[hoss2006]

Ah, no that's not a good sign then.
If it keeps popping them give grizzly a call.
Hoss

[atalon]

Well phase 1 is going well for me so far. after some of the talk here recently I checked the table full travel movement and I am lucky enough to be smooth all the way. The only this that was giving me trouble was the Z axis seemed to be wobbling a bit a getting tight on one side of the screw. I think I have most of that worked out so far. Hopefully it will get me going until I can get the ball screws installed (already here and waiting). Here is a picture of my progress. The caulk, in the chip tray, is curing (7 days, wow that is a long time). I will start on the enclosure tomorrow and also the wiring of the motors to the electronics. Then next week put in the flood coolant system since the caulk will be dry by then.

Attachment 274204

[atalon]

Hoss, for the PDB3 lifting plate, would mild steel be strong enough or is something like cold rolled steel a better choice? Sorry I don't know, well anything, about the different steels yet. Especially as it relates to how well they mill.

[hoss2006]

Mild steel is fine for the lifting plate and the lever arm though if you had some O1, A2, D2 or P20 for the lever arm all the better, the rest of the brackets are aluminum.
Hoss

[atalon]

Thanks Hoss!

I started putting the back panel together. Ran into a few issues with local corrugated board available being too think so I opted for something called economy plastic sheet. It is 0.100 thick so it rattles a little bit. Looking for something I can use to shim the panels toward the inside of the enclosure so they can be sealed with silicone. Would be better if the stuff was white but don't really care just looking for something inexpensive and it was about the same price as the corrugated.

Attachment 274768

[Kenny Duval]

I used this on mine. The corrugated white board and the plexi I used where both a little thin to be tight in the channel of the 80/20 extrusion. The tang on this take up just enough room to wedge everything together.

MD Building Products 1/2 in. x 17 ft. White Vinyl Gasket Weatherstrip-78394 - The Home Depot

[atalon]

I am having a rough time tuning the motors. I figured out that I had the drivers set to default and since I am using a smooth stepper board that it needs to be set to specifics. I used 1/8 stepping from one of Hoss's videos. I have been playing with the steps per rev from 1600 (for the 1/8 stepping from the manual on the driver) to 200 some other reading and videos. I finally found the calibrations button on the settings page just above the reset button and even though the system is set to inches I have to measure in mm to keep the motor running decently. which of course means that anything I try to cut will be super small. Also if I do the calibration while measuring the movement in inches it wants to set to the steps per rev to around 170,000. Any ideas on what I may be doing wrong? this is just the X axis so far, have not tried the other 2 yet.

Here is a little more info on my setup for reference.
Windows 7 64bit
USB smoothstepper with C25 breakout board from CNC4PC.
KL-5056D driver for Nema23 570oz
G0704 Mill (of course)

Edit: Also I am using direct drive to the factory screws still.

[phomann]

Assuming that you have set your base units in Mach3 to mm.
a stepper motors has 200steps/rev. for a 1/8 microstep drive, thats 1600 steps/rev.
Assuming you are using ballscrews with a 5mm lead (5mm per rev) that means that 1 motor rev (1600 steps) will move the axis 5mm.
So you need (1600steps/5mm) 320 steps to move the axis 1mm

If you are using inches as your base units then you need (320 x25.4) 8128 steps/inch

Cheers,

Peter

[atalon]

I am using inches and the factory screw not the ball screws yet.

[davidlee64]

This post is of immense help to me too. I have been unsure as to how to set up my motors. Now I have a solid clue. Thank you.

Assuming that you have set your base units in Mach3 to mm.
a stepper motors has 200steps/rev. for a 1/8 microstep drive, thats 1600 steps/rev.
Assuming you are using ballscrews with a 5mm lead (5mm per rev) that means that 1 motor rev (1600 steps) will move the axis 5mm.
So you need (1600steps/5mm) 320 steps to move the axis 1mm

If you are using inches as your base units then you need (320 x25.4) 8128 steps/inch

Cheers,

Peter

[hoss2006]

The stock screws are x,y=10 tpi, z=6 tpi.
200x8x10=16000 steps/per for the x and y.
200x8x6=9600 steps/per for the z.
The driver settings can be found on #6 here, the defaults are not usually set to anything useful.
FAQs
Are you sure you have the smoothstepper configured correctly?
I've never used one but this should help.
http://www.soigeneris.com/Document/W...othStepper.pdf
Hoss

[Alax7]

I have mine set to around 16000 steps/in for each axis, same ball screws in each for an X2. It should not run better in mm or in, you just have to have the right values to represent the same speed whichever units its in. What are the motors doing that you say it won't run properly?