PDA

View Full Version : REBUILD: StrikeCNC Machine - My Retrofit



Shinobiwan
20-12-2012, 05:30 PM
Hey guys,

After buying shite from Strike CNC, I've spent the last year fixing it along with a bit of upgrading to cheer myself up too! Starting this thread to just give myself a bit of motivation and something to look forward to as its nearly complete and should be cutting very soon.

Here's the original turd I got from the anus at Strike. And yep I know, millions of problems and only just up to the task of cutting air (bit of an exaggeration but its not far off the truth)

7686 7687 7688 7689

Shinobiwan
20-12-2012, 05:38 PM
After the first disaster the main area of concern was the gantry and Z axis. So back off to Strike and flushed some more money down the toilet to have them 'upgraded'. Threw out the Kress spindle and got one of the 2.2kw chinese WC ones whilst I was at it.

Here's the new gantry. Much better than the last with 200x40 extrusion. Happy with that.

7693 7692

It wasn't all good news though because Strike, true to form, botched the new Z axis. Might look fine on these shots but you couldn't correctly tighten the supported rails due to mickey mouse engineering - result = play at the cutter.

7695 7694

Shinobiwan
20-12-2012, 05:56 PM
So off comes the Z axis and I have a new front plate made to try solve the problem of not being able to tighten the supported rail. This works fine but then I realise despite ordering a machine with 200mm of Z travel I only really have about 175mm. Making it very tight for some of the jobs I have in mind. Thanks for that Strike. So I think sod it, I'll design my own. Can't be that hard can it.

Here's the result...

7696 7697 7698

Bit over engineered for the machine with 25mm linear rails and a 25mm thick ecocast front plate but overkill never hurts. It does slow you down though so will no doubt have to dial the speeds/acceleration back a tad after this but I'd rather do that and have accuracy with a good finish.

And on the machine:

7699 7700 7701

Looks good so far, happy with that. You can also spot the X and Y ballscrews in those shots. These now have the correct ballscrews mounts with angular contact bearings instead of the Strike's cheap substitute - round rail supports with captured regular chinese ballrace bearings. Those will slop about like crazy with a bit of wear on them. Strike may now be out of business but Merchant Dice use the same method in some of their machines so watch out for that.

Shinobiwan
20-12-2012, 06:12 PM
The electronics, whilst functional in the original Strike machine, weren't giving me the speeds I'd have liked. These were upgraded for better Leadshine AM882 drives along with higher volts (75v). What wasn't acceptable was the dangerous wiring job by Strike. Things like the 240v wired through the e-stop, bare wire hanging out of screw contacts, broken wire insulation exposing dangerous DC voltages, no cabinet ground and incorrect colour coding on wiring. It was a death trap basically and would never have passed any sort of safety test.

So I ripped the lot out and started from scratch with standard and sound safety practices such as e-stop on relays, home/limit switches, star grounding, cable management etc.

Strike's attempt:

7703

After the upgrade:

7702

I upgraded all the stepper wiring to shielded whilst I was at it too. Nothing more annoying than RF and EMI noise problems and the WC spindle can give off a fair bit of that.

7704

Shinobiwan
20-12-2012, 06:20 PM
Couple of simple convenience mods. LCD on an swivel arm so I can see Mach wherever I am.

7707 7706

And to the rear of the dust enclosure Strike supplied the machine incomplet! The doors were missing at the back. The whole idea of a dust enclosure is to keep dust out the workshop... missing doors isn't going to help that. I came up with something anyway but space was tight so went with folding doors.

7705

Shinobiwan
20-12-2012, 06:23 PM
Not quite done yet though. I'm having a complete strip down of the bed, gantry and z axis done.

Once finished the bed will have a lot more support, bit more bracing on the gantry and everything will be square and true. I'll be cutting after that. Woop at last!

