[liqdfire]

Details:

• Saturn 2 4x4 Machine
• Lichuan Closed Loop NEMA 23 motors and controllers
• 1.5kw Spindle and VFD
• Raspberry PI + CNC Hat, running cncjs
• 12inch Windows 10 tablet for remote access to cncjs

To give you a little background on my CNC experience, I am moving to this machine from an XCarve. The XC was my first foray into the world of cnc routing and milling, and was a great learning machine.

First order of business was to build a new workbench for this beast of a machine.
Attachment 375698
Attachment 375700
Attachment 375702

[liqdfire]

Then getting the machine home, and on the table, I borrowed my neighbor's engine hoist to get it off of the pallet and onto the table.

Attachment 375706
Attachment 375708

[liqdfire]

For now, I am going to use the Raspberry Pi 3, with a CNC Hat to send step and direction pulses to the motor controllers. The motors I am using are closed loop nema 23 with digital controllers from Lichuan in China, I got them on AliExpress: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/New-...796341146.html

[difalkner]

Very nice! I envy you guys with enough room for a 4x4. Looking forward to the rest of your build.

David

[DDgitfiddle]

Very nice! I envy you guys with enough room for a 4x4. Looking forward to the rest of your build.

David

I barely got my 2x4 into my shop.

I'll be interested to see how those closed loop steppers work out. Good luck with the build, liqdfire!

[liqdfire]

Installed larger cable chains, wrapped the bolts in scrap tube to keep them from rubbing my cables

[liqdfire]

Running the wires for the motors, each motor has a 4 wire power lead, and a 6 wire encoder lead. I bought a 500ft roll of 18/4 shielded wire, pulled and soldered all custom wires.

Attachment 376380

Finished building out the electrical panel, you can see the final bundle of wires for the motors on the right

[liqdfire]

Found the absolute best use of my floor jack yet, I assure you the board is way more level than my camera is.. lol

Attachment 376384

Connected up all of the cables, and first power on with the panel installed in the table, you can see the water cooling components connected on the right-hand side

[difalkner]

That's all looking very good! I like the idea of covering the bolts with tubing, I may borrow that idea. Are you going to leave your electronics open or will there be an enclosure of some sort, or at least protection from dust and chips?

David

[liqdfire]

Thanks, David!

The tubing I am using is 3/8 ID, 1/2 OD vinly tubing from home depot, fits the bolts perfectly.

I am not sure about the electronics. I have been pondering putting a door or cover over the front. I am not too worried about dust from cutting and I will be putting on a dust boot and I have a decent dust collector.

If I do end up enclosing it, I will need to add some cooling. I have quite a few dell 12v server fans, I think they move somewhere between 30 - 60 cfm of air each, though they sound like little mini jet engines when on.

[DDgitfiddle]

I think you will be surprised at how much dust you will still have even with good dust collection. Over time, the electronics will grow some nice blankets. It is worth enclosing everything. The fans you have would be fine. I used one of these fans because I wanted to run it on 220VAC:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I can hear it running, but it is not nearly as loud as my dust collector, spindle, and shop air cleaner. You also should filter the incoming air to make sure you don't just blow dust in. I think alot of folks just use small automotive or lawn mower air filters mounted with a simple frame. Cheap and easy to replace. I could also see using a K&N cleanable filter, but those are alot more money. The filter will help cut down the noise a little.

-Robert

[difalkner]

I got this fan from Amazon - 110 cfm, 47 dBA, 2600 rpm. It moves a lot of air into the enclosure and I used a 60 cfm fan to exhaust the air out so it is lightly pressurized. I also have a the fan and filter on the very bottom of the enclosure, which is only about 6" off the floor, so there's very little dust inside.

David

[liqdfire]

Did the left right tramming, I think it came out about as good as I will ever get it



I 3d printed a dust shoe as well

[micknm]

Very clever use of a 3D printer. There are not many industrial suppliers here in Santa Fe, so I'm going down to Albuquerque to pick up some plastic to make the shoe once the router gets here.

I was curious where you picked up the tramming gauge, so I checked Amazon -



Maybe I'll keep ckecking...

[liqdfire]

I picked it up from here: Mini Pro Tram System 11-000 - Edge Technology

I had originally bought it for my x-carve, so I have the mini tram guage which has a .25" shaft.

[difalkner]

Nice looking dust shoe! Is that your design?

David

[liqdfire]

David, the original dust show design is from CNC Router Parts: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1363341

I modified it to take slightly larger magnets: 3/8"x1/4" N52 Disc Magnet | CMS Magnetics

Brush link: https://www.mcmaster.com/#7900t2/=1a7mdp5

The Fusion 360 file they provide is all parameter drive which makes it very easy to modify for your machine.

[difalkner]

I thought it looked familiar but wasn't certain. I didn't realize the file is parameter driven so I downloaded it and will play with it sometime soon. How soon before you'll get to try it out?

Thanks for the links!

David

[liqdfire]

I used it last weekend to do a little test cut. It worked great, my only thought was that the 4 inch hose going directly to my dust collector had so much suction it was pulling the 3 inch long bristles into the vac port, lol

There was absolutely no dust left on the machine though!

[micknm]

I had a demo machine with a 4" dust port hooked up to a 10 HP dust collector with nothing else attached. I was using a 20 HP vacuum for part hold down and the DC would sometimes overcome the hold down vacuum. I had to add a floor sweep and leave it open to keep from moving parts.