Grizzly G3102 conversion questions, servos, steppers, breakouts and more.

[turbostang]

Hello All,

I stumbled on this site a few weeks ago, and I must say - you guys are a bad influence. I am ordering my Grizzly G3102 tomorrow

http://www.grizzly.com/products/G3102

I have a few questions in regards to which equipment to use.

First - the motors. I want to get a set of motors strong enough to get the job done, but not weak to where I have to take it "easy" on the machine. I constantly hear of "missing steps" and most peoples answer in return seems to be using servos with encoders. Is this a good move aside from the price?

(once I get it up and running with CNC ability, accuracy would be important - I want to be able to thread mill etc.)

Breakout boards - which board would be good to use in this scenario? I see a TON of good things about the Gecko stuff, but thier site doesn't really have specs without reading through a bunch of .pdf's. (I don't mind that, but maybe a little narrowing down of what I should look for might help some)
Also, I'm assuming the board would be the part that dictates whether or not the machine is capable of 3D milling?
Does the breakout board have extra "openings" to control flood coolant etc?

Power supplies? I don't even know where to start here.

Sorry for all of the n00bish questions, I just don't know where to start - or better yet, what to ask!

Thanks!

[Ron111]

The breakout board merely does that. It provides a connection to the 25 pin parellel port (printer port), and limatations are because of the few pins that are available on the parellel port and not due to the breakout out board. So basically, the breakout board will allow an easy connection for the pins of the printer port. If you need more functions, you can configure the controller to use a second parellel port.

Power supplies are not that bad, Campbell's website has a document "Power supply part 1" which is a PDF and will get you up and going in no time. If you can't find the PDF, search my post and I have listed it as an attachment as least 10 times in the last year. (I just got another computer and don't have the file readily available)

Hope this helps

Ron

[turbostang]

Ron - Thanks for the help. I found the PDF here Here in post 29 or 30.

I see a lot of people asking about 3D milling ability, What makes it able to do this? I'd think if it has steppers or servos on all 3 axes, then it should be "able" correct? Or is it a function of the controller to allow it to have this ability?

At this point in time, I don't see any other needs than controlling spindle speed and flood coolant.

How hard is it to make the spindle speed controllable?

[skmetal7]

milling in 2d,2.5d, or 3d all depends on your CAM software. most do 2.5d, which is milling out pockets, contours in the x,y axis, ect. some more expensive CAM softwares use all three axis, and can generate toolpaths for complex 3d forms, like a racecar body, airplane wing, ect.

[turbostang]

Originally Posted by skmetal7 milling in 2d,2.5d, or 3d all depends on your CAM software. most do 2.5d, which is milling out pockets, contours in the x,y axis, ect. some more expensive CAM softwares use all three axis, and can generate toolpaths for complex 3d forms, like a racecar body, airplane wing, ect.

Thank you, thank you, thank you - that is probably the most important question I was looking for some sort of answer for. What is a good budget software that can do 3D work? (it would take some time to learn it, but my programmer wife can probably figure it out )