Let's Get The Show On The Road......

[Garfield2]

Originally Posted by santiniuk Well looks like I'm building another set of boards. My friend is itching to make a start. I sent him a small video clip which he has hosted on his unused webspace. Picstep Test Video I think it's a virtual mill of a Picstep board in progress !

Wow that's so cool..

Mind if I put this on my website?

Alan.

[Garfield2]

Originally Posted by MrBean Carefull. Bob had fireworks too at his last switch on. Seriously though. Bobs misfortune may well save others from the same fate. (like me). I was planning for a 35V secondary transformer ~50V DC. Have now deceided on 25V secondary ~35V DC. Many thanks to you Bob.

Indeed! I'm 10 hours ahead of GMT, so I'll look north towards the USA at around the US midnight for Bob's fireworks.. I'll be sitting on my lawn drinking a nice cool beer while I admire Bob's handywork from here

I'm actually going to the CES show in Las Vegas on January 8th->10th, I fly out on Jan 2nd to HK for a few days then onto the USA.

Anyway I hope it goes smoothly Bob, should be good to see a machine that actually "uses" PICStep rather than a bunch of guys with spinning motors (myself included!).

I've put the warning regarding the greater than 40VDC in the build instructions, hopefull no one else has to suffer that pain! (sorry Bob!)

Post more photos when you're done, so I can keep the gallery up to date!

Cheers,
Alan.

PS Happy neuooo yeeear!

[BobLWeiss]

At least it was cool looking!

Seriously, be careful when working with high voltages...could be a big problem if your not qucik enough to disconnect power.

I am playing around with TurboCNC's settings now..trying to get the best setup. Currently using the 1/8th step mode...seems to give the best results so far in terms of speed. I will let you all know what the optimum settings I get when I'm finished.

Bob

[MrBean]

Originally Posted by BobLWeiss At least it was cool looking! Seriously, be careful when working with high voltages...could be a big problem if your not qucik enough to disconnect power. I am playing around with TurboCNC's settings now..trying to get the best setup. Currently using the 1/8th step mode...seems to give the best results so far in terms of speed. I will let you all know what the optimum settings I get when I'm finished. Bob

Could you also give your motor specs. May make the numbers more meaningfull.

Thanks.

Terry.....

[MrBean]

Originally Posted by santiniuk In fact how I enjoyed making those wire links..... Can You add some more next time

Yes. Those wire links are really handy. Now the police will never trace me.....

[BobLWeiss]

Hahaha I know what you mean..ouch, typing is even hard!

[BobLWeiss]

Well I got my system up and running!!!!

It took me all day to sort out the wiring and fine tune the setup. I am still working on the settings, I am going to test cut some stuff tonight and let you know what settings I ended up with. I am running with no jumpers on the breakout board which is 1/8th microstepping mode. Moves nice!!!

Here are some pictures...

[chuckknigh]

What did you use for slides? It looks like they mounted quite nicely...

-- Chuck Knight

[santiniuk]

Well the New Year is here. I wish you all a peaceful one.

It's good to see the machine in it's full glory Bob, some real nice work there !

I'm also interested in the slides, and the overall materials.

Have you any tips for someone just about to start building ?

What would you change ? What are the tricky bits ? Time to build ?

Have you cut anything to impress your wife yet

@Terry, Man I had to take a double look there Reminds me of the time I was learning to play the guitar.....

@Alan, feel free to use any images or video I post here.. I take it as a compliment.

All the Best.

Shaun

[BobLWeiss]

Originally Posted by chuckknigh What did you use for slides? It looks like they mounted quite nicely... -- Chuck Knight

Drawer slides from Home Depot. They work great, I mounted them so there is no noticable play in any direction other than side to side which is what you want anyway.

[BobLWeiss]

Originally Posted by santiniuk What would you change ? What are the tricky bits ? Time to build ?

It took me about a month and a half to build, alot of that time was waiting for glue or paint to dry overnight. I made it out of MDF and drawer slides. If I was to build it over I would have made it gantry style to allow more movement in the x axis but what it has now (11") is good enough for what I'm using it for anyway. I started to cut out the a ruler in some scrap MDF using a file I downloaded from a site. It came out good for a bit then messed up. I need to come up with a way to hold down work on the table. That will be the project of the day.

[BobLWeiss]

Well I decided to rebuild my Z axis and not use the pre-built one in the photos. The reason is it is more for PCB work and doesn't give me enough depth of cut to do any wood stuff. I would rather have a Dremel on there and I happen to have an extra one of those laying around and an extra pair of 16" drawer slides. I also have a stepper with 10" lead screw and nut attached to it. I will post pictures of when complete. I am waiting on paint to dry now, should be done by tonight.... I guess that's why they call it a hobby, never ending....my wife thinks I'm nuts.....


Shaun:
Did you start on your machine yet?