[H500]

381 oz-in is enough to life your entire machine.

[asifjahmed]

Thanks for all the positive comments, guys!

As for the backlash, I ordered some more of the .1257" balls that I used for the z-axis - will be reloading the X and Y ballnuts with those and then re-testing my backlash.

1HobbyMachinist - I've taken some of the Buna-N-Cork sheet (the stuff in the pics covering the X & Y ways and motors) and covered the entire column and ballscrew. This should keep the swarf off for now. I'm attaching these to the mill with super strength magnets - will likely need to devise a more permanent solution.

Mad Welder - thanks man! Yeah, prior to purchasing the mill and lathe in January, I've never machined anything before in my life. But I enjoy doing things right and am pretty detail-oriented. Yeah, I opted for the Smooth Stepper for the faster speeds and the fact that I may want to power this from a laptop or newer PC w/o parallel port. Setting it up was a breeze! Will keep the pics coming for sure.

[asifjahmed]

Tonight I began working on getting full spindle control in Mach 3. I already have a solid state relay hooked up to the mill, but when Mach3 turns on the spindle (and thus activates the relay), I still have to manually hit the power switch on the mill since it is relay driven. Mach 3 then can turn the spindle off, but to turn it on again I have to manually press power.

Also, I want full closed-loop speed control. Thirdly, I want more than 2500 rpm capability.

I ordered:

-Electronic bits from digikey to implement Don Bird's (http://www.cnczone.com/forums/bencht...version-4.html) spindle control. My modifications are to eliminate all soldering to the controller board - mine will simply tap into the JST connectors on the board.

-Angular contact bearings to replace the upper and lower spindle bearings. This will provide more thrust capacity as well as the needed higher speed handling.

-TODO: Order the necessary timing belt & pulleys. I need to open up the belt housing and count the teeth of the pulleys so I can double the speed ratio. Anyone know this off the top of their head?

So tonight the first thing I tackled is bypassing the stock relay power switch. Al that is required for this is a couple of double-sided male disconnects. These are used to short the AC wires that are connected to the relay switch:



Now the mill basically comes on as soon as it is plugged in - thus since it is connected via a relay, Mach3 can turn the spindle on and off now without me having to press the power button!

Next, I took my parts from digikey and began prototyping the CNC control circuit.



After running through the preliminary checks mentioned in Don's documentation, everything appears to be working properly! I opened up the control box and scoped out what I would need in order to make this "plug-n-play" (i.e. no soldering to the motor controller board)





Now I've got a plan. I had to place an additional digikey order, but if all goes well I will be sharing my design on the forum for a plug and play CNC spindle control board for the SX2!

To be continued...

[asifjahmed]

UPDATE: If you are using a G540, you don't need any extra circuitry at all to control your spindle speed on the SX2!! Rather, you just need to tap into a couple of pins and wire then to your G540.

I bought some JST-XH connectors (the same as the ones used in the SX2 controller boards) and wired everything up without having to modify any existing circuits.

For closed loop control, rather than soldering onto the SX2 controller board (as in Don Bird's writeup), I simply tapped into the JST-XH connector coming from the motor, and used my own optoisolator circuit to get a tach reading from the motor. All in all, around $5 worth of electronics, and now I have full spindle control.

I decided to increase my top spindle speed since I am interested mostly in aluminum, so I changed my gear ratio from 2:1 to 1:1. This should give me a max speed of 5000 rpm. I also upgraded the spindle bearings to angular contact bearings to handle the higher speeds.

Question though - the bearings I got (see pics) are unshielded. I bought some Kluber ISOFLEX NBU 15 grease to use, but am not sure how to grease the bearings, and how much grease to use. Advice?

[skmetal7]

oooo nice A/C bearings. I'm not sure how much grease to use, you'll probably have to look up the data sheet on the bearings. To grease tapered rollers, you would put a little on your palm and kinda force it into the race.

I always wondered how people who use A/C bearings in the X2 keep chips from getting into the bearing. The original plastic ring wouldn't be enough, at least in my experience. Chips always seem to get up there.

[BrassBuilder]

I have never done any machining before, but am anxious to learn. After watching numerous youtube videos and reading a couple of machinist books, I started learning to use the tools. My first big project, of course, is to convert the mill to CNC.

You've picked this up fast if this is your first time machining parts. You must have really paid attention to the videos and books

Great job so far.

