Newbie Sieg X3 and or Warco WM18 CNC conversions

[Doddy]

1. AXBB is fine. I use a UC300ETH on my SX2.7, but only one port (a second port controls, separately, a Starmill).
2. Go Digital drive!, I've used 2DM860Hs but there's plenty out there. I'm sure someone will express a preference.
3. I've used a 3.1nm '23 with a 2:1 belt on Z (same on X/Y). I've never encountered a problem with this configuration - noting the X3 is a bit bigger.
4. Consider your driver options - if you can run AC then it's just a case of bolting a transformer into the control box, it's quite a sensible choice for KISS,.
5. Not the X3, but the long-bed SX2.7. I just replaced each trapezoidal with a same-length 1605 cheap Chinese ballscrew, appropriating the same mounting holes for each axis (though offsetting and mirroring the motors with 2:1 belts into the space-frame of the machine). YMMV.
6. Nope, but I gave up trying to find 3rd party designs (mainly because I don't talk Sketch-up and neither did F360 - in the end I realised I was wasting more time chasing these than actually just eyeballing the machine and designing the plates, mounts etc myself.

Just my experience on a SX2.7L - not the X3, you'll have to take the above with a pinch of salt.

[CNCMEBABY]

Thanks for the reply Doddy - lots of food for thought.

Hope you don't mind if I follow up your replies with a couple of extra questions?

4. Could you pass some details of this solution - I have been looking at AndyUK's router build and considering copying what has been done there mainly due to the exceptional schematic he's put up - albeit with some down-speccing in a couple of areas, I don't think I'll be needing anywhere near the amps he's using, although if I'm going to be going 4th axis then I might need it all or close to it, I'll have to finalise my sums.

5. Did you use the existing bearings at the ends of the table for mounting your ball screws / did you upgrade the bearings to something like opposing taper bearings - the X2.7 might be better as it's a later machine but my X3 has quite horrible bearing races and was expecting to make new plates for mounting BK/BF12 mounts - still to do the CAD model for the XY table, been learning Fusion 360 with Lars... Having said that I could get the ball screw stepper end threaded by the supplier (Fred at BST perhaps) and thread the stepper shaft coupling to suit the end of the ball screw and adjust that way and use better bearings in the existing plates

6. Coming to the conclusion that you are spot on about this, time to jump in

Thanks again,

Geoff

[Doddy]

4. Some drivers will take AC or DC supplies (nothing special - they just have a rectifier to take whatever and make sure its DC internally. Normally there's a smallish cap inside to smooth the rectified supply). With these - just get a suitably rated transformer and present the secondary winding to the driver. If you have only a DC driver, then you need to provide the rectification and smoothing cap yourself. It's slightly more complex, and adds £10-£20 to the build, and more space is required, but it's still straightforward. AndyUK provides some excellent documentation of his builds here - by all means follow those, but feel free to ask any questions - particularly PSUs there's not a whole lot of complexity required here, and ask any 5 of us, and you'll get 6 different opinions :)

5. On each axis I used a BK bearing block at the drive-end (integral AC bearings). On X I used the existing brass bush to support the end of the screw - simply, it was there and it fit perfectly well. On Y, I left the free-end floating (it's only something like 25cm in length, and there wasn't easy space under the bed to mount a block. Similarly on Z, left the end of that floating - plenty of space in this case but there didn't appear to be much need to support the end of the Z screw. Others may have different views on this.



Example on Y.

6. Yeah, jump in, what have you to lose?

[Mat]

I've got a copy of the X3 conversion articles previously on Arc Euro's website...
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sMq...ew?usp=sharing,
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sS4...ew?usp=sharing,
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sZ6...ew?usp=sharing

[CNCMEBABY]

Hi Mat,

I tried the link but don't seem to have access...

[CNCMEBABY]

Hi All,

Progress!

I have measured up and decided on following two people's methods to get to where I want to be.

I have decided to follow the same approach as Heavy Metal CNC's X3 conversion Z axis solution.

Doddy - I'm copying some of your work on your X2 conversion, using plates on the end and front of the saddle and will use equal size pulleys initially to get the steppers out of the way a bit but leave myself the option to use a reduction drive if required - any thoughts?

I will be using 1605 doublenut ball screws for X and Y and a custom machined 2005 on the Z.

I will machine out the existing Z ballnut aperture to suit the larger 2005 ball nut and use the existing top bearing and lower thrust bearings as they all seem to be in good condition. Just waiting on a quote from Fred so is there anything else I could do with considering while I'm at it? Otherwise relatively confident thus far.



I have taken delivery of lots of lovely aluminium bar and have my BOXZY mill to do the cutting work for me when I get to the next stage.

[Mat]

I will be using 1605 doublenut ball screws for X and Y and a custom machined 2005 on the Z.

.

Just bear in mind that you'll need to grind off any flanges, there's about 36mm of space, I've used 1605 ballscrews and the nut flanges were 40mm across. I ended up grinding 2mm off top/bottom on the Y axis and 4mm off the top on the X axis, centre height on X ended up at 21mm (22.5mm originally).

Also, check the length of your double ballnuts on the y axis: you can probably fit about 23cm of screw in there before it hits the column, so if your nut is 10cm long you'll restrict your travel to 13cm.

[Doddy]

Also, check the length of your double ballnuts on the y axis: you can probably fit about 23cm of screw in there before it hits the column, so if your nut is 10cm long you'll restrict your travel to 13cm.

THIS!, eyeball the axis broken down as a sanity check!

I don't remember grinding my nuts on the Y, but defo on the X.