[voltsandbolts]

Well, let’s begin at the beginning shall we. I started my build with the controller box and drives. I used a surplus enclosure from a company that makes printing equipment. I picked up my drivers and steppers from a yard sale for $50 and only one drive is a bit flaky.

The motors are Power max II and the drivers are PacSci-6410 (micro stepping) from Pacific Scientific, very nice for the money.

The power supply is one I striped out of a telecom equipment rack I spotted at the dump. It’s 50 volts at 10 Amps, and the price was right……FREE!

Photos soon…

[tajord]

altogether folks.. photos, photos, photos, photos, been waiting on this for a while now......

[Glidergider]

This is too good to be true. Keep going!

[voltsandbolts]

Sorry guy’s I know I have been delinquent in my duties, but living in New England means some times you have to put your hobby on hold and go sand 800 feet of driveway.

I’ll try and get a few photos up to night…..if I’m not too sore.

[Glidergider]

I love the title of this thread "Chronicle of a Geek". Now show us just how Geeky you are. It's really hard to be geekyier then me.

[voltsandbolts]

Ok, time for the long-awaited first photos…

1 & 2 are the driver box and drives there is a small power supply from a scanner in there too, to run the fan and for limits and anything else that might need +5 or +12 volts.

3. is the main supply 50 Volt ,10 Amp. I added circut breakers, the two little black squares on the end closest in the photo.

[tajord]

You remind me of myself, sometimes using the table saw as a workbench, then you got to get it all off, what sort of driver are you using that you are powering it with 50V?

[voltsandbolts]

Hi Tjord,

Yes, although I have counter space, things just gravitate to the table saw…. I don’t know why, they just do.

The drives are from PacSci-6410, micro stepping. Full step down to 1/50,000. I have work with these drives in the past so I snapped them up when I saw them.

Some of the futures are adjustable:

Step Size
Damping control
Idle current reduction
Settable current.

[voltsandbolts]

And they run at up to 75 Volts....

[tajord]

Wow, i'm not familiar with that board but it sounds cool, 75 volts you say, I'm probably not gonna even run half that, I'm wondering what performance you'll be getting when you're done.

[voltsandbolts]

For software I am using, AutoCad, Ace, and TurboCNC. I check my code by running it on MicroTech CNC Simulator.

What are you guys using? Or going to use?

[tajord]

Say... what are you gonna be cutting with your cnc?

[Glidergider]

For software I am using, AutoCad, Ace, and TurboCNC. I check my code by running it on MicroTech CNC Simulator.

What are you guys using? Or going to use?

I use TurboCAD and Mach3. I plan to try the CNC Simulator and ACE soon. At work I have Catia too.

[tajord]

I'm using Autocad, NC Plot and Mach3, used acad since 2000, but now learning the other two, can turboCNC be used stable within XP or will i have to find a copy of win98?

[voltsandbolts]

I plan to use my router to cut body parts for robots…. I said I was a Geek! But I want to build the joe2006 using this router to cut what I can. I might do some signs too. What are your plans?

TurboCNC runs under DOS. I have been running it on an old or should I say very old laptop (486-75) in DOS mode under Win95.

[voltsandbolts]

Ok a little more info on the controller,

The enclosure has a few more cut outs in it than I need but it was free and its stainless steel. I had to add a few holes to mount the drivers.

1 is the back
2 is the front
3 is with cover
4 Driver test setup, yep its on wood…
5 Installing drivers
6 Drivers in
7 Drivers still in

[tajord]

I too would like to build the joe2006 with my router, i'm thinking about making small furniture pieces and intricate details for larger custom woodwork pieces, maybe some signs and try some craft items for my wife to try her hand at, i'm thinking about getting a copy of mach3, but i still want to see how turbocnc works, i even dl linux ubuntu 6 which has in EMC2, i hear it's really good, want to try this out too, but that requires a little more time than i have right now, but i'll get to it eventually.
Seems you are gonna have a real "detailed" looking enclosure there.

[voltsandbolts]

I to have been trying out Ubuntu. I like it. I am looking for an old laptop to run it on. I run it from CD right now. I thought EMC had its own flavor of Linux, is EMC2 a new version? I think I’ll stick with TurboCNC for now at least until I get my machine running the best it can.

[voltsandbolts]

A Few more photos from the build.

Lower T box, Ends, and together, also a couple shots of bench mayhem with some parts I experimented with.

[Glidergider]

Your parts are looking great. I like the JGRO design because its something we can cut with a table saw, and hand tools. The Joe2006 is better, but I notice that a lot of guys just buy the kit from Joe because its so complicated. I wanted the pleasure of cutting and building the router myself. I don't regret it either. Seeing others build the JGRO is fun too.
Dave