Electrical Enclosure and Wiring.. HELP!

[firestorm1284]

Hello all, I've gotten most of the electronics for my X3 conversion, but I am now trying to figure out what to MOUNT all of this stuff in. I have cadmonkey's plans and he used an industrial electrical box, which would be PERFECT, but I cannot seem to find one anywhere for less than 100 dollars. What is everyone mounting all of their stuff in? Is it best to mount all of your stuff, including the PC in one box, or all the stepper drivers, PSU, etc in one box and the computer in a regular case? I'm looking for any alternatives to the industrial controller boxes, OR a good, reasonably priced place to get one of those.

IN addition, I'm hung up on stepper motor wiring. It seems people are using all kinds of different things, from expensive Speakon cables, to serial cables, to ham radio cables, microphone cables, etc. What do people recommend? I'd like to keep costs down, including the cost of connectors to mount to the controller box.

Thanks in advance!

[shep640]

I don't know where you live however I use HGR Industrial Surplus in Cleveland, Ohio. Just google HGR Ind. I'm sure there are industrial surplus stores in your area.

[escott76]

I used an enclosure designed for rack mounting. 6" Deep, 3 rack spaces, $60 new. I only put the G540 and 12.5A power supply along with a fan in mine, although you could easily get a bunch more in there.
I chose to mount the drive electronics on the machine itself, that way the wires from power supply to drives, and drives to steppers were as short as possible. Putting the PC in that environment seemed like a bad idea to me, so I didn't do it that way. I could have crammed all the drives into a PC case with the PC if I wanted, but there seemed little point in doing so.

[SScnc]

I used a PC tower case for my CNC controls. I think it was about 18 bucks new. I switched from the laptop to a 2.8 Ghz IBM PC. Also have since added a relay board in the CNC PC case for spindle and flood control.

As for wiring, I use round 16-4 speaker wire.

HTH

[firestorm1284]

Thanks everyone for the input so far! I'd like to get more ideas, but I did find some reasonably priced Industrial Control boxes at HGR online.. now to find out how much the shipping will be! Thanks for the info Escott, but I think I'd like to put everything in one enclosure.. if possible and if it wouldn't cause any problems, obviously it would have to be well ventilated.

I also like your setup SScnc. What type of connectors do you use on that wiring?

[caleb105]

Firestorm,

I just ordered a bunch of 14 & 16 gauge wire in a bunch of different colors from McMaster. However, I had to buy 25ft of each color (smallest amount they would let me order). Perhaps we can split it. I think I ordered blue, red, black, orange, brown, yellow, purple.

-Caleb105-

[firestorm1284]

Caleb105, sounds great for the cabling! That would be great to split that cost. My question however is, what are people using as the actual CONNECTORS...

[cadmonkey]

For cable to the cables to the steppers I used a 4 conductor 18 gauge cable from Home Depot (forget what it was called, I had a spool of it from a previous job). For connectors I used Ham radio microphone plugs and receptacles - not sure where to get them online, I stop at the Hamfest when it rolls through town each March and get stuff like that there.

Having everything in one box is nice, but it is hard to find that kind of enclosure reasonably priced. I got mine used from an R&D firm.

[firestorm1284]

Sounds great cadmonkey, did you just use regular wire with those ham radio connectors? Do you happen to know what they can handle as far as amperage is concerned? Also how did you mount them to your enclosure, do they have external threads?

[cadmonkey]

Used the cable I mentioned in my last post. Not sure about the max amperage, but they have beefy contact area and haven't had any problem running for a long time sustained on my machine. The receptacles mount just like any other panel mount connector - they are threaded and have a jam nut.

[zephyr9900]

For connectors I used Ham radio microphone plugs and receptacles - not sure where to get them online

If you're talking about connectors like the following, lots of places. Radio Shack has them (if you search on "4-pin microphone" on thier website the male and female connectors will be the first two results) and it is one thing where the RS quality is better than the cheap Asian knockoffs I have bought online (better plastic in the insulator and better quality in the locking ring threads) and IMHO worth the extra cost. I've used them for years on all my stepper machines.

Randy

[firestorm1284]

Caleb105, I'm looking at McMaster's site, which speaker wire did you get?