Thread: New Aussie Build

Greg,

Just a quick question. Im about to order the R&P for the build as im getting the frame done and skimmed in the next day or two(photos will be posted along the way), but i was just curious if the R&P from TEA transmission was already drilled and tapped for mounting or did you have to do that yourself?

Daniel

I did it myself.

Thanks Greg.

Why dont you have a brake on the z axis motor like the big guys use?

niall,

What do you mean by brake? Looking to make this an ultimate machine so any suggestions welcome and ill look into it.

Disappointed atm, wanted to start work on the cnc today but didnt get the channel and such organised. Ah well. Tax will be ready so rails wont be too far off either. Did spend the day findig local supplies for things such as metal primer paint and heavy duty castor wheels cabling etc. Was good. Lots of design work done too. Man, just talking about it is making me gt all worked up, i need to do something to start it. lol.

Daniel

Well,

Finally it begins, the channel has been bought and i've organised to get the channel skimmed to make them perfectly straight. I will need to organise the rest of the steel for the frame but at least its a start.

The second good news is that i have finally got my tax back, which means the rails will be ordered as soon as it clears. I will probably organise the rack and pinion this week too. That way i should have almost the entire main axis complete in a couple of weeks and then i can move onto the gantry.

Greg, witht he rack and pinion what was the mounting depth(or the depth of your tapped holes in the rack?).

Well im really looking forward to getting this machine built. Im sure it will suit my every need...until.....lol. Look forward to recieving alot of encouragment and ideas etc from you all during the build and hopefully i can help out someone else soon too .

Daniel

Daniel

Don't remember. Just so they did not break through the face.

4mm thread. Counterbored from the top so the heads sit flush to top of channel.

Greg

Thanks Greg,

From what i remember you used your mill to do most of the drilling and tapping. I was extremely pleased with the engineering mob locally. They have a huge cnc mill with a 2m long bed, so ill have to try and organise it with the local mob to get them to do it or im gunna be sick of drilling, counterboring and tapping holes. lol.

Daniel

Just another quick question for Rod. I know you had a post on this forum somewhere with the details to a place to get the drivers, is it possible to post here again? Its just i cant seem to find it anywhere (probably looked over it 100 times) and when i get to that point it would be easier if it was altogether.

Thanks in advance,
Daniel

Here you go
http://www.ms-motor.com/HB1.htm
I think given the better performance of the Geckos I am going to get them next time.

Thanks Rod,

Yeah i'd love to buy all geckos, but i will need 5 drivers as i also have a 4th axis and the price difference between keling and geckos alone is enough to put me off. All depends on the motor size i end up using i guess tho. If i dont need excessive amperage i might look at the new geckos that were on special. Only problem/question is that i rmember reading a while back that anything over 1/4 stepping causes loss of steps or jumping, and the G251 are set to 10 microsteps. Does gecko drivers have a better control and eliminate this?

Daniel

Hi Daniel,
I haven't got or used Geckos yet and I am going by the experiences Greolt and others are discovering.
There is a bit of mis-information out there and I have been running all my machines on 1/8 step for three years. I think the people that say don't use anything more than 1/4 step have actually got problems with their machines like binding. I tried 1/4 step once and the axis became very lumpy at lower speeds compared to what I was used to so I went back to 1/8 step.
Geckos seem to have it all worked out and have a very smooth pulse which combined with morphing (love that terminology ) the pulse to single step at the higher speeds.
If you interface thorugh a smoothstepper USB then you probably have the ultimate driver technology that is available now. As you rightly say the downside is the price difference.

Rod,

Thanks for clearing that up. Either way i go, i will be buying the smooth stepper board and then after that i might use my old 4axis hobbycnc(forget about 4th axis for now) until i save enough money for geckos. I know for a start that keling would be another step furthur than hobbycnc boards but i do want this to be the best possible machine i can build. Again i will have to think about what size steppers i should use and go off that. Either way i think they will be pretty close to the last thing(other than a proper spindle) that i will buy for this machine. Time to sell more gear to pay for it all. lol.

Thanks again,
Daniel

Greg,

Just a quick one, the width(face width) of the mod 1 rack from tea, is that 15mm? Also how far is the rack on yours from the edge of the channel. Im going to pay and get all the holes drilled and tapped with the cnc on the rails and the holes spotted for the rack. So just need some info to give me an idea how ill mount it. Also how many teeth were on your pinion?

Daniel