[gully]

Victory is at hand!
While I was convinced I had a fault develop on my breakout board, I tried Pippin88's suggestion of changing the pulse width on the direction for the Z axis
Magically it now works again. Thanks dude, I appreciate your input.:cheers:

And also winning at work today. Was about to head off home and what do I see on the discarded equipment heap. A slightly battered but still serviceable C.O.W stand (computer on wheels)
similar to this
Attachment 463054
Needless to say that is now in my workshop awaiting repairs and conversion to Gully's CNC COW

Gully

[pippin88]

Glad I could help.

If drivers etc are the same, it's possible there is a slight difference in the breakout board outputs and your previous timing settings were right on the edge (guessing, not an electrical engineer).

[gully]

Time poor at the moment.
But have managed to complete repairs, make and paint the parts needed to get the C.O.W. sorted
So its ready to rock as of now, just need to finish off a bit of wiring when the last of the parts arrive then complete the Mach3 calibration

Only have 2 small parts left to cut on my Joe's for this machine. Once they are done and I'm happy that the little Dell PC is up to the task, It will be time to
relocate the spindle to it's new home and push this puppy over the finish line.

Gully

[gully]

Bit despondent tonight.
Thought I would tidy up the steps per unit calibration only to find the issue with the Z axis has returned
No amount of messing with the pulse width and direction settings would get it to work correctly again, so I'm back to the drawing board with that little gem.
Will ponder on it till the weekend as I'm too tired and p@##%d off with it now.
Suspect I will swap out some parts again to see if that has any effect.
Suggestions on a solution still welcome

Gully

[gully]

Back in lock down (again) Go figure!
So it's back onto the Z axis issue. (Fun times). Did a heap more testing with both fresh reloads of mach3 and a different PC also ran the Z axis through my spare gecko drive plus a heap of other tests and everything is leading back to an intermittent fault from the breakout board on the Z output.
Currently I have it working "reliably" but have no faith in this particular BOB, so for peace of mind the plan is to swap it out with my Joe's BOB after I cut an adapter to hold my dial indicator for setting up the spindly square to the
spoil board.

https://youtu.be/zHzgbY0jIdw

[gully]

Had a good day today, moved the spindle and VFD over to the new beast and am pleased to say it is all working as it should.
Even had time to tram the spindle to the table as well. Just need to finish up and level the spoil board top and we are at practical completion
Attachment 465192 Attachment 465194
Ignore the dates on the pics, I seem to have turned on the time date stamp that has never been set up

So my Joe's cnc is officially retired as of now. Its parts will hopefully live on in future projects. Checked it's maintenance hours log today, It has clocked up just under 2800hrs. of use.
No wonder the skate bearings are sounding very average.

Guess next post will be when its totally finished and making dust

Thanks for coming along for the journey.

Gully

[InMesh]

Nice to see you got it all up and running can be frustrating for sure you have had a journey that's the best part .I have just put an ESS on all good I like how they work , but now the little laser diode I was using cant control the intensity of it anymore Oh well search away .

[peteeng]

Hi Gully - Well done. 2800hrs over how many years? When do you make sawdust? Peter

[gully]

Thanks InMesh
Thanks Pete,
From memory, I completed the Joes in 2011. So it's given me around 10 years of mainly hobby project / machining enjoyment.
It has been a very robust and reliable little machine, It really only needs new bearings and a tidy up and I'm sure it would go another 10.
Making sawdust is probably going to be in July. I need to spend some time cleaning out the workshop ( I'm sure I'm a border line hoarder of stuff I don't need), and move some other equipment
around so I can get the new machine into its allocated spot.

Gully

[gully]

Spent a couple of hours out in the freezer (AKA workshop) each night after work this week to tidy up all the little jobs that were left
Spoil board top is on and ready to level
Added a couple of relays to start/stop the spindle and dust collector via mach3. At this point only the dust collector is hooked up and working
I will manually start stop the spindle until I'm comfortable all is good.
Swapped out the breakout board with the one from my Joe's a week or so ago and had no sign of issues with the Z axis since (touch wood)

Best bit was today, spent the day moving stuff around in the workshop and have relocated the machine to its new home.:cheers:
Attachment 466294
At this point I can push material up to 2200mm long through before I hit the wall.
Need to still mess around with the vac hose and fittings to get it to work nicely over the cut area.

