Hi everyone, new to this forum. I'm an wood and metal working hobbyist. Build furniture, boxes, hand planes etc. Been at at it for several years. Started metal with the taig lathe a few years ago and now have the micro-mark lathe and mini-mill.
Thinking of converting the X2 to CNC and been reading a lot about it on the net. Not sure if i should buy the stuff from chinese e-bay guy for 270 US or from one of the american companies. Then there is the instructions for the conversion, where to get them, and the software to go with it. Don't have any projects in mind other than the conversion.
Seems most people spend more time tinkering and tooling there machines than actually building anything. Cant say I'm not guilty of that as well.

Any suggestions welcome, thanks again

Do you have a link for the chinese Ebay guy?
There are DIY conversions (http://www.hossmachine.info/cnc_conversion.html) and kit conversions like Cncfusion (http://www.cncfusion.com/minimill1.html).
Keling (http://www.kelinginc.net/) carries motors, drivers and power supplies etc.
Mach 3 (http://www.machsupport.com/) is the best for controlling the mill for PC users.
I have some links (http://www.hossmachine.info/links.html) for some of the CAD CAM and other useful software.
Hoss

Ok, so ordered the cnc kit #4 with upgrades and the G540 with four 387's. Got the wire locally and now have a few other questions.

1. What is required for speed control on the X2 spindle and how do I wire it up?

2. Are the resistors required 3.48K 1/4 watt? and how many do I need and where do I wire them too?

3. Does the spindle control offer both foward and reverse for tapping? The x2 I have (micromark) does not have a reverse speed on the control.

4. Has anyone used a 4" rotary table from micromark as the 4th axis and what coupler does it require

5. Why is this such an expensive hobby???

Waldermac,

You will need a 3.48K resistor for each stepper motor.

Solder the resistor to pins 1 and 5 of the DB9 connector.

Jeff...

Any info on the other questions??

Waldermac,

Is this is the rotary table you are referring to?

http://www.micromark.com/MILLING-MACHINE-ROTARY-TABLE,8218.html

Make a mount like the one in the attached jpg

Hoss machine has a very kewl tapping attachment for the X2.

http://www.hossmachine.info/projects_8.html

Little Machine Shop has several motor controller's

http://littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=1211&category=

http://littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=3194&category=

Jeff...

Yes thats the rotary table. Love the tapping attachment. Guess I will need a C10 board from cnc4pc to control another stepper motor.
So to control spindle speed I need to buy a new controller board from LMS. I cant use the board that comes with the mill?
I'm thinking a belt drive conversion is a must as well.
I have the MT3 spindle. Is it worth it to convert to R8 or leave it. I already have the tooling for the MT3 but not a huge investment

Waldermac,

I am not familiar with the controller in your machine.

There is a engineer that repairs the controllers, he will be able to answer your questions.

http://www.www.repaircontrol.com/

gerlinglabs@repaircontrol.com

Ask for John Gerling

I don't own "MT@#$ anything"

Falling out and breaking a tool sucks!

You don't really need a C10 use the A axis on your G540

99 percent of the time you wont be using the rotary while tapping.

How hard is it to unplug the DB9 connector?

Or if you use the same size stepper for the rotary and the tapping function a 4PDT switch will handle the task for about five dollars.

http://tinyurl.com/nlpa7g

Just don't flip the switch with the G540 power on.

Jeff...

My controller is not broken, I just want to control spindle speed with Mach3. If I want to built an ATC and use tormach stuff would the R8 or MT3 make any difference?

I know your controller is not broken, you want reverse or variable speed right?

Ask John Gerling if that is possible.

MT... whatever will be a big problem with a tool changer.

Do you have your air conditioning on today?

Jeff...

Tormach tool holders will not fit MT3.

Of course air conditioning is on! Its 30 degrees celcius here in Toronto. I emailed John so waiting to hear back. I ordered 3 limit switches, was I supposed to get 6? I thought one for each axis except the 4th.

Shawn,

I wish I could help but my expertise is limited to SIEG straight motor controllers.

My guess is that IF the spindle is not have a rotation position reference to anything else and uses the original motor, then the original controller will work

Wish I could be of more help.

John Gerling

shawn wrote:
Hi there. Was referred to you by cnczone. I am converting an X2 to cnc using the g540. My question is : what is required to control the spindle with mach3. Do I need another controller or can I use the one on the machine, and if so are any other parts required and how do I hook it up to the G540. Not sure if you can help me but no harm in asking.
Thanks so much
Shawn.

