[nego_0]

having fun!! i found that my end nuts on my lead screws had all started coming loose. i also found that my love joy couplers started getting loose. so i fixed that and tuned the gantry a bit to have better bearing contact. i also stretched the bend out of the y axis with a few more turns. im starting to slowly ramp up the speed to see what will work. im at 65 ipm. What is the norm for most of you?

[Fatboy]

I run mine at 100 during the summer and 75 winter. However if I'm cutting a design with a lot of short moves I'll set the feed rate in half.

Fatboy.

[neurofen]

are you still married? i havent ssen my girlfriend for about a month and a half.

[nego_0]

:cheers:LOL!!! i sure am. She make me use my CNC machine daily now for her. Funn you ask i actualy have 2 wives. one is my wife wife and the other is the F-22. I married both when i joined the AF.

[neurofen]

holy ****. you fly the f-22 or work on it? i had a flight sim with the raptor in it, not quite the same though, Always wanted to fly jets.

[nego_0]

Im a 2w1/462 weapons troop. I maintain the beast.

[neurofen]

sweet

[nego_0]

my Y axis has a huge bow in it. Ive tried mutiple acme screws. they hall have masive bows in them. I have used the oil finiesh screw. Should i go with the more expensive stainles steel finesh from McMaster-carr? Or am i just unlucky?

[Fatboy]

Bent lead screws are a pain in the arse. I upgraded from single starts to 5 starts in the first week because I thought that the 5's would be higher quaility with less run out. Actually they were worse than the single starts so I had to devise a method to straighten them.

I chucked the screws in a lathe and then fixed a piece of shim stock to ride on the outside diameter. This gave a surface to allow a dial indicator to show the runout as the chuck was rotated by hand. A collar helped support the screw on the outboard end of the spindle bore.

Then working with about 6" extending from the chuck I adjusted the runout by bending the screw with a pipe to the minimum deflection. Marked the screw at the chuck end and extended another 6". After doing this for the entire length I repeated the whole proccess in 3" sections. It takes awhile but I did get my screws fairly straight. The Z axis was a real pain because it's so long.

Be real careful when handling the screws because they are easy to bend again.

Fatboy

[nego_0]

this is gona suck! as for your Z axis is that not your height axis?

[Fatboy]

this is gona suck! as for your Z axis is that not your height axis?

TYPO.... I meant X, Sorry. They are next to each other on the keyboard and even after proofreading this about 5 times I still screwed up.

Worst yet is that I haven't checked in till this morning to see that I threw you a curve ball, my bad!

Fatboy

[nego_0]

No problem i found it funny!

[nego_0]

I lied as well it is my X axis but for some reason i thought is was my Y lol.

[Fatboy]

I lied as well it is my X axis but for some reason i thought is was my Y lol.

Now that's funny!!!

I've been looking at setting up a lathe running Mach3Turn. Working with X and Z running in what seems all the wrong directions is a challenge.
My brain hurts...

Fatboy

[nego_0]

I have seen photos of some of our machines with steel angle iron on the outside of the gantry. What is this for? I'm having problems with bearing contact and when i try and tune up the gantry i get bowing at the base of the gantry. Is that what they are using the angle iron for? and can i see some better pics of any one has them of how you mounted the angel iron.

Question 2,
i was also looking at a surfacing bit. Would this work for a low cost alternitive to a spoilboard bit. http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_1...7&blockType=G7 ?

[Fatboy]

Those angles make the gantry more rigid...one of these days I'm going to cut a set out of bed rail for mine. That rail has been standing next to the door forever...one of the these days!
In the mean time I added a couple of 1/4" all thread rods across the gantry just below the carriage. These will help with the bowing out of the gantry legs as you honk down on the X axis.

Bit looks like it would do the job. I just replaced my spoil board and trued with a 3/4" bit that I bought from Lowes for $13.95. I've found that 90% of the cutting that I do is in one area, therefore the spoil board is only 23.5" X 27.5". I'm kinda gun shy of truing as last year I burned up the amature on my 3/4hp router while running a 1/2" bit.

Fatboy

[nego_0]

I lied as well it is my X axis but for some reason i thought is was my Y lol.

Hey what!!! i checked and my X axis is actualy my Y axis how did i mess that up and my machine runs just like i would expect it to so how and the heck am i runnin my g540 properly when my x an y are switched. now thats crazy. Fatboy i thought you would get a kick out of this.

[Fatboy]

Oh the things that we learn when dealing with CNC!!! The machine doesn't really care which axis is which as long as there is enough travel. I still screw up, just last week I set about to cut a couple of clock hands along the Y axis. Problem was that they where coded for the X axis...well, I got it right the second time.
Also, it's hard to remove a drywall screw after it's been center drilled with a well placed 1/8" router bit, I'm getting good at it though!!!

One last thing, some times hooking up a stepper backwards can give a result that needs to be remembered. Case in point: While testing different motors for my 4th axis I cut the same file on some PVC pipe. The second motor seemed to be backwards and as I compared the two pipes could see that the second one was a mirror image of the first. Rolling the pipes together the designs matched perfectly. I decided that this mistake might have a future use.

Fatboy

[nego_0]

I love it! I get a Kick out of the things i have found.

[nego_0]

CNCrouterparts wrote this to me today!
Samuel,

We have adapters coming in at the end of the month that move the resistor to the drive side. I will ship you 4 of them once they arrive. This should fix the heat issue you have with your motors.

Best regards,

Ahren
CNCRouterParts

I got word today that my new cables have shipped wich are wired with resistor on the proper side of the cable. This should keep my motors cooler anyways. Im so happy with cncrouterparts support. They shipped them to me for free!