D.C.
20-12-2012, 06:43 PM
Still, a bit of tweaking is to be expected. At least the steppers were ok. ;)

motoxy
21-12-2012, 08:22 PM
Looking at the quality of work you have done its a shame you did not build it all in the first place. Congrats on actually producing that silk purse from a strikes ear. Nice work.

Web Goblin
23-12-2012, 07:48 PM
One thing I would recommend is to add another beam across the front of the machine like this:



7732

My build is similar to yours and I found that the machine was twisting slightly and this solved the problem. Its much more rigid now.

Shinobiwan
23-12-2012, 08:11 PM
Thanks guys.

Regarding the bed. There's plenty more support going in there along with a 10mm thick alu plate covering the 1480 x 1410 area.

Shinobiwan
15-01-2013, 11:30 AM
Did fairly complete model of the machine and knocked out a render.

7959

Shinobiwan
28-01-2013, 12:46 AM
All done!

8050 8045 8044 8043

Stiffening up the Y axis rails. 25mm Alu plate bolted into the extruded alu that the hiwin profile rails mount into. Also some 100x50x6mm L section to help keep the rubbish off the rails. Loads more rigidity after this.
8042

Its got a decently braced bed on there now. The original was pathetic.
8041

Touch probe for setting work piece height.
8055

Fixed probe plate for semi auto tool changes(using Mach 2010 screenset and macros)
8056

Inductive proximity home/limit switches including dual ones to auto square the gantry each time you home.
8049

The base of the cabinet was a big waste of space so a couple of doors have gone on there along with a floor and it now stores 4x4ft sheet materials along with the pump and reservoir for the spindle.

8053 8054

Dust extraction has been plumbed in too. Need to make a dust shoe of course but that'll be the first useful part I'll cut.
8047 8048

Shuttle Jog pad. Lots of fine control and all the buttons are fully programmable from within Mach. You can even assign macro's to buttons which pretty much means unless your doing something out of the ordinary then you can control mach completely from the shuttle.

8052

Shinobiwan
28-01-2013, 12:56 AM
A big thank you to everyone here that answered my often dumb questions and helped me out. Special thanks to Dean and John. Dean in particular has been a huge help and thoroughly nice guy to boot.

Now to get crackin with the cutting!

John S
28-01-2013, 01:04 AM
About fucking time......................

Shinobiwan
28-01-2013, 01:18 AM
Rome wasn't built in a day and all that shit!

Still need those spacers though John. Haven't forgot. Glad you work faster than I do! lol

JAZZCNC
28-01-2013, 01:34 AM
About fucking time......................

Thats exactly why it's took so long.? Too much time on Job.!!

Shinobiwan
28-01-2013, 01:51 AM
Delay? One word for you...

Women!

Lee Roberts
28-01-2013, 12:28 PM
Nice work guys the machine looks really good, you can see the care and attention that has now gone into it and it really looks 100x better.

Cant wait to see the first cuts!

.Me

motoxy
28-01-2013, 12:47 PM
Now thats what it should have been like right at the start. Well done, very nice machine.

Shinobiwan
30-01-2013, 01:44 AM
Test cut of some code for parts.

The machine is crippled at the moment since there's only one motor connected out of the two on the dual axis. Still does fine though but I wouldn't cut with it like that.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=471THoUq8co

Shinobiwan
02-02-2013, 08:30 PM
First part!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3xJKnBffUM

8121

Went fairly conservative on speeds as this was my first part. Around 3m/min and 5mm DOC

Shinobiwan
07-02-2013, 12:16 AM
Levelling the bed. Profile is done at 6.5m/min with 5mm DOC and the pocket for the bed levelling was 9m/min at around 1-2mm DOC. Took longer to hover the mess than it did to run the job!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcTQuHsWNcg

JAZZCNC
07-02-2013, 12:39 AM
Whats that big fooookin clear tube thing hanging down the side for then.?????. . . Strap the bugger to spindle and turn it on.!!

