New build with recycled parts on a ridiculous budget 120cm*60cm work area

Happy new year!

My resolution is to learn a lot more this year than I did last ;)

Happy 2018!

Ordered myself a stop button living it up in the new year ;)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/132443180667

My elephone S8 came today not bad 2 weeks no import tax as well which is always good. £185 can't grumble it's lovely and at a price that when I break it in 6 months I can live with it lol.

I won't have the spindle so low in the mount I only have it that way until I fit a physical limit and limit switch so I can't run the Hiwin's off the rail on the Z axis.

I intend to put a bolt through the bottom Hiwin fitting that sticks out so it's blocked off and the carriages cannot come off.

Attachment 23533

This is a photo with my elephone better than my fuji camera so happy with it ;) You can see my make shift clamps but also going to have a vac bed

Nice, that phone does look good, I'm struggling with a dying iPhone6 and can't afford the new apple stuff so i'll probably look at one as well.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Davek0974

Nice, that phone does look good, I'm struggling with a dying iPhone6 and can't afford the new apple stuff so i'll probably look at one as well.

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The elephone is lovely but I would also consider this one instead and it's cheaper!

https://www.banggood.com/Oukitel-K6-...r_warehouse=HK

Massive battery, pretty much the same screen more ram and space, slightly slower processor. Decent camera's but no gorilla glass unlike the elephone.

If you batter your phones get an elephone S8 if you look after them get a Oukitel ;) If you just need cheap get a cubot cheetah for ~£100 from germany they're really good for the price range got one for my brother surprising how good it is although Cubot photoshop the pics lol.

I paid £185 for my elephone but they £180 now you could get stung for £50 in import tax and fess I got lucky, I bought mine from banggood who I highly recommend.

I have the Oukitel K6000 plus 4Gb ram 64 Gb ROM, I bought it from tinydeal European wearhouse, for 154 euros with gorila glass and case ,the phone is a killer !

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nickhofen

I have the Oukitel K6000 plus 4Gb ram 64 Gb ROM, I bought it from tinydeal European wearhouse, for 154 euros with gorila glass and case ,the phone is a killer !

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I stand corrected ;) The battery is what would swing it for me to the Oukitel but I'm still very happy with the elephone and so glad I went Chinese ;)Attachment 23535

Attachment 23547

Compression bits are funky

Art!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nickhofen

Art!

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let's see how she cuts ply next ;)

Hi
Are you aware of this CNC device http://www.maslowcnc.com/ ?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BobenhamHotspur

Hi
Are you aware of this CNC device http://www.maslowcnc.com/ ?

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Yes it doesn't do what I want to do but they do look kind of funky, I saw them before I ever started to build my router I can see them appealing to a certain market but I'm not that market.

I would think most people on here aren't that market.

Having linuxcnc issues

Attachment 23594

Also the pc is too slow to be useful I need to change to a faster pc but I have a core I7 with fusion at work so will make that a dual boot and pop the pci parallel port card into that.

When I had it set to 64 microsteps machine ran ok in manual mode but set the drivers to 8 and nothing happens even though I changed the scale to be correct.

At a quick glance, that looks like a soft limit problem. When you configured LCNC you should have set up min and max limits for each axis, and those error messages say that you are trying to move beyond one (or more) of them.

Alternatively, you say you changed the scale. Do you mean you changed the steps per unit settings? 8 microsteps is the right sort of number - did you change the "steps per" the wrong way, by any chance?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Neale

At a quick glance, that looks like a soft limit problem. When you configured LCNC you should have set up min and max limits for each axis, and those error messages say that you are trying to move beyond one (or more) of them.

Alternatively, you say you changed the scale. Do you mean you changed the steps per unit settings? 8 microsteps is the right sort of number - did you change the "steps per" the wrong way, by any chance?

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Hi, I have all my min limit set to -0.001 and max limit 1200 on the X, 600 on the Y and 100 on the Z which I used stepconf (Wizard) to generate. Then I edited the ini to get my dual ballscrew working.

In Linux cnc scale is the amount of microsteps per mm you define it for each axis in the .ini so in my case using 8 microsteps = (8*200)/5==320 for my 1605 screws and (8*200)/4 = 400 for my 1604's.

