Gerber system 48

[martin54]

As I was feeling a bit guilty about the lack of progress on this I have started to do some work on refurbishing the machine, had it stripped right down with the intention of repainting the frame but not going to bother with that now as it doesn't really need it.
Took me a few hours to clean the frame though, it was absolutely caked in swarf (aluminium & sawdust) mixed with a dried cutting fluid which I thought was an oil based fluid but with it being so dry I'm not sure.
Frame is now nice & clean which is how I know it doesn't really need a repaint, also stripped the old acrylic strips off the the aluminium "T" slot table bits as it was non existent in parts & generally quite thin having been resurfaced a number of times acording to the previous owner. , scrubbed them ready for new acrylic strips.
Didn't take any pictures of it stripped down but will try to remember to take some as I build it back up.

[Swarfing]

Sugar soap works well on that type of stuff and does not damage the paint :-)

[martin54]

Sugar soap works well on that type of stuff and does not damage the paint :-)

Why couldn't you have told me that a couple of days ago lol, it's done now but I will keep that in mind for future reference thanks.

[martin54]

Got a bit more done today & probably be up there latter on in the day but took a few pictures, started to rebuild frame after cleaning, gantry is on & moving nice & freely. New acrylic strips have been fitted, looks pretty good & you can't read the menu that was on the acrylic previously lol.

[GEOFFREY]

Looking good Martin, with all your new new found skills, are you going to make a nice plywood enclosure for it? G.

[martin54]

I hadn't considered an enclosure Geoffrey but if I did make one I'm not sure what sort of size it would need to be. the machine will take a 10 x 5 sheet although the maximum width it can machine is just over 4 foot. The gerber software used to index long lengths & you just had to feed a bit more through every now & then, won't be running the gerber software with it running from mach3 but had still thought that would be possible with a bit of thought. Not that I have any plans to machine lots of long lengths but it's nice to have the option just in case.
It would also have to go somewhere in the que of work I need to get done for myself, once the router is up & running the next job is to wrap my car & respray the wheels. Then I have to make some cabinets for one of my daughters & an acrylic cake stand for the other, oh & then there is the electric fishing trolley that I need to re-design & manufacture. Sure there is other stuff as well just can't think of it just now lol.

[great-dragon]

Looks great Martin!
Got a question for ya. The three leads hanging in the control box, are they 4 wire or 6? Cause it looks like the original motors and the one I'm working on has 6. Thou I haven't taken it apart as far as you cause it not mine. Are you going to be taking apart the Z axis and take some pics of that? If so I'd love to see that area as well.

I going to recommend the guy update the electronics. So I'm wondering when I do look for the boards, do I have to have both motor driver boards(3) and BOB(1)? I ask cause I've seen BOBs that seem like they don't need the motor board. Or is it just a better way to set things up having both?
I'm also looking at getting a hand controller with the BOB thou it may not be a need to have.
Does or will it make a difference where I buy the boards. I know people have their preferences, but I'm trying to save this guy money in hopes that he'll hold true to his word and give me a job. Then I can work on future upgrades.
As for power supply, I'm guessing I can get one larger then what I need for future upgrades? Or is that dictated by the motors and the boards? Cause for now I'd like to keep the motors i.e. future upgrades.

Sorry if I seem inexperienced by asking so many questions but I just want to cover all my bases. Plus it's not my money I'll be spending. At least not tell I can afford it for the small wood machine I build from plan I got online. LOL it works by hand but will be so much better with the electronics.

Thx! everyone for your Help and Info.

Greg

[martin54]

The wiring is 4 wire the same as on most machines, motors come in 4, 6 or 8 wire to enable them to be wired differently for different applications. For CNC use generally only 4 of the 6 wires are used & on an 8 wire 2 wires will be joined giving you 4 connections. This thread will help explain it better than I could

http://www.mycncuk.com/forums/steppe...-diagrams.html

The system 48 has nema 34 150oz 6 wire motors but the black & white are not connected leaving red, red/white, green, green/white to connect.

I;m not an expert when it comes to these sort of things but I have gone for 3 separate drivers & a BOB rather than a control box with it all built on to a board, reason for this was firstly I believe it's easier to upgrade if I want to at any stage & secondly I thought it might be less hastle if something needed replacing because of a fault. Pretty sure there was quite a low voltage limit on the control boards I looked at as well, something around the 30v mark I think although that might have changed or I could easily have missed something. No idea about hand controllers, don't have one & I doubt I will ever have need of one.
Power supply will be dependent on what motors you have or intend to fit. The original motors run off a 24v supply & the spindle from 115v ac. I already had a 36v power supply which will be stuck in but that's about the safe upper limit for the original motors. Long term they will be getting changed for nema 23's that I already have which will be operating at approx 68v from a power supply I built with some help from someone on the forum.
Motors, drivers & power supplies all really need to be matched to give you the best performance so before buying anything you need to decide what you want to do & what sort of budget you have.

Is the machine working ok at the moment? If it is them why change the electronics? I have done mine because I got the machine as spares or repair with a fault on the motherboard.
The other thing you need to think about if you are going to change the electronics is the software, That will need to be changed as well. The system 48 runs on gerbers own software which uses their own version of gcode. You would need to run something like mach3 or linuxcnc to control the machine & a cam package to create the gcode. If they are a sign company then they will already have a suitable vector based program for design work.