Giant 20' x 3' x 2' router build

[charlieuk]

I have watched as many tutorials on Mach 3 as I can and I think I understand the basics now so have started to try and learn how to set things up however I have a few questions.

the first is what is the best way to change the direction of a stepper ie my x axis goes positive to the left and I want it to go to the right and the same for my y

the second question is with limit over rides . At the moment with that the override limit box clicks but the box doesn't go green , the auto limit override box clicks and goes green but does not seam to have any effect and I can't get it off the switch to re set without doing it manually.

Third is is that I have had a go at calibrating the x axis which is running the 1-4 gear box and the steps per calibrated at 16.2 which from what I gathered is very low so just questioning that?

Best regards charlie

[JAZZCNC]

Charlie ring me later tonight and I will help sort this. Some of the reason why you can't get any joy is that the Motion controller plugin takes the functions away from Mach so changing settings on the screen as no affect.

[charlieuk]

cheers thanks dean will do.

[charlieuk]

Can any one recommend a water pump to use for my 2.2kw spindle that's sensibly priced. At present I have the coolant pipes going all the way to the control area so quite long but hoping this will help cooling.

Many thanks

[Neale]

I use a cheap caravan water pump picked up off eBay for about 12 quid. It says it shouldn't be used for more than 15-20mins continuously, but I've wired mine to run off a switch giving either 5V or 12V; I use 12V to start for purging any air bubbles, and then switch to 5V for continuous running. It's done quite a few 6-7hour runs with no problem. The pump is in a bucket of water that I change from time to time. I know other people have much more elaborate solutions but simple works for me! No need for fans, radiators, etc, although that might depend on just how hard you are running the spindle.

[charlieuk]

The spindle will be rarely doing any real hard work mainly cutting polystyrene it would be nice not to have to do anything to it though. Many thanks

[EddyCurrent]

. . . it would be nice not to have to do anything to it though. Many thanks

I don't have a water cooled spindle but if I did this is something I would try.

Cold water header tank fed from mains water via ball cock, feeding small central heating pump (you can regulate the flow on these), return back to header tank.
Also an electric cutoff valve could be included, operated from the cnc control panel.
If the temperature got high I would include in the circuit a small central heating radiator, handy in winter.