Reply with QuoteSome examples of things I've made on this machine...
I'm planning more mods for the near future...Flood coolant and a Lexan tray for the deck to sit on to catch the coolant and chips. I'll post the results once complete...
Mods, Upgrades and Fixes Thread for 3020 and 3040 Desktop Mill/Router
Dedicated thread to discuss improvements/fixes relating to Chinese 30X0 desktop mill/routers
My modded machine...
I purchased a 3020T machine from "fleabay" about a year ago and being the type of person who cant help but mod everything, I have made some significant changes to the machine that I would like to share with the community that will hopefully help others who are needing to get the most out of their 30X0 machines.
I originally bought the machine mainly for the purpose of cutting carbon fiber panels (1mm-3mm thickness on average). When I received the machine I was unfortunately one of the many who bought from a seller who was incompetent at packaging as well as a false advertiser. The machine arrived with shipping damages as well as USED parts! Fortunately it worked so I decided rather than going through the hassle of returning and having to wait months for another machine I'd try and make a deal with the seller to get a partial refund. I ended up getting refunded $175.00 from the $500.00 I paid as well as some new parts (deck panels, spindle motor and a few other small parts). So I only has $325.00 into it and decided I'll invest some time and a little more $ to improve things.
The first upgrades I did were the common ones, shielded wires and limit/home switches. Unfortunately I made a big mistake when finishing up the install of the shielded wires. I had the shield of the spindle wires temporarily twisted around some wire with the other end twisted around a screw connected to the frame of the machine (which was also connected to the the shield of the parallel port cable) to test that everything was working correctly. It worked fine but when I went back to solder the wire to the shield I didn't think to TURN THE POWER OFF ON EVERYTHING FIRST!!! I went a little too far with the solder and melted through the casing of one of the spindle power wires and shorted 50v to the shield! It instantly fried my computer and break out board as well as damaging one of the stepper drives. Lesson learned...
Moving on...I was on a pretty tight budget and after getting a new PC I needed a new stepper driver. I must have read through 2 or 3 hundred posts regarding the TB6560 based stepper drives and their common woes. Unfortunately my budget only allowed for one of these sub-par drivers so here's what I did. I scoured ebay and found a "new" version that looked promising with respect to some of the design flaws know on previous models. I purchased the driver from seller wfyb but I just looked and they don't seem to have them available still, however I found the same model in this listing...
Controller Board for Engraving Machine CNC TB6560 4 Axis Stepper Motor Driver | eBay
Here's mine...
The biggest differences in this model are better diodes on the outputs, larger and better placed capacitors on the the outputs and opto-isolated inputs. I did add a small 5v fan to the voltage regulator heat sinks on the side of the driver. I have been running this driver for over 6 months now and NEVER LOST ANY STEPS, which is common in older designs. This driver is 1/16th micro step capable and that's the setting I use. I also have it set via the dip switches for fast decay and the highest amp output, 3.5A/channel. I'm running Mach3 at 35k kernel speed vs the usual 25k...this works better in my tests (your results may vary depending on your PC, stepper motors etc...). I do however limit rapid speeds to 1200mm/min, going much faster may loose steps but for this small machine 1200mm/min is plenty fast enough...after all average cutting speeds range from 200mm/min to 800mm/min depending on the material your cutting and a host of other factors. Anyway, this setup has yielded VERY consistent results for me, I don't lose steps and the machine will return to a given point after running tens of thousands of lines of code without any measurable discrimination via a dial indicator.
After just a few weeks of running the machine with the new driver I started wanting to do some milling of aluminum parts. Immediately I discovered 2 main weak points that needed to be addressed. The weak DC spindle motor and the flex of the X-axis allowing the spindle to move upward. I resolved the spindle issue easily with this...
