[amishx64]

Amish ,
How did I luck out and get you posting to my build regurally?
Should I thank God for this?

Tom, You are too kind. You made my day.

[painter]

Amish , I thank you, And am ordering the power supply from the link you provided!
Some more pics .... machineing the gantry suports for the x axis bearing blocks.
thanks Tom

[2rdesigns]

Just stumbled across your build. Has a similar design to my build so I'm curious to see how it goes. Are you using 1/2 - 8 2 start on your z drive also. I used a single start and I'm thinking of going to 2 start (single seems kinda slow).

Rick

[painter]

Thanks for looking Rick,
All screws are 1/2 8 double starts, by the way your machine looks awesome!
I was considering sublime green for my machine, but I already have some blue so will stick with it however your machine has me thinking!

Tom

[painter]

Hello again,
While examining my machine, I noticed that the u/c channel was splayed more in one place than another .... back to the drawing board !
So I'm thinking I should order a 1" ball end mill and make some risers out of solid stock ..... started rummaging around in the shop and found a brand new 1" endmill still in the box, I must have decided to fix this years ago, just did'nt remember !!!!
Here are the changes as well as some pics with paint!

Tom

[painter]

Hello again,
The gantry is back together and apears to be very ridgid, it is much smoother and more acurate now... the downside is that I weighed this piece, 80lbs without the black cast aluminum supports, router/spindle, x axis screw and motor. I'm guessing 110lbs when finished ...oof!
The 2 screws driven by the single motor belt drive setup, may be inadequate! I intend to proceed as planned and may have to adress this potential problem later, The 640 oz motor may be ok but the belt may flex/stretch while initiating direction changes.
While the gantry was dissasembled I milled the top rail holes into slots so that the spindle could be trammed in that direction.

Tom

[2rdesigns]

Looking good! Did you make the linear bearings for the y-axis? I'm considering designing a small machine with skate bearing linear rails and was wondering about the twist strength of the z-axis around the y-axis rails?

Rick

[erikjgreen]

Math time!

Watts = Amps * Volts

So you want 16.5A * 63V = 1039.5 Watt PSU. Since no one makes a 1039 watt PSU, shoot for the next highest. I can see you getting away with 1000 Watt too, but that is your call.

16.5A was calculated in post 26: http://www.cnczone.com/forums/1215950-post26.html

As for all the models you see, those are just linear voltage regulator boards that provide 5V, 12V, etc. I would not purchase those addons. If you need 5V you can get it from just about any power supply in the world. Besides, you shouldn't run logic boards off the same supply as the steppers!

I would get either:
PS-10N63
or
PS-15N63

I hope this helps.

Actually, lots of places sell 1kw power supplies and larger. Example would be Kelinginc's stuff: http://www.kelinginc.net/KL-6020.pdf

Another alternative would be to buy a transformer of about 1kw with 45 V or so secondary windings, then use a rectifier and caps to build a simple linear power supply.

Erik

[painter]

Rick ,
Thanks for the comment!
Eric thank you for following up with Amish's post and thanks for the link!

Rick yes the bearing carriers are home-made, years ago I saw a design similar to mine ... they were a real PNA to make tho! They were drawn in cad and then cut with foamworks on my homebuilt hotwire cnc foamcutter, (Ithink the motors and controlller kit came from Hobby cnc). Cut a lot of them before I got some I could use.
After cutting the foam, I then cast them in aluminum using the lost foam technique and then milled them square.

Tom

[painter]

Hello again,
I have been reassembling my machine after paint and now that I can move the gantry by hand ( the screws being disconnected) I can feel the chatter of every single bearing in the recirculating bearing design of the vxb 20mm linear rails, even worse I can see my z carriage chatter!!!!!!
Moral of the story to any one watching my build DO NOT BUILD YOUR MACHINE WITH THEESE at 150.00 each, if you still want to design your machine around them , I will have a pair for sale soon FOR CHEAP!!!!
My skate bearing home built y axis is smooth as butter !!

Tom

[amishx64]

Tom,

Sorry to hear about the rails not working out for you.
The paint job looks really good. Nice progress.

[2rdesigns]

I had an issue with some of my bearings not wanting to slide smooth and it was mainly do to them sitting for a long time. I took them out of the carriages and cleaned them thoroughly and re-greased. The worked 10x better after. Hope this helps.

Rick

[painter]

Hello again,
Got my Gecko 203 drivers,limit switches, e-stop, breakout board wire etc. I think this stuff is COOL, evidently so does my wifes cat.!! I tried taking a pic without him in it, after several tries I gave up, aparrently he has the cnc bug too!!
I got all this stuff from Brent hubbard from Hubbard cnc, This guy is awesome, I talked to him on the phone Sunday afternoon just before the football game(extremely helpfull) .... had the stuff by Thursday!!!!
I got everything ordered from him FAST!!!!

NOW I DESPERATELY NEED TO FIND A POWER SUPPLY..... Amish, Antec had a fire and have nothing in stock to sell me!!

Eric, Keling cnc gets their stuff from Anteck evidently, as they told me 2-3 possibly 4 weeks to get a power supply!(nuts)

Rick, thanks for the input I will try greasing the bearings as you suggested before I scrap them.

Tom

[amishx64]

NOW I DESPERATELY NEED TO FIND A POWER SUPPLY..... Amish, Antec had a fire and have nothing in stock to sell me!!

Sorry to hear Antek had a fire. My advice would be to wait if you can because it is worth it. The other route would be DIY or second-hand market via eBay or craigslist or a friend.

[askjerry]

Awesome build... should be a very stable machine when finished... likely rival many of the commercial machines. A friend of mine is building a machine with the roller skate bearings... I was surprised how smooth they were across the entire 56 inch travel length. Sometimes the simple ways hold up in the long run.