Be nice.. Everything support wise is not inplace but figured I'd post some pics of the build up so far.

Z is pretty much done except for motor mount.

Y is getting there but will not have my full length rod support brackets till monday I think...

X has the trollies done for riding on the square steel but still lots left to do and figure out..

b.

Looking good, where did you buy all the stuff, ebay?

I got the 3/4" plate that I made the ends from ebay allong with most of the other stuff. The cast pieces I'm using to mount the wheels to the b-line I found at home depot and milled to the shape I wanted..

Parts were milled on my mill which was convered to CNC with Jeff's plans. So that made making the parts SOOOO much easier..

Ball screws and other bits from MCmasterCar The Vgroove bearings from National precision bearings.

Hopefully I'll have something moving around the gantry by this weekend/or next I think..

b.

Looks to me like your off to a great start.. there is one thing that i cant tell from the pics tho.. it looks like your angle iron is in a horoxontal pointing position.. im just currious how you mounted it... im planning a similar angle iron set up, and hadnt considered doing it sideways.. what do you see as the pros and cons of this configuration?

actually that is thinwalled box tube or what ever you call it. I think it's 1 1/2 or 1 1/4" square tube. Anything larger then that and the edges are not sharp enough for the v grove bearings to ride. It is welded to Bline channel strut. Although at it's size you have to be carefull to make your weld beed small else you will have to grind alot away so the bearings don't bump the welds. Seems like it will be a good way to do it and rides very smooth. Perhaps the poor mans linear runner or something.

One thing I do wish I would not have cut the rods for the Z to length just yet. I later saw pics of some one who made his motor mount sit out on a bracket clamped to the rods that extended through the other end clamped piece. Would have made for a perfectly aligned motor mount really if the same program used to cut the end plate was used to cut the motor mount plate.. Anyway guess I didn't look around the net to find that idea early enough..

Hopefully this weekend I will perhaps get the Z motor mounted (and maybe run it up and down for fun) and perhaps also get the Y motor mounted. Bummer my rod support bracket will not be here till monday. But managed to get what is at least a 4' section of DSCR support bracket with 1" rods and another DSRC platform off ebay for pretty cheep..

With out support for the rods I'd say this design would have to much twisting flex in the middle. As it is now it does not have much if any up and down flex due to weight in the middle. But should work great with the support bracket once that is in..

b.

Can you tell me where the thread is on Jeff's mill conversion that you used?

Thanks.

The mill conversion I used are the plans from www.homecnc.info
Jeff Davis is the name of the guy who wrote them up/sells the plans.. Well worth getting the plans for the conversion although you could dream it up on your own I suppose. Haveing the parts list is priceless to prevent buying things you don't need for doing your mill conversion..

Since my mill was a geared head mill my Z is different (hangs off to the side of the mill head rather then being burried in the middle) Also I used gas pipe turned in my lathe along with some creative welding to make the center spiner shaft of my Z axis (plan calls for it being made from aluminum but I had no success turning aluminum in my lathe as I'm new at turning metal and was not so good at it to start out.) But now I'm pretty good..

One key thing I found for turning ends of your ball screws is spin up the ball screw in your lath and take the initial amount off with a angle grinder rather then using turning tools...

ahhh ok i get it, using the box would be stronger and easier to keep straight over a distance than angle... and by welding it into the channel you have to parts working together to generate a straight line... good thinking.. its better than what i was gonna do... let me just pose this question for your consideration... if i were to go with a larger box tubing, where im going to make my own rollers, wouldnt you think that it would be more stable than using something smaller? i can make my rollers any shape i want on the lathe....

It can be good thinking BUT... Because the box is thin walled you have to controll your self while welding NOT to over heat the piece. Taking small 1" every 12" or so weld beeds. Also clamping the piece to a longer 2x2 box tube isn't a bad idea.

Over heat it and it will bend (ask me about the first one I made) I SOOOOO knew better but the speed of my welder and wanting to get it done got the best of me as I watched it twist up as it cooled...

Good thing was the box tube was only like 20 bucks a section....

