Ya matt - i read on some page that u folks were working to get some sort of software for cabinet making - could you kindly pass on the information to us Mechmaters - may be we can also add on to our business portfolio :)

Inspirational Matt great photos and great progress!! cannot wait to see it making some dust.
Cheers
Tony.

Well i have my table zipping around but i haven't made any dust yet as i have an issue with my smoothstepper and the spindle. I'm having the same issue as here. Table moves fine, but as soon as i fire up the spindle, Mach3 loses comms with the SS. Makes it hard to cut anything :(

I don't have a parallel cable handy so i can't try control with the parallel port. I put all my faith in the smoothstepper but i think i might ditch it now.

Hey Irfan, sorry, while i'd like to say i wrote some software to make cabinets, thats not the case. Not sure if you're confusing me with someone else maybe? I have helped Rocket out with their V-Carve toolpaths so they resize their profiles to suit different door sizes more easily, but thats about it.

Matt, sorry to hear that you are also having SS problems. My son mostly resolved his problems with wiring changes, but we are not 100% convinced it is all clear now.

Yeah, A CNC router is not the kind of thing you want flakey control. I'm going to take my wiring diagrams into work tomorrow and have our EMC Compliance Engineer have a look at it for me. When ever i have had a problem with other hobby projects he sorts me out with filters, chokes, shielding etc where needed. Hopefully he can point me in the right direction.

But i'm pretty happy with the machine otherwise. Got it up to 40m/min. Didn't try any higher as i didn't have the acceleration set very high and was worried about thumping it into the end stops.

Its all working!
 

Maybe it was a little premature to rat out on the SS.
I went over the earthing strategy with our EMI compliance engineer at work and he gave me a number of things to do. (He wasn't all that impressed with the Chinese VFD) I'm sure i'll get a heap of resistance from you guys for this, but he told me earth the motor & spindle cables braid/shield at the motor end. He says the effect of ground loop is insignificant when compared to the shield acting as a large antenna. Without any disrespect to you guys i'm going with him on this. (He is a well experience EMC/EMI engineer who has all the right equipment to measure this stuff)
In addition to that, he told me to add an EMI filter on the power input to the VFD and a toroidal ferrite on the motor output as pictured below.
Attachment 5686
The IEC cable filter was the only one i could get off the shelf at my local electronics store. I will change this to a normal spade terminal one and neaten the wiring.

But this has fixed my SS problem and i no longer lose comms with it!! It was so much fun driving the table around with the spindle going. I need to finish my water circuit for the spindle but should be cutting in the next couple of days when i get a chance!

Matt, I have also recently started becoming aware of alternative strategies for grounding shields. What is coming through is that power cables (motor or spindle cables) should be grounded both ends, while signal cables (the milliAmp stuff) should be grounded one end only.

We have added ferrite rings on the input and output (2 rings) of our VFD - it is recommended in their handbook. But, what really got our SS going was routing the USB cable far away from anything else.

Anyway, great to hear that you have reliable movement! Now we want reliable sawdust! :)

Its making dust!!
 

Finally today i cranked it all up and had it making dust! :D

It was very satisfying seeing it moving around flicking up dust. I don't have my dust shoe done yet but it will be first on my list of things to do tomorrow.

Here are some final pics. These were taken just before covering the place in dust.
Attachment 5706

Attachment 5707

Attachment 5708

Attachment 5709


So do I get a serial number? :rolleyes: I can't get my decals until monday...

Congratulations Matt. Looks great.

Now the fun bit starts.

And another happy MechMater :)
Congrat Matt….Like many would say, keep those photos coming.
Forecast.... Busy week end ahead for this new happy camper :D

hi matt - congrats

Congrats Matt! I'm so envious of your progress.

You did mention grounding the shield of the motor & spindle on the motor end, motor is the sepper motor? If so, how this ground connect to the earth? Just wan to be sure.

Cheers

Ken

Congrats Matt! I'm so envious of your progress.

You did mention grounding the shield of the motor & spindle on the motor end, motor is the stepper motor and both end grounded? Gerald got me confused, if both ends are grounded, the faraday cage effect will deminish.
If ground on stepper motor end, how this ground connect to the earth? Just wanna to be sure.

Cheers

Ken

Well done and enjoy every minute working with the beast.

Just remember to SURFACE you table.

Good luck

Congrats Matt. Where is the picture of the first cut though? :)

Absolutely beautiful work Matt.

Awesome!!

Well done Matt!

First cuts - dusty machine, dusty room
 

Well, other than trimming the two 6mm MDF boards to square the gantry my first cuts were of a quick and dirty dust show. I read somewhere that someone had a dust shoe with a removable front but ended up not using the front much as it worked just as well without it. At least thats what i though they said. better go back and read that again as that is definately not my experience. Need to get a proper dust shoe fitted quick smart...

Anyway, here's a pic of my first proper project, some toyboxes that are WAY overdue. Here is the first one assembled ready to be pulled apart and painted. Its a toybox/seat. I made one for my daughter earlier in the year on my old machine and have made a few now. The seat lifts up so you can store toys inside.
Attachment 5742

Thanks to everyone for their positive comments and encouragement along the way. Much appreciated!

Matt,
That looks about right! :) just dirty enough
Nicely done.

Matt,
That is a good looking toy box. Congratulations. :)

Matt,
Great looking machine.
Inspiration to the rest here in Oz - need to get mine going:)
regards,
Rick

Hi Matt,
May I ask you an update on your situation with your smoothstepper as you reported in your below post #63 ?
By the look of some work, you’re doing fine !?
Thanks, Robert ;)

Hi Robert,

The EMI filter on the VFD input and the toroidal ferrite on the VFD output to the motor (as pictured in post #67) was all i needed to do to stop the SmoothStepper from losing comms with the PC. I haven't had any issues since. I still want to implement RS-485/MODBUS control of the spindle so that might open another can of worms. I'll let you know how it goes.

Matt, may I ask what wire (1mm sq or 1.5mm sq) are you using? what is the ferrite dimensions and the number of rotations.

RGDS
IRfan

Hi, Matt, Thanks for your follow up.
Yes, please let us know how you’ll be doing with your RS-485 experiment / set-up ?
Amicalement, Robert ;)

Matt

Just an enquirie about the motors. Im thinking about getting these ms motors also, but motor with gearbox 3.6:1. By the looks on the pictures they look great, are they performing good?

thanks
francis

Hi Francis,

They have been great. No complaints here. But i can't talk for the gearbox version. I have heard (not confirmed though) that these motors are the same as the ones sold by Keling in the US. They have the same part numbers and specs minus the 'KL'. As i think i said elsewhere, if you can find someone to share in the shipping cost you will get an even better bargain. But my motors+shipping cost less than the equivalent Keiling motor not even including shipping.
In short, very happy with them.