I registered in this forum last July but have lurked a few more months before that. I've seen how a CNC works and have been eyeing one of the mini-mills but after viewing the posts here and visiting the links, I have decided to try my hand on building one and hoping that the knowledge that I picked up from this forum will help me through. So here goes and it's from somebody who had "0" knowledge on the intricacies of DIY CNC but armed with knowledge picked up from reading posts from the good folks here.

I decided to use what is readily available to me. I have a 1/2" (12mm) aluminium plate that I picked up from a junk shop of which I'll use as the back-bone of the project. It's edges are perfectly square and it can give me a working area of x=30", y=12" and (I decided) z=2" but have the whole yz assembly on the gantry capable of being, repositioned manually, moved up by 4" if needed. This design decision was made because I understood from some posts here that the lesser travel on the suspended assemblies will help in the precision in faithfully reproducing the translated CAD. The repositionable feature is for later on when I decide to use a 4th axis dividing head.

The 1/2" alum. tabletop was strengthened to address the sag (0.5mm) at it's mid-point when a 100 lbs. weight is applied on the center of the table. This was achieved by bolting an aluminium sliding door track around it's perimeter. The table legs which are adjustable for leveling were also bought at the hardware store together with the sliding door tracks as well as the drawer sliders that I plan to use.

Here's the expense break-down for now.
1/2" Aluminium table-top 20.5"W x 43.3 L (from junk shop)=US$17.75
Aluminium hanging sliding door tracks 2-2mtr sections = US$20ea=US$40.00
Aluminium adjustable leveling legs x4= US$36 total
Extension drawer slides, 2 sets for x-axis, 1 each for y&z=US$26
48" Stanley brand aluminium carpenters level x2=US$20
Odds and ends= 1/2"x1"x3' scrap aluminium to make the recieving nuts to lock the sliding door rails aroung the table top and 8mm x 1.25 x 25mm allen recessed head screws x 24pcs. = US$10
Current project total= US$149.75

I bored the tabletop's perimeter for 24 recessed in allen screws to attach the sliding door rails to the bottom of the tabletop for reinforcement and made the 24 recieving nuts from the 1/2"x1" alum scrap (milled the shoulders to fit into the slide's slot the drilled and tapped for 8-1.25mm).
Total man hours so far including the shopping and plan drawing=22 hours

Here's the table top plans, I did this in Adobe Illustrator.
I hope you guys can help me through these uncharted waters!

What I'm doing right now is just reinforcing the 1/2" aluminium table top and attaching the legs to it. Just making sure that I have a strong foundation or back-bone for the structure. This is all happening whenever I get a chance to work on it while I'm doing work for my home-based business, like when the lathe is doing a run in auto-mode or waiting for adhesives or paint to dry.

In conjunction with this, I'm planning on building a smaller scale CNC dremel with the just a CNC x&y table with the z mounted on a rigid gantry with manual z control.
This I plan to build with salvaged dot-matrix printer parts and will mainly be for my education on the computer-to-servo workings of DIY CNC.

I will be using the print head assemblies (including the existing motors) of a Star 1101 for y-axis and NEC Pinwriter P6000 for the x-axis. Can someone direct me to some simple circuit plans for the parralel port to stepper motor terminal block (driver) so I can proceed with this small educational project?

I've been corresponding with Mr. Mauch of Camtronics for the electronics part of my bigger project but he's busy 'til March 2005 and I don't want to be a bother to him about this smaller project.

Sorry I can't help you with your electronics question, I'm in the same boat. Experimenting is good and you learn a lot as to what will work and what won't. And it sounds like you don't have a lot invested so design changes aren't too expensive.
Surf around the internet and I'm pretty sure you'll find some plans for a "driver".

Good luck and keep at it.

