Greetings from the sunny South Sweden...

Well... sunny today, but will rain during the weekend... :sorrow:

Anyway, I am in my 60's, background is electrician (1973 exam) electronics and computing (1982 exam) and been working mainly with firmware and electronic development, later with software (mainly Unix and ADA) and of course, the usual C, C++ and then moved on to project management. Currently I am a team leader but that's all the detail about my daily bread I can give out publicly.

Machining is a fairly new hobby to me, build a 3-axis fixed beam CNC with aluminum frame (mainly 45-90) on it's own stand, which I finished about a year ago. Started with an upgrade at the end of last year, the upgrade is both mechanical and electrical. The mechanical upgrade is mainly a completely new X, Y Z axis, went from 12mm stainless steel threaded rods and 12mm unsupported "curtain rods" to 1605 ball screws and 16mm supported rods, built a new Z. Steppers and drivers reused, as well as the frame. Weight increased severely, now over 60kg.

Currently working on the power supply upgrade, which I will post more about. When that is done, I will rebuild the control box as well. Currently the control box is on top of the CNC, above the table on it's own beam. That solution is not practical after the upgrade of the axes because the X beam with the Z is simply too high. The new control box and power supply will be placed below the table, which is a much better solution.

In parallel I bought a Bosch Rexroth EFC5610 VFD and a cheap Chinese 1.4kW air cooled spindle. My current spindle is just a 400W DC motor, so it isn't that powerful. The VFD is a sensorless vector control type, but since I have not yet received it I can't say more about it than it is very well documented and seems to be an excellent VFD with a lot of features. Price is very good, I bought the VFD through Inverter Drive Supermarket and hope to get it delivered by the end of May.

I include three videos, have a look if you are curious.

The first is milling an acrylic sign with my version one. Works, but the results are clearly showing that there is "room for improvements". Never the less, it also shows the machine and the comtrol box, which will be moved soon.

https://youtu.be/Va0h5YpRqKE

The second video is showing the Z axis upgrade.

https://youtu.be/1le6lA_0Ckg

The third one is a test with the upgraded Z, Y Z. The test run used a quickly made DIY pen holder to draw a pattern.

https://youtu.be/ItUOqsYaRB4

That's about it for now. A long introduction. Sorry about that.