Thanks Irfan, It may not be running soon considering it took 2 days to do just the rollers. And i don't want it to be as i am enjoying every bit :)

Electronics is my hobby, but still do small one off uC based development if someone asks me in free time.

Irfan, is the gas spring available easily. Where you got yours, cost/ part number etc. ?, thanks

Anil - I just put a normal spring just INR 35 - working great for me

Picked a 19"x4"x3/8" tool steel piece for making z-slide.
Attachment 6940

Tried using normal HSS endmill and within one minute the bit was gone. There was no other way than to use carbide for this so made this flycutter with carbide insert i had and it worked :)
Attachment 6944
First surfaced both sides with shims wherever needed.
Attachment 6942
Chips are very very hot and burn everything it touches !!
Attachment 6941
Next pass, surfaced both sides, directly bolting plate to mill bed.
Attachment 6943

Somehow in photo the marks are highlighted but actually the surface is smooth.

Next is squaring the plate sides !! Can anyone suggest how to do that as i don't have any clue on how to clamp the plate on sides ?

Till I find a way to clamp the plate on side, i need to move on to other thing :)

Made eccentric bushings and prepared pinion gears.
Attachment 6938
Attachment 6939

Forgot something, the plate thickness after milling both side is 8mm. I assume it good to be more than 6mm ?? please correct me if i am wrong, thanks

good progress anil

Progress with belt reduction
 

Made parts for reduction, Chopper's version, thanks Chopper :o
Attachment 6953

Checking for fit, everything looks fine till now..
Attachment 6952

Don't have a welder right now, so making all the parts ready till i am ready to borrow or buy one.

By the way, 2 slots for motor mounts are missing as the milling bit broken (already one drill bit and two milling bits are gone), need to learn a lot more about !!

Hi Anil,

Vow fast progress,
If you are using these steppers, then these are only about 300 oz-in (2.5V-4.6A).
HSS bits even doesn't work on MDF, no match for carbide. I am using all carbide bits.

Great job Anil !

Thanks Leo :)

Yes Sharma, the one seen in picture is about 300 Oz-in but I am not going to use it on X/Y axis (may be Z only). Below is the one I am going to use for X/Y.
Attachment 6954

Anyhow, I have these so i am just going to use them and later replace them for better performance if needed.

Nothing interesting to report this time as I am in the process between BBB (Beg/Borrow/Buy) for the welder. So to kill time, browsed through plans again and found missing parts that I could do and then assembled & tested motor drive.
Attachment 6959

One drive tested ..
Attachment 6957

Worked without smoke so started assembling more of them ..
Attachment 6958
Five more in the making, total 6 as I make smoke sometime :)

Anil,
You are making your own drives. Nice. Did you do the board layout yourself?

What's the total cost of one driver ?
As far as welding is concerned ? I got cheap welder at INR 1800 and learned welding, and my MM is still holding :)

Next is squaring the plate sides !! Can anyone suggest how to do that as i don't have any clue on how to clamp the plate on sides ?

I have a suggestion, drill and attach your tube to the back of the plate
and then put the tube in the vise and machine the sides....I think that would make it easy to do and keep things square since you could machine both sides with out taking it out of the vise....
thanks for the shout out about the belt drives...
//chopper

Are those LM18200 H-bridges on that driver? Of the 55V 3A limit variety?

Ah cool, all this time i was only thinking how to get the plate held vertically, never thought it could be milled sideways in horizontally as well (though I did that few times it didn't clicked this time), so dumb of me :p

Those are LMD18245, yes same 55V 3A .

Heath, I did the layout myself (in Eagle) as I wanted single sided boards.

Z-plate squared and drilled
 

Initially thought I'll be working only weekends on MM but I find myself working a bit almost daily after getting back from work :) must be addiction sort of .. Finally squared all edges of z plate today
Attachment 6970
DRO to rescue for drilling ..
Attachment 6971
Drilling complete, 2 dowel holes are drilled 5.5 mm and reamed to 6mm
Attachment 6972

Gerald, my plate thickness is little more than 8mm, is it better/worse than standard 6mm ? If needed i can skim/grind the face opposite to countersunk to get it to correct thickness. Thanks

the thickness of the plate wont matter as long as the angles on the side are ground or machined to the correct angle so the V wheels fit that is all that matters.
//chopper

Thanks Chopper, for that matter it applies to all rails not just z-plate. As we are on this I have another doubt about grinding using skates, if the grinding plates are not bent to correct angle the final output is going to suffer ? I am not yet on that stage but I don't find any discussion on setting the angle correctly !! or it does not matter somehow ?

there are several ways to do it, you can use a scrap piece and check the angle,
or you can grind the rails and check the angle as you go ( you will be making many passes to get to the end so you will have time to make adjustments as you go ) and adjust the angle to match your wheels, either way will work, also if the angle is not exactly the same as the wheels it wont be a big deal as long as they are consistently the same over the length of the rails, but the closer to the correct angle the better...when grinding what I did was set the grinder up and take a pass of each side of the rail to form the V and then adjust the height and repeat, you will see the V start to form
and when it gets large enough you can set one of your wheels on the rail to check the angle, then you keep grinding until you have about .020 thousands of an inch flat left on the top of the rails you will need to check the specs on that number to be sure I am going by memory and I could be wrong on the .020
//chopper

Thanks, so the way is to adjust as you go and visually. I thought there was a was to do it instrumentally that I might have been missing :)

Chopper what do you mean by ".020 thousands of an inch" !! that seems to be nothing (.02 / 1000 = 0.00002 inch), maybe a typo, I'll check it while I am at that step. Thanks again

you will need to check that measurement in the plans I thought it was .020 ( this is the flat on the top of the rail not the angles you will be grinding you do not grind the rails to a complete point)
but it could be .040 or so....
also if you are using the skate that comes with the laser cut kit which is the same one I used there are adjusting screws on the skate to adjust the angle.
I measured mine visually, but if you have an instrument to measure the angles with I would use that. it has been a while since I built my machine and I cannot remember the angle I think it was 90 degrees if that is the case you can measure it with a square, or you could make up a measuring device of your own but it still ends up being a visual thing, and that is why I used the V wheels
//chopper

Thanks chopper, yes it make sense to use roller for checking.
Made last part for belt drive, the shaft and tested for fit (don't have welder yet so just clamped together everything), everything seems to fit nicely.
Attachment 6996
Note : the motor in pic is just for tests and not going to use for MM :)

looking good.....
I tried to make the design simple so it is easy to build,
looks like you have it mastered, I am interested in feed back when you are done on the belt drives to see how you like their performance.
//chopper

I haven't them welded yet !! I feel these are going to work fine chopper. I am sure going to report the outcome.

Something to keep me busy weekend- Steel
 

Ordered the steel for table today and going to get it tomorrow so as to keep me busy this weekend.
All steel is uncut, full lengths of 20 feet except main beams (3"x8") because those were only available in 40 feet a length.

My plan is to cut it using chopsaw or cutoff wheels with grinder. Lets see if that's achievable or I have to get someone with flame cutter later.

With this the real fun begins and the part I am most afraid of ..

Tried to assemble the grinding jig but the wheel does not fit, its too big ! My grinder is 5", is the jig designed for only 4" grinder ? Am i not doing it correctly or do I rush for a 4" grinder :confused:
Attachment 7013
Attachment 7012

I knew it, this part is not fun !! :p

After looking at related threads, realized my mistake. The jig will only take 4.5" grinder !! Tomorrow go and search for 4.5" grinder.