Thanks Will.
I thought it was only fitting I would cut it on the machine.
I modeled the parts in Solidworks, made sure the fit etc. Then saved each piece as a DXF. Then opened VCarve Pro imported the vectors. Then tabbed them and cut them. It was the first time I had import vectors I had created so it took some time and several tries to figured out the difference between grouping vectors and joining vectors. Once I got that sorted out off to cutting. I am not sure the pictures show it but I used a tab to locate an inter lock the parts.
A bit of polyurethane glue and a couple of Brads and it was left to dry.
I can see that this machine will come in handy from time to time.
I might go and get a Xbox 360 controller today and try it out as a pendant.
BTW. Will I moved the axis around yesterday so X is now on the leadscrew on the Gantry. Much easier to jog around.
Bob,
That's good to know you are liking your X box controller. I am a little leery about wireless in this application. LOL Given the amount of RF I play with I should not be.
Reason for switch X and Y
Its a square machine 24x24.
I load it from the front. Looking at the gantry head on.
From the factory X and Y are turned
Always jogging and loading parts wrong :-)
I don't use the controller for anything except job setup and moving the bit out of the way for access and stuff like that.
If you do use a wireless one it must be active (or whatever you call it when it's not in sleep mode) before you load Mach3 or it won't see it (at least on mine).
Another thing, I fought for a quite a few times over many months to get mine to work. Ended up being some silly little board mounted fuse inside the reciever (it think) that I had to jumper.
I might have the info somewhere. If you go this way and have troubel let me know and I'll try to dig it up.
Bob,
Yes I understand its not uncommon for the fuse in the receiver to open up. I guess the receiver draws a lot of current.
I found this is a common fault with the wireless units. I am thinking I might go for the USB powered one to try it out.
Thanks for the information. I found that issue out yesterday.
Bob,
I am still waiting for my SS to return from its visit with Jeff. I believe it was sent a while ago. I should see it by next week. USPS to Canada is 2 weeks minimum. Then I can have a go at the VFD noise. Sure I could try the changes and maybe measure the result but without the SS to see if it works its a waste of time. I also have the Analog Devices USB isolator board so I can try that out at the same time.
Then again its working nicely so do I want to mess with it?
Have you got your ship date yet?
Dave
Oh, I didn't know you sent your SS back, makes sense to wait I see now.
No, I haven't received a ship date yet. My 12 weeks is up near the end of this month (not that that makes any difference).
Still a lot of thinking, planning, and money to spend before I'll be ready for it, but I imagine if it was sitting here looking at me my motivation will skyrocket
After a long wait for parts and lots of procrastination on my end I changed out the lead screws on my machine. The original ones had about 0.0065" slop or back lash. The new ones are much tighter. I will get them calibrated and measure the back lash tomorrow.
It took about 2.5 hours to remove and replace the Z and X leadscrews.
One thing I noticed right away is the Z does not backdrive as easily as it did before. The spindle does not move towards the table as it used to. :-)
So it looks like it is an improvement. I ran it for 20 minutes and everything seems good.
Did some measuring today to quantify the backlash with the new leadscrews.
As near as I can tell I now have 0.0015" backlash in the new gantry leadscrews. If it does not change I am happy as that is approaching the limit of a single nut on a ball screw. :-)
I also measured the backlash on the rack. I measure that at 0.0015" also. I think that also is acceptable.
I have one other thing to look at. I measured flex in the Z axis of about 0.030" mostly in one direction. This is in the X direction. I can see this may cause some issues in cutting on size. I have noticed this seems to be manifested in some pocketing I have been doing. At first I thought the machine was not calibrated. But calibration seem to be on.
It may be that I need to adjust some of the v groove rollers.
Dave
Last edited by dfmiller; 10-11-2011 at 01:05 AM.
Reason: Terrible spelling