Sieg X2 CNC conversion advice on Steppers, Drivers Please!

[Daznc]

Hi all,

Im a cnc programmer by trade who lives in the UK, done my time on the machines as well and now have sort of decided to bring my work home.. sad i know!

About a month ago now downloaded myself a Sieg X2 mill from Ebay and am very pleased with it, i have big plans for this little baby but not 100% on where to start regarding choice of stepper motors, driver boards and control boad etc.

My plans for the use of the mill will be mainly RC model car parts and anything else that i need to tackle with a mill, light to medium work so dont want to limit myself to much.

I have already got a Pc set up with Mach 3 and made myself a control panel which has been set up using Keygrabber and all has turned out well so far (thanks Hoss you have been a great help and inspiration in the world of home brew cnc!). So next up will be the electronis followed by the mechanical side of things.

I have read up a fair bit on what other people have done and decided that a Fusion 3 axis ballscrew kit might be the best and more successful approach, but not sure about the stepper motors, looking to be able to keep manual control so dual shaft Bipolar Nema 23's but what size 282 oz-in, 495 oz-in? Want good rapid speeds to plus potential for heavier jobs i.e dont want bottom of the range/thatl do jobbys!

Also looking for any advice on driver boards, control boards and powersupply to if anyone could help me? Planning on housing it all in a old Pc case so i should have plenty of room plus half the sockets and fixings will already be there. Already started collecting more switches, fans, plugs and sockets and not to forget a Emergency stop button to!!

Any help or advice on tried and tested or recommended parts available to me in the uk would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Darryll

[LongRat]

Hi Darryl.
I am in the UK too, I also make RC car parts on a converted X2 (mine is a Chester UK machine). I got some ballscrews and Gecko G201 drives from homeshopcnc. Good service, reasonable prices I thought. I used a breakout board from CNC4PC. I run my system on 39VDC and have NEMA34 450 oz.in motors. I have been very happy with this set up over the last few years and it has put in an awful lot of work. Certainly recommend this equipment if you want good stuff that is possibly a bit over-spec for the X2. I could easily get an X3 and swap everything over to that, for example.

[Daznc]

Hey Longrat,

Thanks for the speedy response! Your setup looks great, like the enclosure to helps keep all the mess where it should be, im planning on one to as want to fit flood coolant in time.
Also noticed you have dual shaft motors to, good bet as i dont fancy losing manual control either. So Nema 34's are a bit on the big side then? Did you make the rest of the parts yourself to suit?

Not confident enough at present to completly machine all the parts myself so did think that a Fusion kit would make things a bit more simple but then that would limit me to Nema 23's but from the amount of people i have seen using them i would of thought they will do the job but still not decided on what size motor will be best as there seems to be so many?!!?

Thanks once again for you advice and i will post pics as and when i get more into the project, good to see other peoples ideas!

Cheers
Darryll

[Crevice Reamer]

Hi Daznc. Welcome to the Zone!

I recommend THIS $299 driver/breakout board:

http://www.geckodrive.com/product.aspx?c=3&i=14469

And THESE $39 motors:

270 oz KL23H276-28-4B

And THIS $59 Power Supply:

48V 7.3A KL350-48

From:

http://kelinginc.net/

Both companies will ship to England.

CR.

[Daznc]

Thanks CR

I have read good things about both of those companys and have been looking at Keling Steppers, also i do like the Geko driver/breakout board as its a all in one, neat and tidy little box of tricks... plug and play like it!

Thanks very much for that!

Darryll

[hoss2006]

I'd recommend at least a 425 oz/in motor for the Z axis.
It has much more mass to move around than the X and Y.
Sucks having the X and Y whipping around at 100 IPM and the
Z is stuck at 20.
Hoss

[Daznc]

Hoss! What an honor, hello!

Good work mate keep it up, you have filled me with ideas for my conversion thanks!

A very good point you have there, was planning on adding a ballast weight to the Z axis as seen your cunning plan involving chain and sprocket, thought that that would be a help with the weight of the head but might go with a bigger motor to for a bit more lift!

Have not got my head around all the wiring of the motors yet just working out what would be best but sure it will all become clear soon, just want to get all the bits and bobs together then set to work!

Some pictures of control panel and setup so far, not much but its a start!

Thanks

Darryll

[hoss2006]

Hey Darryll,
Good job on the control panel, if you can do that, the other wiring will be a snap.
Geckos are notoriously bullet proof so no need to worry.
That counter balance gained me about 15 IPM more than stock when I used it,
look at the gas spring kit from LMS too, would be easier to install.

[Daznc]

Thanks Hoss,
Panel was quite a doddle to do just a fine hand when soldering and a bit of patience over a few evenings! Bending the case into the right shape over my bench was the fun bit!!
I think Gekos might be the way (possibly G540?) so far combined with Nema 23's 282 oz-in for X & Y & 425 oz-in from Keling on the Z with a power supply from them to topped off with a Fusion ballscrew kit! I assume i can mix different size steppers using the same drivers?
I have seen the gas spring kit but was not aware that it had 35lbs of force behind it which i believe (correct me if im wrong) that is somewhere close to the weight of the head? Might be a bit easier!

Still won't beat the monsters at work running 30,000rpm, 50mtr feed and 20mm d.o.c but hey i aint spending £500,000!!

Cheers once again Hoss

Darryll

[Crevice Reamer]

If you are going to use the G540, then the 282 oz motors aren't the best choice. They require 4.2A. Torque = amperage. The G540 can only output 3.5A. That means you will lose 17% of the torque. That motor with the G540 will only give you 234 oz of starting torque instead of 282.

Your best bet is the 270. That will give you a full 270 oz of torque and pretty good rapids with 48V. If you want to see them FLY, Invest the $75 more into the Keling 54V Power supply. (With all motors energized, The actual output will be about 50V.)

As for the Z, The 425 is not the best bet. Its max voltage is way higher than what the G540 can use, so rapids will be slower.

A far better choice would be the 382 oz KL23H2100-30-4B.

CR.

[Daznc]

Ah thanks again CR,

As i said im not 100% on what im going for yet but have alot more of an idea now, think i might have to sit down make a few notes and do a few calc's!

Cheers for the advice

Darryll

[hoss2006]

The 382 oz KL23H2100-30-4B is a 4 wire motor so it can only be used in Series,
The 425 oz KL23H286-20-8B is an 8 wire motor so it can be wired either series or parallel.
Parallel is the preferred mode as you'll get less of a drop in torque as the RPM increases versus series.
The rated voltage in parallel mode is 4.7volts, using the standard rule of 10-20 times rated voltage, puts it well within the needs of the gecko.
In series mode you get a big boost of torque at the very slowest rpm's and it
drops off to almost nothing when you need the torque for rapiding.
I have some pdf links on this page that give a good overview of stepper and driver circuits.
Helps take out some of the mystery.
Hoss