Quote:

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# Generated by stepconf 1.1 at Sun Jan 14 20:24:44 2018
# If you make changes to this file, they will be
# overwritten when you run stepconf again

[EMC]
MACHINE = Test
DEBUG = 0
VERSION = 1.0

[DISPLAY]
DISPLAY = axis
EDITOR = gedit
POSITION_OFFSET = RELATIVE
POSITION_FEEDBACK = ACTUAL
ARCDIVISION = 64
GRIDS = 10mm 20mm 50mm 100mm 1in 2in 5in 10in
MAX_FEED_OVERRIDE = 1.2
MIN_SPINDLE_OVERRIDE = 0.5
MAX_SPINDLE_OVERRIDE = 1.2
DEFAULT_LINEAR_VELOCITY = 2.50
MIN_LINEAR_VELOCITY = 0
MAX_LINEAR_VELOCITY = 25.00
DEFAULT_ANGULAR_VELOCITY = 36.00
MIN_ANGULAR_VELOCITY = 0
MAX_ANGULAR_VELOCITY = 360.00
INTRO_GRAPHIC = linuxcnc.gif
INTRO_TIME = 5
PROGRAM_PREFIX = /home/cnc/linuxcnc/nc_files
INCREMENTS = 5mm 1mm .5mm .1mm .05mm .01mm .005mm

[KINS]
JOINTS = 4
KINEMATICS = trivkins coordinates=XYYZ

[FILTER]
PROGRAM_EXTENSION = .png,.gif,.jpg Greyscale Depth Image
PROGRAM_EXTENSION = .py Python Script
png = image-to-gcode
gif = image-to-gcode
jpg = image-to-gcode
py = python

[TASK]
TASK = milltask
CYCLE_TIME = 0.010

[RS274NGC]
PARAMETER_FILE = linuxcnc.var

[EMCMOT]
EMCMOT = motmod
COMM_TIMEOUT = 1.0
BASE_PERIOD = 100000
SERVO_PERIOD = 1000000

[HAL]
HALFILE = Test.hal
HALFILE = custom.hal
POSTGUI_HALFILE = postgui_call_list.hal

[TRAJ]
COORDINATES = X Y Z
LINEAR_UNITS = mm
ANGULAR_UNITS = degree
DEFAULT_LINEAR_VELOCITY = 36.00
MAX_LINEAR_VELOCITY = 25.00

[EMCIO]
EMCIO = io
CYCLE_TIME = 0.100
TOOL_TABLE = tool.tbl

[AXIS_X]
MAX_VELOCITY = 25.0
MAX_ACCELERATION = 750.0
MIN_LIMIT = -0.001
MAX_LIMIT = 1200.0

[JOINT_0]
TYPE = LINEAR
HOME = 0.0
MIN_LIMIT = -0.001
MAX_LIMIT = 1200.0
MAX_VELOCITY = 25.0
MAX_ACCELERATION = 750.0
STEPGEN_MAXACCEL = 937.5
SCALE = 320
FERROR = 1
MIN_FERROR = .25
HOME_OFFSET = 0.0

[AXIS_Y]
MAX_VELOCITY = 25.0
MAX_ACCELERATION = 750.0
MIN_LIMIT = -0.001
MAX_LIMIT = 600.0

[JOINT_1]
TYPE = LINEAR
HOME = 0.0
MIN_LIMIT = -0.001
MAX_LIMIT = 600.0
MAX_VELOCITY = 25.0
MAX_ACCELERATION = 750.0
STEPGEN_MAXACCEL = 937.5
SCALE = 400
FERROR = 1
MIN_FERROR = .25
HOME_OFFSET = 0.0

[JOINT_2]
TYPE = LINEAR
HOME = 0.0
MIN_LIMIT = -0.001
MAX_LIMIT = 600.0
MAX_VELOCITY = 25.0
MAX_ACCELERATION = 750.0
STEPGEN_MAXACCEL = 937.5
SCALE = 400.0
FERROR = 1
MIN_FERROR = .25
HOME_OFFSET = 0.0


[AXIS_Z]
MAX_VELOCITY = 25.0
MAX_ACCELERATION = 750.0
MIN_LIMIT = -100.0
MAX_LIMIT = 0.001

[JOINT_3]
TYPE = LINEAR
HOME = 0.0
MIN_LIMIT = -100.0
MAX_LIMIT = 0.001
MAX_VELOCITY = 25.0
MAX_ACCELERATION = 750.0
STEPGEN_MAXACCEL = 937.5
SCALE = 320
FERROR = 1
MIN_FERROR = .25
HOME_OFFSET = 0.0

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Unfortunately I can't help much more with the LCNC side of things - I switched to Mach3 around a year ago and even then I was using a machine with single motors.

Could you possibly post the gcode, or at least the first few dozen lines, just so we can see what is triggering the error messages?

Ok some questions. Do you have dual homing working? How are you homing the machine?
I don't see a HOME_SEQUENCE = in your ini file.

