[tbenefi33]

Hello after visting the site for a while I came across the free plans by jrgo and finaly started building all most got the base done.Will have pics soon after battery charges up on cam. I was just wondering where is a good place
to order the stepper motor I wanna go ahead and get them,to get them out of the way and instead of the paralle port do they have controlls for USB port.This is a alsome site I'm still learing alot.

[DAB_Design]

Yes there are USB controllers. I just can't remember which ones.

[tbenefi33]

Could yall recommend me what type of stepper motor to use.

[tbenefi33]

well i got the base doen finaly had to recut some pices working on the other pices.
Was toying with the ideal of making the Gantry a little higher so i can some sculpting
with it has any body conveterd the machine to a 5 axis machine.

[tbenefi33]

Well i got my other parts cuts finaly and bought all the bolts and nuts The guy at the
hardware store said your gonna bolt the it down arnt you..lol
Hay whiteriver and dwright thank you for helping me out.

[Dogsione]

Why don't you want to use a parallel port controller? If you don't have one on your computer (my laptop doesn't) you can get a dock that will plug into your USB. I just bought a Belkin USB2 Dockstation on eBay for about $25, though I've seen them go for much cheaper. I'm sure there are other solutions.

Other than Deskcnc (serial), most of the (cheaper) controllers used by folk on this board are parallel ported.

[tbenefi33]

oh ok i only thought they made dock staion for usb thanks i'll have to check out ebay.

[tbenefi33]

hello well i had to take a break from the machine waiting on some parts finaly got bearing found then on ebay I ordered some metal parts from mcmaster.com it only
took about a day to get here they where local now i'm back to working on machine
just about got all the pices to start building next i need stepper motors, router,and software could yall recamend on any i saw the kit from the hobby cnc store how well
do they work ?

[tbenefi33]

also was wondering what works better for the cutting bed the hold down channels
or the holes drilled into the cutting bed sure would appreciate some feed back on this
cant make up my mind which way i wanna go.

[tbenefi33]

Hello well here my machine finaly got all most all of if it done needing the electronics and motor's I'm gonna have to wait after putting it together and showing stepdad
he said i was a 1/4" off and in some spots the wood swelled up do to the weather here in the south...lol It made it hard to push a long the roller,and one side of the bearing would slip off the pipe Well back to the drawing board I'm thinking of scrapping this one and building next one out of metal,plexi,and derlin.
Any suggestion should i stick with this one or start over after being a 1/4" off ?
P.S= Do mesaure twice and then cut all ways helps....lol

[10bulls]

Seems a shame to scrap it just yet. Which bit is 1/4" off?
If you can make the pipes parallel with adjustment blocks, you should
be able to bring the bearings up to it, maybe with some shims.
Epoxy putty is also great stuff for filling gaps and making surfaces true.
If you can perservere with this one and learn all the electronics and software side of it,
then use the machine to make a bigger better one, like joe2000che has done.

[tbenefi33]

Hi 10bulls I'm still looking at it and checking on where i made the mistake.Thanks for Joe2000che info i went to his thread and do like
that machine and the ideal of using derlin for the pip fitting. Last night
i even tride mounting the beariing vertical and harizontal it came a little
close but was still off.I may have to bring the pipes in closer that may help.

[abasir]

Why don't you want to use a parallel port controller? If you don't have one on your computer (my laptop doesn't) you can get a dock that will plug into your USB. I just bought a Belkin USB2 Dockstation on eBay for about $25, though I've seen them go for much cheaper. I'm sure there are other solutions.

Other than Deskcnc (serial), most of the (cheaper) controllers used by folk on this board are parallel ported.

Dogsione, have you actually used the dockstation with any parallel port CNC software? I tried that but it doesn't work because the dockstation parallel port, as well as all other USB->Parallel port dongle, are meant for printers. They do not allow direct/realtime access to the parallel port pins which is crucial for the CNC software to work. Please let me know if you manage to get it to work

If you use a notebook without parallel port, the only option I know is to buy PCMCIA-based parallel port. Several brands in the market, cost about USD80-USD120 depending on where you get them.

[Dogsione]

I would have liked to have tried except that the computer I paid for on eBay never arrived... :violin: So, yes, I bought the dockstation and thought I'd have a computer to go with it.

I do have another laptop arriving this afternoon (I hope) that I'll be able to test this weekend.

I apologize if I gave erroneous advice.

tbenefi33 if you have already purchased a dock and find it doesn't work , let me know and I'll buy it from you for your costs.

[tbenefi33]

Hello How yall doing.
As yall may know I had problem putting this machine together was down there working on it last night trying all kind of ways to get the bearing to line up i found
several measuring mistake on all three axis
that suck big time no way of fixing it except for starting over on a new project as they say rome wasnt built in a day.
I'm glad i got all my metal parts for the next one....lol
On the next one I'm thinking on making it half the size what the first one would have been because i wanna build micro robot's and micro uav robot's any suggestion on a size of a
machine that could do that would greatly appreceate it ?

[tbenefi33]

Well i thought i would had to scrap this project but i remade some of the pices that
was off and there lining up alot better and i lower the ballbearing a little and there
rolling a lot better Hopfully by the end of the month i'll have the motor on there any good places to order some motor and coupling that are pretty quick to deliver.I figure
done got this far and i'm not gonna let this machine whip me.....:-) lol

[tbenefi33]

Hello how yall doing Well i finaly got the wood part of the machine built i got it linning up right i'm not a 1/4" off any more :-)) the only thing i need now is the electronics
( stepper motor kits ) has any body used the hobby cnc kits was thinking of using them ?

[joecnc2006]

Yes i use it with my machine..... And it works really well...

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10067

[tbenefi33]

can you call and order the hobby cnc or hafe to order off the site ?

[tbenefi33]

hi joe2000che curious what oz. did you get i'm kind of eye balling the 127 oz. kit