[RicknBeachcrest]

Well it is getting time for me to seriously think about an enclosure for all these electronics. You don't have to wire everything up on the bench and then take it apart too many times before coming to this conclusion. Over the many months of reading this forum, I have seen lots of pictures of the enclosures members have built.

I have an old PC case that I was planning to use with a bit of modifications. I've got a Gecko 540 that will be mounted in the front and a Super PID mounted also using the method described in this thread.
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/diy-cn...ectronics.html

Also I am curious what people are using to cool the inside with out sucking in lots of dust.

The ingenuity of the members on this forum always amazes me. So show us what you've got. I'm sure others would like to see also.

Thanks.
Rick

[tjbaudio]

I used and old audio amp for my current build. Pics here: 5V control signal on 50A contactor for Estop - CNCzone.com-The Largest Machinist Community on the net!

[ger21]

Also I am curious what people are using to cool the inside with out sucking in lots of dust.

I'm really surprised that you never seem to see anyone take this into consideration. Without some serious filtration, you'll get a ton of dust in your enclosure. Fortunately, the solution is easy and inexpensive. Just pick up a rectangular automotive air filter for about $10, and route a frame to capture the flange on the filter. The flange is a very soft rubber that forms an excellent seal.
I occasionally open the cabinet and blow the dust out of the filter from the inside, and there's usually a LOT of dust in the filter. But the inside of my cabinet is dust free.
I have 2 small fans mounted in front of my filter drawing air into the enclosure, and one fan at the top blowing out, which keeps the enclosure pressurized slightly.

[PaulRowntree]

Also I am curious what people are using to cool the inside with out sucking in lots of dust.

My machine has the X rails up off the table top to allow large material access, and all motors on the gantry. This makes it difficult to have cables coming up from below the table, so I have them coming down in a bundle. My controller chassis is up near the ceiling to keep little hands away from it, and this avoids the dust problem completely. It is bolted to the garage studs. I have a fan blowing air in from the back onto the G540, and could mount a filter if needed, but it is not.

Cheers!

[RicknBeachcrest]

Hi, Gerry,

Any possibility of seeing a picture or two of your filter system. I think I know what you are describing, but not quite sure.

Thanks.

Rick

[ger21]

Not really, as it's on the bottom, 6" off the floor, and I can't open the cabinet without moving the machine.
Basically, I cut two holes in the bottom of the cabinet for the fans, and mounted the filter on the outside. I have an extra frame to hold the filter. I can take a pic of that tomorrow, but I don't have an extra filter.

Edit:
The filter is like this, mounted to the bottom in this orientation, with a frame compressing the orange flange against the cabinet to form a seal. The pleated paper protrudes on the outside.
http://images.oreillyauto.com/parts/...997_022311.jpg

[NSR_CIVIC]

My in progress enclosure. Holds a pair of pc power supplies for 24v power to the tb6560 3axis board and will also hold my spindle speed controller and any other hardware needed. It will have an E-stop mounted on top along with a manual/ auto spindle speed switch and the pot for manual speed control.



I'll add more pics when I get more work done on it.

Kevin.
Nsr customs.

[RicknBeachcrest]

Thanks for the example photo, Gerry. This will give me a better idea what to look for.
Rick

[jharvey407]

I'm really surprised that you never seem to see anyone take this into consideration. Without some serious filtration, you'll get a ton of dust in your enclosure. Fortunately, the solution is easy and inexpensive. Just pick up a rectangular automotive air filter for about $10, and route a frame to capture the flange on the filter. The flange is a very soft rubber that forms an excellent seal.
I occasionally open the cabinet and blow the dust out of the filter from the inside, and there's usually a LOT of dust in the filter. But the inside of my cabinet is dust free.
I have 2 small fans mounted in front of my filter drawing air into the enclosure, and one fan at the top blowing out, which keeps the enclosure pressurized slightly.

This is a great idea!! Thanks Gerry.

[ger21]

I just went out and looked, and I did it a little differently than I thought. Because my box is made of MDF, I routed a recess to accept the flange of the filter, allowing it to protrude slightly. Then I just screw a rectangular frame over the flange to form a tight seal.

[RicknBeachcrest]

Would something like this be good to connect wires together? Like for negative for the limit switches, E-stop, etc. My next question is how do you interconnect the pairs?

I know how I want to do this, but not sure of the mechanics of doing it.

Thanks

Rick

[jharvey407]

Would something like this be good to connect wires together? Like for negative for the limit switches, E-stop, etc. My next question is how do you interconnect the pairs?

I know how I want to do this, but not sure of the mechanics of doing it.

Thanks

Rick

If I understand your question, you want to know how to bridge the connectors together so that they are common, in essence creating a bus bar. This can be done with terminal block jumpers. They connect two of the terminals together so that they are common. Multiple jumpers can be used to connect as many terminals together as you wish.

You can also buy a bus bar.

Since I work in the marine industry I use Blue Sea electrical equipment, but you can get these connectors just about anywhere.

For connections on my machine I prefer the euro style terminals.

James

[samco]

It started out organized.... Honest... But that is a lot of I/O
Converted to linuxcnc - running awesome!

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39q6kvrSBSk]Kearney and Trecker CNC running simple program. (tool changing and everything) - YouTube[/ame]

check out the other photos and videos...

sam

[bozidar22]

New enclosure (first picture) made from an old metal cabinet 50"x21". Nice and neat. Plus some room for adding on later.

Old enclosure (second picture) messy and spread out all over the place.

[cambosoup99]

this is from my old machine. it's just a pc case modified with steel panels which I powder-coated and mounted to the pc case.

This required a lot of custom work by me. For my recent one i chose to go with a simpler plug-in play set up

[Winks]

This is what my new store-bought controller will look like. Any ideas on how to fix it so engineers visiting my shop will not laugh at me?

[cambosoup99]

This is what my new store-bought controller will look like. Any ideas on how to fix it so engineers visiting my shop will not laugh at me?

why would anyone laugh at that, looks awesome to me..

[kinghong1970]

This is what my new store-bought controller will look like. Any ideas on how to fix it so engineers visiting my shop will not laugh at me?

yea, add a joystick next to the estop
and stick some pac-man logo here and there and play pac-man while your machine does the cutting....

:P

[Catmandu13]

Would something like this be good to connect wires together? Like for negative for the limit switches, E-stop, etc. My next question is how do you interconnect the pairs?

I know how I want to do this, but not sure of the mechanics of doing it.

Thanks

Rick

If a five bus connection is all/more than you need, I swear by Wago 222-415 Levernuts. They work just like a wire nut but individual spring clamp sockets for each wire ranging from 12-28ga.

Wago Online Katalog

[notimeforwork]

This is what my new store-bought controller will look like. Any ideas on how to fix it so engineers visiting my shop will not laugh at me?

I like the dual screen composite keyboard unit! Very unique! Where did you get it?

If I were to do anything to your set-up, I would convert two large drawers in the tool chest into rack mounts for the pc and the cnc controller inside the tool chest.