cyclotron's cnc gantry

[CarveOne]

Yes, CamBam. 2.5D with some 3D features being added. Beta development stage presently.

Check it out at http://www.brusselsprout.org/CAMBAM/

CarveOne

[cyclotron]

things are on hold now while I gather up the electrical parts for
the machine. I'll post pics of all the gear once I get it.

[cyclotron]

taig spindle drawing

[pminmo]

Originally Posted by cyclotron I'm already thinking about making another!! is this normal?

Yes, it's called routeritis or millitis.....have a friend that tells his wife he is "going to play routers" which means he's going to tinker with his latest machine build/tweek.

[cyclotron]

Hi all,

time for an update. I got all of the electronics going a couple of weeks ago and I finally have a computer running mach 3. unfortunately, There is a problem and I'm trying to hunt down the cause. here is a picture of my electronics setup.

My motors aren't moving the distances I tell them to move. In addition the error is not repeatable. I have tried calculating the steps/" and I have used the calibration function. the motors make this resonant sound when operation (at all but the lowest speeds.) In addition, the pulses are erratic and change frequency depending on which direction the motors turn. I'm going to hook up another motor I have as a test to see if the problem is with the motors I got. I am also going to try and watch the pulses with an led (out of the breakout board and in between the drives and motors) to see if the signal is getting screwed up.

any suggestions? Are my drives placed too closely to the power supply?

[cyclotron]

OK,

so that previous issue was due to my modern PC's weak output from the parallel port. I needed a powered Breakout board to bring the signals up to 5v.
I got one from CNC4PC and now everything is stepping consistently.

Now there is a new problem, two of my gecko drives are working fine, but the last one trips the 5amp fuse when I push the motor past about 30 IPM. I checked the wiring, its identical to the wiring of the working drives. Any suggestions?

Also, for those who asked about using the taig continuous duty spindle motor and whether it is too heavy or not... I have been using it and it is heavy enough to back drive (downwards) my 2 start 5tpi leadscrew w. delrin nut. that said, under power the z axis is fine, the motors handle the weight easily.
I will eventually need to counter weight the Z car if I want to keep my Z settings after power down.

[seanreit]

Any updates?

[cyclotron]

I am in france right now, walking from le puy to santiago in spain. that said I won;t be workin on the machine since it is back in les etats unis. I did send that last drive off to gecko and they fixed it and sent it back. I won't be able to set everything up for keeps until september when I get back. to all those who are following this thread, check back in early septmber for when the chips start flying,

[cyclotron]

I guess I left this some what incomplete. I used this machine to build retrofitted parts for a cheap digital camera. About a year ago, I took the router apart and sold all the bearings and metal. Anyway here are some more process pictures and a kind of final shot.


I recently purchased a DynaMite 2000 and you can follow that retrofit project here.

[RomanLini]

Wow! Thanks for sharing.

That's one of the best designed and nicest looking small moving-gantry machines I've ever seen on this forum.

[cyclotron]

Thanks for the nice compliment! most of it has been sold for scrap/ebay now, tho I still have the z assembly and I'm thinking of building a small precision grinder out of it... the taig headstock is now on my taig lathe, and I've got the Dyna 2000 as my mill.

[RomanLini]

I guess you built another larger CNC router?