Hager

here's a few electronic stepper controller links , but if electronics building is not your strong point , i am sure their are many people on this forum that can help or assist , or give me a shout .

http://www.embeddedtronics.com/ ( look at microstep)

http://www.fromorbit.com/projects/picstep/index.php ( look at picstep )

http://webpages.charter.net/pminmo/cncelectronics.htm

this list is by no means exausted , as they are many available
hope it helps , instead of total confusion !



Dave

Thank you Hager and Dave. What I've done so far is build the table to the point of having the x-axis rails attached. As I have mentioned, I am doing this at the same time as experimenting with printer parts. I'm not that comfortable with the electronics part so I purchased a Xylotex 4-axis box that included 4 doubleshaft motors. Aside from the above I also purchased an additional 3-axis board that will be delegated later to the printer parts router machine. Cost is starting to climb but still is low for what I've gotten to.

I've been poking around with the x-y axis of the box with the motors attached to the print head assemblies (pic in Xylotex forum of this site) of some wide carriage dot-matrix printers, that I picked up from a surplus store, and have gotten to jog from input values. I'm still trying to learn how to get .dxf files translated for use with TurboCnc, can anybody here direct me to a post about the above?

I'll post pics of my progress on the table.
EC

try this dxf to gcode convertor

http://www.yeagerautomation.com/ace.htm


let me know , and i will try and help

dave

as always hit the return key before brain finished !

theirs also
http://home.carolina.rr.com/gcodemcode/

i use kcam4 mostly

regards
Dave

Dave! Thank you. Here's a picture of how far I've gotten on Machine#1. I housed the drawer slides inside the carpenter's level to keep the 2-24" slider sections aligned and also plan to run support roller bearings, attached to the gantry uprights, on the top of the carpenter's level. I'm thinking that with roller bearings attached to the ends of the inverted "T" gantry uprights the y and z axis will be kept from swaying when the x moves. Plus the gantry will have another means of support than just the slider bearings.
EC

EC

Nice clean table setup. You may need some cross bracing on the legs, when your machine starts and stops you may get some flexing of the legs. But I might be getting ahead of you and you already have this planned.

Looks like a RC plane machine to me.

Hager

Thanks Hager. I do have cross-braces planned to go around the middle third of the legs but will attach them last to make accessibility to the x-axis drive screw assembly easier. I'm doing a combo machine with one setup having a 4th axis and x moving the yz gantry. The other set-up on the same machine is to lock the yz gantry on the middle of the disabled x-axis. Set an auxilliary table, with the top at the same level as the center of the dividing head, that will handle the shorter travel (16") x-axis for parts cutting.
EC

Ec,

You must have a ready need for the 4th axis, or you'r really efficient long term planner.

Anyway keep posting thoes pictures.

Hager

Ec,

You must have a ready need for the 4th axis, or you'r really efficient long term planner.

Anyway keep posting thoes pictures.

Hager

I really am but a newbie with regards to CNC but do have some idea on how I can integrate this to what I do. I have been handcrafting my products for the longest time now and due to increase in interest from consumers I know I'll benefit from automating the stages that require the consistent dimensions.

I have a lot to learn and most specially on the software and the driver to mechanical part. Am really sqeezing in every chance I get in learning the intricacies of CNC but keeping from getting too ahead of my capabilities.

Anyway, here's what I do. http://www.azbilliards.com/vbulletin/upload/showthread.php?t=186

I see why you'r eager for that 4th axis.

Thoes are real works of art, and really fine detail work. Hope the CNC can come close to duplicating your hand craftsmanship.

Good luck and keep everyone posted.

Hager

Thank you Hager. I'm aware that there are task specific machines available in my industry but I prefer tailor-making my own, not under-powered and not unneccesarily over-powered. I find that starting from "0" is best as I prefer learning the basics which makes it a lot easier to trouble-shoot if something does go wrong with the system. Also helps make the creativity more efficient when I know the limitations when turning ones ideas into reality. I am very thankful though to this site and the members for the patience and assistance extended to newbies such as I. The knowledge shared is priceless.
EC

OK, I bought some 2' x 4' x 1/4" T6061 aluminium plate yesterday to cut my gantry uprights from and it cost me $65.00. I also have my Xylo 4-axis box with PMax II motors, Mach2 v6 and CADD.