Three switches will be fine, setup soft limits for the apposing ends of each axis.

Tormach tool holders will not fit MT3.

LMS claim both MT3 and R8 will work. They also have a MT3 version of their tool changer. Here's the collet
http://littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=2455&category=209730719

Don't ask me how well it works, I swapped the MT3 spindle on my X2 to R8 before buying a few of the Tormach goodies. Buying a bunch or MT3 tooling felt like a poor investment.
MT3 is usable but takes a bit of a touch when tightening.
To loose is dangerous.
To tight and you'll be using a 3LB hammer to pop the taper.

Ok good. I though I was doing something wrong when I had to hammer out each tool. My threads on my draw bar are almost bare from the hammering. I wonder if I can change my drill chuck, collet holder and facemill to R8 by just changing the MT3 posts to R8 posts. Possible? Machinable? I have the 7 x 14 lathe as well.

Oh, and adjustable boring head as well.

I wonder if I can change my drill chuck, collet holder and facemill to R8 by just changing the MT3 posts to R8 posts.

The drill chuck and facemill should be possible unless the drive lugs are integral with the taper for some reason. I'm not sure about the collet holder. If you switch to Tormach style holders it's a different ballgame anyway. Seeing as you have a lathe, take a look at Hoss's tool holders for some money saving ideas. LMS doesn't explicitly list a facemill stub among their quick change tooling although they do list a boring head adapter.

Switching from a MT3 (3MT) to a R8 Tormach system is simply a matter of changing the 3/4" collet. The rest is reusable if you decide to change spindle tapers.

edit/ Rethinking this, small facemills are unlikely to use drive lugs. Most likely completely integral with the taper.

Ok, got the motors and power supply and g540. Can anyone show me how to wire the power supply to the G540. The power supply doesn't come with a plug and I'm a little confused as to what goes where and don't want to blow myself up here. Some sort of detailed drawing would be great. Its the KL-600-48.
I downloaded the schematic

Ok, got the motors and power supply and g540. Can anyone show me how to wire the power supply to the G540. The power supply doesn't come with a plug and I'm a little confused as to what goes where and don't want to blow myself up here. Some sort of detailed drawing would be great. Its the KL-600-48.
I downloaded the schematic

Its all on the Gecko spec sheet .... 48v+ to screw terminal 11 (from memory) and Ground to screw terminal 12
I assume you've got the 110/220v AC side covered?

http://www.geckodrive.com/upload/G540%20REV3%20MANUAL.pdf

Is this right?

Power supply connection.

Thanks,
For the A/C side, do I have that right?
Green is ground - bolt to chasis or power supply
Black to HoT
White to Neutral?

And the E-Stop has 4 terminals
One of the green pin 10
One of the red to -V

Thanks, don't want to be guessing here

Green/Ground connects to the FG terminal.

Black connects to pin1 AC/L (line)
White connects to pin2 AC/N (neutral)

E-STOP SWITCH: Connect a single pole, single throw (SPST) switch to the DISABLE input Pos 10 on the MAIN TERMINAL BLOCK. The other end of the switch goes to Pos 12 on the terminal block. Opening the switch disables the G540 and closing the switch enables it. While disabled, the motors freewheel (zero torque) and the OUTPUT
terminals shut off.

Ok I think I got it now.
On the Gecko G540 manual, in the suggested wiring diagram, it specifies a Relay power supply with two dc relay coils. Do I need that? What is that for? They connect to pins 5 and 6.
Will pins 7,8, and 9 if connected to my X2 motor control actually control my spindle speed with mach 3? I think I asked this already but didn't get any clear answers.

The relay's are optional, they could be used to control a coolant pump or a simple enable/disable spindle motor etc...

You may be able to use the VFD output for your X2, the Gecko VFD connection would take the place of the potentiometer on the X2.

I am not sure which one of the wires on the pot is the output though.

The attached video is informative.

YouTube - 67: Sieg X2 Mini Mill Electronics

Jeff...

Well I got all the motors turning fine in mach3. I used the G540 presets. Has the steps at 20000 and they seem to turn pretty slow. Anyone know the ideal settings for the 387 motors with the cnc fusion ballscrew upgades. I'm referring here to steps, velocity, acceleration under the motor tuning page.