Shinobiwan
07-02-2013, 01:08 AM
It was clean for months. It needs to get dirty lol

A dust shoe is on the to do list but just like you said, now its done I can't be arsed and want to get stuck in cutting some of the things I've got designed and waiting. Glad I did all the tidying, probes and prettiness before plugging it in!

JAZZCNC
07-02-2013, 01:19 AM
A dust shoe is on the to do list but just like you said, now its done I can't be arsed and want to get stuck in cutting some of the things I've got designed and waiting.

Yep happens every time.!! . . . Soon has them steppers turn and spindle fires up all the plans turn to shit.!

Jonathan
07-02-2013, 03:37 AM
For once someone surfacing the bed at a respectable feedrate :)
What stepover did you use? When surfacing MDF, if I require an especially good finish, for instance when machining a PCB, I surface the bed with a 40% stepover parallel to Y (since Y is the fastest axis) and if not I use around 70%


now its done I can't be arsed and want to get stuck in cutting some of the things I've got designed and waiting

I know the feeling. I did make something to collect the dust initially, but it didn't work very well and I never got round to improving it...

Shinobiwan
07-02-2013, 05:28 AM
For once someone surfacing the bed at a respectable feedrate :)
What stepover did you use? When surfacing MDF, if I require an especially good finish, for instance when machining a PCB, I surface the bed with a 40% stepover parallel to Y (since Y is the fastest axis) and if not I use around 70%

90% there as its not critical. I'm only laying 4x4ft sheets over the bed.

Still got an ok finish even with the haste.

8174

Lee Roberts
07-02-2013, 02:19 PM
Yep happens every time.!! . . . Soon has them steppers turn and spindle fires up all the plans turn to shit.!

lol, cant wait for that day to come myself :toot:

Shinobiwan
08-02-2013, 01:38 AM
More fun today.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXIgcVasXfs

And the result:

8179

Tenson
08-02-2013, 02:24 AM
What is the grey material?

Shinobiwan
08-02-2013, 02:59 AM
Its a resin and fibre mix called Valchromat. Like a cross between solid surface and MDF.

Machines brilliantly, is moisture resistant, easier on tooling since the resin acts as a lubricant and is 30% more dense than MDF. Takes paint finishes exceptionally well and drastically cuts down the amount of prep and finishing needed. I've attached a shot showing a machined edge with no finish pass. You can't see a hint of step down and there's no furring up like MDF.

Its replaced MDF for me on critical parts such cabinet walls. Sadly its around 4 times the price and you can only get it from specialist wood yards so unless your luckily and have one on your doorstep then that will likely mean shipping it which isn't cheap unless you make it worth your while and buy a large quantity.

IanS1
08-02-2013, 12:46 PM
Nice job, what is it you're building?

Edit: A Google search found some interesting projects you have planned. I'm a audio geek too.

dsc
08-02-2013, 02:25 PM
Great job, nothing better than cutting parts for yourself, especially with all the hard work involved to get the Strike going.

It also makes me want to get a CNC machine rather pronto, if I only had the time...

Regards,
dsc.

JAZZCNC
08-02-2013, 02:45 PM
More fun today.

Ye thats about right.??? . . . Bloody kids having Dad do the shit job of cleaning up. . :hysterical:

Shinobiwan
09-02-2013, 01:20 AM
Ye thats about right.??? . . . Bloody kids having Dad do the shit job of cleaning up. . :hysterical:

That's bro training to be a bin man. I might let him push cycle start next time lol

Shinobiwan
09-02-2013, 01:23 AM
Nice job, what is it you're building?

Edit: A Google search found some interesting projects you have planned. I'm a audio geek too.

Yep speakers.

Lots more done today. Unreal how quick it is to make things with one of these.

Tenson
09-02-2013, 01:47 AM
So are you doing a custom speaker build business now Ant, or is this for yourself?

What software are you running for CAD / CAM?

I'll be bringing out a speaker with traditional plywood cabinet soon, but a modern take on the damping and drivers.