You can see the original motor on the right, I briefly tried the cheap harbor freight motor in the middle but had way too many issues with the collet not being accurate so I spent the $100.00 for a 1.25hp Makita router (on the left) and IT"S THE BEST MONEY IV'E SPENT ON THIS MACHINE PERIOD! THe collet is very accurate, it has smooth variable speed control and the best part LOAD DETECTION, meaning it will maintain consistent rpm under load, and that is a HUGE deal. RPM range is from 10,000-30,000, perfect for my projects. To fit the larger diameter motor body (65mm) of the Makita router I had to machine a new holder bracket. I used two 3/4in MDF pieces stacked to make the new motor holder and primed and painted them black. I also used some steel bands left over from an exhaust pipe mod I did on my car. Don't use the cheapo thin galvanized bands, they, make thicker steel ones that are much better. In addition I needed longer M6 bolts and some stand-offs (spacers) to prevent the bolt heads from contacting the spindle motor body. The bolt pattern is just barely wide enough to fit the 65mm diameter Makita motor.
To address the other main issue, the flex in the X-axis, things were a lot more involved... I happened to have two old printers laying around that had some decent linear rods (one 8mm and one 9mm) with brass bushings. The brass bushings and high rigidity of the rods are what makes this mod viable. The bushings slide very smooth and don't have any play at all. At the time I was still using AutoCAD and LazyCAM (Now I use Fusion 360 fro CAD CAM, simply AWSOME) so I made a simple 2d drawing in CAD of a bracket setup I thought would work well. The design takes advantage of leverage to strengthen the X-axis, by locating the two new support rails where I have them they have a great deal of leverage to hold everything in place allowing the use of small diameter light weight rods. Again I used 3/4in MDF for a many reasons, vibration dampening, fairly light weight, low cost, dimensional stability, easy to machine and plenty strong for the job. The design includes two brackets located on the top of the Z-axis (primed and painted black), two main brackets on either end of the X-axis (primed and painted with Duplicolor Chrome) and 4 clamping blocks mounted to the main brackets holding the new X-axis support rails. The Duplicolor Chrome paint really makes it look like it's made of aluminum, even in person, everyone that sees it thinks it's metal including fellow machinists...LOL. The way the clamping blocks are designed is crucial to the setup, it allows you to install the rods and jog the X-axis back and forth to ensure exact alignment, then you pre-drill and screw the blocks in place. I used some angle aluminum to fab the mounts for the rail guides to attach to the brackets I made on top of the Z-axis. See pics for details of mounting screw locations...
After these mods I figured it would be a good idea to replace the linear bearings and Y-axis rods. I bought LM12UU's for the X-axis and Z-axis and LM16UU's for the Y-axis. For the Y-axis rods I found an Ebay listing for 1 meter 16mm dia. hardened and chromed shaft that was pre-drilled with a 5mm through hole, perfect for tapping the M6 threads needed to mount them on the machine. I used a chop saw with a fiber disc to cut the shaft to the 16in length required, tapped the threads and tossed the old stainless shafts.
As you may have noticed, I have my machine mounted on a rolling cart with the electronics underneath and a desktop and monitor conveniently next to the machine. I used some black foam core sheets to enclose the sides of the cart to keep the chips away from the CPU, power supply and stepper driver board. I also cut some well placed vent slots in the sides to allow good air flow so everything runs cool even after hours of continuous cutting.
As I mentioned earlier I have switched from AutoCAD + LazyCAM to Autodesk's Fusion360 for CAD and CAM. I can't stress enough the tremendous benefits of using Fusion 360. Not only does it save me time but it also uses much more intuitive tool paths leading to less tool wear, machine stress and more accurate parts.
With all the mods I've made to my machine the capabilities in terms of accuracy, cutting speeds, chip load and materials that can be cut have increased dramatically. It's now able to effectively mill cast iron, mild steel, aluminum alloys and much more without chatter and to accuracy within +/- 0.01mm or 0.0004in. Of course it won't take large depth cuts like a big mill but it does very well with aluminum @ DOC of 1-1.5mm @ 380mm/min for rough cuts and a finish pass of 0.5mm DOC @ 280mm/min. I use a 3 flute 1/4in high helix end mill from Suncoast tools for aluminum, it makes a quick job of clearing chips and leaves a surprisingly nice finish.
I hope this helps some folks and I'll post pics of some things I've made with this machine...
Similar Threads:
Re: Mods, Upgrades and Fixes Thread for 3020 and 3040 Desktop Mill/Router
Some examples of things I've made on this machine...
I'm planning more mods for the near future...Flood coolant and a Lexan tray for the deck to sit on to catch the coolant and chips. I'll post the results once complete...
