[Adobe Machine]

I got a lot of assembly done this morning, to include the Y axis track (free end ) the y axis track wheel and made it adjustable. I was careful to "load" the trackwheel only about .002 or so on the track itself. You can see that I really countersunk the fastners for the Y axis, so after time I can resurface it when it starts showing wear.

You can see that the slats are cut and installed, due to the off center ,center slots it really keeps the sacrifical stock in tight.I did see on E-BOMB some one had designed a little different sacrifical slats and put some small tips on the ends , has any one here tried this ? The slats are cut from 1/8 flat stock that was laying around, had really rusted. I spent one day just grinding rust off, but saved some $$ by doing it that way.( or did I ?.I called and 20 feet of 2" flat, 1/8 thick is $20, that means I would need approx 80 feet ( 5 ft long sections) or $80 plus a 100 mile round trip .So maybe I did save some, and also cleaned out some metal that you know who had threatned to send away any way.

Again, this had to be a cheap build, so I found some DC gear/motor servos for $30 bucks each, and a nice looking complete 25 volt power supply for $29 from Kellor..man I just do not see how they can build these power supplies for that kind of money? The unit is enclosed,looks really complicated but very neatley laid out..

The drive componets : The small XL timing pulley is a 15 tooth, the large one is 60 tooth.(both X & Y) I machined the centers to the shafts I built, & broached for 1/8 keyways. The larger X axis drive shaft is .742 where it connects to the the main roller, then.750 the rest of the way. I machined the top and and bottom plates for matching ball bearings so they are well supported both ends. All of the plates are machined from some real rough looking 6061 T6,even had some extra holes here and there,but did not hurt their function. This is known as having more time than money, but I was able to clean them up to function. ( I just like new, pretty T6 that has not been scratched..) If you look at the pictures a few days ago, and the ones today you can see I turned the X axis around and mounted to the outside of the 2 inch tubing of the table, gave me more y axis, which it really needs .The x axis has a full 4 ft plus of travel, but the Y is only 42 inches, so the extra 2 inches help.This also means that the X axis side rack and wheels will be out of harms way.

The servo-gear motors turn at 4500 rpm, but the gear reducer brings the final shaft speed to 500 rpm.(9:1) The encoders give 900 pulses per final shaft revolution , the timing gearing is 4:1, and one revolutin of the drive shafts I made move the belt one inch.(note, thats just a "Kentucky Windage"measurment ). I will use the dial indicators when it is all hooked up.Desk CNC will see 3600 hundred pulses per inch which should give good reconcilation (my mill has 80,000 pulses per inch, the lathe has 3600 pulses per inch and I get good finish on the lathe.) Right now I can see no backlash,but suspect the gear motor servo will have some backlash after it loosens up. This is a streight gear reduction , not a planatary type, & I have never seen a streight reduction box not have some back lash.

Whats left is the swivel mount for the lap top I'm using,and make the rest of the Z axis and torch mount. Then start wiring it up..to still make it more affordable I'm using the lathe Desk CNC motion control card and the 2 Geckos for the Dir/step and closed loop from the servos. A master control switch will switch the power supplies,the DC power for the servos will come off the same master control, then the servo wiring will be seperate.

Unless I have some big wiring issues this should be cutting in 2 weeks, maybe ( famous last words)