[widgitmaster]

How's this!

[Joe_Ohlandt]

Who doesn't love those two ladies? :-)

[widgitmaster]

It's been an interesting week! Rode 200 miles Saturday, got a wicked sunburn on my arms
Finished another new Rat Fink plaque, and picked one up from the painter!

After cutting the Veteran's plaque, I decided to reverse it because it's going to be too difficult to paint or stain!
The 1st one took 1.5 hours to cut, the 2nd took 34 minutes !

[widgitmaster]

Wow!
I've just re-read this huge thread, my back hurt just from looking at all the pictures & videos!
Big Red project was started on June, 8th, 2013
Cut the first item on May 12th, 2014

This was a major project for me, and I have no regrets at this time.

Big Red has been alive for:
4.1 years
49.23 months
1500 days
35963 hours

Unfortunately, I don't have a total for the number of plaques it has cut, but I would estimate a good thousand!
The spindles haves been replaced 4x times, once due to a crash which bent the spindle shaft!
The inverter has been replaced 3x, first to add the electronic break system. Then it melted twice, along with the spindle!

The other day while cutting an 18" diameter plaque, the entire machine came to an abrupt stop! No axis motion, no spindle rotation!
The thermostat I had installed was activated, when the coolant system malfunctioned! It took several hours to locate the blockage, which was inside the spindle's coolant ports!
Apparently, the propylene glycol had too much water, causing my cast iron pump to rust! The rust had flaked off and plugged the ports inside the spindle!
So I used compressed air to blow out the ports in both directions, cleaned the tank & pump, and put 100% ethylene glycol !
The thermostat was set to stop the system at 42-deg C, now the spindle runs from 30-35 Deg C under heavy cuts in pine with a 2" diameter 90-Deg. V-Bit!

The thermostat connects to a small relay which activates the Red LED's, and a contactor which disconnects the 220 VAC going to the inverter, and disconnects power to the breakout board!
A feature I'm glad I installed, and recommend to all!

[stragenmitsuko]

amazing figures for sure . Didn't realise it was that long ago .
And indeed a good thing you added that safety !

Btw , what happend with that stepper driver that broke down .
It was the z-axis driver iirc .

[widgitmaster]

amazing figures for sure . Didn't realise it was that long ago .
And indeed a good thing you added that safety !

Btw , what happend with that stepper driver that broke down .
It was the z-axis driver iirc .

Ahh yes, the z-axis!
The solder joints were bad, the wires were too small a gauge! This caused the amperage to rise, and made an arc jump on the driver's circuit board (shortest path to ground)!
That fried the driver and the board the driver's were plugged into! It's fixed now, (I hope)!
Widgit

[widgitmaster]

Another one painted!

[skrubol]

Glad to hear your thermostat saved your spindle!
The other 3 spindle failures, were they bearings? Do you run a warm up routine on your router?
Any idea about the VFD failures? Seems like very short lifetimes for electronics.

[widgitmaster]

Glad to hear your thermostat saved your spindle!
The other 3 spindle failures, were they bearings? Do you run a warm up routine on your router?
Any idea about the VFD failures? Seems like very short lifetimes for electronics.

The 1st set burned up as I was trying to learn Mach3, and the PMDX spindle control board!
Something was set totally wrong, and both the inverter & spindle went up in smoke!
The 2nd set burned up before I figured out how to program the thermostat's high limits, as I had bogus info on the maximum allowable spindle temperature!
I don't read Chinese , and the internet is full of erroneous information!
The 3rd spindle crashed into the aluminum spoil board, and started to move. Needless to say, the spindle bent, then the bearings went out!

Expensive learning curve, to say the least!

[widgitmaster]

I guess I spoke too soon (chair)

Two weeks ago Big Red died!
The x-axis started misbehaving, and I've been frantically trying to get everything working again!
First I started replacing motor plugs, as they were over heating! Then I replaced the Gecko driver, and a few circuit boards.

With no changes, I decided it's time for an Upgrade!!
So I removed all the water lines from within the wire-tracks, and replaced them with larger tubing zip tied on the outside of the wire-tracks!
Then I purchased an inline water strainer, to minimize the particle size flowing through the Spindle's ports! This has significantly reduced the spindle's running temperature!
Then I removed all the cables that feed the steppers, as I had used 18-AWG 4C Stranded & Shielded cables. They were upgraded to 16-AWG, to reduce the resistance which is over heating the plugs!
The problems did not go away, so I removed the Mach3 software & the Win-7 software. That's when I realized Mach3 would not install in Win-7 with all the upgrades loaded!
So I spent an entire evening uninstalling ALL the Security Upgrades, then I was able to install Mach3 .

Now I have motion in all three axis, and the spindle starts if I press the button on the Spindle Speed Control Board.
But the spindle will not start when a g-code program is running?
I have checked all the parameters in the VFD Inverter, and they are correct & unchanged!

Anyone have a solution to this problem?