Re: Mods, Upgrades and Fixes Thread for 3020 and 3040 Desktop Mill/Router
Lots of views so far but no replies...I'd really like to hear some feedback from you guys. And, if anyone wants the .tap files for the spindle mount or X-axis support structure I'd be happy to dig them up. I'm sure some of you have an old printer laying around with one of these linear shaft assemblies...then you just need some 3/4in mdf, a few hours and some screws. Its really a major increase in rigidity for very little $ compared to replacing the linear guides with square type linear guides.
Re: Mods, Upgrades and Fixes Thread for 3020 and 3040 Desktop Mill/Router
Thanks for posting the feed, depth of cut and tool that you're using for Aluminium. What spindle speed do you cut Al at, and what if any cutting fluid/air blast do you use?
Re: Mods, Upgrades and Fixes Thread for 3020 and 3040 Desktop Mill/Router
No problem. I don't have a spindle rpm pickup on this machine yet, but according to this page Spindle Options - ShapeOko
the rpms at various settings are as follows...
1: 9470
2: 12280
3: 16870
4: 22175
5: 27035
6: 29800
I usually run at about 3.25-3.75 with the 1/4in 3 flute end mill which would put it between 17,500 and 20,000rpm. A finish pass at about 20k rpm with a DOC of 0.3-0.5mm at 240-280mm/min will yield a close to mirror finish...very minimal polishing required.
I'm planning to add flood coolant in a couple weeks. I had it on my upgraded 3-axis 7x mini lathe and it really did a great job of chip control and mitigating resonating during heavy and thin walled cuts in Al. I prefer flood over mist because its cheaper overall and keeps the chips under control better. Right now i just use a little wd-40, it produces decent finish but its messy and the 3 flute tool really throws chips like crazy.
In the second post one of the attachments shows an aluminum badge i made for a customer, it reads "sequential twin turbo". I had to use a super tiny 1/32in 2 flute end mill to get good corner definition of the lettering. I was really afraid of breaking the tiny end mill so i doused the part with wd-40 for the entire duration of cutting, used almost an entire can of the stuff...in retrospect i'm sure i could have used much less if I had a can of compressed air to help evacuate the chips. Feeds and speeds on that job were, 120mm/min 25k rpm DOC of 0.1mm...I was really conservative being that I only had the one end mill capable of doing the job. It took about 45min to cut the lettering down 1mm but the product came out beautifully and the bit is still very sharp...very happy customer as well.
I also wanted to mention, if your power supply will handle simultaneous 3-axis motion, helical ramping will be a tremendous help! Fusion 360 is great at making it easy to incorporate this. For Al I use 5-10deg helical ramping at the largest diameter I can comfortably go.
Re: Mods, Upgrades and Fixes Thread for 3020 and 3040 Desktop Mill/Router
Man that's pretty big for that machine! Nice work though! Did you machine the mounts using the 3020?
Re: Mods, Upgrades and Fixes Thread for 3020 and 3040 Desktop Mill/Router
I know, it looks huge on there but it really performs well...it changed the machine into a little beast that can produce some real chips!
Yes, i machined all the mounts with it, kinda cool to think I was able to use it to improve itself.
Re: Mods, Upgrades and Fixes Thread for 3020 and 3040 Desktop Mill/Router
.
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I'm back with another mod...
Flood coolant
And making some real chips!
I've been running this with the flood coolant for almost 3 months and it's been really awesome. Although I have a vice mounted in the pic I've been using a high density plastic spoil board setup using T-slot nuts and straps to hold down parts.
I decided to make a bow riser for my wife since she's been wanting a bow. So I went to the local metal supply and picked up a 1 1/4"x6"x9" slab of 6061 Al and this is what I came up with.... yeah a 1.25in thick of Al on a 3020!!!
Only 2 tools needed to make this bow handle!
1/4in 3 flute flat end with 45* helix from YG
1/8 2 flue ball nose with about 30* helix from Suncoast
The accuracy is mind blowing!
***Latest recipe for 6061:***
CAD/CAM: Fusion 360
Cut Type: Adaptive, toroidal strategy
DOC: 3.5mm
Cutting Feed rate: 814mm/min.
