Quote Originally Posted by JZimmy View Post
I have been watching your build and I have been amazed by your quality of work. I am starting to design my router and will definitely be taking some ideas away from your build.

I agree with your comment about increasing the length of the rails but more for the fact that your seals might see some wear the more they run over the edge of the rail unless you have a good lead-in on the rails. I doubt it will be much of an issue here but thought I would point it out.

Keep plowing away at the build, I enjoy the updates!

JZ
Cheers - Yeah I'm not too worried about wear (I can print new seals for a few pennies after all) but I do think there are improvements to be made to this Z-axis design. I was thinking about just making a longer plate with longer rails (and indeed probably will at some point) but I'm actually thinking a v2 will be change enough that it wouldn't be worth modifiying, rather just build an entirely new Z for the v2.



Quote Originally Posted by Edward View Post
One thing I am curious to know is if you have experienced the Z axis rolling downwards on its own accord -due to the weight- when the stepper is not switched on.

On my milling machine, the weight of the mill head made it freewheel downwards when the power was off. I remedied this by using a belt drive, as opposed to the direct coupling you have on your Z.

I assume the the spindle/mount and sliding plate/rails are not heavy enough to overcome the natural thread retention of the ballscrew, so this may not be an issue at all with a router, as I've seen a lot of guys using direct coupling.

Also, did you go for medium or light preloading for the Hiwin carriages for the Z? I am thinking Medium for the Z, Light for everything else, though I guess it not so important..


Edward

Well, not sure yet on this one. On my X6 it stays put when powered off (and actually requires a fairly good shove to start moving down), so I would expect this one will too - it is a little heavier with the large Z-plate and rails on the moving side, but that will likely be more than offset by the fact i'm using a 4mm pitch screw rather than 5mm like on the X6.

My carriages are all ZA (medium) preload.

Nick & Alex - cheers chaps :)