[widgitmaster]

Big Red is working fine, but my friend who has been painting all my plaques is dying from cancer
Its a sad day .......

[Bubba]

This is bittersweet news. Sad about your friend, but happy about red.

[bill south]

Prayers for your buddy widgit! I have a few good friends fighting the C battle and some even appear to be winning. Damn, getting old is hard.
Glad Red is on the mend. It still is a work of art!
Have a great holiday and New Year.
Bill

[justCNCit]

Hi, I've visited this thread a couple times and am looking to build a machine very similar to yours. I have an old one that is too small now (19x42")

I didn't see epoxy used to level the rails. How did you level the rails? If you used a less accurate method didn't this bug the hell out of you? Thanks

Shawn

[widgitmaster]

Hi, I've visited this thread a couple times and am looking to build a machine very similar to yours. I have an old one that is too small now (19x42")

I didn't see epoxy used to level the rails. How did you level the rails? If you used a less accurate method didn't this bug the hell out of you? Thanks

Shawn

The only thing I can say is what for?
I've made well over a thousand plaques on Big Red, and have never had to put a caliper on them to measure thickness or flatness!
All six legs have adjustable leveling pads, and I have leveled the machine as best as possible!
If the table surface is cut flat (to the machines travel), and the steps/per is set for an accurate travel distance, then your good to go!
Big Red was designed for wood only, as the only aluminum it has ever cut is the 48" x 30" spoil plates top! (.010" deep)
The rack & pinions give Big Red a 1050 IPM X&Y rapid travel speed, the Z has a 10mm /revolution ball screw.
Although the machine has the work area to make a 48" x 96" piece, I've never made anything bigger than 48" diameter! And that took over 2-hours!

Happy Holiday!
Widgit

[mactec54]

Hi, I've visited this thread a couple times and am looking to build a machine very similar to yours. I have an old one that is too small now (19x42")

I didn't see epoxy used to level the rails. How did you level the rails? If you used a less accurate method didn't this bug the hell out of you? Thanks

Shawn

Big Red is using round linear rails these do not need the mounting surface to be a machined, Profile Linear Rails need to have a machined surface because of the tight tolerance of the Bearings, even epoxy is not suitable for the mounting of linear rails, even though a lot use it, the mounting surface is too soft for accurate rail mounting, there is no substitute for machining the mounting surface for linear rails

[mactec54]

It's been an interesting week! Rode 200 miles Saturday, got a wicked sunburn on my arms
Finished another new Rat Fink plaque, and picked one up from the painter!

After cutting the Veteran's plaque, I decided to reverse it because it's going to be too difficult to paint or stain!
The 1st one took 1.5 hours to cut, the 2nd took 34 minutes !

Your work is superb as usual

[justCNCit]

The machined parts are going to twist and wear. This will affect the sound movement of parts? increase the wear and tear, lower the speeds you can move with screw whipping and premature wear of bearings... my previous (present) machine has been twisted over time being moved to a new garage, you can never tell what's going on with it and what part will wear next and why

I cannot do remachining toolpaths on my machine because of this, all I can do is leave machining allowances in between paths, because you will never pick up on a previously machined position with any accuracy.

Your signs look great and if I thought I could get away with a similar construction, I would. Here's an example of some of mine, which are usually sectioned because of my small machine.

[widgitmaster]

Big Red has never been moved, except when it started sliding out the garage door on the polished concrete floor!
That was fixed by adding thick rubber & cork pads under the feet! Then it was re-leveled!

I choose to use a rack & pinion for the X&Y axis, because it would require two massive diameter ball screws for the 96" travel of the Y axis!
Ball screws are great when under 36 inches length, also they are too slow!
On a big machine, the rapid feed is extremely important! otherwise your constantly waiting for the machine to get to the next position to start machining!


Quote:
I cannot do remachining toolpaths on my machine because of this, all I can do is leave machining allowances in between
paths, because you will never pick up on a previously machined position with any accuracy.


Try drilling a hole in the corner of your table with the spindle, then insert a tight pin and dial it in with an indicator. Then you will always start from the same home position !



Widgit

[justCNCit]

The problem isn't really in the XY for me its in the depth. I installed hall effect switches with an Arduino to solve the home problem but your suggestion is great as well, not nearly as much work.

I've noticed with a machine where you can't tell if the screws or rail is straight, you end up with accelerated thrust and radial bearing wear and even steel shavings inside of bearing housings. The depth isn't reliable for a multitude of factors my guess. But how can you adjust anything on the machine back to its true position without the machine sitting on a true position plane. You literally have nothing for a datum at all without the basic plane. You have trial and error which isn't fun.

I've found the difference is 50-100 IPM between having a machine that stays lined up and one that has unknown problems inside of it.

Just saying... you probably saved a lot of money and short term trouble doing it without epoxy though.

I don't use ball screws either, I used ACME threads, and 3D printed nuts for them... this has been a very forgiving method for me considering the number of crashes the machine has been through.