Phoenix Rising From The Flames

[Mr.Chips]

Phoenix Rising From The Flames, is a good title as the flames were three fried drivers.

After four long years it is finally running. I completed the mechanical portion in six months, the remaining three and a half years were plagued by electronic frustration, giving up and finally changing horses in mid stream and now success.
My machine started out as a movable gantry using unsupported gas pipe as rails and angle iron mounted on salvaged roller blade bearings. The ends of the 3/4” Y axis gas pipes were mounted in nylon blocks with 4 way adjustment screws. My building material was ¾” MDF and because I wanted the gantry rigid the side pieces were two layers thick as was the X axis pieces between the end pieces, plus another piece on top of the Y axis pieces making a kind of half “I” beam for strength. The X axis pieces were mortised into the inner side supports and glued for strength. Well that was very sturdy but oh so heavy. It was impossible to prevent the gas pipe from flexing, and in a short time the bearings were damaged that supported the gantry from just running it back and forth by hand adjusting the gas pipe rails.
At that time I took it apart and converted it to a fixed gantry and movable table. Bought 100 bearings off the internet. I lost a lot of cutting area, but now I had a rigid machine. With the fixed gantry the outside diminutions are 36” X 66”, cutting area approximately 23” X 30”” X 6” on the Z axis.
Bought my 1” “X” axis linear bearings used as well as the ¾” “Z” axis bearings. My steppers are 116 Oz/In from Xylotex, kind of small but it’s a start.

My real electronic breakthrough came when I found Probotix, They have a very user friendly web site with a wealth of illustrations, showing color drawings of wiring connections, not the typical encrypted text that I have so frequently seen, and was confused by. It’s just the ticket for the electronically challenged. I studied the drivers and sent emails and found out that my six wire steppers could be connected up either as Bipolar or Uni-Polar, Probotix has a driver called Probostep Stepper Motor Driver that supported the Uni-Polar stepper, this driver has some terrific attributes in that it has Short/Open Circuit Protection and Thermal Overload Shutdown protection. (an Open was the demise of my last drivers) It supports Full, 1/4, 1/2, 8th & 16th Microstepping Resolution. Check out the details it is well documented.
Their driver can be connected to their PBX-RF Isolated Breakout Board by simply connecting their IDC cable between the two, this makes connecting everything up even easier, and there is less chance of miss-wiring and frying expensive electronic parts.

Driver: http://www.probotix.com/index.php?vi...&product_id=12
Breakout Board: http://www.probotix.com/breakout_boa...reakout_board/
Main Web Site: http://www.probotix.com/

Does this sound like a commercial, well it kind of is. I was so impressed at the ease of configuration all the electrical components I want to tell all the newbie’s about these products. I would not want anyone to go through the frustration and needless expense that I went through to finally get to this point.
Below are some photos of my CNC, overall shot and partially wired control box..

[Mr.Chips]

Here is the approximate cost (4 years ago)
X Axis rails 1” shaft with Thomson like bearings. Used …….. $10
Z Axis rails ¾” shaft with Thomson like bearings. Used .…… $10
2 Sheets 3/4" MDF .................................................... $38
Y Axis rails (gas pipe) ¾” ID (1” OD) ……………………….…….… $17
Y Axis roller skate bearings Irvine CA distributor …….....….. $16
Three Stepper Motors 116 oz/in from Xylotex …………………. $60
Aluminum plate from Austin recycle center ……..……….. 0.68 per lb
Drive screws Acme ½” 10 …………….…….…………..………Aprox. $45

Items purchased within last month:
Three Driver boards ……………… $ 137.97
Breakout board …………………… $ 45.99
Power Supply ……………………. $ 65.00

Would anyone like to share some Gcode that I could use to draw a small 3” or 4” design to show my wife what it can do.

So far I have just been drawing real basic things, but not very impressive.

[jimini]

Here's a 3" wacky 5 cent coin, uses a 1/16" bit.
Just for fun!

[Mr.Chips]

Originally Posted by jimini Here's a 3" wacky 5 cent coin, uses a 1/16" bit. Just for fun!

Thanks Jimini,

Ran it and it was too long for the demo version of Mach3. What I saw was neat though. I might try splitting it up in small pieces and running it that way.

Regards
Hager

[jimini]

Here's one she might like!
It's a Mr Chips name plate about 2"x7" on .25" material with a 1/16" bit.
Just rename the .txt to whatever format you use.
Have fun.

[Mr.Chips]

Originally Posted by jimini Here's one she might like! It's a Mr Chips name plate about 2"x7" on .25" material with a 1/16" bit. Just rename the .txt to whatever format you use. Have fun.

Thanks Jimini,

It ran perfectly, almost.
It was smaller all the way around, the 7" side measured 3.150"

Since this is the first piece from anyone that I have ran, it might be caused by my Mach3 setup some where.

Could you send me just the Gcode for a 4" square and circle so I can further test, and hopefully find where I have set something in error?

[jimini]

Mr.Chips...Here's a 4" square with a 4" circle beside it.
1/16" bit , ~ 4.25"x7"x.25".
Hope it helps.

[jimini]

Mr.Chips I've broken the wacky nickel into 5 parts, I hope they're small enough.But I'd recommend purchasing Mach3 excellent value.
Part1 might be a problem, I've taken out as much as I could, hopefully.
Just make sure when you load the remaining parts that your router is at X=0,Y=0,Z=2in. It should be there when the previous part finished.
I allowed for 1/8" thickness and about 2.75" square with 0,0 being in from lower left about 1/8".

Sorry these files are screwed up, it was late, I'll resend them in another file.

[jimini]

Mr.Chips sorry for the messup hopefully these are better.
Not sure how many line mach3 demo processes, I hope it's around 1500.

[Mr.Chips]

Originally Posted by jimini Mr.Chips sorry for the messup hopefully these are better. Not sure how many line mach3 demo processes, I hope it's around 1500.

Thanks Jimini,

I'll run the circle and square too and measure it and see how it comes out.

Hager

[jimini]

Great Mr.Chips let me know how it comes out.
Here's part1 broken into 2 parts, hope it works.lol

[Mr.Chips]

Originally Posted by jimini Mr.Chips...Here's a 4" square with a 4" circle beside it. 1/16" bit , ~ 4.25"x7"x.25". Hope it helps.

Hmmmm.
I ran the Square and circle, they came out excatly 2" instead of 4".


Am using Mach 3. Would the step rate effect the size? I am currently on full step.

Any suggestions as to where to look and what to change?

Thanks
Hager