Professional tools, professional work! Looking great Steve.

Thanks guys :)

I am working hard to make this machine the best it can be... Gerald allowing me to place the Mech Mate Decals on this machine is an honor and the craftsmanship needs to be something he would be proud of.

Working on the car and spider now...
 

I have all the parts for the table cut but I am a little short on space so I though I would finish up all the small things before I assemble the table...

Been welding on the spider...

Attachment 8675

Attachment 8676
After letting everything cool down I placed the spider on my surface plate to check for twist... I spent about 20 minutes filing the posts so that they all touched the surface plate.. It's as close as I am going to be able to make it :)
Attachment 8677

The car is all welded up and ready for painting ..

Attachment 8678

Looking Good Steve!

Steve your work is inspiring! thanks for posting pics :)
I haven't read the whole thread but what is the purpose of the rectangular standoffs on the spider?
oh and I like the custom cuts on the ends of your X beams... looks like some of the trellises I have built.

Thanks John :)

The rectangular blocks are there for mounting the dust collector. I noticed that Gerald had add them to a spider shown in one of the threads and thought it was a darn good idea. Doing it now will make it easy to add some kind of bracket for the dust pipe later on..

Time for an update...
 

As usual life keeps getting in my way :) Having to work 70 hour weeks and trying to fit in time for building the machine is tough right now so I have been making little progress..

BUT there is progress!

Attachment 9175

Been working on all the little assemblies and making all the adjustments to make them work smoothly..

Had a few clearance issues on the spider and the stiffener for the Z Plate. The stop tab on the spider was just a little angled and it dug into the paint. A few minutes with a file took care of that and I'll repaint the stiffener when I touch everything up...
Attachment 9174
Also had to add a spacer to make the gear drive mount bolt on.. I made it out of a slick plastic so it should be strong and let it pivot easily..

The Spider is mounted in the car and everything is adjusted and working well now...

Attachment 9173

I have been getting all the parts together for the electronics.. Power supply, BOB and 203's are here.. Working on the list for the buttons and all the other assorted contacts.. Been reading too much and getting confused so I'll post my list soon and ask you guys to double check it for me :)

Steve,
I know a little about 70 hour work weeks. :) What line of work are you in?

Website Desiger/ Home Builder / Paramedic In that order now. The 48 hours on an ambulance and all the other stuff was killing me so I have cut back to just the 70 hours :)

The first big order of control box parts arrived today from FactoryMation... I already had the bob , 203's and power supply so this was all the other stuff...

Attachment 9251

A lot of little bags!

Sad part is they didn't send the cabinet so all that stuff is useless until I get the box :(

Steve,
on your Z assembly, why don't you flip the plate that holds the motor so the motor is towards the spring side, this will make the assembly longer but it would eliminate the need for the spacer, and it would also put a little more force into the rack, with the extra weight added to that side, and then you could move your pinion in so there is less stress on the bearings on the drive shaft, I see you may need to re drill some of your fastener holes,
just a thought,...
//chopper

Chopper that would work... The one advantage of the current configuration is about .375" of extra clearance for the router.. I am making the mounting rings for the router now and as soon as I get it assembled I will look into changing the motor plate...

Thanks

Time for some more pictures..!


I have been plodding along on my control box... Lots to think about and consider so I have not been in a big rush..... Almost everything has arrived and I finalized my layout and started making the parts this week....

Attachment 9335

This is a shot of what I am calling the Stage... The Geckos and BOB are on this plate. The only metal I had laying around was a piece of aluminum diamond plate. I figured the extra bumps would be OK and might even help it cool faster :) The stage is sitting on 4, 2 inch standoffs that lift it above the fan...

Attachment 9336

This is the other side of the plate with brass standoffs installed for the BOB. The standoffs are extras I had laying around and are used to mount Motherboards in computer cases.. Worked great for the BOB...

Attachment 9337

Here is the control box layout as it is mounted on the back plate.. I have the front door switches on a temporary wiring harness..

Attachment 9334


Another shot...

Attachment 9338

Here is a close up of the BOB area...

I was planing on grounding the shield of the wire that runs to each of the Geckos, from the BOB, at the BOB end. I have noticed others have grounded the shield at the Gecko end but was thinking that was because the BOB was not on the plate... Does anyone see any problems with this?

Another question I have concerns the Computer cable attaching to the BOB.. I have found a few references to grounding problems when using the type of cable I have. I have noticed other using the same cable type and was wondering if I need to do something different with my cable or if I will be OK...

Steve that's a very good looking box and a very well organized layout.
Makes me wanna rebuild mine :D.

Regarding your grounding, you could ground the cables from BOB to the geckos at BOB end but you would need some holes close to the geckos for grounding anyway, (for the motor cables that coming from your MM).

Sergio

oops. forgot your 2nd question.

Your PC cable is fine as long as it doesn't get grounded at the box.
If you are going to use a ribbon cable to attach the parallel port to the side of your control box then you should probably need to isolate this connection.
Take a look at this post which is also what i did in my box.
http://www.mechmate.com/forums/showt...6&postcount=14

By the way what are the 3 circuit breakers for in your box ?

Steve, The control box is looking good. Looks like we have the same power supply. Might want to look at the instructions as Red wasnt postive on mine and Black wasnt Negative. Just a helpful hint before throwing the switch.

