DIY CNC Milling Machine From Scratch

Haha sorry, been very busy, after an eventfull house moving, the machine has moved home!


I purposefully stopped building about 3months ago to stop adding too much weight.

Its still laying on its back on a pallet at the moment, having the 250kg tail lift struggle to lift it into the van, 3 of us needed to give it a helping hand!

Hopefully i will get it back on its feet in the next week and i can start making it heavy.

At least all this downtime has let me make all the small bits!

More photos and videos sooon! I promise!

Sweet, good luck in the new house then will keep an eye out for the updates coming in :thumsup:

.Me

Nothing exciting but i have finally removed all the crap from ontop of the machine from the moving process.

The machine has survived just need to get a few people together to help me lift the machine onto its feet.

Then i can square up the rear pillar and away we go!

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/09...bdb82704d4.jpg

Looking forward to more updates soon!! I can relate to the clearing crap off the table....here was mine this morning.....second is this afternoon as I'm going to start back on it again ASAP.....

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Busy day today!

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Didnt have a square big enough so i had to make one!


Moved it to its final position hopefully so i took the chance to use my dads level ;)


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Good enough i think!

Next was the rear z axis plate with the bearings ball screw and oil lines!


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Spindle enclosure, will do a bit of machining like this when its running to make a few parts for itself so i dont have to keep staying on at work. Then it will be filled with sand and the gas strut will be put to work.

Surprises me that i can twist the ball screw with my fingers and lift the axis up!


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And the spindle placed in there for a test fit and quick measure up.

Y axis has a bit of backlash but im happy to just get it up and running for now! Think it may be the end suport of the ballscrew rather than the nut!

Runnout of the spindle with dowel pin is less than 0.01mm lucky!

And with me yanking the spindle and the dti on the nose i couldnt make it move more than 0.01mm happy as f@£!

Clean up time and tea time!

Oh an the spindle pictures i forgot!

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Lovely build totts !

Will you be using bellows over the rails and ballscrews?

Either way can't wait to see it in action . . .

Yeh will do just trying to source some, arc euro trade have some but just got to measure them up.

Same still loads to do unfortunately! Electronics! Ahhhhhh!

Oh and does anyone use a touch screen on mach? Or know where to get a resonable priced one?

Hi totts, thanks for the update.

They pop up on eBay all the time, there is also a type that convert a standard monitor, it depends on what you go for but you can get like a retro fit panel/kit if you dont mind going to China, have a search on ebay see what comes up, loads cheaper than a proper one :).

This is the first one that came up but should get you started: http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/160700957696

.Me

Totts....come in..Totts...

.Me

I read you loud and clear!

After being messed around by a courier i finally have a free 600x500mm electronics enclosure, just sorting out the back panel, and cutting the sodes for the connections cooling and readouts, machine is pretty much the same, just waiting for its steppers to be connected after the enclosure is fully up and running, and to top it all off, ive changed my job, busy busy busy hahaha


Simon

Quote:

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Originally Posted by totts

I read you loud and clear!

After being messed around by a courier i finally have a free 600x500mm electronics enclosure, just sorting out the back panel, and cutting the sodes for the connections cooling and readouts, machine is pretty much the same, just waiting for its steppers to be connected after the enclosure is fully up and running, and to top it all off, ive changed my job, busy busy busy hahaha


Simon

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Cool, I just can't wait to see her up and running mate that's all :), I actually came here to double check the air line fittings, where did you get the tubing from, Pegasus have it listed but it doesn't quite look the same as yours? Is it just the clear stuff but happens to have a blue tint to it or?

Sorry to be picky.

.Me

I had mine from my old work place, they bought it from SMC. https://www.smc.eu/portal_ssl/WebCon...ed_node=999999

They are pretty exspensive though.

It is coloured /tinted blue on purpose.

Alough i wish i had used nylon tubing as i dont know how long the pvc pipe will last with the oil.


Simon

Hi could you please let me know what fittings do you use for the oil lines? I'd like to switch to something like this for my gantry on my machine but don't know what to search exactly, I'm using hiwin guides which have M6 holes for the grease nipples, would lines like what you have work for grease as well? and what do they call the piece that hooks all lines together so that you fill them all up from one point?

thanks!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by totts

Just old ebay,

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item...d=261300410237

The some 4mm to 6mm connectors

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item...d=121140904969

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Simon

Hope this helps, they are pneumatic air fittings, are availiable all over ebay different threads, tube sizes and options :)


Simon

thanks very much, sorry another noob question but if I were to pump from a grease gun, any hint on what type of nozzle to get? for the same size you are using

Thats okay we are all a noob at some point, i still am haha, im not quite sure what you mean,

Do you mean how would you get from grease gun to the pipes? If so then i would make a manifold which would hold the fittings one side, and the original grease nipple the other.


