[jsantos]

Rail cutting experience (inexperience?)...

Since I went from a 5X10 to a 5X5 table, I have to cut a couple of my linear rails from 3000mm to 1700mm. Originally, I had this brilliant idea of cutting the rail with a carbide end mill on my machine until I found out that the rail is harder than carbide and won't work. Okay, on to plan B - use a abrasive chop saw.

Went to my local rental place and rented an abrasive chop saw. When to HD and got a cutter. I wanted the thinnest cutter I can find but they only had a 1/8" cutter so I got that.
Got everything set up and started cutting. I've never used an abrasive chop saw before and certainly have never cut into hardened steel before, so I was very surprised at how much sparks were flying! Okay. Move the thing to a safer area where the sparks won't set anything on fire. Start cutting again. And again. And again. I knew that hardened steel is hard to cut that this was ridiculous. After 5 hours (yeah, 5 hours) of cutting, I had gone about 1/4" deep! This is not going to work!

Did a search on the net and found a video on YouTube of a guy cutting hardened steel using an angle grinder. The grinder went thru the hardened steel like butter! I didn't want to use an angle grinder to begin with as I know I will never be able to cut the rail straight. But at this point, I'll try anything.

Went to Northern Tool to pick up an angle grinder. Since I don't know a single thing about angle grinder, I got a sales person to help me. The guy was very nice and told me more than I would ever want to know about angle grinders and pointed me towards a Northern Tool brand called Klutch. I thought that it was a very strange name for a tool but the sales person convinced me that it was a very good tool for $60. The Milwaukee one that they had was about $100. Got home, opened the box and no handle! Since it was late at night, I had to wait till the next morning to go back to Northern Tool. I really wanted to finish cutting the rails!

The next morning, went back to Northern Tool to get a replacement. They didn't have any. The sales person took the handle off the display and gave that to me. Since I was anxious to get going, I took it and went home. Now put the cutter on the tool. What? I need a special wrench and I have no special wrench in the box either! Went back to Northern Tool and returned the thing. Told them that this is the first time I've bought a Klutch tool and will never buy another one again.

Went to HD to look for an angle grinder. They had Milwaukee, Makita, DeWalt and Ryobi. The Milwaukee was the most expensive one and the Ryobi was the cheapest. The Ryobi looked exactly the same as the Klutch that I just returned. But this one was for $40 and came with a case and different cutters. The HD associate said that the Ryobi was not as good as the Milwaukee, Makita or Dewalt but I like that I can put the handle on top instead of the side since I was cutting vertically. And you can rotate the switch too. Those features sold me on Ryobi. Anyway, I don't expect to be doing a lot of grinder and since it was the cheapest, I got the Ryobi.

Now for the real test - start cutting. The thing is going thru the rail like there's no tomorrow! Yay! Got thru the cutting in no time. As predicted the cut was not straight, but I'll take it.

[ger21]

Wrap a wet cloth around the rail near the cut to keep it from getting too hot.

[widgitmaster]

There are different grades of Chop-Saw discs, some are designed for cutting thin re-bar & thin-wall tubing (most common).
It is difficult to locate a disc especially for thick solid hardened steel! I know, as I bought three different discs just to cut my rails!
The wrong disc will just heat up and melt in the steel, then they stall the saw!
Widgit

[jsantos]

There are different grades of Chop-Saw discs, some are designed for cutting thin re-bar & thin-wall tubing (most common).
It is difficult to locate a disc especially for thick solid hardened steel! I know, as I bought three different discs just to cut my rails!
The wrong disc will just heat up and melt in the steel, then they stall the saw!
Widgit

I would have ended up buying different types of disc if I could find them. :-)

Yup, I had the wrong disc. It just produced a lot of sparks and a lot of heat and didn't do much else. Part of the learning I guess. That's why this hobby is such a wonderful way to while away your time. :-)

[jsantos]

Wrap a wet cloth around the rail near the cut to keep it from getting too hot.

Did that. Wrapped clothes on both ends of the cut soaked in coolant. And stopped once in a while and put coolant on the cut. Kept the rail warm but not hot. Didn't do much to cut though.

Interestingly enough, there was not that much heat using the angle grinder.

[jsantos]

It has been a long day but I wanted to finish the horizontals for the gantry. I was worried that my uprights are not perfectly aligned with each other and the only time I'll find out is when I fit the horizontals. The pictures below showed the process I used to test fit the horizontals.