Gully

[peteeng]

Hi Gully - excellent update. I know a machine is never "finished" but when are you declaring it finished? Peter

[gully]

Thanks Pete,
Your right they are never really finished, just machines we build for enjoyment/work that are in on going stages of development
This one is at the end of stage 1 development, So I'm "finished" (Yeah right!)

Gully

[rodw]

Great work coming to a finish. I read the whole thread last night wondering what the spindle specs were that you are going to be using and drew a blank.
You never know, I might be tempted one day to build something with a spindle instead of a plasma torch!

[gully]

Hi Rod,
Thanks.
The spindle is an air cooled 1.5Kw unit with an ER20 collet, driven by a HY 1.5Kw VFD purchased on Aliexpress
It's a bit small for this machine but it was originally purchased for my small Joe's CNC,
P.M. me if you would like the sellers details
Strangely, I have been tempted to build a little CNC plasma cutter from the spare parts my Joe's is donating back

Gully

[rodw]

Great work coming to a finish. I read the whole thread last night wondering what the spindle specs were that you are going to be using and drew a blank.
You never know, I might be tempted one day to build something with a spindle instead of a plasma torch!

Gully thanks. I'm a bit like you. I have almost everything except the spindle floating around. Including a 5.5 kW VFD. But time is an issue....
Some of the BT30's with ATC look interesting in that category.... But not quite in the DIY budget category.

Plasma building time would be a good time for you to experiment with Linuxcnc. A Mesa 7i96 and THCAD-10 would set you back < USD $200 and perform better than any of the external THC's used with Mach.
I use a Mesa 7i76e which adds more I/O (32 inputs, 16 outputs and 4 analog), 2 x MPG inputs and Spindle control and I have a spare here asking to be used...

[gully]

Have managed to find time to make a tidy little vac system for the CNC
Works via an overhead pivot arm that just swings back and forward as required.
All the crap goes through my home made cyclone separator that catches 98% of the booty. Only a small amount of very fine dust seems to make it into the vac hopper its self.
Also leveled out the spoil board.
Happy days.
Attachment 467602 Attachment 467604 Attachment 467606

Gully

[pippin88]

Good to get decent dust extraction going. That's what I've been working on. I'm going 150mm / 6" all the way to the bit.

Your dust boot looks like it narrows severely and will restrict flow.

Dust collectors are high volume low pressure and can't cope with restriction

Vacuum cleaners are low volume high pressure and can cope with some restriction but never move enough air to capture fine dust (the stuff that matters for health)

[gully]

Hi Pippin88
You have a good eye. The Aliexpress dust shoe does narrow down to about half the area of the 100mm pipe which I agree isn't ideal
But it is clearing the cut area OK and the duct work doesn't appear to be holding an excess of mess, so the suction side of things while it could always be better
is working ok.
I am looking to upgrade both the vac unit and the dust shoe in the near future

Gully

[peteeng]

Hey Gully - I'm about to start thinking through my next machine. Its called Frankenrouter. It will use as may bits as possible I have lying around that have been used and not used etc. I'm going to use round rails as the idea is to do it as cheap as poss. Maybe a full sheet size machine. Current thoughts is half sheet. Any do and don'ts with these? Good suppliers or poor or good specs etc? I've only used square rails in the past.... seems round is about half the price of square... Regards Peter

[gully]

Hi Pete,
Your a man after my own heart. sounds like one of my budget builds
From experience, having operated commercial routers before, If you want to be able to machine right out to the edges of a 1200 sheet the bed area would need to be around 1400mm.

Personally on a machine that big would probably go rack and pinion or a larger diam ball screw than 16mm, (was tempted to go R&P on this build)
I have found the round rail to be fine, Just go bigger diam than you think you need.
I can PM you a list of where I got my parts from if you want

Will be following along when you get going

Gully