Warco WM16 Conversion

[birchy]

Thank you for responding.

...as you're running the normal leadscrews with their reduced effiency compared with ball screws, it may be wise to run reduction on all axis.

I was looking at possible ways to mount the motors and using belt drives will make life easier. What ratios should I consider? I was thinking of 2:1 reduction on all axis. Or maybe a bigger ratio on the Z?

I've seen plenty builds where motors are connected via connectors. Main thing is you use good quality ones, that lock in with a high enough rating, and make sure you never unplug them with the drivers powered on (doing so is likely to lead to the drives becoming an expensive paperweight!)

Was looking at this today and considering I have to join to the wires on the steppers (probably solder and sleeve with heat shrink), I think it will be better to run the cables through PG16 glands and terminate inside my case. For neatness, it might be worth fitting some 35mm DIN rail and 2.5mm terminals, but will have to decide on a case and play around with the layouts. Regarding motor cables, I've seen mention of 1.5mm shielded 4-core. Is that really necessary? Seems like massive overkill for 4.2A drives/motors? I know it's braided and not shielded cable, but would SY cable be ok? http://www.sycable.co.uk/ It has a bit of extra strength and can more take knocks and bends than most shielded cables. And I can get it from work.

Probably best to start a thread in the CAD & Cam Software forum, as I have no idea about linux!

Did that previously but had limited response. I think it's just a case of trying them all until satisfied. Currently trying HeeksCNC and HeeksCAD. They're a bit unorthodox but starting to make sense now.