freddean2006,
With ingenuity and some sort of adapter plates, you should be able to mount larger steppers.
Maybe the manufacture would provide a stepper upgrade so you don't have to discard parts and re engineer a new machine.
Having the larger steppers would enhance the axis speed however it is only one part of the total picture.
Milling metal quickly or efficiently will never be a strong point with one of these types of table top machines.
Plan on a day or two if you want to mill a watch out of any type of metal.
Even with a 60,000 rpm spindle the depth of cut with small tools will make it excruciatingly slow.
You will enjoy it as long as you don't have high speed production expectations.
Jeff...
I took a look at that webpage you suggested as far as the NEMA stepper motor sizes.
In reference to replacing the steppers, I don't see much of a problem with pulling out the NEMA17's and putting in a set of NEMA23's or 34's by just drilling a new set of holes. But I'm thinking when you start putting some torque on the frame of the unit trying to mill some metal, it'll start flexing.
Sable 2015 X-table installed backwards?
I was playing with my Sable2015 at the shopthis afternoon, getting it ready for the installation of limit and home switches. I thought about something a bit odd after I get back home.
With the Sable placed with the Y-axis stepper to your left, the mill motor mount directly in front of you and the X-axis stepper behind the unit...
If you run the X all the way to the back (away from you), the mill motor will over hang the end by about 2 inches at the X stop.
If you run the X all the way to the front (towards you), the mill motor won't quite make it to the edge of the plate, coming up short by about the same 2 inches.
It almost seems to me like a person could unmount the linear bearings, spin it around 180 degrees, bolt it back up and get those couple of inches back into play.
Any other thoughts? I could be totally wrong. Maybe the base plate runs equal amounts in both directions and isn't actually offset.
Ski,
I beleive you are refering to the Y axis, the Y axis travel is front to back.
The X axis is left to right.
It looks like the acme screw mounts are positioned all the way to the edges of the table.
The only way to get more travel would be to extend the length of the acme screw and in turn extend the length of the table.
Jeff...
As there seems to be some confusion i just wanted to add that llimis's photo (above) is indeed a sable-2015 router. I had to do a double take myself, but having done so it looks identical to the sable-2015 i received (which looks identical to Ski's unit).
llimis's photo was taken after removing the backing plate from the gantry. What your looking at is a rear view of the x and z axis. The guide rods, linear bearings, lead screw and backlash nut are the gantry (x) axis. The Z axis is bolted to the linear bearings & backlash nut, and it is facing away from you.
I ordered mine before Thanksgiving and received it just after. Other then running a few quick tests I still haven't gotten to play with mine yet. Hopefully the backlash isn't as bad as llimis first thought. I guess i'll find out soon enough...
btw i'm a noob to cnc so don't expect me to be giving you my expert opinion of the 2015 anytime soon... all the same disclaimers that Ski used apply.
Hirsch
Last edited by Hirsch; 01-02-2009 at 01:41 PM.
Hmm...ok. I'll buy that. I always thought that the X axis was always considered the moving axis most directly connected to plate that the part was mounted on or 'closest' to the unit itself.Originally Posted by jalessi
Ya, I'm not too bright!It looks like the acme screw mounts are positioned all the way to the edges of the table.
The only way to get more travel would be to extend the length of the acme screw and in turn extend the length of the table.
Jeff...From first looks, it appears that the thing is offset mounted, when it's actually the overhead pieces/parts (X and Z???) that are mounted at an offset. If the Z axis leadscrew were doing the actual milling, it would be just about right. Moving the overhead lot back about 2 inches would make the front/rear travel equal.
Hirsch - Ya, I noticed that last night too when I was trying to figure out the issue above.
The only thing I've had mine do so far is tape a pen to the mill motor and I've had it draw out the EMC2/Axis that comes up with EMC2, and I've had it 'draw' a PCB I've had laying around the harddrive for awhile. Good news is that the scale is right and after running for about 2 hours drawing this PCB, when I brought it back to home, it came right back where it should have. Just have to get some bits and a chunk of scrap wood or plastic or something and see what it'll do.
Hello all,
I asked the seller of this macine the following question and just recieved a reply...........
----------------------------------------------------------------
A couple of questions about this item.
1. what type of lead srews are used? i.e. ACME type?
A. M10*P1.5 , triangle.
2. Do you have anymore detailed specifications on the machine tolerance?
A. repeat accuracy < 0.1mm.
3. can the machine be supplied without the stepper motors, i would like to fit higher power motors? what would the difference in price be?
A. Sorry, I sell Sable-2015 with stepping motor. that is like pictures of auction.
----------------------------------------------------------------
So if i read this right, the answer to question 1 means the lead screws are just threaded bar and hence will have more back lash than an ACME bar?????????????
I think i wait until you guys have tried making stuff with this machine before i layout any $
Happy new year to all
Ray
Can somebody post dimensions for router adapter opening - I need to know if I can clamp my router or I have to order another one with machine.
Also do I need to buy extension plate or router adapter can be attached directly to the Z-Axiz.
Thanks
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Hey Jeff. Happy New Year. I was wondering where I can buy a usb stepper controller for this sable cnc. The LPT serial port controller is too old school for me. My PC doesn't have a LPT serial port and I don't have an open slot for a LPT serial port for my PC because all the PCI slots are all filled. I also got a program called shopbot. Will this work for the sable cnc?
