[joecnc2006]

Joe, I finished your design several months ago and Id like to thank you again for the amazing work you have done! It has, however, taken me yonks to resolve all issues. I came close to stripping the whole thing down and putting the electronics and software up for sale!! Anyway, I have seen the light and we are still here!!

Id like to post a suggestion (I have not read all 122 pages of this thread and hope it has not been said. If it has here goes anyway!!)

I was having some SERIOUS issues in my y axis in certain angle cuts. after changing the couplers, ensuring everything was nice and tight, i was still having some "missed steps" problems -it has taken me countless hours of work and testing to narrow things down. At certain angle cuts, the Y axis drive would strart to resonate and I´d loose steps. I came to realize that, by the way i do my cutting, the Y axis was suffering the most. I also came to realize that the y axis 1/2" bolt used was being worn down to the point where the lead screw would bounce like crazy inside the bolt...

So, your design calls for a single bolt to be used (I enclose an image) to move each of the axes. My suggestion is to change the design and use several bolts rather than one single one. In fact, I am using 4 bolts in a row.

The problems have gone away and I am finally being able to cut nicely!! BTW i also removed the antibacklash plate since there is no play in that axis now...

Hope it helps

Paul

The anti-Backlash nuts uses two nuts not one and are tentioned towards each other (or away with a spring, a personal preference) which makes the 1/2" amce thread tight within the anti-backlash nut, I have post on here when i swithched to acme 1/2-8 2 start and disasembled the original 1/2-10 antibacklash and leadscrew there was little to no wear i could notice, this was contributed to always having the leadscrew lubricated to the point it will sling some lube from the screw. It is very important to have enough and proper lubricant on the screw.

I found that the white lithium grease to work the best for me, i did not care for the dry spray on lube, it seemed to wear off way to fast and would cause me to loose steps once in a while.

You have to remember i have cut countless kits on the machine and used it for over 1-1/2 year with even the smallest motors possible (HobbyCNC 200 oz/in). So i am pretty sure if the build is done within reason to my original design and proper maint. kept up the machine will preform well. I know of a few who use their machine all the time for over a year now, with good results. There are always room for improvement in the machine, this is why i started a Mod section for others to share and get ideas.

I'm glad you were able to work out the problem you were having, and look forward to some pictures and sesult work pieces that you can share.

Joe

[joecnc2006]

joe
i meant that i am from india and i am not able to get the acme threaded rod of 1/2 by 10 tpi the smallest available is 1inch can you suggest some alternative acme size in place of 1/2 by 10 tpi

thanks

There are several manufacturer in india i believe, i did a search on the india yahoo.... maybe this will help.

http://in.search.yahoo.com/search?p=...+and+Machining

Joe

[phamiltonsmith]

It is very important to have enough and proper lubricant on the screw.

I found that the white lithium grease to work the best for me, i did not care for the dry spray on lube, it seemed to wear off way to fast and would cause me to loose steps once in a while.

Joe

Hi Joe, thks for yr input. One quick question: I am cutting wood, and although i have managed to keep the dust issue down, if i start lubing with a "wet" lube, wont i just make matters worse? Some of the dust is bound to get into the thread...

Or (stupid question coming ) should i be replacing the lube on a regular basis on that thread?

TIA

Paul

[snipper]

Dear Joe,
I am a newbee, your plans look very good, since I want to be able to cut soft aluminum with the machine, I wonder is it a good idea to take your plans and
cut the parts not from mdf but from steel sheet (4 or 5mm ) ?
Do you think it may work this way ??

[janapurushottam]

thanks joe

will check and revert back to you

[BobF]

I bought a new piece of aluminum angle to make the bearing brackets. I made an overlay template to drill the holes from a leftover from another piece I had. When I layed on the new pieces to drill holes there was gap on side. I got my square and checked, sure enough its out of square. I checked it with a little angle gauge I have and it measures 89 degrees.
I hate to start this with pieces that are obviously wrong. I don't think it will matter, since it seems to be consistent.
What do you guys think?

By the way I got it Lowes. Steelworks brand I think. Take your square when you buy.

[joecnc2006]

I bought a new piece of aluminum angle to make the bearing brackets. I made an overlay template to drill the holes from a leftover from another piece I had. When I layed on the new pieces to drill holes there was gap on side. I got my square and checked, sure enough its out of square. I checked it with a little angle gauge I have and it measures 89 degrees.
I hate to start this with pieces that are obviously wrong. I don't think it will matter, since it seems to be consistent.
What do you guys think?