Answer: Yes a bigger box (like 2x2 by 3/16 thick (which is what I'm making my frame out of) would be stronger. But if using groved bearings the edge of that rolled square tube isn't sharp enough for it to ride on and maintain lateral stability. If you were going to do separate bearings in a holder that could ride on either side lower then the round part of the cold bent steel square then that might be better.

I thought about making my own rollers and insert bearings into the hub pressed fit or something. But these bearings off the shelf and are dual row supported so they are for the most part overkill but have no lateral play and roll very nice. I got 4 extra incase I wanted to mount 2 horizontal to ride the tip of the box but don't think I will need them to make things more stable then they already will be.

b.

What I thought about was doing larger square tube and then welding angle iron to that to get the sharp edge back to.. Although I cam to the conclusion that would add weight and welding one thing to another like that would result in a less then even surface.

as it is I'm pretty sure the size i"m using will support the weight. I might have to put a support mid way down the length (10' total length) but I hope to have a section of at least 4.5' open from the side of the machine so I can slide a 4x8 sheet of plywood or what ever in from the side incase I need to rip it or something (plan on mounting a 7-1/4" circular saw to my gantry at some point for that.)

With out an opening like that I think the use of the machine at least for me would be limited a bit.. Would like to be able to slide work pieces in from the front or side if I can.. If I have to I'll weld a larger square tube to the base of my bracket to make it stronger rather then making the box the bearings ride on larger.

b.

mounting a circle saw to is is somehting that i hadnt considered.. but i also have a big cabinet table saw.. so i really dont think i would personally gain much from it..

im just sitting here trying to think up how im gonna get the angle or box tubing straight and then hold it there while i either weld it or bolt it down or whatever it ends up taking... i guess i could rig up something with a string so that i could pull it really tight, that might help me see any sag or twist...

i ahve noticed that some people are using pipe, and or things like EMT rather than spending all the big $$ on the ground rails.. i have to wonder about the longevity of each idea...

The only other idea that ive seen that i think might work would be to use the angle iron up on one side, have the rollers run along this edge, but bolt the angle to the top of the table frame, this would allow you to wallow out the holes a bit, and correct it for straightness by either moveing the rail in or out, or adding small shims under it to raise it a bit if you needed to...

Well clamped together the channel and box welded up streight enough for me. I also had it clamped to some thick walled 2x2 square tube while welding it..

My biggest fear (now that I have the motors in hand and it turns out those 1100oz motors are HEAVY) is having that motor sticking so high up in the air off z. Would be lower profile to belt drive it and hang it off the front. But I already have the lovejoy's so I guess it's going up top for at least the first try. Perhaps the worry is not needed as I think the tubes will be plenty resistance to rotating forces once the brace between the shafts is in and the extruded aluminum is inplace backing up the brace..

Anywho..

b.

i just cant decide what to do.. i could make my own rollers outta some 3" round steel stock i have, or i could use some skate bearings and some angle iron, or i could use pipe, or or or, too many choices.. seems to me that making my own rollers would come out better in the long run, but just using the skate bearings would be a much faster build.. i guess i outta just go and get me some steel, and start in on the major parts of the table, then just let what feels right at the time be my guide... its either that or build a scale version of all of this to make some of the parts on and to make my circuit boards on.. then at least i could start making some things and maby make a few $$ to help pay for the larger machine... hmm i wonder, would using my 500oz steppers on a 12"x12" mini unit be overkill?????

Just got done with the Z axis motor mount..

Those 1100oz motors from camtronics are SO HUGE.. They make the motors used for the mill conversion look like dwarfs .

Anywho also for those that were wondering how I did the Z axis to my geared head mill I took a pic of that to.

Notice that my spindle spining the ball nut is NOT aluminum like the plans call out.
I made mine out of iron gas tube. Just have to shave a little off the outside of the size I used to seat the bearings and then weld a half inch iron tube to the inside of the one end, hollow it out just a tad (since 1/2" id isn't enough to lass the ball screw shaft then thread the out side (or cheet like I did and weld in an already NPT threaded tube..

