New XYZ Gantry Kit

[dfmiller]

This is the section I used for my table top.


Drilled and countersunk the material today and mounted it.

The Z just touches the table. when I add the spoil board or vacuum table I will lose some Z travel. I have 8" so I can lose some.
I had to dial in the holes. It looks like the extrusion for the top was about 0.040" longer than the specified 36".
One step closer to finished.

[boblon]

Hey Dave, I must adimit you were showing a lot more restraint than I would have when you were waiting for parts, I'd of wanted to keep going. I guess your restraint ran out

Anyhow, it's hard to tell from the pics (scale and all), but does the moving Z plate and single spindle/router attachment seem rigid enough?

I'm thinking of when that plate is hanging 5 - 6 inches below the gantry beam, moving along the X axis hogging out material.

Looking good though.

BobL.

[dfmiller]

Bob,
It's so hard seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and not running.
I also was waiting for some parts such as T nuts for limit switches. They have arrived. Other than the parts from XYZ I need the 8mm Z limit that was shipped a couple of weeks ago.

Next step is to get the limits working. That means terminating the limits into a DB15HD connector.

On the Z axis. I don't think the is any chance of flex there. The Z slide is very thick. I think at least 1/2" if not 3/4". I will try to do a quick measure. The spindle I have is ER20. That limits the size of cutter. The 24k RPM should still make lots of chips. ;-)
Dave

[boblon]

Yeah, I can well imagine Dave.

Glad to hear the Z plate is solid enough.

I'm jealous of your spindle. Would like to get one. Do you have the VFD and pump stuff all figured out?

You should get some great cuts and produce some really nice stuff on that machine.

BobL.

[dfmiller]

On the Y due to the ways parts are made I was not able to get the prox lined up with the T slot.

Sensing distance on Prox is 2mm.

I turned up some button out of some 1" steel stock I had.


That seemed to do the trick.


I was able to use some 1/4-20 SHCS for flags on Z


Once I got all the directions figured out it seems to 'REF All" properly.

On to Motor Mount. There was a mis-communication on spindle Diameter so I have a temporary one that I will use.

Time to mount and figure out VFD.

Getting closer I can almost taste the sawdust in my teeth. ;-)

[WillsCNC]

Looks good Dave, keep us posted. Will

[boblon]

Looking good Dave.

Have you gotten your replacement parts yet?

BobL.

[mmcp42]

first off - terrific looking piece of kit you have there

I do have a question/concern, though

if I read your picture correctly - the actuator is heading towards the sensor
if it correctly stops the motion then fine
but what happens if it doesn't?
won't it just smash into the sensor destroying everyhting in its path?

cheers
Mike

[restless1]

looks can be deceiving i bet its just a mil off the top of the metal

[dfmiller]

Still waiting for new ball nut Bob:-( Friday if I am lucky.
One the prox switches the pictures are deceiving. There is at least 1 mm clearance. The prox passes over the metal flag(screw head) they sense a gap less than 2mm on the larger ones an 1.5 mm on the smaller Z axis. In testing I have run past the limits and all that happens is you stall the motors:-)
I don't have the motors tuned up so. Hope that it stays that way once I get them screaming.

Dave

[dfmiller]

I have the new ball nut but dont have it installed yet. Spent the weekend doing some wiring to support the new machine. Wired up a power distribution box on the machine with breakers for 220V VFD and 110V for the control box and the PC. A single 220V cord is the plugged into to 30A 220 dryer plug.

I need to sort out the cable for the VFD to Spindle and the cooling. I think I will work on that until i run into a roadblock then replace the Ballnut.

Dave

[boblon]

Well Dave, I hope you are well pleased when you get this beast working as they did a pre-authorization on my credit card so my order is officially in work. Now the waiting begins.

BobL.

[dfmiller]

Bob,
That cool.
The wait begins. :-)
Finding cable for my VFD to spindle is turning out more difficult than I expected. With any luck I will nail down a source today. Either I am rather dim or getting all the information together was a bigger exercise than I expected.