By the way I got it Lowes. Steelworks brand I think. Take your square when you buy.

Its best to have the bearings proper, will make for easier alignment later on.

Joe

[mikeg53549]

We all start out thinking that the professionally made machines are over kill for what we want to do and we all end up upgrading our machines to obtain a higher and higher level of accuracy. Welcome to the decease.

[BobF]

I found some 10 conductor shielded cable at work. Is there a problem with running home and limit switches in the same cable as the motors?

[skiddaw]

If run in the same cable I would expect there to be a lot of noise picked up on the status lines from the heavy current switching on the motor lines. My CNCs not running yet but similar circuits at work gave us all sorts of problems. You might dampen this by slugging the sense lines with a low resistor and capacitor if your circuit allows such.

[BobF]

If run in the same cable I would expect there to be a lot of noise picked up on the status lines from the heavy current switching on the motor lines. My CNCs not running yet but similar circuits at work gave us all sorts of problems. You might dampen this by slugging the sense lines with a low resistor and capacitor if your circuit allows such.

I was afraid that might be the case. I will run a separate sheath for the switches. Since this is a shielded cable, do you attach the shield to anything?
I don't think the HobbyCNC controller has a "ground" although there is a common for the motor drives.

[Mr.Chips]

I was afraid that might be the case. I will run a separate sheath for the switches. Since this is a shielded cable, do you attach the shield to anything?
I don't think the HobbyCNC controller has a "ground" although there is a common for the motor drives.

I ran my limits and E'Stop through seperate shielded cables from the motor control wires. All shielding is grounded back at the control box chassis, but not grounded at the motor end or the limit sw /EStop ends.

Hager

[cephjedi]

Hey Gang,

I built a basic CNC machine and got licenses to Mach and LazyCam, and I'm extremely interested in building a Joe2006 with the files he has furnished, but I can't import anything as 3D entities- it always winds up being 2D.

Is there a cheap, free or otherwise easy way to convert Joe's DWG or STL files to Gcode?

Apologies if this question is staggeringly ignorant or has been covered...it's difficult to catalog all the references in a 120+ page thread. ;^)

Cheers, Jim

Thanks in advance,

[bp092]

Best way to do it is to import the autocad files as vectors and program the toolpaths. I wouldn't say there is an EASY way to just convert them because you have to set specific toolpaths for some parts pocketing, drilling etc but it isn't that hard as joe did most of the work in designing the parts. Haven't heard of lazycam, but most of the joes users seem to be using vectrics vcarve pro. If you use that some might share the files already done up and nested if you request it.

[cephjedi]

Thanks for the input BP!

There's my handicap....I don't have any experience with 3D modeling and don't even speak this language. Importing autocad as vectors....into what?

LazyCam is ArtSoft's CAM companion to Mach 3. They tout it as a product designed for people without CAD skills or expensive CAM programs. It can import a DXF file and will create Gcode to cut the part- but it only works in 2D.

Vectric's CNC products are definitely on my shopping list, but at nearly a thousand bucks for the suite, the practical element screams that I must wait until I've got a reliable machine (read: ideally Joe2006 model) to cut it on.

"We'll never be a real band until we've got Eddie Van Halen"
"But we'll never get Eddie Van Halen until we've got a real band, dude!"

At the moment, my machine is a homebuilt moving table model, with only 21x11 cutting area. I just scored some linear bearings on eBay and I think I can convert to a moving gantry design- which would expand my cutting area to over 4' x 20" feet- close to the Joe size, but no where near as fast. I think. At that point I could cut the parts for my own Joe, if I could easily create G-code from the files. Working strictly in 2-D I'd have to go back and double-check all the depths of the pockets and grooves of each piece...and I'm not even sure how to do that.

[bp092]

Two things to consider. I regret not buying vcarve sooner, it makes life a lot easier. I don't really care if someone knows mastercam and can hand program part toolpaths, at the end of the day I come home tired and time is of the essence. It's simple, it is fast and convenient. $500 made it worth while as well, that price is kind of unheard of in the software marketplace for comparable software. You don't need to be a 3d guru either since vcarve is pretty much all 2d (cut3d is more 3d solids work). You literally choose the file (joe's dwg files) and import them into vcarve. Click the vectors, (lines) and choose the toolpaths for cutting. It's simple in my eyes; might be a little heavy of a job at first but it comes natural after you do your first set of parts programmed.