But anyway probably not enough description to make sense of what I did (and who would care since this is the DIY router mill area) Although I would incurage anyone wanting to build a router mill to do the mill conversion first as it makes it easier to create the router mill parts

b.

Ok.. I have mounted my racks to the end rails.. And have pretty much come to the conclusion that dispite perhaps loosing maybe 1/2" of clearence under the gantry where the pullie would be (I could fix that with a smaller pullie but already got this one and was not cheep) that I will do the rack under rather then over the side rails.

My question is.. I'm driving the pullie pinion (which is quite a small pinion at 16 teeth and 1" pitch diameter) with a 1/2" hardened steel shaft. The length of it will be some 60" of course from one end to the other. And I'm trying to figure if it's important to drive it from the middle (or near the middle) so the twist (error) of the shaft is even for both sides. Or would the twist error of the shaft be so minimal that I could drive the pullie off one end of the shaft and not worry about the shaft twisting much making the gantry go off kilter on the long end?

Hopefully that is a good enough description. I should probably have used 3/4" rod or something but ordered the 1/2" first. Of course it will be easier to mount the motor and 10:1 reducer and pullie on one end rather then mounted to the middle of the gantry.

Anyway any suggestions?

Hopefully more pictures will come. Should have my gantry rod supporting bits in today:)

b.

well the tortional twist of that rod i would think would be at a minimum, worst case you would have a rubberband effect on the long end if you drive it from the end.. if you accelerate it hard enough you might see it, or at least the effects of it, but i still think that your gonna be better off (keeping the gantry square) than driving the gantry from the middle with a screw... theres no squaring mech there, just the guides... if you take a look at the cad drawings that i did for what was going to be my first machine, its 6' wide, and i was planning on using 1/2 rod, with bearings on each end and one in the middle(i never drew the middle one) just to reduce the chance of the shaft spinning unballanced and whipping around... and from the pics, it looks to me like your gantry is considerable lighter than what i had planned, so i really think driving from one end will be fine... but i guess this is just one of thoes things that you gotta try...

6' eh?? some one talked ya down ..hehe From one novis to another I'll do it from the one end and see how things go. If it pivots because of it perhaps I will install the extra 4 vgrove bearings I got to run along the horizontal part of the square tubes..

I'll have to take some more pics of the welded on rack and the way I ended up mounting the pillow blocks. I think it's comming allong good.. All spaced nice and that.

Bummer though UPS seems to have my rod support stuff stuck down in IL or something. Tracker says On time for delivery today but no departure scan from IL.. Don't know how that is possiable but there system isn't updating.. Guess 100lb packages tend to get stuck places.

b.

UPS still has my package in IL as an arival scan..

Although they have updated the expected delivery date to nothing so at least they got something right..

So who knows when my bar supports will end up getting here. I wonder when they will scan my package out of IL..

b.

well have you heard anything??? i got my replacement motors on monday... thanks to the men in brown killing the first set...
now im sitting here waiting on my screws and nuts, and um soemthing else i paid for, but i cant remember what right now.

I just forced them to start the trace for me (they rather have the shipper do it since they have to file the $$ claim)

Anyway I got my rack mounted and my trollie mounted to my support end plates. Just welded the legs on one of the X slides/runners although I didn't take pics of that.

Here they are... Rack will be under the support bar. For a while the design had it above but above or below does not buy me much room past the bolts holding the vgroves on to weld more supports in anyway so I went below so chips will clear from the rack on their own. May sacrifice some clearence with the pullie but that will only be on one end if I don't center the X rack motor..

b.

Also new are the clamping slots for the 1" rods are cut, drilled and tapped in the end plates (see diagnal cut to the center of the rod holes..) I thought that addition was going to be harder to do then it was.. (tapping an angled hole and such) But the tap I used had a 1/4" square on it like many do which got into the 1/4" end of a socket extention then that into a drill chuck. Had to use a drill since you could not spin a standard tap holder on that angle with out hitting the plate side.. Worked out real well though..

b.

lookn good so far, i was wondering a couple things, the rails that your bearings are riding on, what are they, and the material that the frame is made out of, what is that, it looks to be some kind of equipment mounting rail...

