How I move around my heavy DIY CNC

[A_Camera]

This project is finished. Yesterday I swapped out the PSU to a more powerful one and released the last part of my video series about it.



The new PSU was necessary because the current use was too high for the 7A PSU I initially chose to use. I was not sure about how much current is needed, and was a bit naive, thought that since my CNC is far below of the maximum load, I would need far less than the maximum current, but that seems to be the case only for "normal" operation, which is starting from zero load, i.e. when the linear actuators are fully up and the castors are dangling. From there I could drive the actuators to full extension, but if I stopped before, I could not restart. When the CNC was resting on the castors I could not restart to push the CNC further up, because the load to start from that position was just too much for the 7A PSU so the PSU just stalled, no movement. In that situation I had to lower the machine completely and restart from there. This I though was not very safe. Imagine if my toe gets caught under one of the CNC feet and there is no way to change direction, meaning I have to lower the CNC fully on my toe before lifting it up again... not good for my future... so I changed to the 82A 12V PSU I have and with that it can be stopped, restarted or instantly swap direction any time I want to.

Anyway, I am now ready, it works well and no regrets, would do it again if I had to. Yes, it is over-engineered, but it was fun and I really like this solution to a fairly simple problem. It's really cool in my opinion and hope it inspired a few people, so thumbs up for me.