While my ACME 10TPI lead screws are being worked on by a machine shop I'd like to be able to run my axes using printhead carriages retrofitted with lead screws instead of the belt drive. The allthread that I used is 1/2" 13TPI. The question is, how do I set-up Mach2 with the xylo and Powermax motors directly driving the lead screw?

The above is my experimental machine from surplus wide carriage printers printhead carriage assemblies that have hefty guide rods (Toshiba and HP PaintJet 300XL). I'm trying to use this as a self teaching tool while I design-as-I-go and build my Machine#1.

Thank you again for the help.
EC

I just have to see how an anti-backlash nut wrks so I made 1 for the y-axis lead screw of my little learning machine (printer surplus parts machine). If it works good then I'll make a bigger one for Machine #1.

Here's a photo of ittle guy's x-axis. I used the rails of a couple of dot-matrix printers and made 4 Teflon bushings. The table part and cross-brace cum anti-backlash nut bracket came from an old portable table saw table extension. The other aluminium parts like the longitudinal brace and end-plates are left-overs of Machine #1. I'm using an M8x1.25 stainless drive screw that's tensioned by the stepper and a beaing on the other end. Had to machine the coupler since the stepper shaft is 6.35 mm and the screw is 7.75 mm (screws here normally come undersized-pain in the behind). Also machined a brass reducer bushing for the bearing's bore (10 mm) to hold the screw centered.

The PowerMax II double-stack stepper came from an old copier and given by a friend who works in a computer repair shop.

The photo on the left is of the bottom to show the underside construction. I was planning to screw the brackets, for the drive nut, onto the table-top but the force transfer geometry didn't seem right. So I opted to add the bottom plate that are directly attached and in-line with the Teflon bushings. This made the sliding action smoother specially with the Teflon bushings having very tight tolerances to get the precision that I want to attain.

Side view of x-axis table bracket.

Motor end detail

Y&Z axis gantry uprights. Bolts and c-clamps are just to hold the 2 pieces together while being machined.

Other salvaged dot-matrix, laser printer and copier stepper motors except for the top 2 with the attached wires. These 2 came with the Xylotex 4 axis box.

Here's a picture without the table top tus exposing the underside drive nut bracket.

he one above was taken from the motor end. Here's one from the opposite end.

bottom view of the bracket.

From the opposite end.

I have been running this x-axis with the Xylo, FreeDos and TurboCNC3.x. I Have a Mach2 now and have been reading the manual diligently. The Xylo came with the TurboCNC so it came set-up for the unit. In short, even though I have followed the instructions, the best a newbie can, in the Mach2 manual I'm still a little scared of using it with the Xylo. Can somebody please help me set-up the Mach2 for use with the xylo 4-axis. I've got it loaded in a 1.8GHz computer running WinXp Pro? Ger21??!

Guy,

How, exactly is the brass nut attached to the carriage? Is there a flat on the top of the nut which has a bolt through the carriage from the top? If so, what is the purpose of the aluminium angle bracket?

Just curious.

Mike

Guy,

How, exactly is the brass nut attached to the carriage? Is there a flat on the top of the nut which has a bolt through the carriage from the top? If so, what is the purpose of the aluminium angle bracket?

Just curious.

Mike
The Brass nut has a flat and a bolt at the top aside from the collar (largest diameter) fitted into a slot on the plate. The brass nut is a makeshift anti-backlash nut assembly together with the spring, Teflon nut and angle bracket with the key. The angle bracket has keys, notice the keyway notches on the teflon nut, that the teflon nut keyways slide on. This keeps the teflon nut from rotating and loosing or increasing spring tension as the lead screw turns.

