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

[Clive S]

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.

If it was me I would keep the x and y going +ve away from the home switch. but still have the Z going down -ve as it is easier to read the gcode

[Neale]

However, it is possible to have (0,0) in, say, the "bottom left" corner, which tends to be natural when you are standing in front of the machine, but have the home position in the top right corner and set the home position to the max value of travel. This gets the tool out of the way when you home. Or you can have each axis home at min or max. It's a question of choice. It's easy enough to configure Mach3 for each situation.

[AlexDoran]

Thanks guys i will have a think about it.

Alex

[Jerm]

Hi Everyone,

I'm glad someone is taking the time to elaborate on my design. ;)

Although not much use to you now, I've been meaning to make the CAD files available for others to use, perhaps I will get onto that this week.

I'm interested in seeing how your machine performs with 10 mm pitch screws. I used 1605 screws and have found them perfectly fine for my requirements. I've seen others online stating that 5 mm pitch screws are too slow and I fail to understood this statement. A machine this size which isn't used for production purposes I didn't see the need to maximise rapid speed. It's fast enough as it is! Perhaps a full size machine would require more speed, but then i'd probably move to rack and pinion anyway.

I too prefer "home" the machine to the back right hand corner, this means that the gantry is at the back and out of the way after initial startup, ready for me to load a sheet of material onto the bed. I have the axis set up as X from left to right (gantry) and Y (dual motor drive) front to back when standing in front of the machine. Therefore my homing position is X+,Y+,Z+.

I look forward to seeing some test cut footage on this machine!

Cheers
Jeremy

[AlexDoran]

Hi Everyone,

I'm glad someone is taking the time to elaborate on my design. ;)

Although not much use to you now, I've been meaning to make the CAD files available for others to use, perhaps I will get onto that this week.

I'm interested in seeing how your machine performs with 10 mm pitch screws. I used 1605 screws and have found them perfectly fine for my requirements. I've seen others online stating that 5 mm pitch screws are too slow and I fail to understood this statement. A machine this size which isn't used for production purposes I didn't see the need to maximise rapid speed. It's fast enough as it is! Perhaps a full size machine would require more speed, but then i'd probably move to rack and pinion anyway.

I too prefer "home" the machine to the back right hand corner, this means that the gantry is at the back and out of the way after initial startup, ready for me to load a sheet of material onto the bed. I have the axis set up as X from left to right (gantry) and Y (dual motor drive) front to back when standing in front of the machine. Therefore my homing position is X+,Y+,Z+.

I look forward to seeing some test cut footage on this machine!

Cheers
Jeremy

Hi Jeremy! I hope you are well, i have been meaning to send you some updates on the build since we last spoke. Cad files would be great to a lot of people i think, a lot of people on the Facebook groups have asked - i just don't seem to have time to compile them neatly with a BOM right now.

I have made a lot of progress yesterday and today, i have finished wiring the machine now (almost, but i'm leaving Max Limit switches off for now, the loom is there if i want to use it in the future). I added a Ferrite ring to the Spindle Cable where it exits the VFD enclosure & also at the other end where it wires into the Marine Connector Socket, i hope this helps keep inference down - i have also grounded the CY cable correctly (i think., I also just need to add an E-Stop to the controller.

I got the Spindle working and also got it fully operational from the DDCSV1.1 controller. The Huanyang VFD is slightly strange, it requires you to daisy chain / common ground the DCM & ACM terminals (Analogue & Digital Control Signal Grounds), which does not make any sense to me. I'm not sure what the Chinese logic behind it is however it wasted an hour or two figuring it out but now works fine.

Also got the Coolant Drum (An old & cleaned out 20 Litre Lacquer Tin), setup with the pump in it - which all seems to be working nicely with no leaks. If the Drum is 20 Litres, would this be a sufficient volume to passively cool itself? Should any type of Antifreeze / Coolant be added or replace the water to improve performance, help cooling, prevent corrosion in the Spindle Water Jacket?

Next on the list is to try and wrap my head around SolidCAM, creating a Post Processor for it & getting some test programs run. Also at the point now where i need to look at getting the aluminium plates sorted.

Alex

[Neale]

The reason for separate digital and analogue grounds is that sometimes, for example, the BOB or motion controller will have separate power supplies for digital and analogue outputs and this allows you to keep them isolated. Not always needed but essential in some situations. Not as silly as it might look at first sight, but frustrating when the Chinglish manual doesn't really help!

[AlexDoran]

The reason for separate digital and analogue grounds is that sometimes, for example, the BOB or motion controller will have separate power supplies for digital and analogue outputs and this allows you to keep them isolated. Not always needed but essential in some situations. Not as silly as it might look at first sight, but frustrating when the Chinglish manual doesn't really help!

Ah that makes sense, another thing i found strange was i could not see anywhere in the Huanyang manual that stated what kind of signal the FOR input was expecting, so i also wasted another hour or so on that whilst trying to figure out the ACM / DCM grounding.

Alex

[jparamo4546]

Hi Everyone,

Although not much use to you now, I've been meaning to make the CAD files available for others to use, perhaps I will get onto that this week.

Jeremy

It would help some of us tremendously if you make the CAD files available. I haven't master CAD modeling yet to allow me to put a machine together like you have.

[Jerm]

I have updated one of my blog posts to include a link to download the model.

https://jeremyyoungdesign.com/2016/0...inal-assembly/

[AlexDoran]

I have not had a chance to work on the router properly in some months, i have been sooo busy with work and stuff outside that it has really taken the back seat. I have nearly now finished building the bench it will sit on, i just need to get this finished and painted then i will partially disassemble the machine and move it out onto the shop floor.

I need to get some product off the machine (for the main purpose it was designed), and am sure that the 3D Printed parts will suffice to do this (Cutting 2mm Thick Fire Retardant Interdens). Once i have a decent amount produced i will work on the aluminium plates to replace the plastic ones.

Another setback i will probably face is that my work PC had to be wiped (dont ask!), i managed to take a copy of my PowerCAM directory before this but am predicting it wont be as simple to just copy back the files and be where i was previously, it took a long time to get the post processor and machine / tools setup in Solidworks so i'm not looking forward to this as i have forgotten most of the steps to getting there.

Thanks

Alex