We now offer bipolar upgrades for Compucut interfaces. All interfaces can support the new bipolar board, allowing users to work with 4 wire motors. Please phone or email for further info. (02476 473851)
We have also designed an easy to make third axis for the wolfcraft machines increasing the usability of the xy table.
Version 3.2 is still the official software provided, though it does now come with a free Beta test ver 3.3 offering some new features we hope you will find interesting.
Quin Nov 03
We have been looking at clock gears again lately, and have refined hobbing, forming, and generating techniques. We have been working with a stepper motor and an Hall effect pick up to allow the standard Compumill motor to be used in gear hobbing, a simple neat solution not needing a computer. We have made several "add ons" for the Compumill including light & heavy duty right angle drives.
The current version of the Dos software is 3.2.
Allan Good has written a great program for Compucut users called Consim - see forum for details & demo
Quin Oct 02
We have been looking at mice both as DRO's and as digitisers. The DRO project is coming along well, we are working with a couple of keen Compucutters and hope to have some good photos to post soon. The Digitising idea is up and running, and now available on the toolkit (see floater in toolkit section). Dad has also written an arc absolute routine to enable PCB milling (dry etching) from a Techsoft design tools file.
Quin Feb02
The Compumill construction manual is now available on CD. Price £25 inc. (also contains Compucutter and Wolfcraft manuals).
We have also added two more routines to the toolkit disk, to compliment the gear tooth cutting program. Spokes.exe is for crossing out clock gear wheels etc, allows for varying spoke number, and shape. It is a 3 axis program but does have a manual z axis option. Pinions.exe drills lantern gear side plates to requested dimensions.
Quin Nov 01
After five years of trading, and five years of requests for software that runs under windows, we have finally admitted that it would be easier to get up and running with a user friendly mouse driven windows program. Our beta test version is on the forum as an attachment in the messages section, software topic windows demo (message No7). Please download it, have a play and let us know what you think.
Quin Oct 01
The Compumill construction manual is complete, and is now on sale!
The manual includes text, photographs, and drawings. There is a full list of suppliers, points of contact, part numbers, and current prices for component pieces. The build is broken down into simple steps. Many options have been researched to allow the builder to develop the mill to suit personal requirements. The first configuration listed is a power feed DRO machine with no computer control at all. There then follows an extensive list of stepper driven options for X,Y,Z axes, rotary table, dividing head, and indexed head. The Compumill manual has been added to the Compucutter manual and is now available at an unchanged price of £25 plus p&p.
Quin April 01
It has been another busy year for dad and I. The forum has pretty much taken over the role of this news page, and is now our preferred point of contact. Compucam, and Compujet, were due to be launched this year, as specialised development tools for Model Internal Combustion Engine builders. Due to a lack of interest both products have been shelved. We are both still very keen on the MICE aspect, and still believe the Compucutter to be the ideal machine. We have just bought a couple of rough castings for the famous Edgar Westbury Sea Lion and are already knee deep in sketches of how we are going to CNC grind our own crank
Compucut V3 has SEVENTY instructions. (see forum for instruction set). A form of macro programming is now available which allows users to write their own code for special functions such as reading gauging heads, tool/component changing etc. User defined variables can be set to readings of external conditions and the program flow directed by the results. This allows users to branch out of the Compucut program to execute their segments of Basic, Pascal or C etc, then drop back in to the next line in the control file. As well as the many new instructions, there is a menuing front end which allows easier access to the various system programs, and also gives reminders of what is available.
Updates to Ver3 are available to registered users for 25 pounds inc.
DERVAL COMPUTING have produced an 'ENGRAVING' program for the COMPUCUT system which allows the user to place text of several font designs on the graphics screen and edit these objects in a window which shows how
the finished work will look. One can add lines to produce boxes and borders of varying depth. The text can be flipped and reversed to allow right reading characters to be produced on plastics mouldings when the moulds are engraved under a Compucut machine. The program was 'field tested' under the Wolfcraft adaptation and is easy to use. There are eight fonts supplied and the program allows the user to customise any of the standard fonts and then save this font set as their own. This font editor can also be used to generate graphics symbols such as a company logo etc. There are two forms of the program, one for Windows 3.1 and one for Windows 95/8, both are supplied on a single disk for 33 pounds inclusive.
