My First Router

[rmtucker]

Well slow going in this area but should be able to drive the x axis at the beginning of next week.Just adding carriage to drive the x axis just the nut holders to make.

[rmtucker]

Hi all

Been a little busy lately so have not been able to update you much on progress.Well all was going well till this afternoon when testing the z axis,When BANG!!!! the motor cable got caught in the z axis and sheared right through it.Result was one blown Gecko 210 (Bollocks!!!!!).Short of getting on my hands and knees to my wife for another £150.0 thing will be on hold for a while.
Well i suppose i'll have plenty of time to post some piccy's and updates now.

Mark

[Marc Soren]

Mark
This Marc would be happy to help get another gecko for you.
They run about 89 quid instead of 150 you mentioned. (I don't have a pound key!)
I am not a dealer & I'm sure others would help as well. I used to send audio circuits to a bloke north of London and it worked rather well. All on the up and up.

We appreciate the high quality pictures you send. Very posh.
Can't wait to see the next installment.

Marc and the boyz

[ger21]

You can probably get it repaired by Gecko for a lot less than replacing it.

Gerry

[Cameron]

Very nice table. If you don’t mind me asking, how much has this cost you to date?

[balsaman]

I would contact Geckodrive and see what they say about getting it repaired. They are very good about these things.

Eric

[Marc Soren]

Mark

What are the specs on your lead screws and the nuts?

Marc

[rmtucker]

Hi all

I have already been in touch with marris at geckodrive and he has offered to repair the busted 210 if it is repairable free of charge.If not he has offered to replace the sorry item free of charge if i give him an explanation and the heart wrenching details of how it happened, Marris has a large heart when it comes to poor machine builders like myself.
Many thanks Marris !!

As for the cost to date,i'm not exactly sure but i would reckon about £1500.00 when all 5 geckos are fitted.

The leadscrews are just 16mm*4mm pitch rolled trapezoidal form,and the nuts are matching phospher bronze which i have modified for anti backlash adjustment,this enables me adjust backlash in .01 mm steps.I will over the next few days post some photos of my progress and more detailed photographs of antibacklash adjusters and the new control (minus the blown gecko) and the limit and ref switches that i'm on fitting to the z axis.

Mark

[balsaman]

I too ruined a drive which Geckodrive repaired for free. They go above and beyond IMHO.

Eric

[cbcnc]

Mark,

Sorry to hear of your woes. You have a nice looking machine that appears to be excellently engineered and built.
I would be interested in seeing how you are mounting your limit and home switches as I am doing the same thing on my machine. I seem to have alot of questions on how to do it without problems. But that is the last thing for me to do before I'm running it.

Chris

[rmtucker]

Well

After some initial problems with the z axis and the blown Gecko,things are starting to move again.The z axis was just not physicaly strong enough or straight enough using the configuration shown in the attatched photo.So i completely stripped the axis down and rebuilt with the following changes.

1. The 16mm linear rails are now bolted along their length on to a u channel which runs up the centre and the closed linear bearings have been changed to the open type.This has effectively made the axis stronger by 10 fold.when squaring the axis up i now only get a .02mm error from top to bottom in both directions which even if i do say so is not bad for a machine completely made from scratch except for the linear bearings.

2. Have added an extra microswitch for a seperate homing.which means that homing and limits are now seperate.

3.In process of adding the switchbox for router supply and cmm probe connection.Which the energy chain for the z axis will also fasten to.

I will post a picture in the morning of the z axis with the above changes to clarify what i have done.

[Hardway]

This is an awesum project.
I would like to do the same. and I will be reading
these posts for more info on the electronics parts of the design, because thats the area that I know little about.

Scott Bond

[rmtucker]

Here we go!!!

Here is the next instalment as promised.Please if Admin Gets sick of my bombardment of photographs just shout stop.
First photo is of the z axis mod i talked about last night.

[rmtucker]

Next Picture is of z axis guarding.

[rmtucker]

Z axis guards and y axis guards

[rmtucker]

I had to modify these switches as follows.The older photographs of these only showed 2 switches for shared limits and reference.But after more info i decided to seperate the ref and limits so a 3rd switch was added to the bottom.Sorry about the quality of this photo but i,m lying on the machine for this one.

[rmtucker]

This one is only part filled with geckos but all the wires and clamps are in ready to take them.The white patch you see on the left is the missing Gecko that i 'buggered'.Marris has just informed me that it should be on its way back fully repaired free of charge.I can not thank Marris Freemanis enough for his help on this one and would recommend Gecko's to anybody as there after sales service is second to none.If you take note that there is spaces for 5 axis in the box,So i have a long haul yet.Power supply is 70v @ 22 amps which should drive the 5 Gecko's without a problem.

Mark

Is everybody sick of my photo Bombardment yet ????????

[balsaman]

Nice unit. You have a machine shop in that garage somewhere??



Eric

[kong]

What Balsaman said! The quality of craftsmanship on your machine is astounding.

[rmtucker]

Hi Guys

No Machine shop at home,But shhhh!!! I work permanent nights in a cnc machine shop.Thanks for the encouragement guys i think this project may just get completed.unlike some others i have done over the years.Teee Heeee!

I am fitting the energy chains for the cabling over the next few days to prevent an occurance of the earlier unfortunate accident with the gecko.Bit like bolting the stable door after the horse has bolted but let this be a lesson to others,Untidy wiring and practices usually lets the smoke out of something.

Mark