Hello all,
I got that notice that said your account is inactive come and post something so here it is. Been buried under since mid november with the nutcracker ballet Ahhh its all over today and back to business.
Its not really my first machine but my first since I relocated and backburnered most of my projects 3 years ago. Building up a 4'x4' router. Several years ago we junked a tape automation system the kind that would grab a tape from a carousel put it in a machine. The main portion is an aluminum frame with a pair of reasonably sized vexta 5P steppers complete with drivers another pair of vexta 5P motors and drivers that were rotating the carousels quite a find.Will throw up a picture or 2 later today. Bigest problems are tho it is belt driven 8' long timing belts operate both axis not totally bad but my torque is limited and my step size is kinda large and not consistant. Probably convert it to acme screws once I get it up totally up and running in its current configuration. Ball screw is a bit pricy for this project 6' 1/2" 10 acme rods are prety reasonable from fastenal. The z axis was another challange that is not finished yet. The original machine was just grab and retract driven by a motor and limit switches I removed it and am adding a commercial made linear slide and lead screw I picked up off that auction site complete with motor and driver and a DRO.
OK thats it for now you can go back to useful information.