Any pics of cnc control cabinets?
Been adding components to my cnc and it's definitely not organized in a way that I'm happy with. Right now I have a g540, smoothstepper, 48v psu, 2.2kw vfd, couple small psu's for 5v, 12v psu for air solenoids, and now adding a breakout board, dmm dyn4 drive, contactor, line reactor, filters, etc with more lines for a.c. power, more wires going back and forth. Just gonna be a mess if I try to add on to my current setup. I started out with a small control box that housed the 48v psi and g540 with the smoothstepper mounted to the outside with protective plexiglass cover, but now it's just becoming too much. Need to start fresh with a proper control cabinet now that I'm adding the dmm stuff for mill turn. Just want everything to be clean and organized. Anyone have ideas of how to handle all this neatly? Preferably some pics of your own setup with maybe some similar components?
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Re: Any pics of cnc control cabinets?
Here are a few panels I built in the last year or 3
Servo driven punch press
https://www.cnczone.com/forums/attac...d=416594&stc=1
Lathe power panel, not quite as neat as the panel I built for the customer above, but in this case I was using a lot of the original installed hardware.
https://www.cnczone.com/forums/attac...d=416596&stc=1
And the lathe computer panel, in-process
https://www.cnczone.com/forums/attac...d=416598&stc=1
Router panel, for a customer, using a lot of original hardware.
https://www.cnczone.com/forums/attac...d=416600&stc=1
My mill panel, in process
https://www.cnczone.com/forums/attac...d=416602&stc=1
And my RPC panel
Panel
https://www.cnczone.com/forums/attac...d=416604&stc=1
and the panel door
https://www.cnczone.com/forums/attac...d=416606&stc=1
Re: Any pics of cnc control cabinets?
Yes, exactly what I want my setup to look like, but not sure where to start. What type of cabinet should I be looking for? Do you just start with some kind of basic metal cabinet and mount everything how you want it by drilling/tapping for specific electronics? Or is it some kind of specific cabinet designed for this kind of stuff? I learned how to wire and setup my cnc, but as you can probably tell, I dont know much about proper layout and organizing of this type of stuff.
Ok, looks like for starters I need to learn all about din rail and proper distribution
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Re: Any pics of cnc control cabinets?
I normally buy all of my hardware from Automation Direct. They have everything you need to build a professional panel. https://www.automationdirect.com/adc/home/home
First create a complete parts list, include everything. Once once you have all of the hardware then you can do the layout. By looking at the sizes of the parts in the catalogs, or just measuring what you have, you can get a pretty good idea of the size of enclosure that you need. I normally make a layout drawing to start with. Automation Direct has downloadable 2D and 3D drawings of almost all of their components.
Do Not short your self on panel space, you never have enough room. My lathe panel is too crowded for my taste, but I had the back panel on the shelf so that's what I used. That's why there are no wireways on it.
You start by laying out all of the hardware on a flat surface. Everything on the pallet except the DMM hardware came from Automation Direct
https://www.cnczone.com/forums/attac...d=416608&stc=1
Enclosures
https://www.automationdirect.com/adc...ing/enclosures
If you need some guidance in this, I'll be happy to get you started.
Re: Any pics of cnc control cabinets?
Did a bit more looking around and starting to get it. Basically I had no knowledge of what din rail even was when I first built my cnc so I have a mess of like 4 different plug in power supplies for various voltages plugged into a power strip with wires going to various components. It's terrible lol. Looks like i need to replace a lot of what I already have with proper din rail mounted type stuff. I can see now how all this can be done neatly.
One question, can I put my 2.2kw vfd in the box with everything else? Or is it just too much noise? It's controlled by mach3 so I don't need access to the front panel of it.
Re: Any pics of cnc control cabinets?
You might get away with having the VFD in the control cabinet if everything is well grounded and filtered. My preference is to hang the VFD outside the cabinet. I suspect the DYN4's may be noisier than the VFD.
In the punch press panel above, everytime I turned on the DYN4's it killed the Ethernet connection to the controller. Never did get that resolved, so I used the serial connection on the controller for comms. You may not have that problem.
On the lathe, the DYN4's and the VFD is in the ''magnetics'' cabinet. Well separated from the control system, and everything is properly grounded.
Re: Any pics of cnc control cabinets?
Yeah, the DYN4's require a 12 inch deep enclosure, won't quite fit in an 8, maybe a 10, a little tight on the cables. Fan cooling is a good idea when installing heat generating devices.
Re: Any pics of cnc control cabinets?
No problem at all. A contactor on the input power side of the VFD is fine. I would put a time delay between powering up the VFD and the DYN4, I power mine on with a 1 second delay between them to keep the inrush as low as possible.
On my lathe, the VFD is directly connected to the panel main breaker, but the DYN4's have contactors that are computer controlled.
On my mill, the VFD is never turned off, direct wired to the shop breaker panel. My air compressor VFD is wired the same, direct to the breaker panel.
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Re: Any pics of cnc control cabinets?
24x36x8" Nema 12 enclosure (Hoffman Eqlv.). 6 axis AC servo CNC control Panel.
General thoughts, power comes in at the top and leaves on the bottom. Separate AC power and DC signal as much as possible (Do not share a wireway). Circuit protection is a must and takes up room. Break out all your interconnections and especially field connections to terminal block (automation direct has good prices). Wire duct is your friend and will hide all your wires.
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Re: Any pics of cnc control cabinets?
Much older design of mine, 1 DYN3 servo drive and 4 axis steppers.
Attachment 416644
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I think a lot of people overlook the time it takes to do a nice panel build (and the fun of it too). I think of it as at least 50% of the machine build if not more.