[TeeTomTerrific]

Way back in March 2022 I posted a thread Another DIY CNC Machine Project… - Looking for some advice To get some feedback on a custom medium sized CNC machine I was in the process of designing. I received a lot of advice and recommendations the helped me improve my design and after about a month I finalized my core mechanical design and proceeded to order CNC machine parts, Aluminum extrusions and custom aluminum machining from two vendors in China, (HLTNC for the CNC parts and Langle for the Aluminum parts). I was able to get HLTNC to ship their parts to Langle domestically and Langle shipped everything in one crate. My order date for the CNC parts was April 1 and for the aluminum April 11. Then the waiting began because the weight require everything come together by seagoing freight. The crate Left Shanghai close to 60 days later on June 7. After over a month at sea the cargo arrive at port in Houston, TX sometime between July 22 and July 25. Getting the crate out of port and shipped to my house was the most difficult part of the entire process and was surprisingly more expensive than I expected. Port handling fees and import duty ended up making up almost 22% of the total cost, with all the freight costs, duty and fees totaled close to 40% of my total spend. Still, I couldn't purchase what I got domestically for anything close to what I spent.

So with that little history blurb here are some pictures of the crate before it was closed up and sent off to to me.



And here are some photos of everything in the crate laid out on my shop floor. I had the crate shipped to where I work to take advantage of better pricing having it arrive at a commercial dock. I unpacked everything there and transferred all the parts to my wife's minivan so there were no unpacking photos.

[TeeTomTerrific]

Beginning August 15 when I got all the parts to my workshop I started playing with the various motion pieces and did some test assembly. After verifying that everything assembled as designed and squaring them up was working I would go back to loosen fasteners and then re fasten with thread locker to hold them in place. What follows are photos in order of assembly. I admit to sometimes completing many steps without documenting them, but I was having way too much fun to care about that.

[TeeTomTerrific]

[TeeTomTerrific]

[TeeTomTerrific]

[TeeTomTerrific]

[TeeTomTerrific]

[TeeTomTerrific]

I have now gotten to the point in time where I'm running cables for the servos and limit switches but I've taken a pause because I have had to order longer cables for the Z axis. I've spent the last week working on drawings for the electronics, (most of the parts I have including enclosures). I wanted to share where I am now, because for me, the electronics is the hard par and I still have not gotten all of the details ironed out. To start with, After lots of wrestling with layouts for all the needed parts, I determined that I need to use 3 enclosures to hold them all and still have them fit neatly on the frame of the machine. Below are some renderings of what I plan.

[TeeTomTerrific]

Here is the plan for the Enclosure for the UB1 controller and the DC power supplies. Each of the Enclosures will have their own fan and vent with a thermostat to control them. I'll add more details in a later post when I can describe in more detail my thinking and the questions that still remain unanswered.



Here is the Enclosure containing the Spindle VFD and and the Servo Motor Drivers.



And las but not least this enclosure has 50 Amps of incoming power, terminal blocks, breakers, relays and EMI filters.

[jckstrthmghty]

Looks like a nice machine and a equally nice shop to house it.

[TeeTomTerrific]

Thanks @jckstrthmghty! Let's hope it all works as planned. The biggest gray area I'm currently dealing with is how everything connects up to the UB1 board correctly. I am still muddling through the servo driver connections to it. The documents for the Delta B3drivers only come with a 44 pin I/O connector and how many wires and what pinout to use is still a mystery to me. My head hurts when I try to read through the docs. I'm an electronic novice and understanding what reads as gobbledygook makes me want to run away screaming. However once I can get that figured out then I can work on whether the cables from the control box to the servo driver box can be routed through the conduit or if I should use some other connector and avoid the chance of EMI from power in the conduit. I'm hoping someone with experience with the UB1 and servo motor connections will come to my aid. What I really need to do is make a list of all the things I'm struggling with so there is a punch list the good folks here can help me knock out.

[FreddyTamil]

Thanks @jckstrthmghty! Let's hope it all works as planned. The biggest gray area I'm currently dealing with is how everything connects up to the UB1 board correctly. I am still muddling through the servo driver connections to it. The documents for the Delta B3drivers only come with a 44 pin I/O connector and how many wires and what pinout to use is still a mystery to me. My head hurts when I try to read through the docs. I'm an electronic novice and understanding what reads as gobbledygook makes me want to run away screaming. However once I can get that figured out then I can work on whether the cables from the laundry storage box to the servo driver box can be routed through the conduit or if I should use some other connector and avoid the chance of EMI from power in the conduit. I'm hoping someone with experience with the UB1 and servo motor connections will come to my aid. What I really need to do is make a list of all the things I'm struggling with so there is a punch list the good folks here can help me knock out.

Did it all go as planned? If not, what was the problem and how did you go about fixing it?

[RTP_Burnsville]

Very nice machine...... Followed your prior posting as you were designing the machine, lots of good info in that thread.

Robert