I also wanted to know what will get better quality engraving a laser engraver/cutter like the Explorer or this one on ebay
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...DLVI%26ps%3D54
or a big cnc router. I'm going to be using a lot of thin fonts and detailed designs for engraving on acrylic. Is a cnc router the same quality?
I was about to order one today but I wanted to ask the community before I make a big purchase like this. I want to get something that is easy to work with and very good quality.
If there is someone in So. Cal. who is competent with building these things, Please contact me. I would like to pay for your services in building a laser cnc.
I really don't want to buy the one on ebay because the lead time is a month long and it's in Florida. So please. If there is someone in California who knows how to build one Let me know.
Last edited by rawsuperhuman; 01-19-2009 at 09:14 AM.
Rawsuperhuman,
I would be happy to chat when you have time.
Do you have a instant messenger or would you like to talk on the phone?
AOL AIM: jalessi
Yahoo: alchemist135
Jeff...
What's an LPT serial port?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LPT
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_port
If you bought the Sable2015 along with the controller, and hooked it up, as long as you've got some software, you should be able to get it working. Just a little bit of searching (for instance referring to the same page on eBay where you got the Sable2015) would have led you to LinuxCNC.Org, which would have led you further to the EMC2/Axis software package, which works like a champ.
I got my Sable2015 working, haven't done any real work with it other than some test runs on some MDF laying around, and it all turned out very nice, and I'm as much of a 'newb' as the next guy, both in the CNC realm and Linux.
As for the question 'is a CNC router the same quality?'...
CNC router vs. Laser? The same quality?
Hmmmmmm............
Even I think I can deduce the answer to that one...
I'm a noob. to this CNC thing and just in the shoping phase myslef, but is this what you were looking for?
http://www.usbcnc.com/
I'm also looking for input on the Sable unit for sale on eBay. I've found another similarly priced machine that appears to have higher quality lead screws and whatnot and I was hoping someone might be able to give me some feedback on if this other machine is a better bang for the buck.
http://www.probotix.com/FireBall_v90_cnc_router_kit/
The only thing that I can see that I don't like is the wooden table, but I figure that is easy enough to upgrade.
Any thoughts on pros/cons of the two machines?
Thanks.
Ok. I got my sable working with mach3. I watched the tutorial on how to setup mach3 but I don't know how to setup the rest of the thing. I can move the motors, but don't know how to do anything else or where to set the start of the cnc sable (placement of the xyz axiz). I'll post a video up on youtube so you can understand where I'm at and what I'm asking help for. Thank you CNC community.
Hi All,
Any updates on the sable's yet? are they anygood for doing fine track PCB's? any example picturers? is there a backlash problem?
Any comments cos im itching to get one :-)
Ray
can anybody take any photo about table construction?
Pics of Sable-2015
I've just got mine today and I have to say i'm very impressed. Apart from the use of trapezoidal threaded rod, and the cabling to the motors, it's very nicely put together and very, very sturdy.
I'll take some snaps on the weekend and upload them. All in all, I haven't tested it yet, but it certainly seems good value!
Sable-2015 and PCB
Hi
Can you give me one note of 10 for Sable 2015. If I want to make PCB.
I haven't been able to get decent pics or video as the lighting is too bad to be usable, i'll have to setup some lighting to do it properly. But, after playing around a little more i've found a few minor issues, but in general it's not a bad unit at all. I think it will be more than okay for general pcb's but i'll be testing it further before commiting to that remark. I have done several patterns and found the repeatability extremely good as far as I can tell with the 2mm round engraving bit I used. A test pattern with a smaller v-cutter will be a better test.
One of the issues found is that the Y axis if positioned too far during travel will actually lock and you have to manually rotate the drivescrew to free it up enough that it can then be jogged.
I also have to agree that using EMC2 on a laptop is very hit and miss, I used two laptops (HP and DELL) and found it would get partway through routing and would get a realtime timeout or error, since hooking up a pc instead I haven't had that issue at all, so the remarks about using laptop parallel ports for cnc is a very real problem!
Sable-2015 routing results
Found the table is very slightly out of level along the left side, will have to route a rectangle along all four sides to determine how far out it is. But as seen from the pics, the repeatability is superb. The carboard was routed three times over a few days without resetting anything after powering the pc and cnc off/on.
The 4"-5" spiral pattern provided with EMC2 was used on cardboard and mdf with pretty good results. Some of the arcs appear a little elliptical in spots, but i'm not sure if this is an EMC issue or a cnc/torque/cutter issue as it seemed to occur along the same axis position. The results though are quite good considering a 2mm glass rounding engraving bit was used. I did also do the very intricate snowflake patter with a biro, and it executed it flawlessly, so I think once the table is shimmied level, it should handle pcb's very well. Even if the wide sweeping arcs currently aren't perfect, for smaller pcb's it looks like it would provide more than adequate resolution for any form of general pcb, even with smd tracks.
Can you comment on this statement please:How are you homing it after power ON? Are you just moving it to a specific position before shutting power down hoping that it will be there next morning?routed three times over a few days without resetting anything after powering the pc and cnc off/on.
I am looking to get one of these to mill repeatable hole pattern in plastic boxes and worry about getting repeatable pattern.
Last edited by Andy_123; 04-12-2009 at 09:20 AM.
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