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Okay base is on the way and looks more like a jazz base then the previously drawn tea trolley. So I am starting on the electrics. Laid out a few components and will hopefully get some wire, plugs, connectors etc tomorrow.
Fillets and bracing added by the blacksmith.
Don't blame me and anyway it looks nowt mine.!!. . .Attachment 5807Quote:
Originally Posted by motoxy
Oh come on jazz, Lick of paint and its done......................
Looking to get the limit switches now and was wondering if the chinese 10 for a bowl of rice are worth the effort.
I presume that I will need to get some 0.2 2 core shielded cable.
Bruce
Today it took its first breath of life. The control box is almost complete. I just have to get some 5 pin plugs and sockets for the motors. I decided to make a temporary connection to a motor and try it out. Ya beauty! :yahoo:Worked a treat. Got some good advice from Michael and I am well pleased.
Some more ally arrived yesterday so as soon as possible I can continue the build.
In the photo of the control box the wires hanging out the side are the temp connection to the motor.
Bruce
Looks like you have made a good job of that control box.
A great big thanks to Michael for machining my z plate registers for me. There has been some progress recently. I have started making the x rails and will get some piccies as soon as I can.
Hows this for an interesting way of losing business. I went to my blacksmith with whom I have concluded about £10,000 of busines this year to make me my base. He wanted £200 which was reasonable. Then I went in after a couple of weeks to check on progress he had not started it but thought that it would not matter as it was just for my 'hobby'. Grrr
Bruce
X runners almost completed.
Looking good Bruce, looking very good indeed.
Michael
had to baby sit an 8 year old tonight. Brilliant someone with the same engineering awareness as myself. So we set up the rig as a temp and checked a few things out. Definitely going to have to do a bit of light shimming but all in all........who am i kidding there is quite a bit to do but it is all doable. One of the bearings is loosing its balls so that will eventually have to be replaced. But I have to say it is all very exciting.
Thats most of the metal bashing completed know. All thats left is brackets to connect the x screwnuts to the gantry and mounts for limit switches. Gues I will have to start on connecting the electrics now. This is the bit that I am not confident about so a bit more reading of old threads and a few stupid questions, as usual.
The y motor has had its mounting made after this picture was taken.
Bruce
Just looking at them X brackets Bruce how are you going to mount them to the bearing plates with that big overhang from the plate which the rails sit on.?
It's looking good thou getting very close to fire up time.!!!
I will send you a dwg and you can tell me if it will work.
Bruce
It Lives!!!! Well z and y are working. I have the material at last for the x ballscrew brackets and the limit switches are on their way. The e stop is connected through the breakout board but I think that the external relay for the power to the spindle may be in order. Pictures when the brackets are finished.
Its not pretty but I love it...said the same about the kids
Bruce
We x y z all working and tolerances not bad. Tied a pen on and drew a line on x and y and seems good using a square.
But I have a bit of a problem with one side of the x axis. As it moves across one side starts to make a noise as though it was starting to bind up. Does not do it in the reverse direction. I have loosened the rails to allow them to move but makes no different. could be the bearings may have been knackered being put of and on the rails as it was built. I have a spare set to try. Disconected and pushing it there is no problem. It probably is the rail/ballscrew tightening.
Have to wait till the weekend now but promise some pictures or maybe video soon.
Bruce
Cannot believe its been 3 weeks!! Today I decided to swap over the ballscrews but leave everything else as is. The binding sound now comes from the other side and yes I think I know the problem. You may remember that I thought it was a good idea to take a ballscrew apart and see how they worked. I think that I may have not found all the balls and that this is the cause of the problem. So I shall have to get another ballnut and try again.
Water pipes are connected and basically just limit switches to fit.
I have fitted a drag chain on the x axis and I am getting another for the y axis. Some bracketry for that and we are almost ready.
Bruce
AAARRGGHHHH I HATE COMPUTERS. All ready to do some alignment checking and the computer decided to crash and reboot. Thats all it does now is reboot, crash, reboot, crash...... Tried a linux disc but that would not load either. It has always been a bit suspect as it would happily run mach but not cambam. Here are a couple of pics. Wiring still waiting to for a tidy up.
Thought you might like to meet my assistant. He seems to have moved into the workshop. I have evicted him but he comes back. I am hoping to train him to weld.
bruce
Looking good. Did you solve the suspected problem with the ballnut? If you've not already, try turning the ballscrews by hand to see if they feel smooth with no cyclical torque variation.
I think he'd be more suited to pop-ribbeting?Quote:
Originally Posted by motoxy
I think he'd be more suited to pop-ribbeting?[/QUOTE]
HA! Told him that and he laughed.
Got a new ballnut from cnc4you and all the horrible noises have gone. I am so close to finishing but there is always just one more little thing....
The tray on the back is for the drag chain. Then the cables and tubes will be sorted.
