A new member from Rotherham

Hi all, I have been playing with ready made cnc machines for a good many years ranging from a Roland MDX-3 to my current (secondhand) High-Z S1000, which is in need of a refit regarding its controller. My other interests are 3D printing which I now incorporate into my day to day work and photogrammetry 3D scanning. I can also be found in the workshop using manual machines for maintenance and prototype work.

My choice of software are as follows :-

CAD - Mac Rhino

Cambam and Linuxcnc

Cura and Simplify3D on the 3D printing side

PhotoScan for 3D scanning

Happy to meet any locals with similar interests.

Cheers for the forum

Joules

I would like to have a get together sometime

David
Orgreave

Thanks David, was starting to feel like Billy Nomates......

There's more of us than you'd think ;-)

- Nick

This could get interesting. I recently lost some work as my cnc controller went tit's.... Once I'm back up and running, be good to get networking as I can't afford a backup machine and my guess is vice versa for a lot of us. Cheers Nick, be good to catch up some time.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Joules

This could get interesting. I recently lost some work as my cnc controller went tit's.... Once I'm back up and running, be good to get networking as I can't afford a backup machine and my guess is vice versa for a lot of us. Cheers Nick, be good to catch up some time.

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Welcome to the forum Joules there are a lot of good people on here so if you have a problem with the machine why not just ask as you never know who is around to help. ..Clive

Hi Joules, i too have a second hand high-z S1400 model, no major problems so far but nice to hear theres another owner on here, i dont think theres that many about, especially the bigger models. Would have liked the T model really but this came up and couldnt resist. I cut mostly plastics on mine

Hi howser37, nice machine, I especially like the linear rail they fitted on that model. It has been something I considered for my 1000, retro fitting linear bearings to reduce resonance on those long bars and prolong the bearings life. What controller do you have with your machine ? Its a real pig you can't buy the controller unless you buy another machine. My only option would be to consider a 400 model as a second machine and share the controller between the two. 8-(

As it is I am waiting to so what the Inventables X Controller will turn out like and possibly go that route.


Joules

Hey Joules, i have removed the bearings from the assembly once or twice and did a quick test, and there is a lot of deflection without them.
The way the linear rails are attached all looks a bit DIY to me, and makes me think they tried first without them and decided it needed them and added them to the design rather than the design being built around it, Definately makes a massive difference though.

I have the original controller with it and run it with mach3, so far the only real problem i have had with it was a faulty jack for the auto height sensor, but a new 50p Headphone jack sorted that.

I do find it is a little on the slow side for me as i cut mostly hdpe which is like butter, so i could push it harder if i had the t-model.

What problems are you having with your controller?

Thats great news, a set of Hiwin bearings and rails are in my future then. The controller has a flakey TA8435HQ chip that crowbars the current after about 20mins. I tried adding extra cooling but it carries on doing the same. Since this chip is now obsolete and to be frank the rest of the board design is pretty pants I figured its time to buy/build something better.

At some point the delrin bearings in the gantry are going to need replacement and this looks like being accomplished with external split nuts attached to the bearing sleeves. This machine was cutting carbon fibre helicopter frames prior to me getting it, so it's not had an easy life.

I Just had a quick look at mine and you should be able to retrofit the linear rails no problem, assuming it is very similar setup to the S1400.

I know bugger all about electronics, so not sure about crowbarring current etc. Are you using it with a Kress Spindle/Router and are you running it from the power take off on the back of the controller, maybe having it powered from a seperate socket might help? (but like i say electronics is not my thing lol)

I should be able to get linear rails on the side of the extruded frame and pick up the gantry sides. Might need to alter the power chain arrangement. LOL sorry about the electronics waffle. Crowbar just means as it gets hot it reduces the current to the motor so it doesn't burn out the chip in the event of overheat. That in turn means your stepper soon has insufficient current to make it step anymore and it then drags the Z axis around the work at whatever height (normally last down feed), could do with current sensing on each axis to deal with this. The machine has its own supply as I am running a 3 phase spindle, again the X-Controller interests me as they will provide a 0-10vdc out that can control the spindle speed controller.

My Heiz controller is one of the early models, not the newer metal cased jobs.