Simon

So its been slow but ive cut my enclosure and started wiring, its not my strong point so im taking it nice and steady!

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...6328ec9dc0.jpg


Simon

What are the 5 grey looking things in the middle Si ?

Good to see your still pushing on with it all :)

.Me

They look like solid state relays

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Originally Posted by Clive S

They look like solid state relays

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U guessed correctly! :)


Simon

I messed around for a while with those for my control box but in the end I could not get them to do what I wanted. I think I was trying to use them to switch the main toroidal power supply using a DC circuit or something like that.

I used a contactor in the end which works a treat and is the right thing for the job. Why so many and what are they switching?

By the way, loving the machine so far.

Thats what i wanted, using them with my 24v psu to switch on the toroidal ps, spindle, cooling, estop, program estop and coolant. Using the 24v for switching. I hope it all works lol


Simon

Solid state relays are not always good thing to use because they often fail ON.!

Yeh ive heard that, the electricians in work have told me a few stories, which im surprised the fail on, i have two relays operating on the estop so i hope thats enough otherwise i will go back to normal relays.


Simon

Please only use normal relays or contactors for e-stop, SSR's are really only safe for loads like heaters and lamps, i learnt this years ago when i was doing R&D for printing process and finishing machinery. They fail regularly and 99% will fail ON not off. Even when used for heaters you need to use sensors for over-heat which happens when they fail.

If using for motors, always fit a good snubber network to help protect the SSR.

Loving the build BTW;)

Morning all, managed to get it up and running and wondering if anyone can give me some electrical advice,

I'm currently using an akz250 (usb Bob) no I know that u need a stable 5v to run? Also using dq860ma steeper drivers.

The problem is when I run a long program like the one in the picture, I loose steps in the x axis, one roughing cut depth is different to the next.

Now I've tried slowing the motors down and changing the acc, and the problem still happens.

I had a quick look at my wiring and ran a multi meter over the terminals, I have 4.45v going to (can't remember if it was step/dir) and 2.7v on the other terminal,

Also my drive has an enbl + / - terminal, do I need to wire 5v signal to this? As my drive is working without it?

Thanks


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Nice to see you have it up and running. I don't know anything about that board but are you powering it via the USB if so can you power it from a separate power supply?

Are you running the drives at about 68V?

You don't need to connect to the enable terminal, that won't effect missing steps etc.

Possibly due to the Step pulse being on the wrong side of the slope. Commonlly step pulse is on the rising edge but in some cases drives may be set so on the Falling edge. If this is the case and on wrong side then can lose one step with every direction change.

To check this write program that goes back n forth few hundred times on that axis. Mark the start point and check it goes back to same point after the moves.

If doesn't then change the Step low active in Motor Outputs. This will put the Step pulse on the opposite edge.

It's a 70v psu I can't remember the exact voltage from the psu,

The akz250 is a Chinese board [emoji15]. I m pretty sure I can wire a different supply to it by using this diagram -


http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...325972c35b.jpg


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by JAZZCNC

Possibly due to the Step pulse being on the wrong side of the slope. Commonlly step pulse is on the rising edge but in some cases drives may be set so on the Falling edge. If this is the case and on wrong side then can lose one step with every direction change.

To check this write program that goes back n forth few hundred times on that axis. Mark the start point and check it goes back to same point after the moves.

If doesn't then change the Step low active in Motor Outputs. This will put the Step pulse on the opposite edge.

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This would make sense as the toolpaths have a lot of direction changes due to it being an adaptive toolpaths, so if I change step low active will this run the motor in the opposite direction?


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by totts

This would make sense as the toolpaths have a lot of direction changes due to it being an adaptive toolpaths, so if I change step low active will this run the motor in the opposite direction?


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No it shouldn't but if it does then just go into Homing and Limits and select Reverse. You may need to change the Home direction.
Don't Change the Dir Active leave that the same as it can have an affect on drive.

However Like I said wouldn't change it without knowing for sure and the only way is to mark and run test code.

Thanks will get some code running on it when I can get to it next and set up a dti hope this works!


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Okay so I ran 1000 lines of code from the settings I'm on and It went back to zero, I changed the step active and same code no missed steps.

I then ran my code that I've been having trouble with, about 4000 lines and I didn't have no missed steps, but I have this new problem when I jog my machine it Judders whichever settings I use and at whatever speed, but when I run a program it doesn't judder , weird huh?


Video -

https://vimeo.com/179512381


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P.s I know it's stalling it does it even if I change the acc and speed. It does it in every axis


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had loads of problems with keyboards so try different keyboard before anything else

I've used a pendant and a keyboard same problem :(


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