun (Jake) Rao (Stephen Woolhead 28/8/2013)
• Benyahmin Kidder (Stephen Woolhead 28/8/2013)
• James Waldmeyer (Stephen Woolhead 28/8/2013)
• Alexsandar Tomic (Paul Osborn 13/12/2013)
• David Cox (Paul Osborn 13/12/2013)
• Josh Keeler (Paul Osborn 18/12/2013)
• Armando Carlone (Paul Osborn 18/12/2013)
• Richard Fosh (Paul Osborn 18/12/2013)
• John Campbell (Paul Osborn 15/1/2014)
• Theo Sanderson (Paul Osborn 15/1/2014)
• Steve Jeapes (Paul Osborn 15/1/2014)
• Matt Grimes (Paul Osborn 22/1/2014)
• Harry Braviner (Paul Osborn 22/1/2014)
• Aaron Jacobsen (Paul Osborn 22/1/2014)
• Campbell McIlroy (Paul Osborn 29/1/2014)
• Peter Knight (Paul Osborn 29/1/2014)
• Steve Ogborne (Paul Osborn 29/1/2014)
• Ben Butler (Paul Osborn 5/2/2014)
• Patrick Wollner (Paul Osborn 5/2/2014)
• Paul Edgington (Paul Osborn 5/2/2014)
• Laura James (Paul Osborn 9/2/2014)
• Michael Dales (Paul Osborn 9/2/2014)
• Riccardo Gherardi (Paul Osborn 9/2/2014)
• Vincent Sanders (Paul Osborn 9/2/2014)
• Ian Mcfar (Paul Osborn 17/2/2014)
• Francisco Cordobes (Paul Osborn 17/3/2014)
• Andy Gane (Paul Osborn 17/3/2014)
• Robert Karpinski (Paul Osborn 17/3/2014)
• Mark Cheverton (Paul Osborn 24/3/2014)
• Dave H (Paul Osborn 24/3/2014)
• Eric Jones (Paul Osborn 7/4/2014)
• Neil Tan (Paul Osborn 7/4/2014)
• Peter Mottram (Paul Osborn 7/4/2014)
• Hidde-Jan Lemstra (Paul Osborn 7/4/2014)
• Diana Probst (Paul Osborn 28/5/2014)
• Martin Lenz (Paul Osborn 28/5/2014)
• Al Napp (Paul Osborn 28/5/2014)
• Owen Woods (Paul Osborn 28/5/2014)
• Rob Yates (Paul Osborn 14/7/2014)
• Shashank Srinvasan (Paul Osborn 14/7/2014)
• David Taylor (Paul Osborn 14/7/2014)
• Matthew Taylor (Paul Osborn 21/7/2014)
• Rob Voisey (Paul Osborn 21/7/2014)
• Jon Baxter (Paul Osborn 21/7/2014)
• Ben Alper (Paul Osborn 15/9/2014)
• Stevan Wing (Paul Osborn 15/9/2014)

Training Cheatsheet

The training structure and prompt sheet. Please note, this is used by the Mill Owners as a prompt to ensure training is executed in a consistent and complete fashion; this does not constitute and is not a substitute for the training itself.

Group Training

The group training introduction structure, suitable for 1-4 members at a time in a 1 hr session.

Mill Basics

• Cover the basic mechanics of an 3 axis mill.
• Explain the difference between machine co-ordinates and user co-ordinates
• Cover the different types of cutters, ball, square etc.
• Explain collets and how to change the cutter.
• Cover types of materials than can be cut on the mill, wood, plastics, NO METAL
• Cover how to fix work piece to bed.

VPanel

• Show how to move cutter around in X, Y and Z free hand
• Show how to change the rapid speed, and explain difference between low/high and steps
• Show how to set XYZ origins.
• Show how to set Z origin using sensor.
• Show how to move to set co-ordinates and make relative moves.
• Explain how to switch to G-Code load G-Code files

Click Mill

• Explain how to do basic operations such as pocket and surface.
• Cover the basic cutting parameters, such as feed rates, spindle speed, cutting in amount and path interval.

SRP Player

• File formats that can be loaded (STL/IGES/Rhino)
• Rotating imported model to correct orientation.
• Scale model if needed.
• Cover type of milling
  • Surface finish
  • Flat / curved
  • What cutting top or top and bottom means
  • Adding supports
• Explain creation of tool paths
• Set the size of the work piece and material
• Create initial tool path
• Show cutting preview and explain how it can show cutting errors by flicking between model and preview.
• Show how to edit cutting paths, change tools and cutting area and depth.
• Show margins and slope and re-generate tool paths.
• Open and show the sample project 'thing.srp' as an example of how tool paths can be tweaked to reduce cutting times and optimize support material.

Cut 2D

• Open sample project to show basics of tool paths and 3D preview.
• Refer people to the videos on the Cut2D website.

Q and A

Individual Training Task

The individual task to get familiar, prompt questions and check understanding:

• Power machine on
• Change the current tool, demonstrating understand of the collet system and correct positioning of cutter in collet. Ensure that the cutter is not dropped.
• Position the cutter over the XY origin and set as origin in user co-ordinates.
• Set the Z origin using the sensor.
• Using the ClickMill software cut a 20x20mm pocket 5mm deep offset by 5,5mm from the origin.
• Pause the job midway through, then restart it.
• Clean machine.
• Turn off.

Project Oversight

For next 2-3 projects or until they are comfortable, projects should be machine out of soft materials only such as foam, that way if a mistake is made no damage will be caused to the machine and an expensive block of material lost. If possible the newly trained user should find another more experienced trained user to support them (second pair of eyes) in their first couple of projects, or any time they are unsure.

If in doubt ask for advice!!