The bearings ride on the 1-1/4" thin walled (think 1/8th) square tube..

That is welded to C channel often refered to as B-line channel or Unastrut Can be found at Home depot or lowes if you are desprate although they only have the holed type rather then solid back type.


That is also what the frame the side plate mount is attatched to. At Home depot I found some cast aluminum pieces in the unastrut area that I milled to support the bearings to the unastrut. PRetty sure I discribed that earler.

Seems like it should all work though..

b.


The bearings are bolted on and I found some

Here are a few more pics of the gantry legs on.

b.

Can you tell me what part #'s for the V-bearings?

Is it on this list?
http://www.nationalprecision.com/bb10.htm





And did you order direct from www.nationalprecision.com ?

Thanks, Jerry



.

NW4X

And yes I emailed a guy named ron who put me in touch with the proper sales lady..

They are not cheep though at 22 bucks a pop,,

Also said something about not having them much longer or phasing them out.

I have 4 extra at the moment though (were going to use them horizontaly) but have not and may not do that. Since they are dual row bearings they have lots of lateral support so that part of my design might not be needed.

I'll have to take some more pics as I had/have my gantry setup a little right now.

b.

lookn great so far.. i cant wait till i get to start on mine...

Ya I'll have to get more pics up.. I got the package with the bar support pieces last night. As a bonus the elevator was attatched to a 12" wide by some 50+" long .5" thick piece of aluminum. Also have 2 - 1" by 42" long shafts I don't know what I will do with along with a 1" by 40some + ball screw and other goodies..

Anyway hopefully will have the supports in in the next few days and that should firm up the shafts quite a bit..

b.

oh, i can allways find uses for extra parts... its when i have needs and dont have the parts that i get discourraged...

Well here is the gantry with the sections of rod support all bolted in (ok the end 3/8" bolts aren't in both end caps just yet)

Right and left sections are 12" each and the center is 18" leaving openings of ~9 inch between. These sections apear to completely take care of (least as hard as I can twist stand jump) on my gantry all the flex of the 1" hardened steel rods.

I was questioning if this would work after putting together with out the supports but I think even with out putting backing plates (which I will) behind linking the 3 sections it would be solid enough..

But anyway sweet to have it this far. and they only cost 125 bucks on ebay (with a 12" wide by 48 some inch piece of 1/2" aluminum plate and 2 sections of 1" steel rod, another roller stage, huge 1" size or larger ball screw and nut other goodies that i'm not going to use right now

Anywho here are the pics..

Had to do some minor milling on the support brackets (you can see where the black is now uncoated aluminum) to give extra clearence for the ballnut and it's bracket.. only had to take off a little bit...




b.

I know no one wants to hear with out pics.. But in any case I'm real close to having my Y motor mounted up and ready to go. Hopefully have some pics tonight.

Just have to finish the X (mount for motor and 10:1 trans) is finished. Just have to fix up the belt and pully supports..

Getting close to the point where everything is placed enough to at least start laying the wiring and stuff out..

Anywho..

b.

Anyway here are some more pics. Y is done and working. The lovejoy is boxed in the aluminum motor support. Turned out good. Seems to work well.. Not quite as free spinning as I'd like it but it should work well. No slop or anything..

Also in the pics you have the first shot of my 10:1 thompson planetary gear drive and the X axis motor and drive. I have to make up another support plate for the belt drive but it's up there to see.

That motor and 10:1 makes 1 heavy and long thing..

The 1" rods are very stable with the supports now in. I don't see needing any more support but will probably put more in since I have some aluminum around..

b.

Come on.. Some one say something about my machine..hehe

Anyway turns out I think having the motors on either side sorta will balance things out nicely when the gantry is moving back and forth or reversing direction.. Think the 10:1 side (X axis) side will end out a little heavier then the other but least they will be close.