Phone Derval on 01386 860 762 to order.
Peter Hook, a compucutter of four years experience is offering to supply the above machine in kit form for approx £200. See forum for details.
Dad and I have been looking at some new machine concepts aswell. I now have a jigsaw with a scrolling head stepper driven on a wolfcraft x,y table. I also have a "nibbler" - 4/5 finished, and a chisel (vertical pearing for thin woodwork) that will be powered by an electric nail gun, and indexed as the jig saw - 2/3 finished.
Dad has just finished "Compumill". A similar design concept to Compucutter in that it is very rigid and uses readilly available iron castings, but as a traditional x,y,z axis machine with a larger operating envelope it is a more practical machine for many jobs. Compumill can be built as a hand operated machine, then adapted for power feed and DRO, then converted to full stepper control. We are currently writing a Compumill manual.
Happy new year
Quinn Dec 00
The machines based on the wolfcraft XY table have now had quite a bit of exposure to public scrutiny. Several people are using the adaption kits, and I have done a few jobs with converted wolfcraft tables myself. The kit is now officially on sale as a tried and tested Compucut product. We can supply the metal work bracketry for £75 plus postage, or we can supply a complete kit with motors that is ready to go onto your wolfcraft xy table for £250 plus postage.
Quin May 00
We are going to launch the compukit for the wolfcraft XY table at the Woodex 2,000 woodworking show in leamington on 14th, 15th, &16th April. I have put a couple of photos on the forum showing some engraving jobs, and possible machine configurations.
Quin April 2000
Happy new year!
We are have been pretty busy lately, Dad has been writing articles for S.I.C & M.E.W mags, they will hopefully go to press in the next few months and cover data acquisition, and machine building techniques/suggestions.
I have been making kits for the "mini" range based on the wolfcraft table. I have just finished the first batch and am sending them off to be coated before offering them for sale.
Quin Jan 2,000
THE FIRST FEW COPIES OF COMP2KEY WERE RELEASED WITH A FILE FROM VERSION ONE IN PLACE OF THE CORRECT FILE FROM VERSION TWO (SILLY MISTAKE ON OUR PART). IF YOU ARE HAVING PROBLEMS WITH COMP2KEY E MAIL ME AT COMPUCUTTERS@COMPUSERVE.COM AND I WILL SEND YOU A WORKING COPY OF COMP2KEY.
QUIN DEC 99
LAUNCH OF COMPUCUTTER CONSTRUCTION MANUAL!
A manual showing the step by step text and photo sequence for DIY building of a metal turning / boring / milling CNC machine is now available. Called the 'COMPUCUTTER' the machine is built from readily available imported tooling such as a 6 inch XY crossvice and a 1/3HP pillar drill. The COMPUCUTTER is aimed at those jobs which occur regularly in MICE building (model internal combustion engines), such as GT rotors, compressors and the rods and rockers for many cylindered radials etc.
NOW AVAILABLE £25 PLUS POSTAGE
QUIN & RICHARD NOV 99
RELEASE OF VERSION 2!
New in version 2.0 of the software:
1) 3-D capability, Compucut will accept data in the form of xx,yy,zz; and will execute this using three axis interpolation.
2) Improved COMPUKEY, this can now be run in one of two modes: As a 3-axis power feed and jog to position system with screen readout of position, suitable for adding to a bench mill etc.
Or as a 'one hole at a time' programmable position controller, suitable for fitting to an X-Y table mounted under a pillar drill for use when jig-drilling.
3) The facility for control by JOYstick(s), this requires a games port or sound card. Allows the user to build his own control pod which can be built into the machine base and made suds and swarf proof.
4) Files can now be as large as the machines RAM can hold, this is MEGAbytes, and the LOOPs can now be very large.
