Was about to get a toy- then I did some research...

[NeoMorph]

Jazz... Dean, I’m John btw... crisis over. Please ignore if I rant middle of the night (meds... literally can’t help it)

Okay I have to say I’m intrigued now. I wonder how much it would cost to change a belt driven Ox to a machine that could run on linear rails.

My gantry used to be 750mm of 2x 8020. I bolted them together to make it stiffer. The two frame rails that the gantry runs on is a single 1m 8020 each side with more 8020’s at either end. The two gantry plates are taller than normal Ox plates and are made of steel.

What do you think it would take to switch to linear rails with ballscrews, including plates cut to mount the ballscrews and gantry carriage plates (I’m guessing those would need replacing).

Add in digital drivers and replacement steppers and psu. My current steppers are Motech MT-2303hs280aw 175oz 2.8a ones. THEN add in the spindle and VFD. I looked up and found my CNC xPro controller can handle external controllers so I can get away with using that.

[JAZZCNC]

Jazz... Dean, I’m John btw... crisis over. Please ignore if I rant middle of the night (meds... literally can’t help it)

Okay I have to say I’m intrigued now. I wonder how much it would cost to change a belt driven Ox to a machine that could run on linear rails.

My gantry used to be 750mm of 2x 8020. I bolted them together to make it stiffer. The two frame rails that the gantry runs on is a single 1m 8020 each side with more 8020’s at either end. The two gantry plates are taller than normal Ox plates and are made of steel.

What do you think it would take to switch to linear rails with ballscrews, including plates cut to mount the ballscrews and gantry carriage plates (I’m guessing those would need replacing).

Add in digital drivers and replacement steppers and psu. My current steppers are Motech MT-2303hs280aw 175oz 2.8a ones. THEN add in the spindle and VFD. I looked up and found my CNC xPro controller can handle external controllers so I can get away with using that.

Not fair to the OP to continue this here so start a thread if you want to persue this more and I'll comment on it.

[NeoMorph]

Hmmm okay. I did think it would assist in design theory for a new machine that improves on a a base “hobby” CNC build which is why I put it here.

[NeoMorph]

I’ve started up a new thread at http://www.mycncuk.com/threads/13355...erious-Machine

My apologies to the OP for hijacking the thread. I should know better being an ex admin. ��

Here is one really good idea that has saved me a lot of time. Get a small A5 hardback notebook and any ideas, changes, wiring diagrams and the like so you have a physical record of what you’ve done to your machine. It’s surprising how convoluted the wiring can get as there is the mains to psu... psu to the controller board... controller to three steppers... controller to SIX limit switches... controller to VFD... controller to coolant (or in my case vacuum... controller to hardware buttons including such as emergency stop, start program, pause and more if you do choose... and finally mains to VFD and vacuum (or water pump if you use cooling.

Yup... it all adds up. So if you log and label all the wiring it is easy to track down faults That may occur and an A5 sized notebook makes it easy to hold in one hand while tracking problems and tracing wires. It it also convenient to store with your machine without getting in the way.

Here is something funny. I was just checking the forum notifications when I saw one from 2017... this shows how much a noob I am at CNC stuff... I didn’t have a clue back then, let alone a machine at that point.

http://www.mycncuk.com/threads/11063...-A-Start-Point