1st Build, Second machine

[luke11cnc]

bloody hell Jazz has been working hard

that look's amazing

nice work lads and just think you can make money of that just from the CNC machine plans alone

I saw some one selling plans for £120.00 on ebay last week

James

[audioandy]

Nice!!

Well done Jazz!

[m.marino]

Well folks we are on the home stretch and Jazz is doing great. The design has gone through some minor changes, but is pretty much on track for what was designed. Now the important part the pictures. Side note there are only 2 plates left to cut and 2 extensions to cut for the NEMA 23 shafts for the pulleys.



The HDPE you see the Z axis resting on is 15 mm thick and will be about what I am using for bed material. Right now discussing whether to mill in slots or just drill and tap it. The bed will be either HDPE around 200-250 grade or UHMWPE and looking at a couple of options on how to set that up. Need to get one more piece of energy chain for the x axis. I on the other hand am testing the BOB that I have done the work on to make the A axis work with the X and going to make sure that is all good and need to get the shielded wiring for the switches and most likely will need some more shielded 4 core for the motors as will need longer leads.

Also getting g-code ready for a couple of jigs and such as will be busy right from the get go once it is up here and bedded in. Again a very big thanks to Jazz for all his work, to James and Luke for the X axis supported round rails:tup: and for all the other folks that directly or indirectly aided in this project.


Michael

[Jonathan]

most likely will need some more shielded 4 core for the motors as will need longer leads.

I've got plenty of 4-core CY shielded if you need to buy some. Let me know how much you need - will be cheaper than elsewhere as I'm not trying to make money out of it!

[deannos]

I've got plenty of 4-core CY shielded if you need to buy some. Let me know how much you need - will be cheaper than elsewhere as I'm not trying to make money out of it!

I will vouch for that, it's a good price from Jonathan:tup:

[luke11cnc]

Looks really good Michael

what spindle are you planning to use ??

James

[m.marino]

Looks really good Michael

what spindle are you planning to use ??

James

Currently using a Kress 1050 FME and will most likely keep using that until I can afford to buy/build a water-cooled spindle with VFD. Once I can afford it the next upgrade is a SuperPID for the Kress which has really good reviews for performance.

[Jonathan]

Currently using a Kress 1050 FME and will most likely keep using that until I can afford to buy/build a water-cooled spindle with VFD. Once I can afford it the next upgrade is a SuperPID for the Kress which has really good reviews for performance.

If you will ultimately buy the water cooled spindle then why bother with the SuperPID... surely use that money to get the water cooled spindle sooner?
I started off with a £6 router from the car boot sale. Didn't last long ... then I was persuaded to get the water cooled spindle. Couldn't really afford it at the time (Mum and Dad took quite a bit of persuading!) but I'm glad I didn't get the Kress as after having read more about both of them the water cooled spindle is clearly worth the extra.

[m.marino]

If you will ultimately buy the water cooled spindle then why bother with the SuperPID... surely use that money to get the water cooled spindle sooner?
I started off with a £6 router from the car boot sale. Didn't last long ... then I was persuaded to get the water cooled spindle. Couldn't really afford it at the time (Mum and Dad took quite a bit of persuading!) but I'm glad I didn't get the Kress as after having read more about both of them the water cooled spindle is clearly worth the extra.

Okay good question.


Super will cost me $181.00 (£118 as of this posting)plus incoming VAT (I get that back as a business) plus the processing fee of max £10 by the courier. Which as I said in the post you quote has very good performance record in not only speed control but in maintaining torque via maintaining rpm. Then setting it up with the System 4 break out board and Mach3 (about two days worth of work including testing)

1.5KW water cooled spindle ~£140 delivered +/- £15. Then a quality VFD 1.5KW VFD that I can get serviced?warranty in the UK will cost between £120 and £180 depending on type and a few other options. Add on to that a coolant pump and Radiator with fans and thermometer for fan control (£150 max). Plus the aluminium for the mounting brackets to be cut as well.

That is why the wait and going with the SuperPID and double brackets on the Kress until I build up enough cash reserves from product sales to buy the materials to go the liquid cooled route.

It is a matter of economics and what I can do at this time to improve control and repeatability of the work I am doing. The SuperPID will be a massive step up in control and safety.

I am looking at the 1.5Kw as that is 2HP and more then enough power for the cutting that I will be doing for a good while. I might at the time of buying the water cooled decide to upgrade to a 2.2KW unit, but will have to see at that point.

I hope that explains my reasoning and in a clear fashion. My only request is that this is taken as ONLY simple explanation and nothing more.

On the machine build side of things the testing of the break out board went well after setting up Mach and doing a few other items. Also found a Parallel port card that has two ports on one card and need to find out if that would cause a problem with information out bound or not. As it looks like a rather nice option for my PCI slot challenged mother board (when I start pulling the rest together for the fourth axis).

Hope every one is doing well and having fun making chips.

Michael

[JAZZCNC]

NO contest IMO the W/C spindle wins hands down Micheal.!! . . . Unfortunatly it's one of them untill you've used one you'll never now how good they are things.!

Don't need Rads fans etc a simple submersible pump (£15 Ebay 24V 7mtr head height) into a sealed container of decent qty 20-25lt is all thats needed.

Some one asked me a while ago how long the spindle would run without coolant and because it's not something I've done purposely for more than a few minutes couldn't truely give a definative answer other than 5 minutes or so!!. . . .Well as of a week or so ago this changed.?
Now this is the part where I fezz up to doing an embarrissing numpty trick. . . . . . I forgot to tighten the pipe clip on the pump after fitting a new pump resulting in it falling off in the tank. . . . The machine had been cutting Aluminum for nearly 2hours without coolant.:surprised:

The only reason I spotted the problem was because when the job stopped I didn't hear the water back drain into the tank like normal pricking my attention.! . . Now you can imagine my shock horror when I opened the top and realised it had just been cutting 2 hours without water.!
My first instinct was to clasp the spindle expecting it to be red hot and it wasn't.!!. . Yes It was lot warmer than normal but no way would I discribe it as any where near hot and absolutly in no way did it affect cutting or show in loss of power or even change sound.
(This said the temp in the shop was bloody freezing so this would help very very very very slightly.!)

So my point confessing this embarrising cock up is to point out these spindles are very robust regards cooling and even when run without coolant for prelonged periods they won't kill them selfs. So thermostats etc are not really needed or would have even helped in a situation like this unless monitered by software to shut down if the flow stops. . . . . Really a flow meter connected to an estop would be far more usefull. Obviously I'm not recommending or saying it's ok to run these spindles dry in anyway but they won't die in minutes thats for sure.

So now my Answer to the quastion has changed from 2 minutes to 2 hours.!!. . . . . But I don't plan on testing this any further.:lol:

Save the S-Pid money and go straight to WC using the simple cheap approach is my vote.!