[mrgame1988]

Hi all,

My first post here.

So as the title says i'm in the process of collecting information, designing and then building my first router. To start off with, this is my plan... Please let me know your thoughts... I am working with a tight budget - $1700, some bits I can get for free, mainly the steel...

50x50 RHS Chassis / Frame
SBR20 1500 x 1500 X & Y axis
SBR20 400 Z axis
1605 Ball screws on all axis... X will be duel driven

4 x Nema 24 - 560oz stepper motors
4 x TB6600HG Stepper drives
2 x 400w Powerpacks
3g 5 axis breakout board
npn 3 wire limit switch's

2.2kw Watercooled spindle
HY02D223B 2.2kw invertor

Now I know you get what you pay, and i intend on remedying anything that's wrong with my build. One thing that has me wondering is with these Chinese invertors, reading through the forums and google there seems to be alot of people saying that there is little information on the wiring of these... Who has had one and got a English diagram or even better, pictures or video of there wiring?

Any input would be appreciated.

Cheers Ryan

[ger21]

You want 1610 or 2010 ballscrews. 5mm pitch is too slow. not sure if that drive can properly power those motors, which may also result in slow speeds.

There should be an English manual somewhere on this forum for those vfd's. Try searching. There's a lot of information here.
Most EBay ads these days have a wiring diagrams. Therecs not a lot to it, for the basic controls you'll need.

[mrgame1988]

Hi there,

Yes i totally agree the bigger the pitch would help with rapid & feed rate. Unfortunately going to a bigger pitch at present blows the budget sky high, so I might look at doing a upgrade in a year or so. I have a few items which i plan to do on it so i should be able to get my money back on the machine and then start upgrades Hopefully by next Christmas ill have also a mill & lathe to add to my little workshop.

When you say the drives don't look strong enough... what do you mean exactly. The electronics are a kit i have seen of eBay, Which i thought seemed strong enough compared to others i have read in the forums using 270oz motors and particularly 1 drive on the x and using a timing belt aragement.

Cheers Ryan

[ger21]

A lot of chinese kits on Ebay combine motors with drives not capable of driving them very well. People think that the kits are better because they have big motors, and in reality, they are often easily outperformed by smaller motors.

Many people that buy these inexpensive kits often buy all new components that work better together and give much better performance.

[mrgame1988]

Hi Gerry,

What would you recommend? I need 4 drives, cards, and power pack for around the $500AUD mark? Appreciate your knowledge

Cheers Ryan

[ger21]

Either a kit with a Gecko G540 or Leadshine MX4660, but they'll probably be over your budget.

Something like this:
G540 Stepper Controller Package (inc 4 x 387 oz.in Motors) [CC-07] - US$579.00 : Homann Designs!, The preferred CNC Component Supplier

[mrgame1988]

So why would this be a better system... are the nema motors not as strong hence why you need a more powerful motor to obtain the same goal or is it the drives are not as good? I had a loot at that gecko... is that like the break out board or is that the stepper drive? I'm very new to the DIY machines but our machines we sell to customers are servo driven machines but there $200000 and up routers.

Cheers Ryan

[ger21]

The G540 is far superior to those Toshiba based drives. You can read reports of them burning up all over the internet.
With steppers, the larger they are, the slower they tend to spin. Steppers lose torque as rpm's increase, and larger motors tend to lose torque much faster. Smaller motors can often have more torque at 500rpm than a motor with twice the holding torque.
You want a motor with a very low inductance to be able to get higher speeds, ideally less than 2mH.

With 5mm pitch screws, you're going to need your motors to spin very fast to get any kind of speed out of the machine.


The G540 is a combination breakout board and 4 stepper drives in one package. The 4 drives are on individual cards that can be replaced if needed.

[mrgame1988]

You are right that setup is a bit out of my price range... So you recommend a smaller oz motor because they spin faster? Would there be a very noticeable differance in speed/torque? I have continued looking, What are the leadshine m542 like? Having a seperate breakout board does not phase me as i already have one. would these go well with your recommended 387oz motors?

Should i be also using a 2:1 or 3:1 to speed it up? will i loose torque by doing this?

Cheers Ryan

[ger21]

With drives, you're going to get what you pay for. The more you spend, the better the performance. I believe that Leadshine has 3 lines of stepper drives, and those are in the bottom line.

Yes, you can gear the screws to spin faster, but at the lengths you'll be using, you might see whipping of the screw if it spins too fast.

[mrgame1988]

with that kit you recommended, what are the relays for?

[ger21]

Whatever you want to use them for. Here's a sample wiring diagram:
http://www.homanndesigns.com/pdfs/EN010_V8.pdf

[mrgame1988]

Hi Gerry,

I spoke with my supplier and they will change to RM/SFU 1610 ballscrews for a $10 upgrade

2pcs SBR20-400mm supported linear rail
2pcs SBR20-1500mm supported linear rail
2pcs SBR20-1500mm supported linear rail
12pcs SBR20UU linear blocks
1pcs Ballscrew RM/SFU1610-450mm
1pcs Ballscrew RM/SFU1610-1550mm
2pcs Ballscrew RM/SFU1610-1550mm
(4pcs Ballscrew -C7standard + 4pcs ballscrew nuts & end machined)
4 set BK/BF12 END SUPPORT
4pcs couplers 6.35*10mm

This is in regards to your earlier response of getting a bigger pitch. Will this all be ok?

Cheers Ryan

[ger21]

2010 would be better for the longer screws, but 1610 will work.

[AORD]

Huanyang VFD and spindle, here:

http://www.jinlantrade.com/ebay/invertermanual.pdf

or here:

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...95515949,d.dGc

I brought a 1.5kw water cooled ER7 collet with VFD. Very happy with it, i would buy again. Quiet and no vibrations. So cheap it felt like I was ripping them off. They supplied a manual. I found it easy to set up.

I brought a small cheap Chinese 4 axis board and the fastest I could get it to go was 20ipm (any higher and it would miss steps). I regretted buying the Chinese board because of the slow speed.

I'm now building a similar machine to you 1200x 1400 cut area (my second machine).
Aiming to buy ($629us) something like Leadshine MX4660 4-axis 400 oz-in nema 23 CNC stepper kit
I looked at G540 but the Leadshine MX4660 seems to have better specs (but fairly new so not much info out there).

I'm going for Chinese 1605 ball screws to obtain 0.025mm steps (instead of 0.05mm with 1610). Better motor controller will help spin ball screws faster.
I'm expecting I may have to straighten the ball screws when the arrive (to help reduce whip). Also, perhaps having double bearing floating at the other end to help reduce whip.
Also will install a support half way along screw if whip occurs. Also prepared to to buy another lot of screws if they whip too much.

Good luck.