Thank you for asking, I appreciate it as a new a better system might come up from the questions.
EC

I'm just using an all-thread stainless M8x1.25 for a lead screw together with this make-shift anti-backlash nut assembly. Ever since I found and corrected the problem with the drive screw and coupler attachment (loose coupler screw) the table worked good. I've tried jogging it in TurboCNC and got good reproducability (accuracy of motion?) on positive then negative values of over 10 mm travels. I will later check smaller increments going both directions, below 10 mm, with a dial indicator.

The Brass nut has a flat and a bolt at the top aside from the collar (largest diameter) fitted into a slot on the plate.

Regarding the bolt that attaches the brass nut to the plate:

I used an M6x1.0 SET SCREW and a nut. This is so I'll know that there won't be a chance at deforming the threads that come in contact with the drive screw. Had I used a bolt that was even 0.x mm too long then tightening torque will push that brass drive nut thread wall against the drive screw and lock-up!

Jeff had this Xylotex 4-axis controller set at micro-steppng and 20TPI lead screw config. Since I haven't gotten my lead screws from the machine shop, I'm using an all-thread M8 x 1.25mm for a lead screw. I tried fiddling around with the Axes configuration in TurboCNC while measuring table travel with a dial indicator. I'm wondering if 0.0007585 mm/step sound about right? I run 3 + and - travels per value and the best I can get for 3mm travel is a deficiency of 0.12 mm. (travel of 2.88 mm), deficiency of 0.02 on 5mm (4.98 mm actual) and over by 0.06mm for 7mm (7.06 mm actual). At 100 mm travel, the table over-shoots by 8mm (108mm actual travel). How can I get better results? Or should I just try to tweak for best results for my usual workng dimensions, 10mm - 80mm?

Guy,

I'm puzzled that you start out with undershoot and end up with overshoot? The 'gearing' is fixed and should be linear. The undershoots are very small over a small distance and could be a result of backlash, measurement tolerance, variations in the leadscrew or motors missing steps?

Assuming that the thing *should* be linear, and turbocnc needs it to be, then I think you'll find the Xylotex Driver doesn't know or care about the leadscrew config ( 20tpi etc). It's configured for a given microstepping only. Turbocnc does care about the leadscrew lead, stepper steps/rev and driver microstepping and you use those three to work out the mm/step for turbocnc's axis setup.

If your lead is 1.25mm/rev and steppers are 200steps/rev then that's 1.25/200 = 0.00625mm/full step.

What is the microstepping on the controller set to?

If your microstepping is 1/4, then 0.00625/4 gives 0.0015625mm/step for turbocnc.
If your microstepping is 1/8, then 0.00625/8 gives 0.0007812mm/step for turbocnc.

Or at least thats how it normally works....

where did the 0.0007585 come from?

If you want to work it out quantitatively (ignoring the non linear behaviour for now)
You could do long travels and measure the difference between expected and actual and adjust the turbocnc mm/step accordingly. Ie. 100 expected/108 travelled = 8% too far so adjust 0.0007585 to (0.0007585/108)*100 or 0.0007023. Trouble with this method is it's not theoretically accurate, but over that distance if it's to the fifth decimal place then that might be enough for most things......

let us know what happens..

Andrew

Andrew, thank you. The Xylo controller is set at 1/8 micro-stepping and your 0.0007812 mm/step could be the value that I'm looking for. At the travel range of 20mm - 300mm, I did find that 0.00078 came the closest to actual (measuring with a steel rule). It took me forever to get there though as I'm a total newbie in CNCing and thus didn't know the intricacies (associated Math being one of them). I must admit too that I was adjusting the mm/steps in 0.00005 - 0.0001 increments and couple that with not knowing the Math then I surely wouldn't get 0.0007812. I may be a total dumbo, regarding CNC, a few weeks back but can now say that I'm only 99.8% now LOL

Can the variance in the short travels, 3-7mm, be from acceleration? The measurements were all taken from stationary starts. I've been trying my best to learn Mach2 through the manual and now going through the "Wizards". I did notice that the tool takes an initial path before hitting the workpiece, is this to stabilize the velocity?