First I mounted and screwed down the extrusions on one of the uprights. Once I've tightened down the screws, the extrusions are now rigid and as I squared the ends, they should also be perpendicular to the upright. The third picture shows how it looked like.

I then fitted installed the second upright on the x-axis carriage and see if the horizontals would fit in the slot of the second gantry. And they did!!!! I was shouting and jumping with joy. I didn't have to force fit the horizontals. They easily slid into the slots of the second gantry. That's the second picture.

The slots are 7mm deep. That's the first and last pictures. Looking at this now, I'm not sure that my Z axis would have twisted back and forth without using plates. But since I've already made the plates, the plates are going on. They will just make my Z axis much better. :-)

The pictures I uploaded seemed to be out of sequence and I can't seem to control the sequence in which they are shown. Does anybody know how?

[jsantos]

Here's the gantry installed. That is one heavy gantry! The plates made it so much more beefier. That baby will never twist. :-)

When I ordered the plates, I took the measurement of the back plate from sketchup and use that to order the plates. I forgot that the back plate is an inch shorter because of the y-axis plate. Now my front plate is shorter by an inch too. Sigh...

[jsantos]

Finally completed the y-axis plate and the z-axis back plate. I had to drill holes on the sides of the y-axis plate and couldn't do it on my CNC so I had to enlist the help of a friend who's got a very nice drilling jig from Bridge City Tools. The first picture shows the y-axis plate with the jig attached ready to drill the side hole.
The second picture is a close up of the jig. My friend was giving me a hard time that his lowly jig can do what my CNC cannot do. :-)

The third picture shows the y-axis plate, the z-axis back plate and the z-axis attached to the gantry. The fourth picture shows a close-up.

I'm a little concerned with my y-axis. While there is no binding and it moves smoothly, it seems that I have to put a little more effort to move it than I do when I move my x-axis. The effort, however, is the same effort when I tried to move all 4 linear bearings with a piece of wood without the y-axis plate attached to them. Hopefully, my linear bearings are not bad.

[pippin88]

Are the bearing models the same? Most are available in different amounts of preload

[jsantos]

Are the bearing models the same? Most are available in different amounts of preload

They're both THKs but different models. The x-axis is SHS35 and the y-axis is HSR35.

[jsantos]

Vectric Support Update:

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had given up on hearing from Vectric Support. A few days after that, I heard back from another person from Vectric asking if I was satisfied with the answers that I got from Vectric Support. I answered back that I haven't received answers to the last 2 emails that I sent them. I then sent back the list of issues that I had with the Aspire tiling.

Although, I didn't like some of the answers I got (Essentially, some are 'that's the way it works'), I'm very glad that they did get back to me. As I also mentioned before, I am a fan of Aspire and I was glad to also get the support.

[jsantos]

Done with the mechanical! Well, almost. A machinist friend of mine who came over was very impressed with the rigidity of the machine (thanks to those who provided some very good advise) but said that I should pocket the big plates in a truss pattern. He said that doing so can reduce the weight of my gantry by over 50% without sacrificing structural rigidity. He even offered to machine it for me on one of their big CNC. :-)

I also don't have a second ballscrew yet, so I will have to live with a single ballscrew on the x-axis for now.

Here are pics and commentaries on them:

1. z-axis front plate - This is the only plate that I didn't put a channel in so I can tram the spindle by moving it from side to side.

2. z-axis motor mount from the back. The sides are screwed to the y-axis plate to also support the motor mount.

3. z-axis motor mount from the front with the pulley attached to the z-axis ballscrew.

4. spindle plate - I followed Gerry's advise and went with 1" plates. I tapped 4 6mm threads in them for setscrews that I will use to for tramming the spindle from front to back.

5. the spindle attached - As expected, the whole z-axis drops like a rock. I asked DMM for a motor with a brake but they don't have any. My machinist friend says that their machines use springs of the type used in tape measures but don't know where to get them. Does anybody know where?

6. the y-axis motor/ballscrew mount - This one does not flex at all.

7. the y-axis ballscrew installed. It turned out that my fears about the y-axis linear bearings are unfounded. Turning the y-axis pulley moves the linear blocks and the whole z-axis very smoothly from end to end. pippin was right.

8. last two pics - supports for the x-axis ballscrew plates. tahustvedt and widget were right. The plates will flex when moving the gantry. After I reinstalled the ballscrew and the pulley, the plates flex visibly when I rotate the pulley. Supporting them at the bottom stopped the flexing. Thanks guys!