Shinobiwan
09-02-2013, 02:45 AM
These are for an enthusiast based in Hong Kong and yes and no. I've been doing design work for others for some time now but not specifically building anything. What they'll do is go take the part files and have them machined or build themselves. The CNC will change that though and I've got 3 solid designs I've been perfecting for the last year. Once this project is done I'll be focussing on those again.

Going back to the designing for others, I've done some quite interesting one's. Probably the coolest was an impressive OB line array based around 4x 21" Precision Devices subs in a Ripole, 8" Dayton Fullranges and BG Neo 10's with Mundorf AMT's held in a suspension system that had virtually no baffle. Attached is an image of this design.

For software I use Solidworks and SolidCAM.

GEOFFREY
09-02-2013, 09:58 AM
Brilliant. G.

IanS1
09-02-2013, 10:39 AM
Very impressive indeed. One of the reasons for my eventual machine build is the future potential for building speakers but for now it's mostly for machining Aluminium to build cases for CD Players, Amps, DAC's etc.

Shinobiwan
14-02-2013, 01:16 PM
What grease do I use for bearings and ballscrew nuts? Didn't realise but some if mine are running dry at the moment!

Tenson
14-02-2013, 04:10 PM
http://www.mycncuk.com/forums/linear-rotary-motion/4804-ballnut-lubrication-grease.html

Basically it's not that important for a light-duty machine. I just clean the ballscrews every so often with a rag damped with a bit of gearbox oil (75W-90). Rails too.

Lee Roberts
14-02-2013, 08:11 PM
What grease do I use for bearings and ballscrew nuts? Didn't realise but some if mine are running dry at the moment!

Ballnut Lubrication / Grease - MYCNCUK (https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.mycncuk.com/forums/linear-rotary-motion/4804-ballnut-lubrication-grease.html&sa=U&ei=-TUdUZ-fB8uRhQfr24A4&ved=0CAcQFjAA&client=internal-uds-cse&usg=AFQjCNECWlK1zO14Key2S58uXVJwhyENzg)

Lubrication (OOooeerr missus) - MYCNCUK (https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.mycncuk.com/forums/linear-rotary-motion/270-lubrication-ooooeerr-missus.html&sa=U&ei=-TUdUZ-fB8uRhQfr24A4&ved=0CAsQFjAC&client=internal-uds-cse&usg=AFQjCNH91hI-eLdvD_7eUuyXd-yHzU-pSA)

and if your still not sure: Metal Working Lubricants, Coolants and Fluids - MYCNCUK (https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.mycncuk.com/forums/faqs-problems-solutions/175-metal-working-lubricants-coolants-fluids.html&sa=U&ei=pTYdUZ-nLcmnhAe8s4CABw&ved=0CAkQFjAB&client=internal-uds-cse&usg=AFQjCNGZQkliUESAyOgf4ba8WB0LFL7H6g)

.Me

Shinobiwan
15-02-2013, 12:30 AM
Thanks guys. Motor oil works a treat.

martin54
15-02-2013, 12:34 AM
Motor oil might be a bit to heavy, plus the other thing you will need to keep an eye on is the swarf/dust sticking to the oil/grease on the screws which won't do the bearings a lot of good.

Shinobiwan
15-02-2013, 12:49 AM
I'm using 10w/40 which is pretty light when you just coating the rails and screws. I agree with the sticky problem though! My Y and Z are well out the way but the X needs regularly cleaning. I use wd40 for that and works fine although tedious.

martin54
15-02-2013, 01:07 AM
WD40 would probably work fine for lubricating it as well, not sure if it would be possible to fit some sort of bellows over the ballscrews to help keep dirt & dust levels down. Sure there must be something available off the shelf that would do the job.

Shinobiwan
17-02-2013, 04:52 PM
Loving the speed and ease of the CNC. Got done in a week what would normally take a couple of months!

Now I just need a CNC spraying machine hmmm...