Mike

[SwampDonkey]

Great work man! Cant wait to see this bad boy in action So you're using a G540 driver set? How about motors and motor oz rating?

[Mad Welder]

......I also upgraded the spindle bearings to angular contact bearings to handle the higher speeds.

Question though - the bearings I got (see pics) are unshielded. I bought some Kluber ISOFLEX NBU 15 grease to use, but am not sure how to grease the bearings, and how much grease to use. Advice?....

I’m assuming from the last photo in your last post that the stock upper bearing is a sealed bearing unit but….there's nothing stopping you (and it's certainly within your machining capabilities) from machining a Delron, Nylon etc.. disc “press tight” to seal the new angular upper bearing from chips and to retain the grease and for greasing you could add a grease nipplegrease nipples | eBay drill and tap, (the side of the spindle head or any where else that would be more suitable) to apply the grease.

and as to the "how much grease to use".... once there's enough grease held within the bearing shell, steel balls and housing that's enough as excess will simply be disgarded under centrifugal force, that's why I suggested making your own grease retainers in the form of discs.....and if this is any help.... have a look here at Hoss's video of where he changed his stock bearings to angular and used the same grease as what you have purchased....[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP-XvbV7Pc4&feature=player_embedded]G0704 Spindle Bearing Replacement - YouTube[/ame]

hope this is of some help..

[Sk8Ter]

Fantastic work! I have a 10x22 lathe and I also used exactly that method to make the end of my Y axis screw anyway. No squeals, howls, groans and other noises from the lathe and once the lock-tite set that sucker was not going to budge, certainly not with the force a 570 oz-in stepper could produce.

There are other ways to use your (our)very nice small lathes....Micro-Mark and possibly others have a grinder attachment that bolts on the crossslide..this will make quick work of the ball screws


Lawrence

[vph]

Very nice done!
Would you mind sharing your sketches and parts dimensions? I'm in the process of doing the same and this would help me a lot.

Best Regards,
vph

[neilw20]

Nicely done.
Now you have the added bonus, with CNC that you can throw away the blue, scriber and center punch, or at least forget where they were last time you used them.
I just mark out with a felt tip pen now so I know roughly, exactly the right place in case I type something stupid in the MDI

[Nine8Six]

Excellent work and thread. I've been greatly inspired by your work and half way a conversion myself (thanks btw!). One thing I would love to be able to achieve is the Spindle control using the Mach 3 PWM output like you did. Got the same board as yours e.g. XMT-DRV-500C board with the POT.

Would it be possible for you to document (for total beginners please) the hardware that you need and provide a wiring diagram. I would be eternally grateful to you if you could do this mate! And surely lots of other guys will follow your set-up as well. Helpful stuff right there.....

Would be great

[neilw20]

Here are some circuits.
May not all match up, because of many versions.
I know the BOB circuit is correct because I traced it myself.

I have seen many mix and match combinations of the attached files.
Be aware that some are HOT CHASSIS, so look carefully at the circuits, print and trace carefully.
It is easy for the smoke to get out, but hard to get it back in again.
The Grizzly file gives a good overview of interconnections possible but be aware that there are different versions of some front panel boards that won't work with the wrong motor board, and you might even get smoke.

Here is a link to get a big file that won't load here.
Download x4+.pdf from Sendspace.com - send big files the easy way

The above link will not last too long. I will try to make something better.

[capoccione]

Great work.
We can have the schema and the list of the composing has to use

excuse my for bad english

[neilw20]

Put it in French, then translate with google translate.
Mettez-le en français, puis traduit avec google translate.

Google Translate.
________________
Super X3. 3600rpm. Trois façons d'arranger les choses: le droit chemin, dans l'autre sens, et peut-être votre chemin, ce qui est peut-être un moyen plus rapide tort.

[capoccione]

hello, I know nothing about electronics, I'm just passione by Machine
ca and I asked for help to stumble spindle
thank you very much

my card and a Chinese TB6560HQT4-V3

[RTP_Burnsville]

Very nice job, especially for having no machining experience....

Robert

[mpix00]

Here are the X and Y mounts with bearing holders after I got them all machined and assembled

What Brand, length and OD + pitch size Y axis Ball screw did you use. I just ordered an SX2 base to get an extended travel in the Y axis then my x2 base , but I am being told that I need a longer Y axis ball screw. I currently have the x2 cnc fusion kit. Thank you for your time