starting from scratch- router 1st project

[idefix]

Hi everyone,
I'm back after some time...
First of all let me wish you and you beloved relatives all the best possible for this new starting year. May 2014 be placed under new creative spirit, and wonderfull designs (as usual !).

I have taken some time to digest all the valuable informations posted on this thread and finally started the construction after some revisions on my design.
The parts of the main gantry beam (supporting Y and Z axis) have been welded together and the tube sections filled with vibration damping material. It has been coated with epoxy paint for durability and ease of cleaning and it is now ready for machining to generate the reference planes and associated straight edges. The overal weight is now 17Kg.
Some pictures:




As you can see, I've finally chosen to drive the X axis with its 2 ballscrew sets with one single stepper plus HTD 5M-25mm timing belt and 24 tooth pulleys. The belt tension device is not yet defined.
The beams will also be filled with antivibration material compound.
The rails supporting X axis will be leveled using epoxy technique.

There will be a cover for the whole Z axis assembly and an other one for the front belt drive system.

Need your advice for the axis end sensors: Do I need 2 sensors for each axis or only one sensor activated by 2 separate fingers (one at each end) ? What are you using on your own machines ?

Looking for your comments.

Philippe

[Boyan Silyavski]

Nice development.

To be honest i have similar size machine and though i have bought the sensors/the smallest mechanical ones, that people around forums say work fine/, i have never mounted them. May be others will disagree but for this size machine, driven by steppers i don't see a reason to put sensors at all. I use the soft limits and with some care am ok. The worst that could happen is for the motor to stall at one end of the axis. Yeah, it happens some times and nothing breaks.

[JAZZCNC]

Need your advice for the axis end sensors: Do I need 2 sensors for each axis or only one sensor activated by 2 separate fingers (one at each end) ? What are you using on your own machines ?

Looking for your comments.

Philippe

For the limit switches I use 1 x Proximity switch per axis that travels with the axis and is triggered at each end with adustable target. The switches are PNP NO(normally open) and wired in parallel sharing just one input.

Home switches are Fixed and Use proximity.