In [TRAJ] you have COORDINATES = X Y Z I think it should be X Y Y Z Not sure on this now!!

Have a good read through this thread https://forum.linuxcnc.org/49-basic-...e?limitstart=0

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Clive S

Ok some questions. Do you have dual homing working? How are you homing the machine?
I don't see a HOME_SEQUENCE = in your ini file.

In [TRAJ] you have COORDINATES = X Y Z I think it should be X Y Y Z Not sure on this now!!

Have a good read through this thread https://forum.linuxcnc.org/49-basic-...e?limitstart=0

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No homing yet was homing by pressing the home button in Axis for each one and I also tried no forced homing as well. I've only just drilled for the limit switches and am waiting for M3's to come through the post to fit them. I've put them sideways on now with rollers before I have the switches at the end bad idea as someone pointed out and I was like it'll be fine lol.


As often happens I was wrong.

I would like to get a controller that does step generation on board so PC specs are irrelevant, linuxcnc compatible and of course Ethernet is there such a controller?

Quote:

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I would like to get a controller that does step generation on board so PC specs are irrelevant, linuxcnc compatible and of course Ethernet is there such a controller?

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Yes Mesa 7i76e

I think you should take a step back and start with baby steps with Lcnc. Start by getting the homing sorted etc.
I have read your posts on the Linuxcnc forum and seen your ini and hal files they are different to the ones you have posted here try and be consistent with what you are asking.

I think your limits problem is that the machine does not know where it is, so get it homing first. I know where there is a working config for the 7i76e but it is for a plasma but is near enough.

edit : And just to keep you sane https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=bAdqazixuRY

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Clive S

Yes Mesa 7i76e

I think you should take a step back and start with baby steps with Lcnc. Start by getting the homing sorted etc.
I have read your posts on the Linuxcnc forum and seen your ini and hal files they are different to the ones you have posted here try and be consistent with what you are asking.

I think your limits problem is that the machine does not know where it is, so get it homing first. I know where there is a working config for the 7i76e but it is for a plasma but is near enough.

edit : And just to keep you sane https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=bAdqazixuRY

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The first ini I posted on linuxcnc didn't work I had set up A axis, the one I posted in the quote should have been the same one as I posted here but too early to check lol.

I've been looking at 7i76 for a little while but was confused on if 7i76 did step generation or you needed the 5i25 combo for step generation.

https://mesaus.com/index.php?route=p...&product_id=78

I guess what I'm asking is can I get away with buying the Ethernet version of 7i76 on it's own?

I'll get the switches on today hopefully my M3's have been shipped so should be today they come but I did try no forced homing as well as manual homing which I read should have made this go away but it did not lol.

When I press - on the manual move buttons for the Z axis should it move up or down? I'm guessing down at the moment mine moves up lol.

My friend keeps telling me to just use Mach 3 but if I do then I'd set up a pirate see if it works ok do some cuts then buy it and the inner tight guy inside me says just learn linuxcnc you idle twat lol and then the £200 you were going to use for Mach 3 will buy a 5i25 and 7i76 with the saved money ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by m_c

I'm not sure about the AM882s, but with the software you can configure the EM806 so the fault output is active when ok (i.e. switched on), and goes inactive on fault (i.e. open circuit). That's how I configured my EM drives, which would allow you to loop through all the fault outputs and create a failsafe circuit.

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I never understood what you wrote the first time but rereading it now it makes a lot sense basically setting the fault output to Normally Open. Basically doing the same as with microswitches setting them NC so if there's a dodgy connection line it will fault.

This is from the AM882 manual not got mine connected yet did make a cable but lost it lol but have more donor cables and usb to rs232 for the job.
Attachment 23596

I wonder if the AM882 software works with Wine if it does I could use the linuxcnc to talk to the drivers which would be convenient but it's nto a major hassle to drag a windows laptop to the drivers for tuning.

Alarm signal high/low will be it and also interesting I can inverse the AM882 direction in software although I can imagine annoying later down the line when you forgot what you did and are reusing the drivers lol.

I'm running the stall to the Estop so will need to swap the wiring round on the emergency stop button to NC to match and invert the Estop pin but no biggie.

Quote:

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I guess what I'm asking is can I get away with buying the Ethernet version of 7i76 on it's own?

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Yes as I said just the 7i76e.

Quote:

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When I press - on the manual move buttons for the Z axis should it move up or down? I'm guessing down at the moment mine moves up lol.

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What do you mean by this it depends if you press on up or down keys

Also on the Z axis it should show -ve when going down. But in the the homing routine you can make it go either way it depends where the switch is ie you can change the travel to seek the switch out.

