Build Thread- 1st machine rebuild

[multiplex]

been a while since i've updated this.. been slowing piecing it together. i'm hoping its done within the next week or so, cause the wood already arrived for my next job







picked up this high speed spindle from ebay on a whim. i hope it works out. working on adapting a er20 collet, and hooking up a variable frequency drive so i can run the three phase motor and control it from the computer

[FandZ]

Man looking goooood. It has all the class of a grand piano. Can't wait to see a video of it ripping through some material.

[BobF]

Looks good.
What attachment does the spindle have currently? Can't quite tell from the pic.
VFD should be doable.

[multiplex]

Thanks..

currently the spindle just has a keyed shaft with a m8 thread on the end. I just picked up a VFD from automation direct, and have the configuration figured out just need to try and wire it up. Pretty excited to get it going.

i did get a chance to bolt the gantry up to my table this weekend and was happy to see things fit nicely. The gantry is much heavier than my previous one, so i'm thinking my acceleration will need to be much slower.

I just have a few more odds & ends to make, and it will be ready for a test run. Hopefully within the next week

[multiplex]

another quick update. Finished up the plate which will mount to the z axis, and tested out the VFD

motor works awesome - good torque from about 2k to 20k rpm. Can't really ask for much more. Maybe still a little fast for drilling but its close.

next will be figuring out the modbus controls in mach 3 so i can control the spindle.

[multiplex]

good news everyone! i got most of the bits and pieces bolted up today - screws are all in place. DumpsterCNC components really make it easy!

with a little tweaking, my rapids are now 400 ipm.. This well exceeds my goal. its nice to see this thing whipping around. I set it up to do some 44" diameter circles to break in the acme nuts.

next step will be to check for squareness and fine tune for screw accuracy

[yngndrw]

Sounds good, any pictures of the completed rebuild ?

[multiplex]

no new pictures yet, but i should have some in a few days

i decided on one more revision, and will be adding a 2nd screw for the Y axis. I noticed that the gantry is able to rack slightly which i think might become evident when taking heavy cuts. So i need to relocate my one screw, and add the second along with all the accessories

i did also get some work done on my dust collection system - which will tie into the router

[multiplex]

finally got this thing up and running near full capacity.

switched over to two screws for the gantry y axis. added home switches for all axis, and got my spindle working







last night i started cutting pieces for my dust hood, just need to add in the brush into the bottom







this is the VFD from automation direct (gs-2) that i'm using to run the spindle. it has modbus built in, so i'm using rs-232 to communicate directly with Mach. works great!

few things left to do is clean up some of the wiring, and hopefully calibrate my screws.

i ordered a 24" digital 'caliper' / DRO that i plan to use to map the x and y screws. should be interesting to see the error over the full travel. of course i'll have to reposition the DRO once per axis to get the full travel

One last other thing im in the process of is adding cross bracing to all 4 sides of the router base. So far i have one side completed. I'm using 3/8-16 threaded rod with turnbuckles to add some tension. Just with the one side complete, it adds a ton of rigidity. Can't want to get all the sides done

I had the machine running much faster, but decided to drop down to 200ipm as a max for the rapids. Anything over that just seems kinda crazy, and i'd rather not risk loosing position.

[multiplex]

one last pic - finished up the dust hood last night, and it works great! no dust or chips anywhere.

now to get started cutting lots of wood!