Here are some pics on the 4x8 project

[wcarrothers1]

Proj.. I have no idea what you are saying in that last message...

I'm going to put foam bummpers or something at either end of X I think.. Hopefully the soft limits in mach work well..hehe

Anyway more pictures.. The machine is turning blue.. I'm thinking now I should have gone with red though..

b.

[project5k]

i was making a bad joke about your rubber or foam bumpers at the ends of your travels... sorry, sometimes when i dont sleep i dont make sence...

[wcarrothers1]

Finally got my limit switches put in.

The pic is of the Y limit switches on the back of the stage.

I have the limits all in series normaly closed right now.

The pic shows the right and left limits (2) and 2 home switches on either side. The home's of course trip before the limits. My home switches are also wired in series NC and I have 2 of them so I will be able to home my machine to either side of the machine (if I want to move my 0 x and 0 y to the other corner of the table incase I move it to another part of my basement some day)..

I'll get a picture of my x limit swtiches tonight (batterys died in the camara)

But they run along the side rails of the machine. and are the roller ball type limit switches. I have a piece of aluminum bent in a small ramp shape at one end with slots cut in them for the adjustment screws so they can be moved up and down a bit on the side rails. When the ball on the limit hits the ramp it goes up and trips. I used 2 limit switches for the limits and one switch for the home which can be triggered at either end..

Also something I didn't think about when doing my home's on the mill.... Is the home switches only trigger 1 at a time (ie Y homes first then x ect) since that is the case.. You can wire them in series to a single input (rather then 2 separate ones) and save an input for something else. Perhaps the smarter people here already know that though..

Seems like it will work well..

if I torque on the tip of the router at full extention down (on Z) I can get ~.001 worth of movement according to my dial gage when it is centered on the gantry. Course the amount goes down a bit the closer it gets to either end
although most all the flex is in the Z it self and not the 1" supported bars of the gantry.. So I think I may some day build myself some end plates for Z to use the extra 1" bars I have around rather then the 3/4" bars I used.

Seems the amount of movement should not be enough to really bother upgrading unless it's a cold winter... Thing seems like it should run and cut up pieces very well..

I'm quite happy at this point with how things all work together..

b.