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IndustryArena Forum > WoodWorking Machines > DIY CNC Router Table Machines > 24"X36" All Steal Gantry Mill, 500 oz Chopper driven!
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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Posts
    47

    Smile 24"X36" All Steal Gantry Mill, 500 oz Chopper driven!

    Ok where to start. I finally got everything in for this beast and have started my mill. It is more of a mill then it is a router but has a great range of speeds. It will be good for steal on the slow end all the way up to 27,500 on the upper end. It has home aid everything I built it from complete scratch. The the machine is made of steal and has been straightened at the machine shops here at school. When everything is fitted it will be torn down and sent back to the shops to be surface ground to perfection. the screws still have to be turned but I have .750" acme screws by 6 threads per inch. The bearings are .500" ID cast flange style. Motors are from Hubbard and are 500 in oz 4 wire.

    The Control box is done and the circuit boards, the transformer and stepper motors are all water cooled to ambient temps. The power supply is an Antek dual 40V tap at 20 amps run in parallel to two a bridge rectifier and then out the DC side to two 45 volt 36,000 Micro Farad caps run in series. (As I am putting out a bit more than 45 volts, I was reminded what happens to caps when they are over powered, a nice 6 foot high geyser of boiling oil! YAY! (nuts) lol) from there the voltage reads about 55 Volts DC run into the Chopper drivers and out to the three axis. I have pre wired the box for 5 axis as this may just be a future need. The power supply has the capability of 55 Volts 20 Amps very nice stable power. I have build over systems into the power supply to regulate it even more but we will keep all that in my little bag of tricks for now. . The other 2 sets of 12 volt taps are run in parallel to a second rectifier ad then through its own 45 volt 36,000MFD cap. I get a very solid 16.7 volts DV outta this and that is then run through a variable regulation setup so I can use that power just about what ever voltage I need it from 0 to 18 volts DV. However I have it set at 12 volts for the circuit power for other boards I have in the controller. Next we move on to the breakout boards which are a simple combo of two C10 Boards from CNC4PC. Top board is for outputs from the computer such as step/direction ect. The second is for inputs the whole machine will have encoders at some point and this is set up for 5 axis inputs. The E stop is run to the top board. There is a modified Voltek power supply given the box a set of 5 volt DV outputs and one tap for a low amp 12 Volt DV output to run the display panels and meters on the control boxes main control panel. One of the five volt supplies from the Voltek runs the system voltage four the breakouts. There will also be of course a remote wand setup.

    There are six channels of solid state 110-220VAC output in the box, two of which are VFD. Yes my box has VFD built it. . Two of these channels will allow Mach three to run the toolhead Coolant/Lube flood pump, and the motor/driver/board/spindle coolant pump. All of the pumps are in a closed loop E-Stop system. If the coolant flow stops for either system or the temp goes above given operating parameters, it will trigger an E-Stop input for Mach 3. They also all have manual override switches on the main control panel. ( Or will one I get the nerve up to cut all the holes in it with that damn Dremel NOISY)

    What am I forgetting here......The spindle is 2.5 HP water cooled, umm The damn thing is HEAVY, umm motors are connected with lovejoys.....I donno I'm sure I will think of more and amend this soon.

    I have included a few pics to give you some visual ques here. There should be a few on the lab, my tinkering with mach 3, and some good shots of the controller. These pics are a bit behind current completion as there has been more work done but I will get those on as soon as I can.

    Also here's a link to a video I made if it running.
    http://www.zerbymedia.com/ezcrib/cnc...t/SSPX0510.3g2

    Thanks for all the help over the last year, I hope you enjoy my need to go nuts with projects.

    Evan
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails 100_3780.jpg   100_3778.jpg   SSPX0494.jpg   SSPX0500.jpg  

    SSPX0493.jpg   SSPX0496.jpg   100_3781.jpg   SSPX0497.jpg  

    SSPX0499.jpg  
    Evan.
    "You're making WHAT?"

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