Dave
way to go, Progress

I would route a 10 inch square and measure it

Happy Hunting
archie

Yes. Good idea. I am going to do that next. Then check the accuracy. Got to go climb a little this weekend with the sun showing up. Thanks.

next i would route a ten inch circle those should be really telling
archie

No, to get gantry square you must cut square as big as is possible. On bigger one you find errors more easylly.

Okay I used a 49 x 48 x 3/4 piece mdf for a temporary spoil board. . I squared the front with the gantry using a 1/4 inch endmill.. Then setup a cut file to square it all the way around to 48x48 it traveled 3 sided with slight removal on 1 corner. I ended up with a 48 x 47 7/8 square. Found 1 high spot on the bed on one side. Cut a 12x12 square. cut fine the piece was just under 12 inches square. Next time I allow offset 1/8 inch. Setup to cut 48 x 48 x 1 inch piece of Extira. (About the same as mdf)) Both motor on x axis sheared the allen key and started turning free. I used titebond on them when I tightened. I will remove and add keyed shafts and gears.

Thumb rule on cnc build is what joint is suspicious, that will one day make problems.
http://www.mechmate.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5626. Good is that it came out on testing, not by ruining some expensive material.

I know. I read, and read. I knew that people had, had problems. I got over excited to see it moving.

I moved you to MechMates Already Cutting!

So you say your table stripped both x axis set screws?

Make sure the hole on the gear truly matches the shaft size.

Also make sure your springs are not too tight and creating to much resistance.

Thanks. I am working to get the geared motors now. I am sure, once I get my motors geared and tuned correctly, all will be well. I am just happy as heck I was able to get this far, with as little experience at building I have.

What I am going to do to fix my allen screw problem, is drill slightly into the shaft on the square, a small hole. I am going to use longer allen set srews to prevent slippage. Note to self: Next time buy the stepper motors, and gears with keyed shafts.

It wont work. You may try fix screw on round side. How tight are gears on shaft? Can you install them with bare hands? If they are too loose you may try fix them with glue. Loctite 648 for example.

The gears are pretty snug on the shaft. I was able to get one side off easy. The other one I used a brass punch and put the shaft in the vise to beat it out. It had a groove made around it. I used Loctite on them when I put them on.
I was probably moving to hard, and fast against 1 inch material with the smaller router.
But it didn't break the bit...

Dont use beating and steppers in one sentence. It does not end well. Use puller.

Ha! No it might not. I did not have small pullers.

Is there anyone on here, that cuts 1" and 1.25" Extira on a regular basis, with a MechMate? I cut between 100-300 sheets a year. Just wondering.

Okay 2 -3 days of learning. Apparently during the motor deal, I damaged one of the drives through feedback without blowing a fuse. Support is great there. They are going to look at it and repair. The drives tech manual has a good flowchart and easy to follow.

If anyone is using the PMDX134 board, and experience problems, that do not make sense. Replace the 25 pin ribbon cable. Maybe it will solve your problems, as it did mine.
I believe this, to also be the reason the slaved motors on my X Axis acted strange and as so caused the pinion gear to come loose. Now everything fine.

Glad to hear that you isolated your issue! That is a strange problem for sure. So you are planning to continue with direct drive now that you fixed them?

No sir. I think I want to go with geared steppers now. I also am going to add the smooth stepper. (Because that fast movement, back to zero scares the ^v^ out of me.).

Thanks for this tip. Saved me from pulling my hair out.

Here is a video from Oriental Motors, concerning cooling fans over
electrical components. Some might find useful.
https://www.orientalmotor.com/coolin...6-b0ca66b72420

2.2 Kw Spindle Finally
 

Just got a 2.2 kw water cooled spindle and vfd for an upgrade. The Porter Cable worked fine for plywood and long curves. We'll see how it goes.
Happy Turkey Day to all tomorrow.

Installed one of them not long ago.
Bit of a trial but it is working now.
Make sure you use shielded cable.
Have fun.

And put that VFD on separate grounded metal box. It generates huge amount RF noise. If i open my VFD (of course when spindle is running) enclosure door, then computer keyboard what is about 50cm of VFD stops working.

Thank you for the pointers Al and Ivo. I ordered robotics grade cable for the VFD to motor, and I am going to mount the VFD in a panel.

Mike, hope all is well your way. I see the tornado damage, around you is terrible.

2.2kw spindleupdate
 

The spindle, I got online works well. It has out performed the 7518 Porter Cable significantly. A little hassle learning to solder the connection, to the motor, and wire the VFD, but not a large learning curve. Now less dust and noise, has made a big difference over the last few months cutting.

+1 on the spindle.
I installed one last year, very happy with it.

Updating Control Panel
 

Installing a new control panel, I got from Mike.
Purchased a set of Drill Hog Bits off ebay, to drill the holes.
So far so good. Looks way better than the 12x16x8 I had on it.:D

Looking good, Davey. I have the same enclosure from Mike. I went with some massive heat sinks and internal fans, with no intake or exhaust ports, but I think I may have to add ports for fresh air. Im able to keep the driver temps below 50C with everything buttoned up, but it will drop by 13C if I crack the door. Just not getting quite enough thermal transfer through the enclosue walls. Did you put any filtration on the intake side?

Ted