Thank you again Andrew, I really can use info like you just gave me. For a while there I had a feeling that my concerns were to simple for the viewers that's why I'm not getting enough responses. Also, please pardon the terminology I use, I still don't know the right terms to use but do know the importance specially in trying to relay and understand messages. I promise to keep learning.
EC

Guy,

First off this forum is a good place to ask anything you like. There are some very knowledgable people here who give quite freely without an agenda or just posting to try and get their post count up. I'm only a little ahead of you in one area and I learnt a lot of that from here and more time on the machine.

The problem with short travel errors is determining what they are. It could be your acceleration setting is too high and it's loosing steps for instance. try reducing the acceleration setting and see what happens. It could be that it's backlash (free play) in the machine - does the same error occur in both directions? It also could be simple tolerance errors in measuring to three decimals over 3-7mm.

I'd do exactly what you've been doing. Do long movements to check each axis travel. Also try a square movement with both X and Y and measure the diagonals to check how square your machine is.

I haven't used mach2 enough to comment on the lead in , I'm sure someone who knows will be along here shortly..

Andrew

I've been trying my best to learn Mach2 through the manual and now going through the "Wizards". I did notice that the tool takes an initial path before hitting the workpiece, is this to stabilize the velocity?



Do you have any other methods of creating g-code other than the Wizards? I've never installed Mach2, so I may not be a lot of help, but...

COuld you post a little of the code your talking about with the initial path? I need to see the code to tell you what it is. I CAN tell you it's not to stabilize the velocity. Possibly just a rapid move into position? Other than the travel error, it's sounds like you have the machine running. Try lowering the acceleration and speed and see if it gets better.

A little clarification on the state of the project. As I've mentioned at the stat of the thread, I am "0" knowledge on CNC until I found this forum and about 90% of what I know now about CNC can be credited to the forum. After a couple of months of lurking I decided to take the plunge so I ordered a 4-axis Xylotex box w/motors and paid the $150 for the Mach2. I also salvaged some parts from an old home-made pantograph, bought the rest and started building machine #1 (xy=30" x 16").

At the same time, I started salvaging old dot matrix, laser printers and copiers and started building "little guy" (xy=12" x 4") to help me understand building and operating a home-brew CNC.

Machine #1 has the stationary table with the rails on, all axes on the gantry, and that is where I stopped for now as I'm waiting for the 10tpi ACME lead screws that I had a machine shop make for me.

In the meantime I have built "little guy" using left-over aluminium from the Machine #1 project, dot matrix printer rails and stepper motors, readily available M8x1.25 all-thread, brass and teflon rods. I have recieved my Xylo and Mach2 and have proceeded, albeit cautiously, to try and learn the software part and software to machine relationship of CNCing.

My current stage of learning:
Machine part- I've put together a working X-axis on "little guy" and have started the gantry uprights. Still waiting for ACME lead screws from the machine shop for Machine #1.

Software to machine relationship- I'm using TurboCNC to jog the x-axis, through inputed values, on "little guy". Wish someone will help me transition to using Mach2 for this.

Software- I've downloaded Mach2 and have been going through it page by page but don't have the confidence to hook up the Xylotex box to the new cpu (1.8GHz and WinXp) that I bought that has the Mach2 and will be dedicated to this CNC operation. I've got confidence in using the Xylotex which came with TurboCNC as a tester and thus is pre-configured. This I've got hooked up to my old cpu (P3-866MHz).

I've also downloaded AceConverter and have run .dxf files, exported from Adobe Illustrator 10, through it. My problem with the software side is that when I run these G-codes in Mach2 to simulate toolpath, I get, as viewed on screen, some distorted paths and corners. So I'm thinking that there may not be a clear file translation using these software together, Adobe Illustrator, AceConverter and Mach2, and I really need to learn G-code to be able to clean-up the translation. Can somebody make G-codes of certain basic shapes for me to analyze if I can supply the illustration?

