Originally Posted by
Shawn_M
Hi MiamiJerry,
I'm about 3/4 of the way through my rebuild. It's been an adventure to say the least. I've taken it completely apart except for the x and y sled (for the lack of a better word). I completely removed every electrical wire that it came with and tossed them in the trash. Useless !!! Also, the limit/home switches are N/O so those went into the trash as well. I bought a 10 pack of N/C limit/home switches to replace the old ones with. Safer and less chance of a phantom trigger. Plus if you ever break a wire you'll know it before it's too late.
Funny what you mention about the Y axis. My tray also will come into contact with the column BUT the bearing block of the right side of the Y axis is about 2" longer than the left side. This allows it to hit the limit switch with about 1/8" to spare before the tray come into contact with the column. Maybe this is a newer feature that they figured out it needed. And the X axis does travel to the outermost edges of the tray. I am also going to make it wider just as you are with some extrusion. I am not going to make the boom any longer because it already has a little "wiggle" and making the arm longer will only exaggerate this more. The Z axis and the 2.2 kw spindle have a lot of weight to them and it only increases as you make the arm longer. I'm fine with the Y travel. I mainly bought this machine so I could use it to make the parts for the 4x4 machine I want to build. And this machine will be for learning on as well. I plan to sell it in the future after my larger machine is complete.
I machined an opening in the right side where the old BOB was to fit the G540. I also bought a 48 volt power supply that fits inside the column. I purchased a Pentium II heatsink with a fan and mounted it to the back of the G540 for cooling. I'm also adding in two 110v fans for air FLOW. One at the bottom just above the Y axis motor to draw in cool air and the other will be at the top sucking air out. I'm using the old motor GX16 connectors for my limit switches and one for the auto zero probe that I'm adding. I have all new shielded wire on everything and the new motors are here also. I added in a buss bar for all the grounds and shields to go to. I also added an e-stop in the right side of the boom since it didn't come with one. I had to move the VFD towards the front so I could get the e-stop switch in towards the back behind the VFD controller that's flushed in the side of the boom.
Also, the cable chain that came with the machine is too small for the new shielded motor cable and the shielded limit/home switch cable together. I ordered the next size larger to fit both new cables. A 1M piece on eBay was $9 from a US warehouse for a China based seller. I'm also moving it out further from its OEM location so I'm adding in an aluminum track to support it.
My machine is 110v, is yours? I sort of like this as I dont have to add a 220 outlet anywhere to run it.
I'll post some more pics when I can to show you my progress. Hope you'll do the same. Here's a pic of the back while I was taking it apart. Actually in this photo you can see the bearing block on Y axis that is longer to trip the limit/home switch.
Shawn