Building My First CNC Router, Looking for Advice & Other Info

[AlexDoran]

Great build!
Fast going and looking good.
I know nothing about the strength of 3d printed parts but are they strong enough to hold the bearings on your long axis?

The printed parts that hold the bk/bf bearings are also subject to big loads... but as I said.. they might be up for it? ;)

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Hi there,

Thanks! I am only using 3D Printed Parts to dry assemble the machine. Once i am happy with how everything fits they will be replaced with aluminium :)

Thanks

Alex

[Nr1madman]

Hi there,

Thanks! I am only using 3D Printed Parts to dry assemble the machine. Once i am happy with how everything fits they will be replaced with aluminium :)

Thanks

Alex

Now I'm truly envious!
What an fantastic way to build...

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[AlexDoran]

Now I'm truly envious!
What an fantastic way to build...

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The 3D Printed Parts are only 25% Solid, even so they are fairly tough and rigid - i'm sure you could print them much stronger than they already are (Increase the Wall Thickness and Infil % ). However it will never offer what Aluminium will. Great and very cheap / fast way to prototype!

Alex

[AlexDoran]

So i pretty much finished the wiring, and ran the coolant lines for the spindle, tried to semi tidy the cables & pipes.

I started working on getting the Limit / Home switches working but i have been an idiot and bought the wrong type of probes, the DDCSV expects a 12v signal from the probe, but mine are NPN and not PNP so i am pretty sure these are not going to work directly with the controller, bit of a pain considering i already soldered them to the longer cables etc, now i need to try and source some PNP variants that are the same size, and dont cost £40 each.

I also wired the VFD to the controller, however when i try to run the spindle, the display on the VFD changes but nothing actually on the spindle, not sure if i have it configured properly, followed a youtube video, but also read a DIY guide that had conflicting information about some of the Hertz values, also i am trying to signal VFD from the DDCSV using the 10v pwm signal, i had the control parameters (PD001 & PD002) on the VFD set to 1 but i think this needs to be 2.

Any advice or help on any of these points would be greatly appreciated.






Alex

[AlexDoran]

By pure luck i have managed to find some rather nice (and expensive Balluff Brand) Proximity Sensors in my brothers shed (He is the maintenance guy at work), he only had 4, which is ok as it means i am able to the machine homed, and perform some more tests, and actually - im not sure that i even to have Max Limit Switches? There is a Software Travel Limit that is defined and seems to work very well, im not sure if these get ignored when running a program so i will have to check that out.

However now i can only seem to get the Z Axis to move in one direction, i was thinking that it must be a loose / funny connection somewhere since i had been tidying all of the wiring up. However if there was a problem with the wiring would the Stepper even move in one direction at all?

I was also curious as to how the Axis should be orientated, currently the X (my longest Axis) and the Y both home to minimum - Position 0, and then move positively through the co-ordinates- for example 0 -> 1010mm. However i know that our big machines move negatively, eg: 0mm -> -3000. Is there a standard way of setting this out? What are the implications, do they just affect how you need to setup any post processing configuration from SolidCAM, Fusion etc?

Im also curious about how the Z Axis is orientated too, when moving positively it travels upwards - the homing is set to minimum but when homing it searches upwards. Possibly this is because of the problems i am having with the Axis.

Thanks

Alex

[Clive S]

Im also curious about how the Z Axis is orientated too, when moving positively it travels upwards - the homing is set to minimum but when homing it searches upwards. Possibly this is because of the problems i am having with the Axis.

Thanks

It is usual to have the Z showing -ve going down so +ve and home would be at the top. The other two are personal choice.

Re the Z only moving in one direction check the (dir) on the driver and make sure it is changing sense ie 5v and 0v

[AlexDoran]

Nice one both you and Clive tested my spindle today with an ammeter and it's obviously pin 4 is not connected to anything ;)

Will do as Clive suggested, were the top bolts hard to undo? I tried and felt some resistance like I have some loctite to break didn't want to push it until I asked had a nightmare rounding off A2's next time I build I will only use A2's were needed and stick to proper bolts if appropriate.

I had to crack them, think there was some thread lock on the bottom of mine, i one exactly as Clive suggested. However still cant seem to get the spindle going - have not tried today however; might switch it back to manual configuration and run it directly from the VFD just to make sure that everything is wired correctly.

It is usual to have the Z showing -ve going down so +ve and home would be at the top. The other two are personal choice.

Re the Z only moving in one direction check the (dir) on the driver and make sure it is changing sense ie 5v and 0v

Ok, well i guess it makes sense to change the X & Y to follow suit (Move Negative AWAY from the Home Position). At least then they are all the same and i can't confuse myself - which is very likely.

Roger Roger - Will check that thanks Clive.

Alex

[Nickhofen]

The machine looks very good.
I am sure that with the help from all the expert guys here soon your cnc will run properly, carry on!