DO you have the newest Mach2 manual? Download it from http://www.artofcnc.ca The newest Mach2? (6.11g).

Get the new manual, and start on page 43 of the .pdf (5-1). Work your way through the setup, remembering to hit apply for each tab. If you have questions about anything, just ask. Although I've never installed it, I don't think it's that hard. Just a bit intimidating. You can't damage your Xylotex by running Mach2. Plug it in and play with it, you'll get it working.

As for the g-code. Make sure in ACE, you check the box to make I,J relative. Make sure Mach2 is set to I,J relative as well. This could be your problem.

Post one of your .dxf's, and the g-code you got from it, and I'll take a look at it, and tell you whats wrong. ALso, when exporting from Illustrator, choose version 12 .dxf's if you have that option.

G-code is very simple to understand.

G0,G1 - move from present position to specified coordinates.

Example:

G1 X2 Y3 Z-0.5
Move from current location to x=2, y=3, z=-.5

G2,G3 - move in an arc to specified coordinates. G2 = CW. G3=CCW. I is X coordinate of arc center point, relative to previous lines position. J is Y coordinate of arc center point, relative to previous lines position.

Example:

G0 X1 Y1 Z1 Rapid move to 1,1,1
G1 X1 Y1 Z-.5 F1 Move down to Z -.5 @ 1ipm (F1)
G1 X1 Y-1 Z-.5 Move 2 inches down to 1,-1,-.5
G3 X2 Y-2 Z-.5 I1 J0 Move in counterclockwise arc down and right to 2,-2,-.5
The radius of the arc is 1, the center is located @2,-1
From previous line (G1 X1 Y-1.....), to get to the center you
need to add 1 to X, so I=1, and Y stays the same, so J=0.
This will make a 90° arc.

Hope that makes sense. Understanding and being able to edit g-code will make your life much easier. BUT, ideally you want correct code to start with, because editing code by hand is a pita. You need to play around and figure out what type of .dxf's ACE likes, and what settings you need to use in ACE to get the results you want.
You might also want to look at SheetCAM http://www.sheetcam.com . Sheetcam will give you much more control than ACE, giving you pocketing, toolpath direction, and other options. Not Free, though.ACE may be all you need.

Good luck

Ger21,
I'm really thankful that you are there and helping me out. Going alone on this is very intimidating for a newbie so knowing that somebody out there with a way to explain in "newbie talk" can really boost the confidence and easily open new doors of knowledge.

I do have the Mach2 Professional for Mach2ill Rel. 6.11 Manual revision 6.11-A6. I notice that you wrote down 6.11g so I guess that I'll have to visit and download the revisions.

Yes! I can understand your G-code explanation and this explanation about "I" and "J" is real big for me in my learning the software-to-machine relationship! Thank you x3! Now the G-codes that come up from running the "wizard" simulations are making sense. I do "save as" on these and try to edit the values but get a mental block when trying decipher some of the command lines. I even drew a grid, for a guide to superimpose my simple figure on, at one time and input coordinates xy as I see my intended toolpath intersect on te gridlines. Heh Heh, my arc, in the Mach2 toolpath simulation came ut wth the "jaggies". With the new understanding on I and J, I'm sure that writing the G-codes will be quicker and resut wil look as intended. I'll try that out tomorrow evening, I work on the machine whenever there's a chance during regular work hours and continiously from 5pm-9pm then learn the software part after 9.

I'll keep posting my experiences and project progress. Can't thank you enough Ger21 and fyffe555!

When saving as .dxf's, some programs convert arcs into multiple short, straight segments. Is this what you're seeing? Are there G2 and G3's in the g-code?

Hey Gerry,
Check this out. I tried writing G-code by using your explanation as my guide and I think it came out pretty good and just need some refinement on the starting lines.

