My Cheapo Chineese 3020t mini CNC Build (more like improvements) leanring all the way

[ravihotwok]

thanks very much lee, still a bit iffy but the main thing is I now know the theory behind it.

Yeah my mate does a lot of contracting to a few aerospace firms and has helped me out a fair bit with advice, nearly pissed himself when I showed him my 4 axis machine lol

[ravihotwok]

Work has been crazy busy at the moment so only been able to do a little bit on the build. I have started to create an enclosure for the machine, this will consist of a sealed unit with 2 led strip light running at the top of the enclosure front to back each side. One side of the enclosure will be perspex and and front will be a hinged perspex door. There will be an extraction system installed on the side opposite the perspex. Its a very make-shift idea but it will serve a purpose I think and help keep the area as clean as possible.

I have replaced all the wood on the workbench from cheap thin mdf to 12mm thick ply wood for stability, weight and strength.



Now I have added a few coats of paint to the inside of the enclosure to aid lighting

[ravihotwok]

And here is the side perspex screen installed

[ravihotwok]

One other issue I have is that I now have a additional power supply/controller for my 600w spindle which wont fit within my planet control box. I have decided to fabricate another box lid which will fit and attach to the top of the existing planet box. Here is the grp mould I have made so far to achieve this


Nothing really that interesting and still haven't registered the license correctly since changing from the crap control box to the new one so hopefully I will be able to sort this at the weekend and make some progress on finishing the wiring. All in all enjoying the small amounts of time I spend on this so far which is great. More to come :-)

[Desertboy]

Have you had it cutting yet?

[ravihotwok]

christ no lol

waiting on some more cable track to feed the limit switch cables through, also need to solder the earths onto the motor cables, trying to run the cables as separate as possible hence the additional cable track, once the enclosure is finished I can work out the exact length of the cable so they are as short as possible.

Im not too keen on firing the machine up when its half way through installation as I know I will start making loads of stuff and just make a mess everywhere lol

[ravihotwok]

Spent a few mins last night installing the new LED strip lights inside the enclosure, just need to sort a switch out then they will be fully functional.

[ravihotwok]

Managed to find a quick hour to do a bit on the machine with not the best results :-(.

Anyway I have wired up the limit switches and installed a second cable track on the opposite side to the motor cables to try and keep them separate. I have also drilled and tapped some holes to help clip the cables nice and neat

[ravihotwok]

I labelled each of the limit switch cables only to find I did the wrong lol, only need one cable per axis (2 switches)

Plugged it all in but its still not working correctly, motors seem to stop intermittently and something up with the y limit plug socket in the box.

I have not done anything to the settings apart from set the units per step which seem to be working now (when the motors don't stop)

I have sent an email to planet cnc and will do some more investigating tonight. Very frustrating as its starting to look really neat, just got to make sure the hardware has been assembled correctly

All a learning curve , be it a VERY frustrating one lol

Cheers