Well done keep up the good work.
Michael
Limit, homing switches in place and both drag chains. Trying to connect the touch off plate but so far to no avail. All thats really left to do is connect the spindle. Tried the water pump I had and it was useless so its off to ebay. Promise a picture next time I am in the workshop.
Runs beautifully at 2000 mm/min on the x but any more and it sounds yuck and at 2500 it seizes. Tweaked alot so just have to keep looking. I suspect that the old drill press, chopsaw, handtools build suffers a bit from lack of precision so when I am cutting I will try to fabricate the more essential parts to a higher standard.
Nearly there!!
Bruce
Bruce 2mtr/min is more than enough for cutting Ali to upgrade so don't fret mate.
You'll be amazed how much more you'll eck out the thing with a bit of shimming and tweaking.
What's with the plate.? What's it doing or not doing.? How you connecting it.?
connected it to input pin 13 (i think ) and then thought how does this work. Chatted to Michael and it acts by earthing. Touched it to earth nothing. Somehow I think I have it a bit screwed up. So I stopped until I could find an article or post to clarify.
Bruce
First have you enabled and set the Probe Inputs in Mach to pin 13.?
If so then just take a wire from any of the Negative pins of the BOB and touch to wire coming from pin 13 then it should work. Check the diagnostics screen input signals state ad the digitize pin should light.
If on all time without wires touched then flip pin 13's active low setting. Then it should work has expected.?
Still not managed to get the probe working but BIG news. I have a video of the first proper cuts.
movie first cnc cuts - YouTube
Thanks guys for all your help....and the help that is still to come.
The m/c is a bit wobbly because I have it up on castors to move it about as I work onit. Once finished it will be wedged up.
A very happy Bruce:triumphant:
Nice one! I can see myself wasting stacks of material once my CNC is ready to cut... It's almost as mesmerising as watching a fire!
Yep and there'll be times you want to set it on fire . . LolQuote:
Originally Posted by WandrinAndy
Nice one bruce looking good . . .:applouse:
So long as there's not times he wants to extinguish the fire...Quote:
Originally Posted by JAZZCNC
How long until we see an Aztec calender?
Me..Aztec...never...maybe...soon as possible:witless:Quote:
Originally Posted by Jonathan
Bruce
great news Bruce :)
Well done .
Well counted my chickens that time. When i looked closley at the first cutting it seemed to be alright but not perfect. When I tried to use the machine again it kept locking up. I assumed it was ball nut, bearing housings, bent screws. So I have spent hours moving, drilling stripping and rebuilding with varing amounts of success but never really solving the probleml. At one time I thought i had it beat but when trying to cut a design whole sections were out of alignment. I had Michael round to help plus a retired cnc fitter all to no avail.
Today I decided to go back to basics and put up the dti and found I was losing steps on just one of my x drives. Chatting to dean I checked all the wiring and swapped the step settings from 1/8 to 1/4. The problem got worse and it would jam after 150mm. if I loosened the motor mounting nuts it worked. I could hear a ringing and thought nothing of it. Swapped the two motors and then neither would work properly. Finally I thought I would take note of deans advice and looked at the steps again. I changed it to 1/5 and instantly everything was just dandy.
I have put the machine back together and cut a new sign. It is so much better in quality and cleanness of cut.
All thats left to do is get the probe plate working but that will have to wait until another day.
Bruce
Well done Bruce, well that's 2 machines in Edinburgh I need to go & look at now lol.
Bruce you've met me and seen how little hair I have left.? . . . .Know your learning how it happened. . . Lol
Looks good and pleased could help.!! Resonance can be a right bitch if it gets you, thou must admit I'm surprised it did with using modern drives.! Thou from everything you had done and told me on the phone it was little else could really be.?
That is great to hear and really need to get some video up from some cutting I have done lately but between making models, feeding the machine and other work have not got it done. Great to see Bruce and keep on trucking.
Michael
fantastic build thread. fantastic ending. well done outstanding work. what an inspiration
Built my self a dust shoe over the weekend as I am at last fed up with holding the hose next to the work. I wanted one that 'floated' so that its height was not governed by the spindle. Mark 1 used screws to guide it and was a failure. So I decided to use bearings. These are inline skate bearings from another project. The brush is from a letter box draught excluder.
I have a video which shows that it works really well.
Still cannot get the touch plate to work!!!
dust shoe - YouTube
The sign at the end is my first attempt at something a little more complicated.
Bruce
Well that about it. I now have the touch plate working and from here on in its just tidying and tweaking. I have cut some signs and other test pieces and I am very happy with the final product. This probably is the end of the build log so a big thanks to all of you who helped me complete this project. :thumsup:
Any further updates or info I will just make separate posts.
Bruce
Congrats. Looks awesome and I love that floating dust shoe.
Awesome...