G17 G21 G40 G50 G90
G0 X-5 Y5 Z2 F50
G0 X0 Y0 Z-.5 F50
G2 X-4 Y-10 I-29.4 J6 F20
G2 X0 Y-20 I-29.4 J-26
G2 X4 Y-10 I29.4 J-26
G2 X0 Y0 I29.4 J6
G0 Z1 M30

I initially started in Adobe Illustrator and configured the grid to 1 mm with 5 divisions. I then drew an x and y axis lines and proceeded to draw a curved sides diamond and just picked up the values of the end points and center of the radii and came up with those G-codes. Added the starting and ending comments, but frankly I was more like guessing on that part. Critique please. :-)

You can't put a feed speed in the G0 lines. G0 means move as fast as the machine will go. The F in a G0 line will not be followed. You probably want to change this line:

G0 X0 Y0 Z-.5 F50
to
G1 X0 Y0 Z-.5 F20

or something like that. Depends on what you're trying to do, but you usually don't want to plunge into the material at full speed.

Is it supposed to look like this?

Yes, that's exactly how it looks. Well teacher, that was a great chapter!

I went and bored the yz axis gantry uprights for the motor (spindle and mounts), 12 mm rails (from laser printers) and gantry to table holes this morning. I still need to turn down the rail ends to 10 mm to fit into the holes on the uprights so I'll do that tonight. Have to take a break to go pick-up a surplus plotter. I hope it has long thick rails and big stepper motors. Thank you Gerry!

Little Guy waiting for Z-axis.

FRONT VIEW

I used 12 mm diameter laser (HP Laserjet3) printer rails and machined the ends down to 10 mm to have an effective distance between gantry uprights of 216 mm. The 8mm all-thread is just acting as extra support.

REAR VIEW

I also have changed designation since most of my work is more tall than wide. The table (12 inches of working travel, 13 total) is now designated as the Y-Axis. The X (6 inches travel) and Z axis (3 inches travel) are on the gantry.

TOP VIEW

IMHO, you are doing an excellent job. I am really enjoying this thread. I find myself acting like a five year old who wants more pictures in a book whenever I read the project logs! Keep up the good work.

Thank you Hobbiest, the compliment truly gives this newbie an extra boost in the confidence department. It is actually my reading your "sig line" in one of the forums that gave me a swift kick in the behind to get this thing going and quit just reading the forums. I don't have any plans in black and white on Little Guy so it's pretty obvious on how it's turning out that I've been designing as I go. You all have to pardon me as I've been trying to learn the whole shi-bang (CAD, Translator and Cam software, Driver Box and CNC machine design-to-intended performance) while building my DIY CNCs. Am still lucky that I still don't have any re-do but do have a lot of re-adjusts even though I'm working from scratch paper scribbles (knock on wood). I do have a better understanding now of the whole process and have an idea, with cleaner lines, for L'il Guy 2.

Thank you all for the assistance specially during the "grope in the dark" times and hopefully you'll all be around to help fine tune and actually run a job on this.

EC

Z-axis is almost done. I went and machined the front part from a scrap 40 mm thick aluminium plate. I'm using 3/8" diameter dot-matrix printer rails on this Z-axis assembly.

From a different angle.

A couple more from other angles.

Recent parts worked on.

I used a bunch of parts salvaged from printers namely the gears, rails and brass bushings. I had to machine most to make them fit right though.

Here are photos from different angles after the Z-axis components were put tgether. I still need to work on the tool holders. I'm planning to use a Makita trimmer (1st tool hlder assembly), 3 Dremel flex tools (2nd tool holder assembly) and finally 6 pneumatic micro-die grinders (3rd assembly). After making these 3 toolholders, all I need to do is fine tune the machine then let it rip!

I finally got impatient and quickly made a Dremel tool holder from wood sothat I can see if L'il Guy works. Lo and and behold it's ALIVE!

