[hoss2006]

Actually, ballscrews and nuts are readily available in either LH or RH thread, for the same cost.

Regards,
Ray L.

I said TYPICAL as in what most people use and everywhere Ive checked including Roton charge more for left hand ballscrews and nuts for the the same size and pitch, which would explain why right hand are more popular.
Hoss

[CNC74]

CR,

Thanks for the links!!! It got me to thinking, I would rather not mess around and would like to go with the best of the best mechanical kit avalible within reason with regard to its price.

Is there a clear cut winner of pre fab mechanical parts kits (with ball screws)?

I just decided I dont want to mess around or wish I did something different later on.

Regards,
CNC74

:drowning:

[Teyber12]

Now that I am sorted out on the electronics for my X2 build the attention is turning to the mechanical converion equiptment.

I am told the the #4 kit at CNCFUSION is a real good choice but at $550 I have to do some more cost comparison before spending the funds.

C.R. mentioned another solution that I had not heard of previously that involved fabricating a few parts and the possible use of more "original equiptment" to asumably make it a far less expensive option. If anyone has further information on that topic please share.

I also read that there are benifits to going with a belt drive system but dont know any more than that at this time.

Lastly it would be very nice to maintain MANUAL FUCTIONALITY on the machine if its not to much of a trade off for price/performance with the avalible conversion solutions.

Regards,
CNC74

i don't want to be a "wannabe" so i will say now my mill is currently not up and running on cnc yet. It annoys me on other forums when i find out the "experts" have no practical experience so i dont' want to be one of these "experts"

so with that said, in all my reading i will summarize it for you- if you want a machine that can cut repeatable parts with ease and not a ton of maintenance, go with ballscrews.

I often make the mistake of buying the cheaper tool, and i always end up buying the nicer one. I was going to buy the ballscrews myself, buy a lathe and turn the or pay someone to turn them for me, make the mounts et cetera myself, but i quickly found i was overwhelmed by wthe work and the price. I figured about 75 hours to make the mounts on the x3 + i think it was $450 or so for ballscrews, ballnuts, couplings, metal, et cetera. I quickly learned to appreciate the price on the cncfusion kit, it seems so much but when you get individual prices on the kit, i think you will find its a good deal.

manual milling is tough once its cnc'd as the ballscrews freely rotate(er, at least without a stepper attached. once again lack of experience here), but the jog functions in mach should do more then you would ever want from the manual mill. if your like me, i plan to do this a lot as i refuse to dish out $1000+ on a cold saw when my $175 bandsaw is fine after surfacing it on a mill, once converted to cnc just using the jog to surface something after its rough cut will be fine.

Kiss a$$ to crevice reamer, its incredible how devoted he is to helping and how much time he will help you individually on your project! your the best dude!

[CNC74]

Its alive!!!

Well almost....

I have the X2 Mill, the Fusion kit, steppers, Keling power supply, gecko 540, wires, Estop, limit switches, Box for housing everything, etc..

Still need my resistors and roller switches??

I need some clear details on the electronic connections with regard to resistor placement and all the switches.

Is there anything avalible?

[Crevice Reamer]

Congratulations! You now are ready to put it together and make chips.

The resistor positions are printed right on the G540 case. They solder inside the DB-9 connector between pins one and five.

This thread has a very nice generic Home/limit switch diagram.

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24432

Limits/Homes are attached to pins 1-4 of the G540 terminal strip and grounded at PSU negative.

CR.

[CNC74]

CR,

First off thanks! Seriosly... thanks! ALOT!

You mentions roller switches also in an earlier post below the limit switches.. Do I need them? If I was looking at the right ones they were expensive ($25 each) Or is it that I can do with the home switches instead?

Lastly and I hate to ask but dont want to order the wrong resistors from Digikey, do you happen to have the correct Digikey or Newark part numbers for the resistors?

Thanks,
CNC74

[Crevice Reamer]

Uh, What steppers did you get? What switches do you have now?

CR.

[CNC74]

CR,

2x 270's and 1x 387 with a secondary 387 for future 4th axis project.

As for the switches:
I got the ones you linked to:

Quote "If you don't already HAVE them, these are excellent home switches:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...%3D4%26ps%3D42
They are NO, so only for home switches. Limit switches need to be NC. the whole set of 6 switches costs less than ONE switch would cost at Radio Shack."

And do I need the relay? if so how many?
http://www.surpluscenter.com/item.as...tname=electric


Regards,
CNC74

[Crevice Reamer]

CORRECTION TO PREVIOUS POST. I made a typo. The resistors solder into the DB-9 connectors NOT the DB-25.

You will need THESE 1/4 Watt 3.48K resistors for the 387:

3.48KXBK-ND

and THESE 1/4 W 2.8K resistors for the 270s:

2.80KXBK-ND

They only come in a pack of five, so about $1.

http://digikey.com/

what switches do you have now?

CR.

[CNC74]

CR,


The switches from this auction are the ones I have now. (quantity of 6)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=260360389286

"CNC Limit Switches for stepper motor systems N. O."


And do I need the relays you mentioned on page 2 of this post?

Regards,

(group)

[Crevice Reamer]

I used 3 of those switches for home switches. It's more complicated, but those NO switches CAN be used as limit switches. I like to use NC limits and wire them in series as in the drawing. Enco has some simulated roller switches that cost about $3 each and can be wired either Normally Open or Normally Closed.

You COULD, since you're using stepper motors not servo motors, even forego the limit switches entirely and just set up the Mach3 software limits.

http://syilamerica.com/docs/Homing_V...%20Limits.html

Relays are handy if you want to have the computer do things from inside the program like turn the spindle on or off, or control a pump for flood coolant.

CR.