As of this evening there’s officially an ATC-spindle equipped Sienci Labs Altmill in the stable! It’s the 4x4 version, with the pwncnc ATC spindle. It runs grblHAL as the firmware.
This thread will serve as a development log as we work towards ATC setup and integration. Much more to follow!
Update time!
I’ve added a shelf using the provided holes for some scrap 2x4 ledgers and a sheet of 3/4" baltic birch as the shelf for rigidity, along with some cable management.
And with that out of the way, it’s time to fire it up for the first chips!
With the T tracks installed, it’s time to cut the 6.125" MDF spacers, then face the table to the spindle.
Some updates - spoilboard installed and surfaced with MillMage. I also have both the touchoff probe and the corner finding probe working! Building out some macros has been fun, and has definitely highlighted the need for us to provide macro templates when possible, because not everyone is going to know how to write GCode by hand for the common macros (go to machine corner, tool change position, etc)
Pocketed down .5" .375" diameter bores with a 1/8" 2fl flat endmill, then drilled thru with that same endmill. Slats between the T-tracks were fastened down with two strips of 2" wide double sided tape along the long edges, then burnished down with a hammer, and finally screwed in with the particle board screws.
Altmill T slot Table - Spoilboard Inserts.mage (31.1 KB)
I spent a little time and connected my CW-5202 chiller to the IOT port on the PWNCNC ATC VFD with an IOT relay - now, when the VFD turns on, the chiller does too. Nice!
Made some signage today and poked through the ATC macros now available from Sienci in gSender 1.6.0-Edge-1 - 📌 Release Thread - Sienci Community Forum
There are some pretty awesome improvements in there. I’d like to get my spindle tool changing, but am looking into what IO is required to the SLB-EXT controller. The Sienci first-party spindle appears to use a daughterboard that is mounted in the spindle to handle the tool presence detection and actuating the solenoid/dust blast, so figuring out how that is wired into the macros/board will be critical for me to proceed.
