Steel Gantry Machine 1500x750x200

[toomast]

Managed to weld up the gantry today :D

[toomast]

Managed to weld up the gantry today :D

It seemed quite funny while photographing...tough crowd :D

So I'm all welded up and cleaned for painting. First plan was to weld it all together but ditched that wonderful idea. So now the frame consist of 5 pieces. Connections M10 bolts. Plenty of adjustments.
Next step is paint and then epoxy and assembly.



So now I should think about buying electronics...I have not done any research on this so please recommend! I will go with MACH3, DIY PSU, gantry squaring, home and limit switches. What BOB? Or even motion card? Drivers?

Thanks for listening!

[eurikain]

What a beautiful work ! Seems like you've done this your whole life :)

I am not an expert but everyone seems to fit these kind of machines (steel based, roughly the weights you mentioned) with AM882 drivers (60-80V) (check out AliExpress for those, they are about 68 Euros free shipping with DHL, make sure to buy max 2 at a time or you will have to pay for shipping) with 3.1Nm Nema 23 motors from CNC4YOU (I tried finding them on AliExpress but 8 lead 3.1Nm 4.2A low inductance motors are hard to find elsewhere than on sites like CNC4YOU, Zapp Automation...). PSU I can't tell you yet as I am in the process of making one (helped by JAZZCNC). Ask the gurus and they will help you :D. For the BOB, I use a cheap chinese $10 one. Works good for what I need (5 axis, spindle on/off, spindle speed, limit switches, e-stop). That's even more than I need. Other people here will most likely tell you not to go with that and use a fancy BOB. I don't know much about BOBs so I stick with the basic cheap I've got :)

Looking forward to read other members' recommendations :)