Ramp Feed/Angle: 680mm/min @ 7degrees
Spindle RPM: 20,000
Flood Coolant: Jancy Slugger Water soluble cutting fluid
Key things I've found that make this 3020 a reliable and accurate machine:
1. Spindle motor mod
2. x-axis support guides
3. Adaptive machining strategy
4. 1/16th micro-stepping controller running @ 35k kernel speed on Mach3
Re: Mods, Upgrades and Fixes Thread for 3020 and 3040 Desktop Mill/Router
Did you use the stock spindle when you machined the mounts! By the way great work! Hopefully I can get mine to where yours is right now.
I can't even get a perfect circle on my test cuts.
Originally Posted by RamzInnovations
Re: Mods, Upgrades and Fixes Thread for 3020 and 3040 Desktop Mill/Router
Can you post more pictures of how u made a d mounted the lexan tray?
And also the file for the x axis support u mentioned. Thanks!
What bit did you use to cut the carbon fiber parts?
Did your 3020 not come with the stepper controller that's why you had to source it separately?
Re: Mods, Upgrades and Fixes Thread for 3020 and 3040 Desktop Mill/Router
Yes, I used the stock spindle (with a bull nose 4 flute 1/4" end mill with a 1/32 radius to cut the 3/4" MDF parts(X-axis support braces and spindle mount for the Makita RT0701). Then after I mounted the Makita with the MDF blocks I used it to cut itself a set of mounts out of aluminum. Thanks for the complement! If your getting irregular circles, first check that your X and Y axis' are square and that your spindle is trammed well. Then if that stuff checks out I'd start checking for backlash on the X and Y lead screw nuts(make sure to set any backlash offset in mach3). Then if that's ok the next step is to calibrate the X and Y axis using an indicator. It's also a good idea to go into the general config tab in mach3 and set the "look ahead" to between 100-300 lines, i use 200 lines. That just helps it to determine where it's going to be before it executes the line motion, depending on how your circles are coded this can be helpful. There are of course other aspects that can come into play but usually those things will fix the issue, hopefully that helps.Did you use the stock spindle when you machined the mounts! By the way great work! Hopefully I can get mine to where yours is right now.
I can't even get a perfect circle on my test cuts.
Can you post more pictures of how u made a d mounted the lexan tray?
And also the file for the x axis support u mentioned. Thanks!
What bit did you use to cut the carbon fiber parts?
Did your 3020 not come with the stepper controller that's why you had to source it separately?
You see here, the lexan tray sits just underneath the deck panels. I made that drain so I could get a complete drain, most store bought drains have a flange that sticks up and some coolant is always left.
So basically you remove the deck panels so it looks like this...
Then lay your tray on top and and drill the holes for the deck screws to go through the lexan (use an abrasive bit like the cheap diamond coated dremel bits). Put some silicone caulking between the machine frame (around the deck screw holes) and the lexan, and another layer of caulking between the lexan and the deck panels. I also like to put silicone around the deck screw heads to prevent any leakage.
Sure I'll post the mount files. There are also quite a few mount design files posted on the shapeoko page here...Spindle Options - ShapeOko
scroll down the page half way and you'll see this "The Makita RT0700C/0701C(X) " the file links are at the end of that paragraph.
The carbon fiber parts are cut with an 1/8" tile and grout removal bit, like this...Grout Removal Bit Variety Set 1 8" 3 32" and 1 16" Carbide RotoZip Dremel | eBay
I just use a simple contour strategy for cutting CF, use slow plunge (100-150mm/min) and an appropriate feed rate depending on the thickness of the CF panel. A good way to get an idea of a good cutting speed is to put the bit (if you get an 1/8" one) in a dremel tool, set the rpm to 10,000-15,000 and mark a piece of tape stuck to a scrap piece of CF with a length of mm or inch markings and record yourself taking a few passes by hand. You'll be able to feel by hand what speed it likes to cut at, at that rpm. Then watch the video and note the time it takes to go 10mm or 1in... from that you can deduce an acceptable cutting speed that won't put too much force on the tool.
I also use water when cutting CF, I just change out the coolant drain bucket for a bucket with plain distilled water and a cotton filter to catch the CF dust...
My machine did come with a "blue box" controller but I had a soldering accident (melted through a shield) that fried it. So I bought the one in the pic in the 1st post.
