[ChrisAttebery]

Oh yeah, after driving 3-4 miles to the electronics surplus place every day this week I realized that there is an electronics store right across the street from my work. I've even been there before, but it's been a couple years. :^o

[ChrisAttebery]

Man, I wish I had remembered about Anchor Electronics earlier in the week. I stopped by yesterday and they had everything I wanted and at a reasonable price. I finished rewiring the controller today and it came out a lot cleaner. The OCD side of me is satisfied.

[BAMCNC.COM]

Pretty much up to my OCD standards too, Good Work!

[ChrisAttebery]

Thanks Bam!

[ChrisAttebery]

I received the CNC Fusion kit on Tuesday. The parts look really nice but there was one snag. The ballnut for the Z axis is stuck in the mount and won't come out. There's no way to install the mount without removing the nut first.

I also came to the realization that because of vacation plans in the next couple weeks there's no way I would have the time to do the machine work for at least 3 weekends. The nearest person I could find with a mill I could rent was over an hour away each way so there was no way i could do it during the week either. So I found a local machine shop to do the machining and dropped the parts off this morning. Hopefully they will get the work done today and I can get the X and Y put together tonight.

[ChrisAttebery]

Well, they got the pocketing done on the cross slide and base casting. They also got the oiling grooves done on the Z slide, but they ran out of time on the cross slide grooves. I took everything home and made sure that the X axis ball nut fit under the table. I think I have a different table casting than the one that CNC Fusion received. I did not need to slot the table to clear the ball nut and the bottom of the casting looks different from the pictures I have seen.

BTW: I emailed Michael at CNC Fusion. He wasn't sure why the nut was stuck in my mount, but he is going to send me a new Z axis ball screw, nut, and mount.

[DrunkPug]

I have been following your thread very closely as it is very near to what I am antcipating building. I noticed that you did purchase a 4" vice (was it a rotatry?) but I was wondering if you had considered adding a 4th axis and then CNCing it? I have not seen much information on performing that and I have a requirement to CNC a 4th axis for cutting bevel gears.

I thank you for all of the pictures you are posting of the steps/progress/and problems. Everyone knows a picture is worth a 1000 words.

Still leaning as much as I can before I start so I can minimize build time and mistakes and lost dollars.

- Pug

[cjsamples]

Hey,
Check out this thread. I followed it for a long time and this will give you plenty of information on a rotary table.
4" Vertex Rotary Table CNC conversion

They have done some great things with this little set up.
Chris

[ChrisAttebery]

Thanks Pug. I will try to post some pictures of the machine work when I have some time.

I used the following measurements to machine the cross slide:
The slot for the screw is .75" wide X .200" deep. They used a 9/16" ball mill because that was the largest I had (I provided all the tooling).
The pocket for the ball nut is 1.250" wide X 1.375 long X .420" deep.
These measurements left about .060" clearance between the table and ball nut and cross slide and screw.

I bought a 4" swivel base vise from CDCO. The vise is nice, but the handle looks like crap. I took the base off immediately.

The parts I make are all 2.5D. I don't have any need for a 4th axis right now, but I may in the future.

[ChrisAttebery]

I bought a treadmill motor off ebay this morning for $58. It appears to be the same 2.8hp units that Hoss used for his upgrade. The seller has a bunch of them for sale if any of you are looking.

toddstreadmills616 | eBay

[ChrisAttebery]

I got the cross slide back this afternoon. I finished drilling and tapping the oiling holes and then got started putting the machine together.

I ran into a small issue with the Y axis ball num mount. When I lined up the screw with the motor mount the ball nut wass hitting the ribs in the base casting. I pulled it out and sanded about 1/16" off the bottom of the mount. Then I used a piece of .025 brass as a shim between the mount and the base casting while I cranked down the nut clamp screws in the cross slide. After that the Y axis went together pretty quickly. I then moved on to the X axis and it went together alot quicker than the Y.

I've attached a couple pictures of the machine work on the slides as well as one of the bottom of my table.

[ChrisAttebery]

I tried running the X and Y axis with Mach3. I'm not able to get more than 90 in/min with any of the axis. I'm wondering if this is a driver setup issue or something binding.

90 in/min
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq-B0NCb5Oc"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq-B0NCb5Oc[/ame]

120 in/min
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUG1QvFO3J4"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUG1QvFO3J4[/ame]

[BAMCNC.COM]

Turn acceleration down in X

[hoss2006]

Read here.
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/1197132-post3929.html
Hoss

[ChrisAttebery]

Thanks Hoss.

I tried 1/2 and 1/4 stepping and was able to get 120in/minute using those settings. Any higher and I got the same missed steps again. I'm think I'll try ordering the serial cable for the drivers so I can tune them in software mode. I can't believe this setup can't do more than this.

BAM, I turned accel down to 20 on all three axis. It didn't seem to make a difference. The missed steps seem to happen at random times, not necessarily upon accel.


Chris

[hoss2006]

Those steppers and drivers CAN do much better, I've hit 500ipm with them @ 45kz kernel speed
Accel between 20-60 is good.
Are the axis/gibs/ballscrews lubed up and free enough to move by hand with not too much effort?
It sounds a little stiff and crunchy.
Put a knob or clamp on the steppers dual shaft with power off.
Hoss

[ChrisAttebery]

I checked the gibbs and screws. They were snug but not overly tight. I tried losening them way up and it didn't seem to help.

So I tried running a motor by itself at 120 and 180IPM. At 120 you can hear the motor clicking as it runs. At 180 is starts stalling just like it does on the machine. Obviously something is wrong with the motors or controller. :tired:

You can see it in action here:
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fto3nLP0CJ8]G0704 Stepper 180in per minute - YouTube[/ame]

[BAMCNC.COM]

What microstep was your video showing?

What Voltage do you have your PSU set at?

Do you have the Negative from PSU going to your main Ground lug?(where all grounds go to)

What kernal speed do you have Mach set at?

[ChrisAttebery]

That was 1/4 step. 4060 steps per inch.

PSU set to 45V.

I have a GND run straight from the plug to the PSU and another run stright to the chassis. The drives each have a DC +/- run straight from the PSU.

I have the kernel set to 25k. I have checked it all the way up to 65k. The machine is a 3.4Ghz Pentium with 3GB of ram. It shouldn't have any trouble running Mach3.

What microstep was your video showing?

What Voltage do you have your PSU set at?

Do you have the Negative from PSU going to your main Ground lug?(where all grounds go to)

What kernal speed do you have Mach set at?

[BAMCNC.COM]

That was 1/4 step. 4060 steps per inch.

PSU set to 45V.

I have a GND run straight from the plug to the PSU and another run stright to the chassis. The drives each have a DC +/- run straight from the PSU.

I have the kernel set to 25k. I have checked it all the way up to 65k. The machine is a 3.4Ghz Pentium with 3GB of ram. It shouldn't have any trouble running Mach3.

Try PSU at 47, Do you have around a 1100uF capacitor to put across your + & -?

If I read right, your Negative isn't going to Ground

With that processor I'd do atleast 45k

And Step/Dir Pulse lenght of 10uS each (I forgot to ask what they are now.)