You are wasting your time playing without the homing switches on. As I said baby steps:thumsup:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Clive S

Yes as I said just the 7i76e.

What do you mean by this it depends if you press on up or down keys

Also on the Z axis it should show -ve when going down. But in the the homing routine you can make it go either way it depends where the switch is ie you can change the travel to seek the switch out.

You are wasting your time playing without the homing switches on. As I said baby steps:thumsup:

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-ve right I have it +ve at moment, and I have the router on the X axis going left -ve, right +ve and the Y axis -ve away from the front and +ve towards the front where I load.

As long as the M3's come today they're on ;) the wiring is already in place and connected to the BOB and spade terminal the other ends.
Stuck at home for an hour so can't play waiting for the guy to come see why my boiler stopped working it's going to be the thermocouple it always is. The house I live in was built in the 1920's and it's bloody freezing without heating lol.

The other error I kept getting was joint following error which I traced to the PC isn't fast enough really played with different latencies and ferror settings to no avail but I do know this PC is utter crap so will swap a different one in.

If you are standing at the machine with X going from left to right (- to +) then Y should be set with - at the front and increasing as it goes away. Convention says that X=0, Y=0 is the LH corner nearest you, although that's not essential. However, the relationship between X and Y is very important because your machine needs to be set up the same way as your CAM software. Z usually is zero at the top of travel and - at the bottom (so Z machine coordinates are always negative, except at the very top of travel).

If you are using F360, look at the little RGB axes that come up on the drawing screen, and imagine those transplanted on to your machine bed. Orientation of X, Y, and Z absolutely must match.

I agree with Neale but I have to admit my X and Y 0 are at the top left of my router looking from the end so that the gantry is furthest away from me, this is so I can use the bed as a dumping ground when not in use.

In fact, on my machine, home and zero positions are bottom right-hand corner. Historical accident - I set up the machine with X along long axis, Y on gantry, intending to stand at the side for loading/operating. In practice, I stand at the end but haven't got round to resetting everything. I just have to remember when I set up a new piece of work. However, the really important point is relationship between axes. For example, it doesn't matter if you choose to home at max travel or min - just a simple setup matter. Just get those XY directions right!

Replaced the linuxcnc machine with a core i7 (Think I need to restrict the cores for max performance) and now I can run the machine fast enough to firing a stall protect consistently which I guess is my upper speed limit. Somewhere around 4m/min with the 1400mm ballscrew which is a little faster than I thought it would do this is no load any faster it makes a funny sound and stall protect I think this is screw whip but hey just guessing.

At moment I have it running 2.7 used stepncof to set the A step and dir pins to Y and we have as much control as I had on 2.8 lol, same errors firing up but had enough went through 4 pc's before finally giving up and using my fusion 360 CAM machine set up as a dual boot.

Have the switches on need to configure them as I was checking the switches I managed to pull the wire out the X dir socket on the BOB just enough to not work but not enough to actually be visible spent 2 hours tracing and fixing that this time I put crimped them with ferrule ends they're going no where.

Worst part about the cheap BOB's is the sockets are just crap you can work with them but I'd rather pay a few quid more for some decent connectors.

Mate wants a catweazle sign to name his pond so mocked him a quick on up last night.

Attachment 23608

Was discussing dust shoes last night and my mate suggested I buy a brush head cut the centre bristles out and drill 2 holes in it and add some magnets.

Found the idea interesting and also very simple so going to see what brush heads I can get today.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Desertboy

Mate wants a catweazle sign to name his pond so mocked him a quick on up last night.

Was discussing dust shoes last night and my mate suggested I buy a brush head cut the centre bristles out and drill 2 holes in it and add some magnets.

Found the idea interesting and also very simple so going to see what brush heads I can get today.

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Have you seen these https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/80mm-Spin...%257Ciid%253A1

I've got it to run the splash screen ;)

https://youtu.be/JEo0zH5BMoM

Running 2.7 at moment with now working home switches, am going to upgrade to 2.8 but this was a fresh install so thought I might as well have a go.

I wasn't touching off each axis I assumed it was only for the Z causing most my errors.

My dimensions are wrong and not sure why will have to investigate tomorrow but when I move 1.2m I'm only really moving ~85cm so need to do some head scratching.

My microsteps are set to 8 and the ballscrew pitches are correct, it's set to 1:1

I also have the emergency stop button but unsure how to wire it up no instructions of course with the super cheap chinese stop button but I never expected anything more lol.

