[Trucks]

Hey guys, well been asking questions and lurking around, basically building a decent sized 3' x 5' table, everything so far has been bought at the local ACE Hardware, Home Depot and True Value Hardware stores. Basically i used mainly 3/4" MDF, and the skate bearing design with a few modifications of my own, the gantry has 2 sets of bearings on each side, the top set is bolted into place, and the bottom set can be adjusted to allow for some tension to be applied to the rails, and the gantry is really solid, and doesn't seem to rack, and it moves very freely.

Here is my next question. I am at the point where i need to order my ACME rods and motors, controller, ect.

Can i get away with a Nema23 sized motor, say something that puts out 425 oz-in of holding tourque, its a dual shaft bi-polar motor from kelling, (they are super close to where i live), for the X-axis, and something similar for the Y-axis. The reason i ask is because it would save me some cash if i could get away with a single motor on the X. I plan on using ACME Rod, with a .500" per Turn, ect.

Any info or wisdom is always appreciated.

[Crawler374]

What did you use for the X axis rail?

[freecncplans]

I am not familiar with MDF machines, but my first machine with a 4 foot Y had many issues and was extremely hard to keep running. Often it would lock up in one direction just by holding it back with my little finger (going away from the X drive motor) and the other way would push me with no problems.
The other problems I had with the machine were the fact it would be off a bit on the sides because of the forces from the router when cutting (racking).
I now run a dual screw machine and I am much happier with the setup and the cost was well worth it to me.
Sean

[Trucks]

To answer the first question, the X-axis rail is 1.5" x 3" 1/8" wall rectangular tubing, with 1" Angle welded to it on both sides.

Okay thanks for the info, so far i have not had any issues with binding, on the bottom of each of my axis slides, aka - the X-axis bearing carriages, and the Y-carriage which i now have completed (as shown below), i have the ability to adjust the tension on the bearing carriage, i can easily push the whole machine around with my finger, i will be purchasing my motors from keling on Monday, i just received all my backlash nuts and couplers from dumpster CNC today, and i am very impressed with the quality. If the single screw doesn't perform well, it will not be too hard to add a second motor and lead screw to my setup, as i am using a G540 to control it, although i really hope it works ok because i would like to used the 4th axis for a rotary table, although i did look into the one motor driving a belt setup that drives twin screws. Since its my first attempt, we will see how it all pans out.

[Crawler374]

thanks for the answer! Got any close up pics of the X bearings?

Machine is looking real good. I like how clean it is

[Trucks]

It isn't the best picture, but it will give you an idea of what i am doing. Basically all my steel angle pieces that i used for the carriages, have 3/8" square nuts welded into them on the back side, so i could bolt to the steel, it works really well. So for the bottom carriages on both the X and Y, i used a 3" piece of threaded 3/8" rod and locked it into the carriage and then i have a jam nut that i turn with a ground down wrench, and then there is a locking nut on the opposite side, so that when i get it set, i can lock it down. I think it works out really well, i can adjust the tension on each end of the carriage since there are two bolts per carriage.

[KOC62]

Hi trucker.

I've looked at the joe2006 and he uses a stepper motor in the 200oz-in range. Your design appears to me to be of similar category. So I would conclude that a 425oz should be ok.

I plan to use Keling's KL23H286-20-8B steppers which are 425oz-in, and bought 4 of them.

[FandZ]

Can i get away with a Nema23 sized motor, say something that puts out 425 oz-in of holding tourque, its a dual shaft bi-polar motor from kelling, (they are super close to where i live), for the X-axis, and something similar for the Y-axis. The reason i ask is because it would save me some cash if i could get away with a single motor on the X. I plan on using ACME Rod, with a .500" per Turn, ect.

Any info or wisdom is always appreciated.

When I was building my machine I thought 425oz steppers was the way to go. Like you I got a g540. It's not. The g540 will not be able to power those at their optimum range so you'll end up with very slow rapids/ weak rapids. Hopefully someone can stop by and explain it better. From Keiling, you want the 280 oz range ones. Trust me, it's plenty of power and you'll be able to get most of the usable speed.

Now, the best steppers I've read about for the g540's are the ones Ahren with www.cncrouterparts.com has. They are 380 oz and pre wired with the resister. At $52 a pop, they are completely plug and play for the G540, No soldering. I wish they were available when I was building my machine. He just got them in a week or two ago and he is updating his website so I don't think they are listed yet. You'll have to PM him or send an email if your interested in them.

Chris

[FandZ]

Here's some good advice on picking out steppers to go with the G540.

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showpo...20&postcount=8

[KOC62]

fandz,
You may be confusing me for trucks. I don't have the g540, but did buy the 425oz-in kelings.

I was responding to trucks question in post #1 whether a 425oz-in motor was sufficient and I mentioned that a joe2006 uses a motor in the 200oz-in range. You have confirmed that a 280oz-in is sufficient so the answer for trucks is yes, the 425oz-in is more than sufficient.

fandz, your experience regarding the g540 being inadequate to drive the 425oz-in was unknown to me. So trucks is now faced with finding a controller to match a 425oz-in motor or find a motor to match the g540 controller, -whichever is cheaper I suppose.

