My third build, all steel this time!

[lael]

I decided to stay with steppers because of the cost associated with the gear reduction needed for the servos. I pretty much stayed with the original setup plans.

Here's what I ended up buying:

1-Ethernet Smooth Stepper
1-PMDX-126 breakout board
1-PMDX-107 speed control
4-Gecko G201x stepper drivers
1-Power supply: 48v, 21A to power the stepper motors made by Mean Well from Jameco.com. It is the same one cncrp sells but was cheaper from jameco.
1-5v, 3A power supply to power the ESS, the PMDX-126 breakout board doesn't supply enough power for both the ESS and the PMDX-107
1-24v 5A that is used to power the air solenoid that I used for the dust skirt.
4 Steppers NEMA 34 960oz from cncrouterparts.com
4KW air cooled Chinese spindle and Huanyang VFD off eBay, they came as a set.

I had a spreadsheet with all the components and all hardware that I have purchased but I lost it when my SSD died a few weeks ago. I had a lot of work in that spread out over the last couple of years.

I have cut aluminum and it does it well but I am somewhat limited by the spindle I have. Because of the high speed and low torque I am limited to smaller cutters. The spindle manufacturer doesn't recommend running the spindle below 8000rpm, I think this is for cooling reasons. I may be able to use it as slower speeds by adding an external cooling fan instead of the shaft mounted fan. I have ran the spindle as slower and as slow as 100rpm while messing around but it wouldn't have near enough torque to cut at low speeds. A small router bit made for aluminum such as the "O" flute cutters from Onsrud, Vortex and Amana cut beautifully but an average HSS or carbide endmill typically used for cutting aluminum on a milling machine doesn't work so well. I haven't tried thick steel and probably won't try it at least on purpose. I have cut 1/4" MDF that was laminated with 28ga steel made for magnetic dry erase marker boards. I used a 3 flute cutter from Vortex that they recommended. The bit is normally used on phenolics and hard plastics. Cutting speed is important when cutting metals so you don't overheat the cutter, faster shallower cuts are usually better. The spindle I have will not work for thick steel no matter what cutters I use but according to the stiffness calculators I used the rest of the router should be up for some light cutting of steel with the appropriate chip load.

Fluxion,

Love your build! looks immaculate. A couple of questions from a newbie:
- how did you decide on the steppers you bought? What cutting speeds / torque will they give you?
- what stiffness calculators did you use to figure out if you could cut steel? and what sort of spindle would you need?

[onecut]

Fluxion,


Can you tell me the size of your z axis, the width and thickness?The Alum. plate.

[Fluxion]

Lael, Thanks! Since I already had purchased the rack and pinion drives from CNCrouterparts.com I went ahead and bought their NEMA 34 steppers. They are a really good match for the reduction belt drives. As far as cutting speeds, so far I haven't cut much faster than 300 IPM. I kind of hit the limit of the router bits and the 18000 rpm spindle. I can set the cnc router to rapid at well over 2000 ipm but i have the X and Y axis limited to 1000 ipm. The Z is limited at 500 ipm, its plenty fast. I did get a combined X and Y move at close to 3000IPM but when braking it made a horrible noise, its way to fast for this small of a machine.

The calculators I used can be found here:
DMaliky's Rail stiffness calculator post #27 http://www.cnczone.com/forums/diy-cn...d-posts-3.html
RouterCNC's machine stiffness calculator cnc machine stiffness calculator

As far as a spindle for cutting steel you would need something more like a milling machine with some sort of speed reduction. We have a great section on metal working machines here at the zone, you should check it out.


Onecut, the Z axis plate is 8" wide and 3/4" thick Mic6 tool plate.

[onecut]

Fluxion,

Can I ask you one more question? What is the model number of your Hiwin?
I found some on ebay some are c class but just not sure on witch one, ca, za, there's alot. My grantry is about same weight as yours.

[Fluxion]

Fluxion,

Can I ask you one more question? What is the model number of your Hiwin?
I found some on ebay some are c class but just not sure on witch one, ca, za, there's alot. My grantry is about same weight as yours.

The rails are HGR20 and the carriages are HGH20CA

[onecut]

Fluxion,

I think you bought the pro rack + pinion drive kit from CNCRouterParts, the alum. pivot block that mounts it to the router, did it come with it or did you make it?
Also what size ball screw are you using.

How is your cnc doing, are you happy with the hole setup of the machine?

[Fluxion]

Fluxion,

I think you bought the pro rack + pinion drive kit from CNCRouterParts, the alum. pivot block that mounts it to the router, did it come with it or did you make it?
Also what size ball screw are you using.

How is your cnc doing, are you happy with the hole setup of the machine?

I'm very happy with the machine! Yes, I did buy the pro rack and pinion reduction drives from CNC Router parts but I bought the gear racks straight from Moore Gear. I made the pivot blocks myself and the ballscrew is a SF2010, that's 20mm diameter and 10mm pitch.

[onecut]

I'm very happy with the machine! Yes, I did buy the pro rack and pinion reduction drives from CNC Router parts but I bought the gear racks straight from Moore Gear. I made the pivot blocks myself and the ballscrew is a SF2010, that's 20mm diameter and 10mm pitch.

Thanks Fluxion,

Is there a reason you didn't go with cncrouterparts gear racks?

[Fluxion]

Thanks Fluxion,

Is there a reason you didn't go with cncrouterparts gear racks?

CNC Router Parts racks are only 37" long and I didn't want screw around splicing the racks, besides they cost less. I would have had to buy 5 pieces from CNCRP to get enough for my router, about $285 plus shipping. Moore Gear sent me three 73" long pieces for $162.65 shipped but I did have to add my own mounting, the CNCRP racks do have a mounting flange.

[Fluxion]

I don't have any new updates to the machine itself, I have stalled on the construction of the control center. I have been using the router however. I wish I had a good video camera but here are a few still shots of what I have been working on the last couple weeks.

This first pic is of a ceiling panel that is to be installed in a recess above a dining room table. It matches what I made for the same house about 7 or 8 years ago on my first cnc router built from Solsylva plans. I'll throw in a pic of that Sosylva router for grins. I have some other pics posted here on the zone somewhere. On this panel I cut the 3d rosette with a model bought from Vector Art 3D, Inc. - Dimensional Clip Art for CNC Routing and Engraving I also cut the backer pieces from 3/4" birch plywood as seen in the second pic as well as the curved sections of library molding and the raised panels. I made the raised panels on the CNC router instead of running them through the shaper because I was lazy. The shaper cutter is a custom ground set of knives for an insert shaper head that I ground for this house 8 years ago and they are dull. The router made them in less time than sharpening the cutters and setting them up in the head.







The next 5 pics are of a shuffle board table I built last week. The wood is quarter sawn white oak, I cut all the side panels, leg sides and the lions heads on the CNC router.











The lion head model was purchased off eBay as pictured below but I modified it for this project. Below is a pic of the original model so you can see what I changed.



I was rushed for time so I didn't get take enough pics or get much for video. All I have is a short 15 second video that I sent my sister when she texted me wanting to know what I was doing. It's very poor quality and not really worth posting.

[Khalid]

Awesome...great job you have done man..love it a lot...

[AhmedAlKttawy]

Great job, Thank you Fluxion

[nlancaster]

Need to get this fantastic build up and running!