I did have it running a couple of weeks ago with Mach 3 but as soon as my mate went Oz I deleted the dodgy pirate and installed linuxcnc he's back in a week so glad I've got it working before he got back lol, he's a Windowsphile.

Bought a dust shoe
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/80mm-White...72.m2749.l2649

Think it's the same as you linked to just different colour, but UK ship although slightly more expensive.

I'm going to use a vacuum cleaner to suck on a cyclone wondering if I can use 100mm fittings on the cyclone to run a 100mm hose to the dust shoe or should I make an adapter so I can run a smaller hose to it.

Hmmm decisions.

You did realise you can buy those dust shoes with different hose sizes

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Clive S

You did realise you can buy those dust shoes with different hose sizes

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No but I would have bought 100mm anyway so I can change to a proper extractor when one comes along cheap enough ;) After all if I can't make a 100mm to 40mm adapter with my machine I'm in trouble lol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1zfJWMMBMg

Router is definetely setup wrong, I checked the stepconf and it's 8 microsteps and 5mm for my X and Z, 8 microsteps and 4mm for my Y. I also double checked the am882 pdf as well for jumper settings so really unsure what's going on but too cold where the router is so had to come home. More layers tomorrow ;)

Got to be something trivial.

Attachment 23617

Jumper setting for my AM882's they're all set the same, I hope they're set to autotune SW4 off/on/off twice in 1 second and 8 microsteps, not sure why I'm out dimensionally.

Attachment 23618
Also thinking about clamping

Thinking about cam, although I can CAM simple piecs of fusion most of what I designed to make is in 50+ pieces so looking for something to ease placement of the 50 pieces on a work piece, 2 sided machining and simplifiy the whole process.

I think it's a shoot out between Vcarve pro and Meshcam, leaning towards Meshcam at moment as it's $250

Machine is exactly 1/2 out (Not sure where I got 85cm from lol) changed to 1:2 ratio and now it's spot on but I would like to understand why.

At least it's working correctly now and I have 70cm of usable travel on the Y can stretch to 75cm, 120cm*70cm*12cm can live with that ;) So so glad I didn't buy an Xcarve now.

This time the right size and 4 times quicker so it doesn't rub the wood and smoke lol
https://youtu.be/_gqikAi8-24

I'm scrapping the vac bed idea (For now) in favour of a decent clamping solution as the cost of the woods I'm going to work is very high so I cannot afford slippages.

Toying with getting Vcarve Pro (Or meshcam) but will have to wait a month so I'm going to play with fusion CAM and the trial of Meshcam for now.

Clive what are your linuxcnc stepper driver timings?

http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wik...r_Drive_Timing

I used the ones for EM806, what does rising/falling edge mean I see there's some mention in the manual to do with jumper 8.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Desertboy

Clive what are your linuxcnc stepper driver timings?

http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wik...r_Drive_Timing

I used the ones for EM806, what does rising/falling edge mean I see there's some mention in the manual to do with jumper 8.

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The standard default driver settings are fine. I find it very difficult to follow sometime because you keep changing the version of Linuxcnc so are not consistent with your questions. You are also jumping all over the place and seem to be trying things at random which does not help. The trouble with linuxcnc is that there has been some very big changes in the last year and the documentation has changed starting with V2.7 I suggest you get the v2.8 master (because you have two motors) and stick to it.

Please don't take this the wrong way:thumsup:

No worries, now have upgraded to 2.8 and got 4 joints configured, Y is linked, X homes, one of the Y switches works, one doesn't. Have control of the machine can run code.

Got driven home by the cold spent a good 6 hours with the machine but no heating and in a large industrial unit it took it's toll on me lol.

Hopefully can work out how to configure my second homing switch have the .ini and .hal with me this time to post up on linuxcnc ;) so hopefully can work it out tonight I was getting close when I left.

This is how close X gets when homed now (I have it click the homing switch and travel another 50mm)
Attachment 23632
If you see the spacer at the top is slightly loose it's because the bolt's too long by 0.5mm need to strip the Z off and shave the bolt down to sort but need to order the bits I need to add grease nipples to the Hiwin's so I can do at same time. The actual spindle is still rock solid but obviously going to sort out.

And this is how close the Y gets when at maximum travel +(700mm) although I still have 5cm to play with on the other side of the bed I think 70cm travel sounds good. It's freaky watching it plough full speed towards the end to then stop so accurately and quickly so close to the end.
Attachment 23633
Now I've got homing working

Good work, follow rodw with his amendments I think they are correct. Just one point I noticed in the ini file is the z offset I think you have it at 0 it might be better just off 0 so as to not have false triggers.