[FandZ]

fandz,
You may be confusing me for trucks. I don't have the g540, but did buy the 425oz-in kelings.

My bad... I quoted the wrong post. I meant to quote his first post but somehow quoted yours. Corrected now.

But in conclusion, matching the Keiling 450oz to the g540 would be like having a car with a V6 that only had 4 spark plugs. You may be able to get it to run but you aren't going anywhere fast.

[Trucks]

Thanks for the info fellas, i was planning on purchasing the 387oz motors from keling, but i will look into the ones from ahren's. I just finished putting the second coat of polyeurethane on my table, it looks really nice now that its sealed. I am waiting on a nice linear stage assembly to come from ebay, its got 4.5" of travel which is plenty right now. Well my G540 is sitting on my desk, and no soldering would be super sweet.

Andy

[Trucks]

Well just cruised over to Ahren's website, and i think i will be ordering my stuff tomorrow morning, talk about time saving, clean, and completely freaking AWESOME! First, the fact that all the components come pre-wired saves me hours upon hours of soldering and fooling around with that, also i bought my G540 on sale from Gecko Drives, so i will be ordering the 3 motors, 3 of the extension cables, and one of the power supplies, so that definitely made my day to find that score.

Thanks FandZ nice catch.

Andy

[FandZ]

Well just cruised over to Ahren's website, and i think i will be ordering my stuff tomorrow morning, talk about time saving, clean, and completely freaking AWESOME! First, the fact that all the components come pre-wired saves me hours upon hours of soldering and fooling around with that, also i bought my G540 on sale from Gecko Drives, so i will be ordering the 3 motors, 3 of the extension cables, and one of the power supplies, so that definitely made my day to find that score.

Thanks FandZ nice catch.

Andy

Man I got so frustrated soldering in those resisters and wires that eventually I bribed my wife do the last two sets. lol I'm horrible at soldering. She wasn't great at it either but did better than me.

Please post back once you get them in and let me know how they work out. Next month I'm thinking about ordering 2 for my next build. I may just ebay off the motors I already have and just order 4.

[Trucks]

Ok will do. I will be ordering them in the morning! I am more than willing to pay a little more for stuff that is plug and play. And it makes it easier if i need to move the machine or if i reuse stuff. Now i can't wait for time to pass...

Ill post some pics up!

[Trucks]

Well i recieved a lovely package from Ahren over at CNC Router Parts, included 3 of the 380 oz motors, 3 extension cables and the power supply, and i got my dumpster cnc couplers and backlash nuts for my threaded rod. I will hopefully have this thing wired up and moving around by next week. Only thing i am waiting on is a linear slide set up from ebay that i purchased for my Z axis.

[FandZ]

I didn't realize the couplers were threaded on one side. Pretty cool indeed. I can't wait to see how those motors will work out for you. Anyways, looking forward to your next update.

[Trucks]

Well got a little further, not too far, just didn't feel like working very fast. Got the AB nuts mounted in some MDF, and got the X-axis threaded rod mounted up and installed and the motor is mounted. I am using a nylon 1/2" bore washer with a 1" O.D. for the end that is not connected to the motor, it spins nice and free inside (not pictured). Other than that, i got the Y-axis block assembled to the carriage and will have the Y-axis finished hopefully on Monday when i come back from the CORR races this weekend in Northern WI. Also got my turboCAD from Ebay today, and installed, i got version 14 PRO with the CAM plug in for 200 bucks. And i tried it out, its pretty awesome. So enjoy the picks i should have more finished on Monday.

[Trucks]

First update is that i got my control box put together, and mounted on my machine, and i tested out the X and Y axis using the JOG controller in MACH3. Let me first give a HUGE thanks to Ahren at CNCRouterparts because it took me all of about...15 seconds to hook the motors to the G540 drive! It is soooo nice to have plug and play cables, and secondly the G540 seems to be amazing so far. So here is some phots of the new Z axis i bought off ebay, its got a ball screw with a pulley system that i have to get going on top, but accepted the NEMA 23 size motor without any problems, and it has 12" of travel, i won't need all of it, but extra can never hurt. The control box has the 48V power supply mounted on the right side, with standoffs to space it away from the box, i have a 10A circuit breaker for the main power, along with a 24V power supply and cage fan to blow air around in the box. Also i mounted the G540 with standoffs as well to provide some space for air to move around, and on the front is a power toggle switch and a light to signal power is on, along with an e-stop switch. Ill post the video of it moving in a little bit.

Question for those who have the 380oz motors, i moved the table around a couple times back and forth, i am using 120ipm rapids, and the motors are warm, i am assuming that this is completely normal. Let me know.

Thanks, Andy

[Trucks]

Here is a little video of the first movements of the machine!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eJLyrYj9Vg"]YouTube - Homemade CNC First Run[/ame]