Last edited by RamzInnovations; 02-20-2016 at 12:06 PM.
Re: Mods, Upgrades and Fixes Thread for 3020 and 3040 Desktop Mill/Router
I can't find a way to upload to upload .tap files....any ideas?
Re: Mods, Upgrades and Fixes Thread for 3020 and 3040 Desktop Mill/Router
Hello, thanks for posting your upgrades/mods this provided some insight to some potential issues I may encounter once I get up and running. I am a noob to the CNC world but have a lot of prior experience working with CAD as well as drafting. I'm partnering up with a friend that just bought the 3040 CNC router. I don't know how much of a difference it is from the 3020. I recently decided to jump back into CAD/3D modeling and started with Autodesk 123D, from there I then discovered Fusion 360.
My impression is that it is all I need to control the router or do I still need Mach3? I found a video of someone using Fusion with a home made CNC router but they only used Fusion for design and simulation and generating the g-code. Then they imported the code into Mach3.
Thanks
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Re: Mods, Upgrades and Fixes Thread for 3020 and 3040 Desktop Mill/Router
Very creative! Thanks for the detailed explanation. I'll post what I find on my mill to fix the uneven circle (Great ideas on how to troubleshoot it!)
I'll probably start with fixing the circle problem so that I can get a working mill then go to the lexan tray. Man you got soo much time and experience doing this stuff!
Thank you for taking the time to explain things to newbies like me.
Yes, I used the stock spindle (with a bull nose 4 flute 1/4" end mill with a 1/32 radius to cut the 3/4" MDF parts(X-axis support braces and spindle mount for the Makita RT0701). Then after I mounted the Makita with the MDF blocks I used it to cut itself a set of mounts out of aluminum. Thanks for the complement! If your getting irregular circles, first check that your X and Y axis' are square and that your spindle is trammed well. Then if that stuff checks out I'd start checking for backlash on the X and Y lead screw nuts(make sure to set any backlash offset in mach3). Then if that's ok the next step is to calibrate the X and Y axis using an indicator. It's also a good idea to go into the general config tab in mach3 and set the "look ahead" to between 100-300 lines, i use 200 lines. That just helps it to determine where it's going to be before it executes the line motion, depending on how your circles are coded this can be helpful. There are of course other aspects that can come into play but usually those things will fix the issue, hopefully that helps.
You see here, the lexan tray sits just underneath the deck panels. I made that drain so I could get a complete drain, most store bought drains have a flange that sticks up and some coolant is always left.
So basically you remove the deck panels so it looks like this...
Then lay your tray on top and and drill the holes for the deck screws to go through the lexan (use an abrasive bit like the cheap diamond coated dremel bits). Put some silicone caulking between the machine frame (around the deck screw holes) and the lexan, and another layer of caulking between the lexan and the deck panels. I also like to put silicone around the deck screw heads to prevent any leakage.
Sure I'll post the mount files. There are also quite a few mount design files posted on the shapeoko page here...Spindle Options - ShapeOko
scroll down the page half way and you'll see this "The Makita RT0700C/0701C(X) " the file links are at the end of that paragraph.
The carbon fiber parts are cut with an 1/8" tile and grout removal bit, like this...Grout Removal Bit Variety Set 1 8" 3 32" and 1 16" Carbide RotoZip Dremel | eBay
I just use a simple contour strategy for cutting CF, use slow plunge (100-150mm/min) and an appropriate feed rate depending on the thickness of the CF panel. A good way to get an idea of a good cutting speed is to put the bit (if you get an 1/8" one) in a dremel tool, set the rpm to 10,000-15,000 and mark a piece of tape stuck to a scrap piece of CF with a length of mm or inch markings and record yourself taking a few passes by hand. You'll be able to feel by hand what speed it likes to cut at, at that rpm. Then watch the video and note the time it takes to go 10mm or 1in... from that you can deduce an acceptable cutting speed that won't put too much force on the tool.
I also use water when cutting CF, I just change out the coolant drain bucket for a bucket with plain distilled water and a cotton filter to catch the CF dust...
My machine did come with a "blue box" controller but I had a soldering accident (melted through a shield) that fried it. So I bought the one in the pic in the 1st post.
