Nema17 motors driving 1204 ballscrews ...that ok?

[GEOFFREY]

LOL! Hank no inference from me on that score, firm believer in you can only do what you can only do :-)

My belief is that you can do anything if you really want to and are prepared to put time and effort into it. I will be 70 in august and would like to think that I learn something new every day. Probably left it to late to become a brain surgeon now, but I don't really want too!!! G.

[HankMcSpank]

My belief is that you can do anything if you really want to and are prepared to put time and effort into it. I will be 70 in august and would like to think that I learn something new every day. Probably left it to late to become a brain surgeon now, but I don't really want too!!! G.

I agree with the sentiment (I probably undersold myself under the influence of a caipirinha last night), but alas I'm not that literate when working with metal/engineering (I haven't got the chops to fall back on....electrons yes....metal no!)....but I agree when faced with a challenge, most folks can solve it *if* they are driven & really need a solution! (oh yeah....& *if* they hang on places like this where people are so gracious with their time & knowledge <---this afro icon bears no relevance, I just figured it'll likely never get an outing here, so used it!)

[Lee Roberts]

I posted the link to your new spindle on ebay in the wrong thread Hank.

I think the price is great for what you get and was thinking if you did need more than the 10k RPM, now you have the option of changing the DC motor and this maybe easier to do: ER11 Spindle for Sable-2015 / SPD-ER11

.Me

[Jonathan]

The efficiency of a ballscrew is typically over 90%, compared to maybe 30-40% for a threaded rod which relies on sliding friction, so you would expect a big increase in feedrate. The torque required to accelerate the ballscrew would be greater due to the increased diameter, however since the pitch is greater the required angular acceleration is actually less, so overall you'll be much better off with the ballscrew.
The main reason for ballscrews having higher efficiency is they rely on rolling friction, not static friction, so you may want to consider trying the method I demonstrated here, where the screw nut is replaced with a bearing at an angle resting on the threads. That converts the drive to mostly rolling friction, so the efficiency is greater, plus it's also easy to get very low backlash. It's a very cheap way of upgrading, but I'd still stick with ballscrews if you can fit them in due to the accuracy (among other things).

Perhaps by using timing belts and pulleys to drive the screws you could fit in bigger motors? You could also use a favorable ratio to get higher resolution for milling PCBs. Incidentally, what feedrate and spindle speed do you currently use?

£66+15 for that spindle seems a lot to me when compared to the cost of the small brushless motors and controllers from hobbyking. Granted they're not that quiet, but I'm sure you'd find ways round that. The substantially higher RPM should make up for that too, since you could cut the PCBs faster.

[HankMcSpank]

Thanks for your input Jonathan.

Perhaps by using timing belts and pulleys to drive the screws you could fit in bigger motors? You could also use a favorable ratio to get higher resolution for milling PCBs. Incidentally, what feedrate and spindle speed do you currently use?

Well my previous spindle only spun at 5,000rpm (which was my limiting factor wrt pcb milling feedrate), so I kept the feedrate at about 200mm per minute (which is painfully slow).

The 300w chinese spindle turns at about 8,000rpm @ 32V - the spec suggests it can spin as high as 12,000rpm at 48V...but I wouldn't want to run it that high, cos I'm pretty sure it'll be stressed & its life will be dramitcally reduced. But even so, I've won a bit of feedrate (up to 320mm per minute I guess). My main win moving to asbo's chinese 300w spindle is noise (it's unbelievably quiet) & also weight ...because including bracket, the spindle chinese 300w weighs just over 1kg (vs 2kg for the Proxxon bfw/40e plus bracket)...therefore I can push my rapids faster too.

The spindle I've now also just bought off ebay (pictured further above) spins at 10,000rpm @24V, so I guess I can up the feedrate to 400mm per minute with it (btw, I have no idea what a normal feedrate is for pcb milling?!)

£66+15 for that spindle seems a lot to me when compared to the cost of the small brushless motors and controllers from hobbyking. Granted they're not that quiet, but I'm sure you'd find ways round that.

I must be one of the few folks on here whose main priority is noise (I'm not blessed with a shed in the garden, garage, workshop etc)...so noise is of major concern.....and I've precious little time enough to be working to address any noise issues introduced by a noisier, more powerful (or faster) spindle.

Re the cost of the spindle...well a basic 300w motor & mounting bracket (which drives the spindle) costs about £47 alone (delivered) on Ali-Express , so an extra £34 I paid, gets the milling spindle, backplates, pulleys & belts including delivery from Asia.... personally, I think that's great value.

[GEOFFREY]

Well, I still think that spindle assembly is good value for money. I know that I could never make it to sell at that price. G.

[Lee Roberts]

Well, I still think that spindle assembly is good value for money. I know that I could never make it to sell at that price. G.

I agree, I dont think you could build a spindle using a brushless motor for less, let alone whats in that package.

.Me