Might all work out nice.. Got to work on the bearing support for the lower pullie after I get the extruded aluminum bracket attatched to the back of the pipe suppors..

Sure starting to move back and forth nice though. Real smooth..

Can't wait to start on the wiring.. Scored some lengths of that plastic guide chain wire stuff so the machine might even look nice when finished... Or at least not have wires zippie tied all over or draped from the rafters.

b.

but zippie ties are our friends! hehehe so where should one look for some of that chain stuff?

Don't know where to look.. I can check my sections of them for a name and I've been to a site or 2 linked from here that had them listed but what I looked at were not cheep. I'd say the 2 sections I have might have cost me 150-200 bucks had I not gotten them for free and all.. Was a cool find working at the plant.. They took down one of the torque guns and I asked for the sections of guide chain and they handed it over..

Actually lots of my metal came from the plant and was free. Those nice blue legs for my machine were from the plant:)

Just good timing..

Hopefully in the next day or so I'll have more hooked up then I can attatch the table and stuff..

b.....

i actually found out that mcmaster-carr sells energy chain in several sizes, its a little pricy tho... i figured out that i need 2 3' sections for my machine, and thats gonna end up costing me clost to $100 for the sections and 2 sets(4 total) of the end bracket thingys...
oh, and speaking of mcmaster-carr, they sure did ship out my lovejoys fast... ordered them on monday, and thier in my hand and one is on my machine today.... and that was shipped ground...

Mcmaster ROCKS.. No doubt.. Granger is ok although all their prices are higher. If you can wait a day (and it sometimes only takes a day even with ground shipping) there prices are better...

But yep I'm glad I scored the chain for free based on it's actual cost.. Only down side is the chain is a bit on the small side. I think it's 1-1/4" by 3/4" open in the inside.

I'll take some pictures tonight hopefully..

In other news the gantry can move about the X on it's own. (well connecting the servo to a battery).. With the 10:1 trans it moves very quick even on only 12 volts.. Very excited about how well it moves on x. I'm not sure I'm going to be as happy with Y or Z as it seems to take more voltage to move them as fast as X seems to go. I'm thinking I might end up forced to gear the x and Z down by have or a third to get more speed. Just seems like Y and Z fight more resistance with the ball drive then the x does on the rack..

Maybe I have my apposed bearings to tight creating drag or something but X moves real smooth..

b.

oh thats gotta feel good, to see it move under its own power... i'm almost there on my Y axis, but ofcourse i have to have a driver board and some kind of oscilator to drive it to see mine move....steppers and all... but i'll get there soon, all i need to do is build the nut bracket to go from the y slider down to the nut on the screw and it'll be ready to move... then i'll start on the x.....i'm just taking baby steps, measure, draw, measure, measure, build, measure again, attach, measure again, smile and giggle like a school girl...

Hehehe. Now we find the REAL advantage of servos VS stepers.. You can move your creation by battery power or something (cordless drill battery for me) before you hook up all the real wires and other junk..

Glad I'm doing servos..hehe

Hehe.. Baby steps. I'm glad to really be past the design phase. I've really mostly been in the attatch the parts together phase lately. Which in a way is harder because how you route the wires and such decides where your terminal is going to be and since I'm not 100% sure where I will put the machine once it's done I'm not sure which side the PC will best sit on..

At this point after thinking about it for days I think flipping a coin would have resulted in a better decision.. Pros and cons to each..

After seeing how much easier my x moves then my Y I'm thinking I would be better off having wires on the oposit side then I'm doing now. Although all things considered this way only results in Y's cord being 60" longer then it other wise would be.. So hopefully wire length will not be a problem..

Using 16gage shielded wire to drive the motors, Servo incoders are getting 4 stranded shielded in pairs 22gage.

Anywho..


Also one other thing I think has been an advantage while building my machine has been my table isn't installed. I figure this lets me walk up and work on putting the gantry parts together rather then having to sit or lean over a table to do it..

Where are your pics Proj?

b./

some of the better pics are here...
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24226&page=2

Well I'm not quite sure if I like the way X moves with the 10:1 when jogging with the incoder. It is super smooth when jogging with the keyboard though..

