1.7*0.74*0.4m Mill / Router building...

[Jonathan]

fanatic jonathan i read all your post and watched all your vids love it keep um coming :)

Thanks for the kind words. I'm intending to get the 5th driver wired up for the 4th axis today so I'll take a video of that...

nice work jon,i,ll bet you mother was eggstatic,
enjoyed the videos and seeing it in action
what software were you using for the relief work peice you did?

:lol: yes she was. I just used CAMbam free edition for the relief. It's limited but should work if I use the right cutter next time...

[Jonathan]

I'm intending to get the 5th driver wired up for the 4th axis today so I'll take a video of that...

Well...I got the 5th driver wired up, switched it on and just get a red LED. It's dead on arrival :cry: Tried connectors from other drivers which hold motor/power wires with it (and vice versa), and it still doesn't work. I've emailed Zapp, sadly it looks like I've got to test their customer support...:cry:

[Jonathan]

Well...I got the 5th driver wired up, switched it on and just get a red LED. It's dead on arrival :cry: Tried connectors from other drivers which hold motor/power wires with it (and vice versa), and it still doesn't work. I've emailed Zapp, sadly it looks like I've got to test their customer support...:cry:

Good news, I sent the driver back and they replaced it a few days ago.

Currently I'm designing a stepper driver and thinking about how to make the machine more rigid.

I made a 1.6x0.25m wind turbine blade mould with it a few weeks ago out of MDF. It went well, leaving a nice finish. I will post a video of it at some point, though not all of it since it took a few hours!

[Jonathan]

I've bought a 2.2Kw spindle from eBay along with inverter. It was £247 including postage - I saved a bit via best offer. Having said that customs also charged £19 (well, customs charged less but DHL STOLE some)... so 7.7% added which isn't bad I guess. The spindle will arrive home tomorrow, but I'm at University so can't see it yet :(
ER20 collets have arrived for the spindle, and I've won some 4" extractor tube to sort out the dust issues. Hopefully.

Not much has happened since with the rest of the router. I've made and mounted the brushless motor as spindle, as detailed in another thread.

On a related topic I'm currently designing and prototyping a 120v, 10A ish stepper driver. It's going ok so far. I started prototyping with a H-bridge IC (to prove the principle) and got microstepping working with that. Now I've made a PCB with two N-channel H bridges on with power MOSFETs and a good heatsink.
When it's done I'll replace my PM752s with it.

[Jonathan]

I've come home for the weekend - lots of post, including spindle.

Setting up the VFD was no problem. I've got a little 8L/m submersible pump for the water cooling. I've just tried it with a bucket of water and an odd assortment of tubing, about a couple of meters in total, and I got 1.3L/m flowing. I think that's fine.

With 5l of water in a plastic bucket the temperature rose by about 0.25°C/min. The spindle was only drawing 0.6A from the mains.

Going to make the mount later today and hopefully try cutting with it tomorrow

At 24,000 rpm is quiet enough to listen to radio and I can't hear it over the dust extractor...Also I can barely feel any vibration at that speed on the spindle body.

[Jonathan]

ello jon,just wondering how you got on over the weekend? did you manage to get it cutting
im about to order mine from the same source .
wouldnt mind a look at the mount you made if you got that far:naughty:

No I didn't get it cutting. Went to my grandmas on Sunday so didn't get as much done as I'd hoped.

I got one mount done and started the top one. I've not got a photo of the finished mount, but you can get the general idea from here:







The extra aluminum on the side will let me fit dust extraction.

Quick video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xciLC...=youtube_gdata

[Jonathan]

Spindle is mounted and working!

Runout isn't great - 0.05mm ish.

But it seems good in all other ways. I just cut some carbon fiber with it, about 2mm thick at 450mm/min with a cheap diamond burr at 24,000rpm. It's cut well and left a decent finish.

I'll post some photos soon.

[Jonathan]

Spindle mounted + VFD:


Water cooling... crude but it works. My mum is wondering where her bucket has gone!


Closeup:


Trimming carbon fiber sheet. Having the spindle going off the end of the bed is dead useful:


I intended mounting the VFD there to be temporary, but now I'm thinking I might leave it since it saves on cable. The extra mass on the Z axis isn't much compared to what's already there. If I switch the steppers off the Z axis now drops due to gravity. Before the detent torque of the motor was sufficient to stop this.

[Jonathan]

I've finally got round to uploading the video of cutting a wind turbine blade mould, with my router, to youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Puge7MSYoZU

It's, quite a long video but I've tried to use only short clips of each stage so it's not too tedious.

I will edit this post and add some more tomorrow.

[FatFreddie]

I intended mounting the VFD there to be temporary, but now I'm thinking I might leave it since it saves on cable. The extra mass on the Z axis isn't much compared to what's already there. If I switch the steppers off the Z axis now drops due to gravity. Before the detent torque of the motor was sufficient to stop this.

I'd be more worried about the effect of vibration on the VFD.