Thanks for the heads up! Mine didn't have any instructions included.... I will check it out :)

If you are using Kelings 5020 the connections are hidding in the PDF.

Russell I had seen that PDF when I was looking for the reason my power supply only had a 5v and the main output! I was really disappointed when I figured out that they used the same picture for all their supplies :mad: that's the reason I went with a 12 v DIN mount like you did.

Did you mention that you had to buy 10 of those ribbon connectors? Want to sell me a couple if so?

Sergio

Thanks for the compliments :) I love your work also!

Like Russel I also have a 30 amp 220 Volt supply where the machine will be installed... 2 of the breakers are rated at 20 amps and will supply my dust collector and router.. the third breaker is a 1 amp and takes the place of the 1 amp fuse..

As for grounding the BOB wires at the Gecko..... I had forgotten about the motor wires when I asked that question :) You can't see it in the pictures but I have a longer screw installed under the Gecko's front... I plan on grounding the shield from the motor connections there so I will just double up and ground the BOB wires there also... Thanks for jogging my memory, I need all the help I can get!

Steve you can get away with unshield cable between the driver & BOB. I used cost effective ribbon cable for this & I shielded the cable from the driver to the motor.

Ken, I think that you were lucky to use unshielded cable there.

Well we both got the 12v power supply for the same reason. Picture is kinda deceptive.

Sent you a pm.

Ken the "can get away with" part is what I am trying to avoid :) Can you tell me why you went with the ribbon cable?

The 4 wires from the drives to the BOB are so short that cable cost is not a problem and I can't see any reason not to use shielded cables....

Hi Gerald, Steve,
I used ribbon cable because
1) compactness hence easy laying out & installation
2) came with the BOB.
3) IMHO, my layout allow that.
4) you can call it a learning experience with handling noise...
To "get away" with noise, I lay my weak signals away from the strong signal.
Weakest signal, :- raw signals carried by the LPT cable, from the computer. Action, give a "special lane", I open up a chassis mount DB25 port right next to the BOB & ensure they are as far away from other signal sources such as transformers & power cables.
Normal strength signal, BOB sents out Boosted signal to the Drivers. Action:- Keep them away from the strong signals.
Strong & noisy signals, The Drivers, stepper power cable, transformers, capacitors, fans etc etc. Anything conductors that carries big amp AC/pulsating current.
Action, shield to contain their affluence on weak &/or normal strength signals.

Have a look at my frugal control box here.

Yes, I can use shielded microphone wires for this purpose, (and I already have them in hand) but since I "can get away with" ribbon cable, why not... ;)

I am also running ribbon cable from PC to BOB....why did I do it.....because I can...:) Just had it available at the time. After 2 years no problems. Maybe when I buy a spindle in the future I will have to re-look.

Another note,
I have 3 phase 415V available, I split the phases for separate usage. i.e. the PC is running off a separate phase, the control panel on a separate phase & the VFD runs on another phase. From experiment, the PC behave irratically when sharing the same phase with the VFD. it is fine when both the VFD & control panel shares the same power phase.
AND each phase has their own separate ground copper rod... Why? because they are there conviniently & so I can :)

Maybe I'm got lucky thanks to the combination of noise irradicating measures ;)

More note,
We can check the noise in the power line with a regular boom box radio. Share the power point with the boombox & try listening to radio station. If the power line is clean, crystal clear reception, but if the line is dirty, you will get noise uptil the point that you don't get any radio reception...... the worst is VFD, next is PC & notebook, surprisingly, the control panel is comparatively clean.

Well I'll be Damned :)
 

The darn thing works!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_ELYhEifYg

Here is what I have been working on for the last three weeks... :)

After finishing the design and wiring of the control box I decided to put it in it's new home :) All the wiring is finished with the exception of cables that run outside the box.. All the pins and power supplies have connections on the bottom rail and will terminate there when I run the cables... The motor cables will run directly to the Geckos... I drilled the "stage" for a 5Th Gecko if I decided to add one later... The screws for that gecko are seen in the photo just to the left of the bob...

Attachment 9487

I plan on running the control cables through liquid tight flex duct and I need to make a cover for the computer printer cable that exits through the elongated hole...

Attachment 9488

The door has another little design feature you might like :)

Attachment 9489

I have spent too much time on making this baby to keep it locked in a dark box! I was a little concerned about opening the box up for shielding reasons but if I have any trouble I can always make a metal window shade :)

Attachment 9490

And all the indicator lights just begged to be placed where they were useful!

Attachment 9491

I started with a 20 x 20 x 8" box.... Ordered up a window kit that is designed to install on the side panel of a computer tower and got the old saw out....

Attachment 9492

The jig saw and a sharp metal blade made quick work of the window hole..

Attachment 9493

I used a step drill to make the holes for switches and cable grabbers.. For the elongated hole I just drilled two holes and used the metal blade to connect them. Attachment 9494

A little work with a file and she was ready for paint...

Attachment 9495

I am a little sad this part is finished... Now I have to worry about those darn rails :D

Well done!
With your perservere attention to details, the rails would be a breeze.

Great looking control box !!! Nice to have those motors movin :D