The x had a different incoder on it recomended by Camitronics to deal with the gearing so I'm guessing it's a matter of tuning it between the action of my jog dial incoder and that one (guessing the others more match my jog incoders thus are smooth recieving input from them or something)

In any case things look like they move back and forth quite well. I'm pretty happy anyway..

Cheeting since I have things moving about with out the limit switches (a no no with servos I know) But I could not help my self.

Here are the pictures..

b.

Pics..

b./

excelent pics... now, wheres the vids of it moving?!?!?! hehehehehe

Boy I envy you metal workers. So easy to weld pieces together, rather than with glue and bolts or screws.

Have you considered diagional bracing on the table, or an I getting ahead of you?

Nice looking job and Servos are the way to go.
Hager

Table does not yet exist.. Which actually made it easier to build the gantry (building with out having to work around the table)..

It's being built up from underneeth as I type..hehe

Might have some of it welded tonight.

Extra braceing will come for sure..

b.

More pics..

Hopefully some have been wanting for more..

You can see I have cross braceing linking the leg sections. back is just C channel linked together in an X and front has a 1/2" piece of steel diamond plate that weighs a TON!!...

Braceing is bolted to the leg with 1/2" bolts so the theory goes I'll be able to take that appart and move the machine some day if needed...

IT is now very ridgid.. I'm thinking I will not have trouble with any flex or dealing with fast cutting speed as ridgid as things are turning out. At most I might up the Z axis tubes from 3/4 to 1" rod some day..

The cros bars (5 of them) is where the MFD will lay.. And those will be bolted down to the side leg bars and I'll weld some cross braceing inside..

Hope everything looks good.. I really want to get some metal paint (brush on) to make it look real finished.. I know POR paint would be good but anyone know of anything else good?

b.

i think that looks just fine.. decided to try out just the 5 bars for the table and see how it goes?? i was waiting to see what you had come up with from our previous conversations....

lookn good, i cant wait to see some more....

WOW, that's a long drop to load and unload.

Mad - Long drop? Perhaps I'm missing some termonology but curious what you see as it sounds like a possiable problem?

i think he's reffering to the height of the table.. its kinda high to be lifting large peices of stock up and down.... one of the reasons mine's only 12" off the floor....

It isn't all that high.. Although figure since I will not be able to store above it the room under will be helpfull. Since the way it's built it does take a large footprint. One of the downsides of the design vs the ones with the gantry supported underneeth.

But really it's only maybe 30" from the ground to table.

i was thinking about storing stuff under mine, and then i said to myself, but then i've gotta clean around all that stuff... phooey on that.... hehehe

Thing just takes up to much room to waist the space under..hehe

Becides if you make an undershelf then the added weight can help the vibes..hehe

The thing is just darn huge though..

hopefully tonight I will have the table in or at least by tomorrow and maybe be able to do my first cuts with it..

Still have to put in the limit switches though. Didn't want to do that till I finished the welding since I was planning on running some of the limit wires inside some of the tubes.

b.


b.

Mad - Long drop? Perhaps I'm missing some termonology but curious what you see as it sounds like a possiable problem?

The drop I was referring to was the reach between the top of the rail and the bed. Not sure what you want this machine to do, but loading and unloading it looks to be a chore. I cut 50 some odd pieces today and am beat....can't imagine bending over that fence to do it.

I think you are missing one of the plusses of the design.

from the side there is plenty of room to reach between the table and the upper rail to clamp pieces..

Reason for this design is the ability to load 4x8 sheets of what ever from the sides rather then only from the end only. (ie I can hang half a sheet out the side while cutting as my gantry does not have to slide like others do that are attatched to rollers under the table)..

That is the real reason for the way I designed it and not much else..

I plan someday to perhaps mount a radial arm saw (or 7-1/4" saw) to the gantry so I can do rip and other cuts. To do that I wanted to have things hang out the sides..

