[davida1234]

Not to hijack your awesome thread, but speaking of rotating ball nuts, here is my design:

Arjay, thank you, you are not hijacking,
it is related to what I am doing here.

I am not a machinist so I had expert people of the
trade built four different prototype designs until I
came to the one I am using now. It all comes down
to build-ability at a shop at a reasonable cost.

And I want to keep everything manufactured in the US as much as I can.

[davida1234]

Carefully push the ball nut assembly
with the angular thrust bearings into
the bearing seat on the X-plate,
positioning the belt over the pulley:
Attachment 415068

Make sure the shoulder bolt is aligned
with the ball nut retainer notch:
Attachment 415070






You are welcome to utilize any parts of the design for your personal use.
Please contact me for commercial applications.

[davida1234]

Install the bolts for the retainer
and install the dust cap:
Attachment 415072

Bottom view:
Attachment 415074

Z-axis drive on the machine:
Attachment 415076








You are welcome to utilize any parts of the design for your personal use.
Please contact me for commercial applications.

[davida1234]

Install the top brace of the
Z-slide to the 30mm shafts:
Attachment 415080

Push the Z-slide up to
the top of the ball screw:
Attachment 415082

And tighten down the
Z-slide to the ball screw:







You are welcome to utilize any parts of the design for your personal use.
Please contact me for commercial applications.

[davida1234]

Z-slide finished:
Attachment 415086








You are welcome to utilize any parts of the design for your personal use.
Please contact me for commercial applications.

[davida1234]

The rotating ball nut drive can accommodate
from 20 to 40 tooth pulleys on the stepper side.

The ball nut side is fixed at 40 tooth.

That gives a belt drive gearing of 1:2 to 1:1 ratio.

With a 20 tooth pulley, 2,000 rpm on the servo would equate to 157.48 ipm

With a 40 tooth pulley, 2,000 rpm on the servo would equate to 314.96 ipm

I will be using a 30 tooth pulley on the Z-axis for testing.

[davida1234]

.


X-AXIS BALL SCREW INSTALLATION:

Assembled X-axis plate installs on the back,
driving directly the lower carriage plate:
Attachment 415104

Lower mounting points:
Attachment 415106






You are welcome to utilize any parts of the design for your personal use.
Please contact me for commercial applications.

[davida1234]

Install ball screw ends into
pockets on A/Y carriages:
Attachment 415110

Attachment 415112

[davida1234]

X-Axis ball screw finished:

[Ntl]

Looking good, looks like you should be testing the motion this week.

[davida1234]

.
Thanks Dan, I might be able to do that.

Y AND A - AXES BALL SCREW INSTALLATION:


Assembled Y/A plates mount directly to the 3060:
Attachment 415124

Bottom part:
Attachment 415126

With the sensor installed:
Attachment 415128

Wires tidied up:
Attachment 415130

And ball screw ends fixed in end plates:

[davida1234]

.


This is where I am right now with the build.

I will post from now on as I proceed in real time.

Thank you all for your inputs.

.

[Ntl]

Nice looking forward to seeing it finished up and seeing the hold down and coolant system in action. Very creative design on the coolant/vacuum table.

Dan

[davida1234]

.

Question:

Is it better to have the VFD being on all the time or switched on/off by the relay?

[Ntl]

On mine the drive is powered up when the controller is powered up but the signal to the Acorn board goes through the relay board. Eventually as I was telling you earlier I'm going to install contactor for the VFD so I can turn it off from the controller or a plc if I need to. Right now I have to turn off the breaker that the VFD goes to if I want to turn it off. It works fine this way, but I would rather do it from the CNCPC instead of opening the enclosure.

Dan

[davida1234]

From what I read, some people leave the VFD on 24/7. I wouldn't know if it is any better or not.

[mactec54]

.

Question:

Is it better to have the VFD being on all the time or switched on/off by the relay?

When you shut the machine down the VFD should turn off

[Ntl]

From what I read, some people leave the VFD on 24/7. I wouldn't know if it is any better or not.

I definitely wouldn't leave it on 24/7 since the fan runs on my VFD the whole time it's on. I'm pretty sure yours will too since I think we both have the same model VFD. That's one of the reasons I want to be able to turn it on and off from the controller since the fan is loud and my machine sits idle for long periods of time.

[davida1234]

Ok, thanks, will do.

[GME]

Eventually as I was telling you earlier I'm going to install contactor for the VFD so I can turn it off from the controller or a plc if I need to. Right now I have to turn off the breaker that the VFD goes to if I want to turn it off. It works fine this way, but I would rather do it from the CNCPC instead of opening the enclosure.

Dan

FWIW, I've heard many times that you shouldn't use contactors in your boxes, because they put out a lot of noise. Personally, I don't know either way. I don't have test equipment to measure for it. Nevertheless, I decided it was better to be safe than sorry, so I removed the contactors and replaced them with 40 amp rotary switches. No downside, except for a few dollars. 40 amp was way larger than I needed, but the price was right.

Gary