5) People who will not remove 'Windows 9x' from their workshop PC can now use COMP2BIG for their large CAD derived files.
Note that COMP2BIG is not as fast as COMP2RAM which uses a ramdisk for data storage. So, woodworking routers use COMP2RAM as first choice.
6) The program can now be interupted at any time, and at the end of the current line segment the system will default to manual mode. In this mode the feedrates and the 3-axis position can be input for as long as necessary, then the program can be resumed. This allows a 'single step' type of program execution which is helpful when setting up a new job.
7) Compucut support is now available on E-MAIL as
COMPUCUTTERS@COMPUSERVE.COM
WHAT CAN IT DO?
COMP2KEY and COMP2CUT
At the simplest level, and useful as a gentle introduction to the technology, COMP2KEY can be used as 3-axis independently variable feed system with 3-axis readout, which is programmable for imperial or metric leadscrews of any pitch. Comp2key takes manual inputs from the keyboard, and has the option of two modes of operation.
One mode gives a programmable block move at the press of a key in either rapid or slow feedrate, so that when used under a drill with XY table, allows centre and pilot drilling of all holes accurately, and repetitively on a known matrix or grid. I think of this as 'JIG DRILLING' mode.
Comp2key's other mode gives continuos feeds in forward/reverse in 3-axes with independently variable feed rates which can be varied during cutting. It also offers a manual 'jog' input via the cursor keys to allow setting the cutter to datum, or just creeping up to final size as shown on the screen readouts. The distance moved by one 'jog-step' is programmable. The readouts can be individually reset at any time giving accurate relative moves as shown on the screen readouts. The units of the readouts are programmable for any leadscrew/gearing combinations. This is the 'WALDO' mode where the machine simply becomes an extension of the keyboard, with the bonus of the improved surface finish and increased tool life due to a constant optimum feed rate.
Another use for Comp2key is as a hardware test facility. As it requires no additional computer programming, one can enter manual mode and check feed directions and feed rates before setting the machine up for 'real' CNC.
When used on a vertical mill, COMP2CUT will generate curved / angular shapes using a small cutter, that would otherwise need a larger machine and rotary table. Program allows multiple LOOPs increasing the depth of cut by a programmable amount on each pass. This allows low-powered, un-supervised machines to remove relatively large amounts of metal. Over 100 commands can be held within a LOOP.
Particularly useful for die-sinking work as reverse lettering can be input to your program from CAD, moulds for wheels or model tyres might be of interest. The combination of CAD + Compucut's MULTI-PASS facility, makes those 'difficult' jobs such as turbine blading and aero wing rib machining an interesting project. Straight forward examples are the machining of sheets of scale chequer-plate and raised letter name plates for model locomotives.
When used on a lathe, will generate complex angles and curves that would need to be form cut, or need a copying lathe. Program allows multiple passes, automatically increasing the depth of cut on each pass, i.e. screwcutting. Allows smaller machines to tackle the larger jobs, by virtue of multiple passing, and generating rather than forming all curves and angles. The compressor and front casing for a gas turbine can be profiled this way.
Using a 20 TPI leadscrew, and a 200 step/rev motor, each unit of feed is 0.00025 inches, which offers acceptable accuracy for most amateur projects. The program accommodates any pitch of leadscrew and motors of any angular resolution.
When used on old or home-built machine tools, the user can produce a calibration file, from which COMPUCUT can, if required, 'dynamically correct' the errors in the leadscrew pitch to +/- 1 step. This feature is unique to the 'COMP-U-CUT' system. 1000 corrections for each of X, Y are stored in a calibration file.
We have put the larger routers on hold for the moment. The current project is a pulse jet engine which will finish the Compujet disk which we hope to offer for sale very early in the new year. (see compujet page for photos)
I have a much more user friendly web site on the way but it is a project that has dragged on a bit, so I launched this one quickly just to get up and running.
Yours Quin & Richard Nov 99
we are currently looking at larger routing machines a MIDI and a MAXI.
These would be suggested possible machine configurations for larger jobs than possible using the wolfcraft based MINI.
Compucut Oct 99