[ger21]

5) Constant Force Springs - McMaster Carr

[jsantos]

5) Constant Force Springs - McMaster Carr

Thanks, Gerry!

[j2sip]

Kabayan, saan mo gagamitin yang pagkaramiraming CNC machine mo?

Nice machine! I'm about to start an aluminum/steel rebuild since I've found an aluminum plate supplier in good old T. Alonzo St in good old Quiapo (I hope you still remember these places) and some used THK rails in Laguna. I will also be cutting long rails and your experience with the angle grinder will eliminate some experimentation in my part.

Salamat, God bless and keep the pictures coming.

Jordan

Here is my machine
DIY CNC router Build log
and, i hope you don't mind, a healthy Pinoy CNC discussion here
CNC Milling DIY ,gusto kong mag-assemble, kayo ba?

[jsantos]

Hey Jordan,

My CNC mill is primarily used for metal working and the one I'm building will be used for woodworking. Just a hobby. :-)

Yeah, I still remember Quiapo and Laguna. In fact, my brother who retired last year decided to return to the Philippines and is now living in Laguna.

I'm finishing up the electronics and I'm hoping to have the machine running in a week or 2.

[jsantos]

Finally finished the controller. Powered it on and none of the magic smoke escaped. :-)

Here are pics and commentaries:

1. Making the connectors for the encoders. Got some serial cables from a local surplus store and chopped off one end. The owner said that he hasn't had anybody ask him for serial cables in a long time. I wish that parts suppliers for cnc hobbyists would get away from using db-9s. They are so flimsy! The db-9 connector with the breakout board came from China thru eBay.

2. The completed controller.

The box is 3' long by 2' high and 10" deep made from aluminum extrusions and aluminum sheets.

The white stuff on the right hand side are the circuit breakers. I'm using only single phase power but I got these 3 phase circuit breakers from eBay for cheap so I used those.

The blue stuff at the bottom right corner are the power distribution blocks, from eBay.

Beside the power distribution blocks along the bottom are the power relays and the emi filters for the DMM drivers.

I found the interface modules (the green things on the DIN rails) in the local surplus stores so I decided to use those. Made life so much easier for connecting things. They are used for COM and power connections.

On the left hand are 2 power supplies. Because of the mismash of components I'm using, I have to supply 5V, 12V, 24V, and 48V power.

At the center are the 4 DMM DYN3 servo controllers. I intend to add a 4th axis in the near future. If I need to, I can add another controller to drive another motor.

On top of the servo controllers are the Ethernet smoothstepper and the DMM BOB. It will interesting setting these up as I know nothing about the smoothstepper at this time. :-)

3. The front panel

Nothing special here. Just the on/off switch and the fan filter. At one point, I considered adding meters but decided that they did not serve any useful purpose for me.

I got the idea for the fan filter from Gerry (Thanks, Gerry!). I remembered him talking about using an automotive filter in one of the threads and decided to use something similar. A walk down the aisles

of Fleet Farm yielded this nice filter. I had to make a holder for it though.

4. The filter holder and intake fan.

5. The back panel.

The black connector at the top left is a 5-pin neutrik that will drive my VFD.

The 5 terminal blocks at the left hand side are the connectors for the servo motor power. At this time, the topmost terminal block will provide power to the solenoid that I'm using to build my 'brake' for my z-axis.

The 5 connectors in the center are the db-9 connectors for the motor encoders.

The silver-colored connector at the top right is the Ethernet connector for the smoothstepper. The rest are neutrik connectors for estop, limit switches and probe.
You might notice that the bottom connector is crooked. I run out of my neutrik connectors and had to get another one. I didn't realize that the one that I got has a different mounting profile than the rest of my connectors. Oh, well.


Now, on to testing and see if this thing works!

[jsantos]

Hey Gerry,

What version of Mach 3 was I supposed to use for your Screenset? Also, what is the latest version of your screenset? I have 1.09.

Thanks!

[ger21]

It doesn't really matter. Anything after 3.42.020.
You just can't use 3.43.000 to 3.43.022 due to a bug in them.

Send me an email and I'll get you a newer version.

Every day here I see PC's that are going to quickly be filled with dust. The automotive type air filters are really the only way to keep all the dust out.

[vtx1029]

Looks great Joe! Awesome work as usual. Is that aluminum planking from your old router?