Upgrading a MAKKO M850 cnc machine ?

[phill05]

Hi Chaz and all

The machine frame itself seems pretty rigid. I'm in Austria so if anyone has links to good ball screw suppliers in Europe please let me know. Any information gladly accepted.
Cheers

Andrew

Andrew,
Take a look https://www.damencnc.com I have used them, very helpful guys.

Phill

[Chaz]

Andrew,
Take a look https://www.damencnc.com I have used them, very helpful guys.

Phill

+1 from me too.

[hanermo2]

Whats your goal, aim ?
Budget ? Skills ?

[the great waldo]

Whats your goal, aim ?
Budget ? Skills ?

Hi Hanermo
My goal is to make the machine work as well as possible within limits. The story of the machine (Makko 850) is that I bought it new about 10 years ago. The software that came with the machine was a very early version of Ninos (iprocam) The manual was in German (i'm English living in Austria) the program could be made to run in English but half of the interface was in French. I ran the machine a few times to see if it worked but it seemed to have a mind of it's own and the gantry crashed merrily about making horrible noise when it jammed against the machine limits. Please be aware that I am a total novice with cnc. The machine then sat in the corner of my not very big workshop being used as a spare table. The next attempt to use it was when I got win pc nc usb from Lewetz. This was a great improvement on the early ninos software with proper English translation and the machine could be reasonably controlled also with a joystick. I did not find the interface very easy to get on with as it did not update the head position realtime. The next attempt was with a usb parallel adapter from iprocam but the English translation from iprocam was hopeless and trying to set the machine parameters was a nightmare. I must say that the interface from Ninos 4 was good if I only could have got my machine to run with it. The last attempt was made with UCCNC UC100 this product was a revelation to me as it was easy to set up recognised my machine easily from a demo mach3 version that I had tried. Support from a chap called Balasz was first class prompt and efficient (in case you are wondering I don't have any thing to do with this company apart from buying the uc100 full price) But I am very happy to recommend it as a beginner in cnc machining. The machine at the moment runs but the motors get hot and when speeds are pushed up a bit there are points in the travel of the gantry where there is some vibration resonance or whatever it's called. I bought a 2.2kw air cooled Chinese spindle with a hitachi vfd (again not the worlds easiest manual to get ones head around) which will eventually be fitted. I have also bought two leadshine em705 drivers for the X Y steppers and hope fully that might help to reduce vibration noise etc, I'll fit those first to see if it makes any difference to how the machine runs. If swapping out the ball screws is not too much of a time consuming operation I will try it. I want the machine for carving guitar necks and parts and bodies and various wooden bits and pieces and maybe some pearl engraving. I don't have much spare time as i'm snowed under with guitar repairs and the machine is at home where my significant other would like me to help out with the usual building the house, decorating cutting the grass, i'm sure you get the picture. The real hard part is to figure out the cad programs, again very time intensive for an old brain. My budget is not unlimited however if something helps to improve the machine (such as the aluminium t-nut table I bought) a very useful addition. Then I am willing to spend some money. For basic guitar making accuracy to a hundredth of a millimeter is not required however nice to have. I would like to carve jazz guitar backs and tops (rough carve and finish by hand) I'm pretty good with my hands and have a reasonable workshop with a metal working lathe (hobbymat md65 Simple but works ok) I would like to finally say thanks to all the forumites who have replied and will reply in the future. This forum has a lot of practical and useful information although a little hard to find sometimes. Well there it is, you asked.
Buenas Noches

Andrew

[Chaz]

Wow, hard work to read this. Paragraphs please?

[the great waldo]

Wow, hard work to read this. Paragraphs please?

Yes sorry Chaz, it had been a long day and a couple of beers at the end of it. I tried to get the 705 drivers working without much luck. There are leadshine m542 's in the control box for the x and y and a wierd driver for the z axis.
I'm going to go for a new control box all em705 's any recomendations for power supply ratings and a breakout box ?
Cheers.
Andrew

[Chaz]

To me, it feels like your main thing here is about the ballscrews setup. If UC100 is working, its about mechanical improvements?

Do you need the machine to cut faster? Is the problem the heat / resonance?

Perhaps get some pricing for suitable ballscrews to replace the acme ones and go from that point?