Re: Mods, Upgrades and Fixes Thread for 3020 and 3040 Desktop Mill/Router
I've learned a lot from this forum over the past several years, I'm glad I can give something back!
As far as differences between the 3020 and 3040 go, there usually the same components but just wider in the x-axis. It's possible that it may have different linear guides, most 3020's and 3040's have unsupported round guides, usually 16mm for the y-axis and 12mm for the x and z-axis'. Some higher priced models may have supported round guides or square but for most purposes it's not necessary for a machine this small with such short spans. However, your machining a lot of aluminum like I do, you'll need a more rigid setup and that's why all the mods on mine.
As for what else you'll need to get it going...well for starters here's a heads up about Mach3, it's a great program and has been very reliable for me but it does only run on a 32bit computer with a parallel port so you'll probably have to get a dedicated PC for just machining since any newer computer runs 64-86bit. I'd recommend a Lenovo thinkcenter cpu, stay away from the Dell's, they've been know to have issues with Mach3's interrupt system of communicating via the P.P. I purchased my Lenovo for about $200 with monitor and 3mo warranty from refresh computers Lenovo . Refresh Computers great guys down there, very helpful for sure. Setting up Mach3 can sometimes be a little tricky but with a fresh new PC it's much easier otherwise you'll have to go into the startup menu and disable a bunch of programs that want to run automatically on startup... You will have to configure the PP port through the startup menu no matter what but that's easy. Then there's Mach3 configuration and motor tuning but there are a bunch of tutorials on that to help you. Other than that you'll need to get familiar with tooling, end mills, ball nose, chamfer etc...get an understanding of what tools should be used for what operations and limitations and that will really help when your designing in CAD to understand the limitations of what can be machined. Since you know some CAD already Fusion 360's CAD portion should be pretty easy for you. You'll want to start playing around with the CAM stuff and run simulations using tools you'll commonly be working with, like 1/4in endmill for example. Practice with the CAM and that will save you tons of time once you get good at it.
If you guys run into any issues let me know and I'll be glad to help if I can. Best of luck!
No problem, just glad to help! Let me know how it goes.Very creative! Thanks for the detailed explanation. I'll post what I find on my mill to fix the uneven circle (Great ideas on how to troubleshoot it!
I'll probably start with fixing the circle problem so that I can get a working mill then go to the lexan tray. Man you got soo much time and experience doing this stuff!
Thank you for taking the time to explain things to newbies like me.
Re: Mods, Upgrades and Fixes Thread for 3020 and 3040 Desktop Mill/Router
Hi thanks for the heads up and your willingness to share. So unfortunately our machine came with the Dell but I found this on AliExpress
http://4 Axes Mach3 motion control c...press Android)
On paper it seems like a significant step up over the standard controller plus the added USB 2.0 support. The reviews I have found are good but just was curious what think about it and if you would possibly take a chance on something like this? In the long run the goal would be to have the flexibility for my computer or another laptop to be able to plug into the router.
My other question is related to the Makita, we are thinking about upgrading as you did and want to know if/when extra cooling is required. The water pump is not functioning at the moment and from what we have seen the Makita doesn't require as much cooling. Is this true or does it just have more tolerance up to a depth greater than the stock router?
Thanks,
Bryon
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Re: Mods, Upgrades and Fixes Thread for 3020 and 3040 Desktop Mill/Router
OUTSTANDING!
Definitely going to look into the Makita Router upgrade.
Re: Mods, Upgrades and Fixes Thread for 3020 and 3040 Desktop Mill/Router
Maybe you can upload to Google drive and create a link. You get 15GB free
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Re: Mods, Upgrades and Fixes Thread for 3020 and 3040 Desktop Mill/Router
Is there any chance I could convince you to take some more detailed pictures of the Z axis supports? I'm having a hard time understanding how the Z axis can move up and down with the router reinforced by that linear rail in front. Are the bushings not fixed to the router body?
I definitely understand why the Z axis needs some help - There is noticeable flex when working with harder materials.
Sorry guys its been a while, working on a lot stuff lately...
The supports straddle the spindle and screw into the plate that the z axis stepper sits on. This keeps the entire z carriage from twisting around the x axis linear rails.
This forum isn't letting me attach pics from my phone...when i get back to my computer I'll post some.
