Anyone try Interceptor speargun?

[popgun pete]

As in any activity for which there is a market that market can be segmented into separate categories and one of those will be for high end products. Like luxury vehicles there will only be so many buyers for thousand dollar plus spearguns, once I could have said thousand dollar spearguns, but prices have crept up in the last decade or so.

Some years ago I visited a recently opened dive shop and was amazed by a display of cross-sectioned scuba regulators and other almost museum quality displays which the owner’s wife told me had been done specially for their shop. That sort of thing done with precision is expensive! She said diving was a hobby for them and her husband had been very successful elsewhere and that they didn’t need to rely on the shop being profitable. They also carried a lot of spearguns, in fact I bought one from them. In three years they were gone and the shop closed, some hobbies can be rather expensive.

In the case of spearguns there is also product liability, happily this does not come up very often, but the implications of large financial losses in court cases has seen a number of gun builders leave the scene once they realize what can happen.

[Diving Gecko]

Originally Posted by gspearguns

I am graduated electric engineer and this is not my main job for living. Story started when I was building speargun for my son, 9 years ago.

That's very cool and thanks so much for elaborating.
I guess your professional background might have made it a little easier for you to get the hang of running a CNC router? I have been reading and researching for more than a year and it seems with the cheaper options, you often have to troubleshoot and upgrade electronics a fair bit. Especially, the Chinese machines allegedly often don't use proper grounding which can result in noise and missed steps.

Ooops, sorry for the thread drift...

[gspearguns]

Originally Posted by Diving Gecko

That's very cool and thanks so much for elaborating.
I guess your professional background might have made it a little easier for you to get the hang of running a CNC router? I have been reading and researching for more than a year and it seems with the cheaper options, you often have to troubleshoot and upgrade electronics a fair bit. Especially, the Chinese machines allegedly often don't use proper grounding which can result in noise and missed steps.

Ooops, sorry for the thread drift...

I have 1218 (1200x1800 mm) 4 axis chinese router. It works ok for more than 3 years when I rewire some part of it. When it comes moving worked fine but spindle was completely wrong wired.
It is a little noisy, but who cares. But never had any problem while routing, missed steps never occured. If you had that problem maybe low computer memory caused that?

[spearq8]

Originally Posted by gspearguns

I have 1218 (1200x1800 mm) 4 axis chinese router. It works ok for more than 3 years when I rewire some part of it. When it comes moving worked fine but spindle was completely wrong wired.
It is a little noisy, but who cares. But never had any problem while routing, missed steps never occured. If you had that problem maybe low computer memory caused that?

I have on order a Chinese lathe + milling machine combination for small metal works. The plan is to add a CNC retrofit somehow in the future. But now you have me worried about the "wiring". How was the wiring wrong?

[Diving Gecko]

Originally Posted by spearq8

I have on order a Chinese lathe + milling machine combination for small metal works. The plan is to add a CNC retrofit somehow in the future. But now you have me worried about the "wiring". How was the wiring wrong?

If yours is a manual Sieg or one of the clones, I think you’ll be fine. They are generally simple and sorted. But the cheapest CNC offerings are sometimes not. Eg. a lot of them use USB for sending g-code in real time which according to my research can be a can of worms as USB doesn’t have the greatest timing protocol and can be knocked out of sync by noisy signals. Which could happen from e.g. ungrounded spindles. Or from something as simple as an app on the computer automatically being updated.
If the steppers are open loop and not particular strong, they are also more susceptible to losing steps. But I’m talking issues on the cheapest machines.
I’ve spent more than a year soaking up bits and pieces of info and can shoot you an email on my condensed thoughts at some point. E.g. about which controllers I’d go with if I was building a machine now.
I actually think you can make CNC cut trigger sears on a homemade cnc but would help if it was really rigid. People are building small epoxy-granite machines now with linear rails and very affordable servos or closed loop steppers. I think these can be made to be cheap, yet very capable for small build volumes. Some nice examples on YouTube of builds like these.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[gspearguns]

Originally Posted by spearq8

I have on order a Chinese lathe + milling machine combination for small metal works. The plan is to add a CNC retrofit somehow in the future. But now you have me worried about the "wiring". How was the wiring wrong?

5 wires are used for spindle controling, 3 phases and 2 for speed control. All five were wrong connected. When came, router respond on movement commands on all axis but spindle was dead.

[popgun pete]

Originally Posted by gspearguns

5 wires are used for spindle controling, 3 phases and 2 for speed control. All five were wrong connected. When came, router respond on movement commands on all axis but spindle was dead.

Not surprising, I had a brand new kitchen appliance blow the fuses the first time I that switched it on, made in China of course where quality control and inspection seems to be a delete option at their end. Having cooked its wiring it went in the trash.

[spearq8]

Originally Posted by gspearguns

5 wires are used for spindle controling, 3 phases and 2 for speed control. All five were wrong connected. When came, router respond on movement commands on all axis but spindle was dead.

Hmmm ... I was surprised how many times they asked what my local electricity was and whether I wanted single or three phase power. I guess I better check the wiring and the specs they made before wiring up. The unit I bought does not have CNC but I plan to do that later with a CNC kit retrofit. There is what seems a very good CNC milling machine from China (SYIL) but they are very expensive.

[Diving Gecko]

I think the Syil is OK for small production runs for sure. It sits in between a CNC'ed manual mill and something like a Haas. But when talking prices, a Syil is actually considered very affordable or even cheap - since it starts getting into "pro" territory. Now, real pros almost consider Haas for entry level and I guess a Haas starts at US 50K...

For a home shop, for small parts and a small build volume if one has the skills and time and shops around carefully, I think one can build a very stiff and capable machine for about USD 2000. Now, we are talking a small machine that doesn't need to run fast nor produce a lot and we are not talking flood cooling, chip evacuation and enclosures. It would have Chinese ballscrews and linear guides but would likely still be as or more accurate than a CNC'ed entry level manual mill.

My main take away from keeping tap on this for the past two years or so is that CNC, like 3D printing, is fast becoming "democratized". Prices are coming down, knowledge is shared freely and it is now very possible for a hobbyist to buy or build at a quite affordable price. There are many ways to skin this cat depending on what you need to cut and the size of your wallet. E.g. routers for wood don't need to be super, super stiff so you can make them out of alu extrusions. Heck, people are cutting wood on USD 500 MPCNCs these days which are made out of 3D printed brackets with galvanized steel conduit for linear rails.
Fusion360, which is still free, has an extremely powerful CAM package with very advanced toolpaths that as a "side effect" supposedly can make up for machines not being as rigid as professional ones.
As for controllers, you can run a standalone Chinese one for about USD 200 so you don't have to deal with Mach3 and old PCs.
A 2.2kw high speed spindle with an OK VFD (power supply) is less than USD 400, though granted not ideal for cutting steel. But plenty of people are cutting loads of wood, plastic and alu with these spindles. For a small machine, you can go with smaller steppers/servos and I think I have priced some closed loop steppers (so they don't loose steps) at less than USD 65 incl. the driver.

I actually thought 2020 would be the year I would get into CNC but work has been terrible so don't really have much money to throw at this. Maybe next year but would be cool if any of you took such a project on

Anyways, I am rambling now, so will stop, haha.

[hwy1strat]

Any update to this? Is this gun the real deal? I’m thinking of pulling the trigger on one but I can’t find any reviews on it.

[popgun pete]

The website. https://interceptorspearguns.com/sho...aminated-wood/