Jonathan
17-02-2013, 05:24 PM
WD40 would probably work fine for lubricating it as well

But not for very long as it evaporates quickly at room temperature.

motoxy
17-02-2013, 10:09 PM
FLIPPING HECK!!!!! Where are those speakers supposed to go. Not sure I could even fit them through the front door. Look gorgeous mind.

IanS1
17-02-2013, 11:56 PM
Loving the speed and ease of the CNC. Got done in a week what would normally take a couple of months!

Now I just need a CNC spraying machine hmmm...

Wow, excellent work, they look huge.

JAZZCNC
18-02-2013, 12:08 AM
Loving the speed and ease of the CNC. Got done in a week what would normally take a couple of months!

Now I just need a CNC spraying machine hmmm...

We can do that easy.? Strap aerosol to Z axis program criss cross pattern in G-code stab hole in the can shut the doors and hit cycle start. . .Lol

Seriously thou I reckon thats easy done with a few modified touch up guns fastened to Z axis over lapping each other and air controlled by servo valves. Bit of playing with feed rates and patterns in G-code and you'd get a decent finish. Make a right mess of the Perspex thou Ant. . :emmersed:

John S
18-02-2013, 12:30 AM
FLIPPING HECK!!!!! Where are those speakers supposed to go. Not sure I could even fit them through the front door. Look gorgeous mind.


Speakers ???????????????

Ant told me they were headphones to fit Jazz's head

Shinobiwan
18-02-2013, 01:22 AM
Not mine motoxy, wish they were though! For a guy in hong kong where I guess they have room for this sort of thing.

Tenson
18-02-2013, 01:42 AM
I'm imagining a guy sitting in a one room shack with these things pointing directly at him :) I can't afford a private toilet but I've got speakers I can hear from the public one!

JAZZCNC
18-02-2013, 01:59 AM
Speakers ???????????????

Ant told me they were headphones to fit Jazz's head

Ye but he's too polite to tell you there real use.? . . . Coffins for shit stirring Old Bastard and his Hobnobs. . :smiley_simmons:

John S
18-02-2013, 03:00 AM
LOL :barbershop_quartet_

Shinobiwan
01-03-2013, 09:43 PM
Now there's some hours on the machine and things are bedding in I decided to spend the day stripping down and removing all the ballscrews and nuts carefully putting them back together getting everything tight and aligned as possible. There's virtually no bind anywhere now and it shows in the speeds and acceleration it can achieve. Those Leadshine AM882 are awesome! I could have gone past 16.5m/min but Mach was limited by my max 45k PP speed so I went and whacked the acceleration all the way up to 4000mm/sec^2 instead lol

Ps. Don't run at these speeds or accel as its overkill but its nice to see the effort from careful setup confirmed with a speed increase. I run at 10m rapids and 5m on the Z. That's more than enough for me but its nice to know there's lots of head room there.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV8lB6K-zUU

Shinobiwan
06-03-2013, 01:05 AM
Had another go at making a dust shoe and after picking up some cast acrylic this attempt came out much better. A week or so ago I did try to cut the same parts out of extruded acrylic and that stuff melted no matter what I did. Lesson learned - go with cast if the finish quality matters.

Thanks to M.Marino for the advice on feeds and speeds. 3.5m/min with 3mm DOC and 14000rpm worked a treat.

Tenson
06-03-2013, 01:50 AM
Looks good :) I've been struggling to get a good finish on cut acrylic for a little while and although I'm doing pretty well with it now I wonder if I also have extruded sheet. I'll have to check!

What vacuum do you have? I made my dust shoe suck up directly around the spindle rather than just to one side. It works nicely no matter what direction I'm cutting, but I do wish I could get a stronger suck!

Shinobiwan
06-03-2013, 02:17 AM
Its one of these.

Buy Numatic NVD750 Workshop Vacuum Extractor from Axminster, fast delivery for the UK (http://www.axminster.co.uk/numatic-numatic-nvd750-workshop-vacuum-extractor-prod782721/)

With two 1200w motors there's plenty of suction. The bristles keep the stuff thrown by the cutter contained and the vacuum does the rest.

