Wood Router

[Buba b]

Thanks for the heads up on the steppers as i didnt check the site .... dohh! , also means i could buy one 566oz for my mills Zaxis ..hehe! , dam that pushes the price up ! . Anything to get this price down will mean i can slip it past the GF with out her bitchin too much . As for the breakout board then i think its going to have to go! , im planning to wire the motors with DB9 connectors so i can switch between machines and the connectors will just have to act as the breakout board.

Ive seen some cheaper drivers but im then having to order from China and only saving maybe £10 a drive at max ,if i end up paying import duty i could be not much better off. Also the drive product codes are differant and finding any reviews on the net has proved impossiable. Maybe this means everyone is happy with the drives as people only moan when the magic smoke escapes.

Ive already made a PSU before so im up for blowing myself up to save cash the only trouble is Rapidonline is out of stock. I want to order from them as i can get all the other components at the same time and save on post , havent found any other supplier yet ?.

Yeh ive done alittle bit of gunsmithing Chip .... ive been about ! ..... keep it quite ! .... the fuzz is everywhere ! .



Hehe L8r all

[Buba b]

A while ago i finished the Z axis plates and got it all fitted up for a test fit. I decided to make my Z axis plate to tight tolerances and found this to be a big mistake when it came to fitting the Z axis rail blocks. The axis would not slide at all and it all came down to the fact that the Linear rail block fixing holes were way off , by at least .50mm in all directions. Also the blocks are not drilled square so i had to find pairs that matched to get the best fit or drill the holes even bigger in the Z plate to allow for alignment , so just a heads up if your using Linear motion Ebay screws. All the major parts are now finished with only the ball-screws end to be machined which is having to wait as Ive had hand surgery and cant get dirty just yet.

So i got on with the electrics , in a moment of complete madness i cleared my credit card only to put a further £320 on it by buying the AM882 drivers and the ZP5A board ( just because it was one lot of postage! ). I really wanted the digital drives over the analogue after seeing how much smoother they are in a you-tube vid.
I have a love / hate relationship with electronics ( as in ) its a means to an end and the sooner i gets done the better . For me electrics usually is about problem solving and the problems Ive created putting something together with limited knowledge. You would think i would learn not to play with wires, electricity and electronics but i just wont stop !!!. So Ive plugged it in with one drive connected to test , set Mach3 up , got green lights and ...... nothing !..... damit !!. Also the EM stop dont do anything so theres some kind of issue ...LoL.. thats all i know at the moment.
So IL be back when Ive done some more reading , i think the motor wires are wrong ( maybe !) . I just love it when the GF comes in and says "have you got it working?" and i say "No!" and she says " whats wrong then ?" ....errrr!... like if i new that i would fix it wouldn't i !!!.

Back to more head scratching L8r

[Robin Hewitt]

Yeh ive done alittle bit of gunsmithing

I've got a gun... http://www.robinhewitt.net/Falkirk.wmv

Do not worry about not having enough power, your motors are already way too powerful.

1 Nm of torque onto a 5mm pitch screw gives you 280 lbf of thrust for cutting.

If your gantry weighs 50 lbs that 1 Nm would give you over 5 G's of acceleration for the rapids.

[Buba b]

These drives and motors should be more than enough for the gantry but SW mass properties says my gantry is about 42kg / 92 lbs ( Wow!!!!.....hmmm! ) .
Ive got Mach 3 setup and the drives are running and heres the " but " there doing my head in !.
So on my metal mill BF25 Ive installed Zap 425oz on the X and Y Axis and a CNC4you 566oz with 2:1 pulley reduction on the Zaxis. I'm running the AM882 at Peak Current 3.6 Amps , 800 step mode which works fine apart from the X axis which " SQUEALS " like a little piggy to the point that i have to turn it off or i couldn't think. Why this drive and motor squeal and yet the Y axis on the same settings is quite as a mouse is doing my head in. Ive tried all the step settings , 4.6 amps but it makes no difference. So Ive walked away from the dam machine for abit until i can buy some ear plugs!.

So I'm open for ideas!.

And yep your gun is bigger than mine ! ..... alot bigger !
L8r