Here are all the variables.

Wire size for motor. The motor documentation does not quote the current draw. With some digging I am satisfied it's 8A. Would be nice if either the motor or the documents would have it listed.

What size wire will the motor connector take? This is a 2 part question.
The solder cups on the connector will take a 0.065" drill. That is #14AWG.
The cable clamp on the motor connector will take a max cable diameter of 0.350".

Now that I have well the variables let's try to solve the problem.
Source of cable.
I made some phone calls and some Internet searching.
Seems there are 4 sources.
Igus , SABcable, Lapp and Beldon, I was able to locate local distributors. Bu no local stock.
What size and part number?
The 0.350" diameter seems to be the limiting variable. That's #18 4 conductor with a shield in several of the brands. Will fit both the solder cups and the cable clamp. What the current rating? Not specified in online documentation but several of the vendors claim 10A.
SABcable rep was suggesting their VFD Lean cable is not well suited to constant flexing. Seems strange to me that a VFD /servo cable would not be designed to run in a cable tray.

Sorry for the run on but I did not find a single post that discussed this.

So for a 2.2Kw water cooled spindle a #18 AWG (1.0mm2) VFD cable should fit and be properly sized.

Now I wait for a call back on how long it will take to get some shipped into our backwater.

Dave

[boblon]

Can't really help you much on this Dave. I don't know how many conductors you need but a quick search did turn up this page:

Multi-Conductor Shielded Cables

As far as the cable clamp goes, I would think that would be easy to work around, as long as the cable is secured.

Good Luck.

[dfmiller]

Bob,
Thanks for the link.
After a whole bunch of searching and a lot of thinking I ended up ordering some Chainflex 35
http://www.igus.de/iPro/iPro_01_0013....htm?c=GB&l=en
I really wanted the Chainflex 31 but not North American stock.

Another one I considered was VFD Lean TR from SAB Cable which looked really good until I chatted with the rep who said it was not supposed to be used in a dynamic application.

Cable was OK in price department but the shipping was brutal.
My goal is to have this machine running before I head to the CNC workshop in Ann Arbor later this month. Slow boat shipping would not let that happen.

My spindle needs 3 plus a ground.

Thanks for your interest Bob.

Dave

[boblon]

That's good Dave. I guess I do need to consider the fact that cables will be subject to much more motion than on my homebuilt MDF moving table machine.

Honestly I don't think I would have considered it a big concern, but I might if I had spent a fair ammount of cash on a spindle/VFD.

It is truly amazing the ammount of collective knowledge on this site. Then again I am not a machinist (or anything related) by trade, just a hobby hacker at this stuff.

I learn something everytime I visit this site and I'm constantly made aware of how little I know about this stuff.

Have fun at the conference. Is your company sponsoring you?

BTW, I grew up on the edge of Detroit, a few blocks from Dearborn.

BobL.

[dfmiller]

Bob,
Yes this is a great place to learn things. I do every day.
I have an interest in things EMC so I get rather excited about finding and installing the right cable.
I am going to the CNC workshop as a hobbyist. I am my only sponsor. It's a great bunch of people and a topic I enjoy. My wife is joining me and we are going to visit my parents for a couple of days on either end.
On the bright side my cable might arrive today. It looks like Igus got it shipped out yesterday. :-)
Dave

[dfmiller]

Getting down to the short strokes.
Got the VFD hooked up to spindle. I have it almost talking perfectly with Mach 3 and Smoother stepper. Still have some tuning to do to get full speed.

Still have to find a circulation pump and hook up the water. It does not seem to run warm if its just sitting running at 24K not cutting.

Last big thing to do is change out ball nut. It's scheduled for tomorrow. My daughter promises to give me a hand. Its a 3 handed job for sure.

I will try to take some pictures tomorrow, might even have a video of it cutting. ;-)

Dave

[boblon]

Sweet Dave.

Looking forward to the video of this beast in action

BobL.

[WillsCNC]

Hi Dave,

Ready to see it in action.

Will