Ricardoco
06-03-2013, 02:44 AM
Magic Videos, and great Job. It occurred to me the videos would make a great advertisement for Strike-Cnc if they start up again as they have no Video Titles on them :hysterical: Great Job.. Rick

Shinobiwan
08-03-2013, 12:10 AM
Not normally worth posting about replacing the bed but I picked up a sheet of Trespa Athlon from a friend and have to say this is makes a great bed. Plenty of mass, well damped against vibration, dimensionally stable, tough and still easy to drill and set up fixtures. The construction is a fibre reinforced resin with a laminated finish. I've had a quick go with an offcut made when sizing the sheet to fit the bed and it machines really nicely.

I got this sheet for nothing and I'm not sure on pricing but Performance Panels : Home (http://www.performance-panels.co.uk/default.aspx) stock it.

Shinobiwan
19-04-2013, 12:01 AM
OK here we have my first go at cutting aluminium. I had so much fun with these. Wood seems boring in comparison and you've got to be so much more mindful with how you go about cutting it. Oh and the engraving was an absolute frigtastic nightmare as well. Broke 3 cutters before I finally hit the g spot. Admittedly the cutters are uber fragile since they're pretty much needles sticking out of a 3hp spindle spinning them round at 24000 rpm. Even getting it slightly wrong would break them. There's a strong chance I'll end up getting a laser cutter/engraver at some point because its a painfully slow this way. Looks cool though and that's what counts.

I finished them up with fine brushed effect and then sealed with a couple of coats of clear because without either that, etching or anodising then natural aluminium is a finger print magnet.

As an experiment I'm going to have a go at filling the text with black spray on the One.10 plates. Once the excess paint is sanded back to the aluminium leaving only the lettering black it should look alternatively awesome. I choose not to do it for the Apollo as I really like the way they're looking straight out.

8796

8793

8794

8795

Swarfing
19-04-2013, 12:10 AM
Bloody hell so posh now you got to ware gloves hey? Nice job :beer:

John S
19-04-2013, 12:31 AM
Try drag engraving, next to impossible to break a cutter.

http://www.stevenson-engineers.co.uk/files/diamond_drag_engraving1.jpg

Circle is 50mm diameter, small letters near the bottom are 1/2 a mm

Laser will only engrave alloy if it's been anodised and the letters are always white, so just using anodised alloy looks a bit like an Italian flag, white cross on white background.

You need a colour that compliments it like red, blue or black.

http://www.stevenson-engineers.co.uk/files/anodised%20plate.jpg

If you want it the opposite way, black letters on alloy then you need a product called Thermark which is a ceramic slurry made from 3rd dynasty Chinese Ming vases as it's £100 an aerosol [ no typo ] but does last a long while

Shinobiwan
19-04-2013, 01:02 AM
Try drag engraving, next to impossible to break a cutter.

Pissing hell John. Why didn't you say so before I spent a whole day dicking around with pieces of carbide string that break more often than a woman driver!

John S
19-04-2013, 01:06 AM
Because you never asked dickhead.

Shinobiwan
19-04-2013, 01:30 AM
Because you never asked dickhead.

Pfff all I'm hearing is excuses

Philly
19-04-2013, 09:42 AM
I've had success with plaster of paris. Same effect and cost me nothing because I robbed it off the kids :)

Shinobiwan
19-04-2013, 11:55 AM
I've had success with plaster of paris. Same effect and cost me nothing because I robbed it off the kids :)

Eh? Bit random there.

You talking about drag cutting in plaster of paris?

Philly
19-04-2013, 12:05 PM
Sorry, was referring to laser engraving :P

IanS1
19-04-2013, 04:04 PM
Wow, they look stunning, excellent work. How did you do the brushed effect? Can't wait to see the Apollo's completed.

martin54
19-04-2013, 07:38 PM
Looking good, at least all the hard work you have put in getting the machine up to spec is starting to pay off now.