[revwarguy]

Sounds very nice. I must say your welding and grinding of those box corners looks really good.

I have had some issues with my Solsylva, mostly getting the x screws aligned properly at first, but I can't say I ever had trouble with the x belt. You using two steppers to get more power, or did you have trouble with the belt itself on the oak version?

Once I had a touch probe routine I downloaded for Mach go south and the probe kept going past the surface of the (aluminum) material. I was standing right there with my hand over the estop, but even before I could hit it, it really built up some force. Ruined the bit. What gave, though, was the Z belt - it snapped and went flying. Always since kind of thought that the belts were a type of safety valve. Even though I have spares for all three belts, that's the only one I've had to replace. I fixed the touch probe routine and its been ok since, but I still have my hand right over the estop any time I click the zero-Z button.

In your drawing, do the screws go through the gantry sides?

PS - You looked into Gerry Grzadzinski's (Ger21) new 2010 Mach3 screen set? Give your new table a new screen look as well!

[CarveOne]

Sounds very nice. I must say your welding and grinding of those box corners looks really good.

I have had some issues with my Solsylva, mostly getting the x screws aligned properly at first, but I can't say I ever had trouble with the x belt. You using two steppers to get more power, or did you have trouble with the belt itself on the oak version?

Once I had a touch probe routine I downloaded for Mach go south and the probe kept going past the surface of the (aluminum) material. I was standing right there with my hand over the estop, but even before I could hit it, it really built up some force. Ruined the bit. What gave, though, was the Z belt - it snapped and went flying. Always since kind of thought that the belts were a type of safety valve. Even though I have spares for all three belts, that's the only one I've had to replace. I fixed the touch probe routine and its been ok since, but I still have my hand right over the estop any time I click the zero-Z button.

In your drawing, do the screws go through the gantry sides?

PS - You looked into Gerry Grzadzinski's (Ger21) new 2010 Mach3 screen set? Give your new table a new screen look as well!

Thanks,

The welding and grinding turned out ok, but I have done better welds when the gas pressure had not dropped off. I took a better look at the flex and straightness this morning. After placing it on the best flat spot I have (the end of the CNC machine table), I lifted each corner carefully to see if there is any movement in the frame or if it readily lifts up the whole end of the frame at once. There is about 3/16" of movement from either corner. So, I retract my former statement that it was stiff. Then I used a 6' piece of 3/8" x 2" aluminum bar stock to check the frame for bow in the channel pieces. There is some inward bow in the 4' sides of about 3/32" at the mid span. The 3' ends are about 1/16" at mid span. Looks like there will be some shimming going on also. Some of the bow can be removed at each end with an angle grinder and 60 grit sanding wheel. The corners are where the high spots are.

I had some belt alignment problems when I first built it, but I finally figured out that tweaking the bolts and proper belt tension would fix it. Haven't had any trouble with that since. The worst problem I had with it was binding in the bearing mounts and getting the lead nut alignment correct. When I changed the 1 start to 5 start screws I modified the steel plate bearing mounts from the worktable CNC build and removed the wood block bearing supports. There are just two bearings on each side now, not four. It was like night and day going from 30ipm jogs (70 on a good day) without stalling to 250ipm without stalling. I was never convinced that the dual bearing idea was a good way to stop whipping. Slowing the screw rpm is better.

I could save a lot of expense by reinstalling the belt drive and use the same 425 oz-in motors, PSU (24vdc) and 3 axis Xylotex driver. The gantry is going to be considerably heavier though, and I figured that it won't hurt to have more torque by using two motors. If I use new (more efficient) 300+ oz-in motors and G540 with 48vdc PSU the machine will be about as good as could be expected with the 5 start screws. I'm also thinking about putting the motors on the "back end" of the machine where they will not be in the way when working with the machine.

I downloaded Greolt's latest VB code he posted recently but have not installed it yet. The earlier version under compensated for the Z Zero plate and would stop just above the material by a business card thickness. I didn't spend much time trying to figure out how to make it zero more closely. I'm just eyeballing it for the time being. I'll get back to it after doing this rebuild.

For the X axis, the anti-backlash nut will be mounted to the inside wall of the gantry support plate and centered vertically between the two carriages. The screws and bearing mounts will be positioned so that the screws are centered on the anti-backlash nuts. The screws will probably be a little closer to the frame than to the gantry support. The bearing plates will be bolted to the ends of the frame. The bearing plates will be large enough to also act as hard stops. Something similar will be done at the rear of the Z axis assembly. It has worked very well on the big machine Z axis.

I knew that Gerry has done a new one, but haven't looked at it yet. When I install it I'll do it on both computers.

CarveOne

[CarveOne]

I cut the legs to 3" long instead of 4" as I showed in my drawing. There will be adjustment bolts installed at the bottom of the legs. The lower end of the channel will be capped off with a 1/4" steel plate that has a threaded hole in it for the bolts. The legs are not welded yet, but they have been ground square and have matched lengths. Need a gas cylinder refill before any new welding can be done. The legs will be inset by 1" so that the carriages can roll to the end of the rail and bump the bearing plates. Once the Router and Z assembly is installed the carriages on the router sode of the gantry will not roll that far before hitting the frame, so another type of hard stops will be needed for that end of travel.

Both sides of the rails have been sprayed with the textured silver paint. Some kind of camo would be nice but it will take a trip to town for paint and extra work, so I used the paint I already have plenty of instead. Trying to make full use of a relatively warm sunny day for painting. It won't last long.

CarveOne

[R L Harris]

Glad see your builld to replace smaller machine looks like should be quite ridged
should do what you want it to do!
I managed to get plaque for grand kids made for christmas and they loved them!
I started chemo treatments few days ago so all is ok not feeling deathly
eel from it!
Going to be moving in with elder daugter and grand kids as they bought bigger house and she said i could have half of the gararge for my shop!

[CarveOne]

Glad see your builld to replace smaller machine looks like should be quite ridged
should do what you want it to do!
I managed to get plaque for grand kids made for christmas and they loved them!
I started chemo treatments few days ago so all is ok not feeling deathly
eel from it!
Going to be moving in with elder daugter and grand kids as they bought bigger house and she said i could have half of the gararge for my shop!

Sounds like a good plan for you. Keep up the treatments and make more stuff for the grand kids to help keep yourself going through the recovery period. You may want to put a locking power switch on the router in case of inquisitive kids.

I'm expecting that the machine will get more stiff once the whole assembly comes together and the spoil board is installed. It will sit on top of a work table as it did before. I can even bolt it to the work table top if needed.

Happy New Year,
CarveOne

[CarveOne]

I disassembled four carriages and turned the bolt heads down to flatten the 16 bolt heads for clearance to the channel. No amount of the flats were removed in the process.

With the four carriages installed snugly on the rail (two at each end) there looks like about 0.50" clearance now (0.025" each side of the channel when centered between the carriages). Once the rail is bolted in place the carriages will be moved to the second rail and then repeat the drilling. The rails will have two carriages each when all this is completed.

Next comes figuring out how to keep the rail centered on the channel while drilling the new holes through the rail and channel. That will be done tomorrow.

Time to clean up and go party. Happy New Year!!

CarveOne