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Hauled the column back down to the shop and mounted it back on the machine. Sure is a lot heavier than it used to be!

https://www.cnczone.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=493540&stc=1...

Rebuilt enough of the control electronics and reconfigured LinuxCNC to get some motion and homing working on the new Z axis.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LloG3xuJXOc

Had some productive time in the shop yesterday. First step was to make the counterbores for the M6 cap screws a bit deeper. Easy to hold the workpiece in the vise with the jaws flipped to the...

Still not done with the back side machining, but it's 'done enough' that I could do this...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMuMtlO-q0M

Still have not done the back-side machining for the head mounting plate, but that didn't stop me from doing this...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMuMtlO-q0M

Makes sense to me, Craig. By the way, do you have a build thread for your overall machine or your 4th axis/trunnion projects? Curious to see some photos.

Steve

Slow but sure progress. Last night I did the machining for the first setup on the new Z 'saddle', which is what mounts to the linear guide trucks and ball nut on one side, and the head on the other....

I get that. When family members or friends get ripped off paying too much for house or car repairs, buying needless technology upgrades, etc., I feel the same way. But hobby stuff? That's their...

There is no universal rule about how someone spends their hobby money, nor is your idea of a reasonable budget for a hobby the same as someone else's. People buy vacation homes, boats, race cars,...

It's easier for people to comment on a forum than it is to build something. It doesn't matter if some armchair expert decides your project is not innovative or takes enough risk for their liking. ...

Haven't made much progress this week, but I was able to cut stock to rough size for the head mounting plate last night using the waterjet.
...

Filing the boss of the stepper plate for fitment. Had to remove about 0.004" (~0.1mm) on each side. Wrapped the broad side of the file in masking tape, exposing only the skinny edge - worked great!...

Thanks for coming along for the ride!

Had some time last evening to do the final machining on the new stepper mount, on the Tormach 1100. Being able to rough cut it on the waterjet made fixturing so much easier. Two setups, both held...

Now, making the stepper mounting plate for the new Z stepper.

We recently got a fun new toy at our makerspace, a ProtoMax waterjet. Limited to cutting in a 12" x 12" area, up to 1" thick. A wee...

I chose a 4.5Nm (637oz-in) NEMA34 closed-loop stepper with an electromagnetic brake from StepperOnline. I'm hopeful that my back-of-the-napkin motor calculations will work out, and I'll be able to...

I considered re-using my original Thomson 16mm 0.200" pitch ball screw from the original CNC conversion kit that I used, but the ball nut wasn't sounding particularly good after the years of use. ...

I did an initial mounting of the rails to check for parallel when using the two reference edges that I milled. With minor tweaking of the secondary rail, things look good at first glance. This is...

Now on to the critical milling to create the mounting surfaces and reference edges for the linear rails.

First thing in the morning, I spent a ton of time tramming and re-tramming the head of the...

https://youtu.be/bipY-yHH1Dk

Milling the clearance on the back side of the side bars. Using a 1 inch indexable end mill with two APKT aluminum inserts, and the old ProtoTrak in basic power feed...

Before attaching the side bars, I had done some measuring of the column on a granite surface plate and was able to confirm that the original precision ground surfaces on the front and back of the...

Drill, drill, drill...

https://www.cnczone.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=492698&stc=1

Tapping the M10 holes in the cast iron column, using the new side bars as a tap guide.
...

Materials in hand. 1.5" x 2.5" 2024 bar stock, and a 1" thick chunk of 2024 plate for the Z saddle.

https://www.cnczone.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=492682&stc=1

Machining flat (ish)...

I mainly considered two approaches to mounting rails to the column.

Approach 1 - add some kind of additional side supports to the existing column and mount the rails to the supports. A simple...

Wow. It's been almost a decade since my last update on this thread.

Not long after I grafted the Tormach 770 head onto my X3, I ended up getting seriously involved in my local maker space. I...

This was my first test of parallelism right after I did the machining for the rails. Using a 0.0005" (12.7 micron) per division test indicator. I also own a 0.00005" (1.27 micron) indicator but...

I suppose it's possible that these are counterfeit Hiwin being sold as the real thing, but I don't have any evidence to prove that. I'm not quite ready to accuse the vendor of such.

As for tuning...

Thanks for your reply, Jaideep. I purchased these from a USA reseller, not an "authorized" Hiwin distributor, so they were shipped in sealed plastic bags, not boxes. The only info I have about the...

Greetings,

I'm working on a partial linear rail conversion for the Z axis of my benchtop CNC mill. I'm using four supposedly genuine Hiwin HG25 blocks and matching rail, purchased new. Given the...

HI Cliff,

We have exchanged a couple of emails back and forth about the ITTP over the last year or so. I had a question and i figured I'd ask it here since others will perhaps benefit from the...