[Hypnotoad]

Got my kit from arizonavideo a couple weeks ago and finally set about cutting the pocket in the Y slide to make room for the X axis ballnut. But when I went to test out the pocket I found that the wider part that fits into the existing slot doesn't fit in all the way. There's no way you can understand what I just wrote without a picture. See the corner of the piece with the nipple? It's too wide to fit in the horizontal slot. Am I missing something?

Thanks for the advice.

[BTP]

You could just open the slot enough for it to clear. Simple enough. Did you cut the relief pocket with another machine?

[Hypnotoad]

You could just open the slot enough for it to clear. Simple enough. Did you cut the relief pocket with another machine?

I figured that's what I'll end up doing but just wanted to ask first. Modifying those slots wasn't explicitly mentioned in the kit instructions.

I cut the pocket with the same mill. I'll post some pictures of how I did it another day. It's half clever/half ghetto, but it beats an angle grinder.

[TroyO]

I think I had that problem too. If I remember correctly I just rounded the corners on the ball nut flange on my bench grinder.

[Hypnotoad]

Ok, so a few minutes with a file did the trick:



That was more controllable than my ghetto method for hogging out that pocket. It doesn't get any more manual than this . I put welding gloves on, held onto the 4x4 and Y slide as best I could, and pushed it around while taking shallow cuts. BTW arizonavideo will do this for $20 plus shipping and that's not a bad way to go, I just didn't want to risk a key part of the mill being at the mercy of USPS. This took like an hour to do.



So.... trying to install the Y axis. Stuck the supplied plastic tube in the ball nut as I screwed the screw out, put the ballnut in place on the Y slide, and attempted to thread the screw back into the ballnut. It started pushing the tube out of the ballnut but then just kind of jammed. I though maybe the tube had gotten pinched in there, so I pulled it out and naturally a few BB's fell out.

Pulled it all back apart, put the BB's back in the ballnut, but now I can't screw the ballscrew all the way into the ballnut. Is there a particular way to put BB's back into the ballnut? I played with it a little bit, it seemed like too many BB's in one track seemed to make it bind.

[Hypnotoad]

Found this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXdt5M8ZeoE

And now I know how to pack these ballnuts back together. I was just throwing BB's willy nilly in there and didn't understand there were three races. Got the Y axis installed -- woot!

[arizonavideo]

I have fount that some of the slots for the X nut are now thinner. I'm making the spacer a bit thinner to allow it to fit.

As for having the balls get away and re packing the nut.

I put all the balls in a cup and add some grease and mix them up so they are all sticky and then just stick them in place . You have to make sure no balls end up in the void zones between the ball returns. There is two places inside the nut where no balls go. Once you have checked that add the plastic tube to hold the balls in place and insert the screw into the front of the Y and screw on the nut being careful to keep a bit of pressure on the tube so the balls don't come free.

I am thinking of changing the install process here. If I included a wood templet and a hole saw cutter to make a larger hole in the front of the mill base the screw could go in from the top with out removing the nut. You would have to take 10 minuets to enlarge the front hole but you would have no chance to loos ball screw balls either.

Hole cutter go right through cast iron easy.

I also will cut the Y pocked for anyone for $20 and can square the slot if you wish.

[Hypnotoad]

I think I prefer removing the nut to cutting a hole in the front. My mistake was not putting enough tension on the rubber tube you supplied with the kit. It just fell out when the screw was 3/4 of the way into the ball nut. It was frustrating at the time but once I took a few minutes to understand the ball nut it was no big deal. If you were going to add anything to the kit some spare BB's would be good, though I understand those are custom fit to the nuts.

[Fastest1]

Since he is doing the reballing, supplying a few extra shouldnt be an issue.

[arizonavideo]

I have not thought of extra balls.

It would be easy enough to do.

[Fastest1]

See how easy that was? Now AZV will have customers installing too many!

[Hypnotoad]

Minor update. Got all 3 axes installed and turning ok by hand. Had to file away a bit of material in the Y slide to clear the X axis ballscrew. Had to fidget with the X axis a bit to get it to move smoothly. This was a lot easier than expected, wish I'd ordered this kit a long time ago.

Need to get the stand bolted to the floor. It's in a residential garage so there's a bit of slope to the floor. Should I try to shim that to get the table level? With what?

Need to get the drive system ordered. Will probably go with the Automation Technologies kit unless there's a cheaper option. It seems like a good deal though.

I was just going to control this with a parallel port. Is there any reason I should opt for an Ethernet based controller? I'll most likely be using linuxcnc with a PCI parallel port board.

[CS900]

Absolutely shim the stand so the mill is level.

[DonKes]

I shimmed my stand NOT level, but with a drain. I shimmed the mill to stand level.

Don

[Hypnotoad]

Ok will shim I flat. Turns out I already shimmed it pretty flat.

Need to get motors etc ordered. I wanted to get this kit:

http://www.automationtechnologiesinc...c-120vac230vac

One tiny problem: it has a 1/2" shaft for the Z motor. Can I just get a 3/8" to 1/2" oldham coupler to adapt it?

[Wiggles84]

Ok will shim I flat. Turns out I already shimmed it pretty flat.

Need to get motors etc ordered. I wanted to get this kit:

http://www.automationtechnologiesinc...c-120vac230vac

One tiny problem: it has a 1/2" shaft for the Z motor. Can I just get a 3/8" to 1/2" oldham coupler to adapt it?

yes on the oldham coupler. @ mcmaster the parts can be ordered to fit different shafts at either end. as long as the OD is the same they will match up.

Andrew

[arizonavideo]

Was your kit to fit a Nema 34? it should have come with a 1/2" coupler. If it was Nema 23 then 3/8"

I can always send out a coupler if you need one.

[Hypnotoad]

Yeah, it's a nema 34 kit. If you could send me the 1/2" hub I would appreciate it. Thanks! Can't wait to get this thing moving.

[Hypnotoad]

Ok, got the steppers, drivers, etc (I'm using this stepper kit) all set up (wired it according to this diagramand set about trying to get an unattached stepper to move. I've done this previously with some tiny steppers and another motor controller board with success but running into some issues here. Any advice appreciated.

1. Each axis needs a pulse pin and a direction pin. The pulse pin is being properly driven, I can see it at the motor driver. It's a good clean 5.5 V pulse. The direction pin however isn't moving, at least with the Linux CNC test program. This may be a bad pin or something, I need to play with this some more.

2. Despite pulses showing up at the driver it doesn't seem to be doing anything to the stepper windings. I've measured from A+ to A- and B+ to B- with a volt meter and I don't see anything happening. I tried to look at it with an oscilloscope and the stepper started to move. I guess my scope probe sank enough current to turn the motor.

I've tried a few different settings on the motor controller:

• Setting it to 1.5 A and setting it to 5.0 A.
• Setting it to "default" microsteps (I believe this is 2 steps per rev) as well as 200 pulses per rev. I'm actually confused on the correct setting for this. It's a 200 steps/rev motor.

I've tried the breakout board in both pullup and pulldown modes... pullup mode seemed to fix the lack of a direction pin activity. This wasn't documented in the wiring diagram.

Well I'm thoroughly confused, hopefully one of you nice folk can straighten me out.

[TroyO]

Do you have the enable pin set "High" or jumpered over to a 5V signal? (Look at the "Master enable switch" on the upper right of your diagram. Just a first thought.