Maybe the design will not turn out that great but so far bumping it around while building in the basement it seems very ridgid. Should end up cutting just dandy.

b.

Hi B.
Your explination has made your design very clear. And your design is perfect for your intended use. Hey these are all custom machines, and if we can tweak some of the design pieces, so much the better.
Actually having the gantry mounted directly at the X/Y axis totally eleminates the flex of a tall gantry. This is a real design plus.

Good work.

Hager

Thanks mr chips.. The flex factor of an underslung gantry really was not the reason I did it like I did.. But I can say I think designing in what ever would be needed to reduce flex on the under table type would be more dificult then this design.

Although like I said the downside of it is it's a larger machine. Out side dim's of it is around 10ft by around 6ft. Course I can cut a little over 8ft on x ~102" on x and a little over 4ft on Y ~52" on Y as it looks right now..

I also think building this way could be easier from the stand point of making everything plum. But I might be wrong here. Seemed pretty easy to build.

I was happy enough with how it's looking to buy paint to make it look more finished.. Hopefully it will end up looking quite nice:)

b.

Well this was interesting to find. http://solsylva.com/cnc/5cnc54.html

Looks very similar to the way mine went together..

Some interesting ideas.. Such as ending the rack before then end of travel and such. I don't think I would do that seeing if it had any speed before running off the end it would cause trouble (figure I'd have to install bumpers or something to prevent that)

But a number of things are similar so hopefully that means my machine might actually work. That makes me feel better anyway:)

Sure am glad I scored that 10:1 thompson gear drive. That belt to belt reduction he made looks like it would be a pain by comparison..

I'm curious he says his gantry weighs only 80 lbs. Pretty sure mine is heavier but maybe that's because my 1100oz motors are 10+ lbs each (3) vs his 420oz ones

Says he gets a max of 100ipm down x. I've been able to do 400+ no problem down X jogging around. Speed like that makes ya smile:)

b.

rubber baby buggy bumpers!?!?!?!?!?!?!
rubber babies?!?!?! AHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Proj.. I have no idea what you are saying in that last message...

I'm going to put foam bummpers or something at either end of X I think.. Hopefully the soft limits in mach work well..hehe

Anyway more pictures.. The machine is turning blue.. I'm thinking now I should have gone with red though..

b.

i was making a bad joke about your rubber or foam bumpers at the ends of your travels... sorry, sometimes when i dont sleep i dont make sence...

Finally got my limit switches put in.

The pic is of the Y limit switches on the back of the stage.

I have the limits all in series normaly closed right now.

The pic shows the right and left limits (2) and 2 home switches on either side. The home's of course trip before the limits. My home switches are also wired in series NC and I have 2 of them so I will be able to home my machine to either side of the machine (if I want to move my 0 x and 0 y to the other corner of the table incase I move it to another part of my basement some day)..

I'll get a picture of my x limit swtiches tonight (batterys died in the camara)

But they run along the side rails of the machine. and are the roller ball type limit switches. I have a piece of aluminum bent in a small ramp shape at one end with slots cut in them for the adjustment screws so they can be moved up and down a bit on the side rails. When the ball on the limit hits the ramp it goes up and trips. I used 2 limit switches for the limits and one switch for the home which can be triggered at either end..

Also something I didn't think about when doing my home's on the mill.... Is the home switches only trigger 1 at a time (ie Y homes first then x ect) since that is the case.. You can wire them in series to a single input (rather then 2 separate ones) and save an input for something else. Perhaps the smarter people here already know that though..

Seems like it will work well..

if I torque on the tip of the router at full extention down (on Z) I can get ~.001 worth of movement according to my dial gage when it is centered on the gantry. Course the amount goes down a bit the closer it gets to either end
although most all the flex is in the Z it self and not the 1" supported bars of the gantry.. So I think I may some day build myself some end plates for Z to use the extra 1" bars I have around rather then the 3/4" bars I used.

Seems the amount of movement should not be enough to really bother upgrading unless it's a cold winter... Thing seems like it should run and cut up pieces very well..

I'm quite happy at this point with how things all work together..

b.