It's begun....

[Washout]

Hi all,

As the first materials for my CNC Router have started arriving, here are the results so far:

The second pic shows the re-purposed 4U Server case housing the PS806-5 PSU and a 240v AC to 12V DC PSU for the fans (two 80mm fans will extract the hot air out the back). The 3 x PM752 drivers are int eh drive bay behind the blue 120mm fan in the lower left corner.

My wiring routing will be largely as shown:

Red= AC in to both PSU's - will probably wire both of of the same 3 pin input socket, which will be housed in a plate to be fixed to where the old expansion card slot are.
Orange = the route I will take for the driver power from and to the PS806
Yellow = the stepper wires and any other wiring e.g. limit switches, estop etc - I'll be using 4 pin XLR connectors
Green = earths from everthing back to the yellow star point and then back out the case via the three pin connector

The 12V DC motor wires will be roughly wher eyou can see them now running at the bottom of the case to the 2nd PSU.

The main power switch will be in line with AC live and will be a two button start/stop similar to what I have on the front of my pillar drill.

The breakout board will likely be mounted to the left of the PS806, with its feeds to the drivers going in the same side as the yellow stepper feeds.

Oh and there is also a pic of where I have got to with the mechanical end of things (ignore the undersized work surface - that is being replaced with something large enough and additional supports added). The thin bed ali profile was a fail purchase on my part and will be replaced with the 30mm profile you maybe able to see sitting on top of it and the thin profile is going to become wall mounting for my guitars and maybe tools etc, so it won't be wasted.

Got some more electrical stuff arriving soon to complete the enclosure and I have my ballscrews, bearings, supported rails etc, together with a 2.2kw watercooled spindle hopefully arriving from Chai soon.

3NM Nema 23's are off camera until I have worked through the rail and ballscrew mounting.

Cheers


Chris

PS. I am thinking that I should the VFD's earth back to the star point shown in the case in the pic and not back to its own 3 pin plug's earth (both will be on the same 32A spur, along with the PC that's going to run Mach3 so the whole rig is on its own RCD)?

[Fivetide]

I have to say that the first pic is a piece of art on its own :)

[Washout]

Thanks Fivetide - wish I had bought a self-reversing tapping chuck for my pillar drill - hand tapping all that profile was tiresome..

[Fivetide]

Washout whats your buget for the complete unit ? Or should I say what are you aiming for as a buget lol ? I'm not going to attemt one for along time, although I have started to collect parts, i have the Mach3 controller.

[Washout]

I was aiming for about £2 to 2.5K to start with, which I should just about squeek within once I settle on which CAM software I'm going to buy.

I'll then probably blow that budget when the itch for a 4th axis gets too much and I intend to replace some of the extrusion with plate, but I'll be happy just to get cutting something for now and do the upgrades and addons, when time and funds allow. The PC side of things isn't an issue, as you can probably tell by looking further up the rack in the enclosure pic, so I'm lucky in that respect....

[Fivetide]

I think your rig looks awesome, and same here I want 4 ways but to be honest I need to get the one I have working first lol but I will follow the tread because I think the next one will be alot like yours.

[Washout]

Quick update (no pics yet) - two parcels arrived from China today and I now have my rails, ballscrews, VFD and 2.2Kw spindle plus ancilliaries :-) I can, along with others recommend Chai for these components - very easy to deal with and will accomodate most requests (I needed FK bearing blocks rather than BK for example).

The rails are a little over sized, but that's better than undersized, so its out with the angle grinder to cut the stainless (hack saw is more eroding than cutting ;) ).

I'm going to need to make a few adapter plates for the ballscrew bearing housings and rail bearing blocks, so I'll need to track down a cheap supply of aluminium plate.

I'll get some pics when the bits start to go on the frame in the pic above.

[Jonathan]

I'll need to track down a cheap supply of aluminium plate.

Aluminium Supplier | Aluminium Stock | Aluminium Warehouse

Or if you just need a small bit let me know...

[Washout]

Thanks Jonathan - I'll grab a decent sized sheet from them, which I can use for adapter plates and also the Z axis - I'm thinking 15mm thick should be sufficient (I can also make the spindle mounts from this).

Cheers


Chris

[Washout]

Hi All,

Whilst waiting for my bed extrusions and some other components to arrive, I have been busy festooning the rack mount case with wiring (see pic below).

Stuff wired up are:
- the small PSU, which is powering the case fans (tested this and all is running fine).
- The 240v AC input, which goes to a front panel mounted On/Off switch (same kind you see on pillar drills etc)
- 240v AC from the On/Off switch to the two PSU's
- The CY cables for X, Y and Z from the drivers to the XLR sockets (shielding grounded to the star point) - I'm wiring my steppers in parallel, so am following the Zapp wiring diagram here: http://www.zappautomation.co.uk/down...%20%281%29.pdf
- The high voltage DC side of the drivers to the transformer (running it parallel off of one PSU output (hope that is right)

Still to do are:
- Low voltage DC side from the breakout board to the drivers (waiting on some lower guage wire for this job)
- Limit switch, spindle, e-stop wiring from the breakout board to the spare XLR connectors
- Find out if the earth lead I have on the main PSU is really where it needs to be, as there doesn't seem to be anywhere else to attach it to, or discard it if its not needed?
- Perhaps get some QA on my wiring, because although I am following the diagrams etc to the letter, a fresh set of eyes is always useful before throwing the power switch for the first time....

The mechanical side of things is on hold for the moment pending delivery of some extrusion channel nuts to start mounting the rails and some ali plate for mounting adapters.

More to come........