Also consider joe is doing kits as well. While they take a while to get to you as they take awhile to produce they save you much time and hassle so that while you are waiting you can start fabricating the bearing slides and other parts; order as you need and prepare a controller for it. He charges good money for the parts, but it is very reasonable if you think about it. The hours you will put into it cutting it by hand or on a smaller machine is pretty wild. If you have access to a decent sized machine go for it, but at joes price it is a bargain. Plus you can be rest assured that everything is coming ready to be built, I didn't really even check any of the parts; glued them out of the box lol.

Just those two things to consider. And dont get me wrong, you don't need vcarve and you don't need joe to get this machine built, you can easily build it yourself as others have. Just be sure you remember that those options are on the table should you decide to fork over some cash to save a few head aches . Hope this helps.

[cephjedi]

you're insightful BP!

I've been on the fence about getting one of Joe's kits....the price he charges vs all the effort in cutting the parts on my slow Yugo-model machine makes this a very seductive approach to bigger CNC.

I've already got the satisfaction of building a working machine from scratch....(the buzz of drawing my first "roadrunner" with a sharpie taped to the dremel and I knew I was hooked!)

I also don't think the bearings I have from ebay are better than the rollerblade bearing design Joe employs.

And I've already got the electronics, steppers, and a heckuva lot of hardware.

Building from the kit will give me time to save for the vectric software....which I was GONNA get anyway.....

Hmmm, but I can't help feeling like I'm being pulled to the dark side.....

(cue maniacal laughter)

[joecnc2006]

you're insightful BP!

I've been on the fence about getting one of Joe's kits....the price he charges vs all the effort in cutting the parts on my slow Yugo-model machine makes this a very seductive approach to bigger CNC.

I've already got the satisfaction of building a working machine from scratch....(the buzz of drawing my first "roadrunner" with a sharpie taped to the dremel and I knew I was hooked!)

I also don't think the bearings I have from ebay are better than the rollerblade bearing design Joe employs.

And I've already got the electronics, steppers, and a heckuva lot of hardware.

Building from the kit will give me time to save for the vectric software....which I was GONNA get anyway.....

Hmmm, but I can't help feeling like I'm being pulled to the dark side.....

(cue maniacal laughter)

What you want to ask yourself is "What do i plan on doing with the machine vs. the one i have now? Do i have the space required? Do I have the time and energy to build it myself?"

I do agree the V-Carve software is a must no matter what machine you have because you will see what all the program is capable of and will have many many ideas of things to do with it.

Joe

[cephjedi]

I started building my first CNC machine as a tool to carve guitar bodies and make custom pickguards for guitars. I would also use it to fabricate parts for my occasional mad scientist grooves. (For example, a couple years ago I made an attempt at designing and building a Radio-controlled Monowheel It got close to fruition, but my ability with hand tools and limitations with available hardware made it a constant struggle and I gave up. CNC opens up so many possibilities. ) Eventually, my wife and I intend to build a private zoo, and a CNC machine would be indispensible for creating interesting cage signs and plaques. I can see making some money on the side doing signs and displays for others, too.

I already spent months building a CNC machine from scratch just based on a few photographs of other machines and a lot of newbie support from this forums. I got it to function and it was surprisingly tight tolerance, but it is SO SLOW. When I see videos of how well the Joe design works, I'm motivated to upgrade.

I've got the space- our new house has a workshop shed that's perfect for my CNC headquarters.

thanks for the quote Joe! I'll have to get financial approval from the Mrs. ;^)

[PhillyCyberJoe]

Hi guys,
I was wondering if I could hear your latest thoughts and designs on dust collection holders for Joe's machine. I downloaded earlier versions from "Original" Joe but wondered if any refinements were made after using it for a while. My dust collector system is 4" and I would prefer to use that unless it become too bulky on the Z axis, in which case I would reduce it down to a smaller diameter. I am not using an ATC at this time and I suspect that would make a difference in the distance between the upper and the bottom plates.

If you have any .dxf or .crv files that you are willing to share, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks much,
Joe