I also started working on the table that'll house L'il Guy and used the Plotter stand that I salvaged.

Kickass! Glad to see some progress reports! Good job mate. :cheers:

Thank you Hobbiest. I'm working on salvaging spindles from the little Makita trimmers. Thank goodness that I'm a bit of a pack-rat.

I have couple of advises for newbies who are thinking of building their machine from scratch.
1. Importance of machine tool alignment before any work is done, in my case a bench mill and a compound angle vise. I used a dial indicator to square the vise's stationary face and bottom to the axes of the mill.
2. As much as possible, work on (mainly: boring the rail attachment holes and squaring reference edges) axes plates clamped together.

I hope these helps fellow newbies. Well, that's it for now and it's back to learning, learning, learning then learning some more! Thank you for all the help guys!

I'm almost done with the enclosure as all it needs now are the filtered air vents and inlet port for the vacuum cleaner hose on the other end. The cart, as pictured above is pretty much populated now as I've already attached the floor boards and have positioned the CPU, monitor and the 1500VA AVR. I also completed making a shelf for the Xylotex 4-axis drive box and a slide-out keyboard shelf which are situated directly under Li'l Guy's enclosure.

The enclosure works great at cutting down the noise from the router and the steppers. I'm hoping that it'll stay that way once I cut in the inlet air vents which themselves are going to get sound dampening liners on it's walls. I'm planning on just doubling the size, compared to the size of the vacuum cleaner hose inlet, of the air inlet.

I have also configured and am now using Mach2 and am slowly learning how to tap its capabilities. My only difficulty encountered so far is with the motor tuning butI I just needed to read, reread (x4) and understand the "steps per unit" part. The cause of the difficulty was my trying to treat it like TurboCNC so I was looking for the mm/step!

I already went and cut my test part from hard maple using a simple Gcode file for a 10mm wide x 40mm long by 3mm thick rectangle just to check on the accuracy of the drive train and I'm happy to report that the ensueing "vernier caliper check" turned out exact dimensions of the part!

I have a few questions though:
1. How do I optimize the performance? I'm using a 1.8GHz CPU so does this mean that I can check 45000Hz instead of the current setting of 35000Hz?

2. In motor tuning: I have the velocity setting at 20% of it's max speed (as recommended for starters), what higher % can I safely set it at?

3. Also, what safe value for acceleration?

4. Any suggestion on cable routings or shielding that I can use? I'm referring to the supply cables of the Xylotex, CPU, AVR and Makita trimmer plus the DATA cables. Noise suppression/shielding techniques that I should be aware of before permanently attaching the cable routers?

Thank you in advance and I'l post a current pic tomorrow.

1) Don't set it any higher than you need. If you only need 25Khz, then use 25Khz.

2)You'll have to determine that through trial and error.

3)Same as above

Thanks you Gerry. Here's a photo of how it looks now.

First off, I'd like to thank Ger21 for his help in another thread concerning the segmental motion of my axes. I found out that my RAM was acting up.

I do have another question though. When I do OCX, using Mach2, I get a varying readings around 1213XX. Wasn't I suppose to just get readings around 24600? Why 6 digits instead? Never-the-less the machine runs good.

Here also is a photo of machine#2 that is undergoing some test cuts. This is put together from surplus parts of auctioned off obsolete factory machines and old printer parts. I do have more questions but will ask 1 at a time.

Thank you to all who helped.

I'd use Mach3, as the Mach2 settings aren't transferable to Mach3 if you upgrade (free), and Mach3 has a LOT more features.

When you run the test, are you getting a flat line, or does it vary a lot? If it's not flat, then somethings probably interfering. If quicktime is installed, make sure qttask.exe (or qtask.exe ?) is not running. If that doesn't help, read through the optimisation list at www.machsupport.com for more things to try.

Yes, it should be close to 24,600. Mine is 23,766, but it's very steady only varies by plus/minus 1 or 2