Kobus,

Life is looking good! MechMate, 3 Dogs, pool and your yougest son. The table looks good also.

Hi Kobus

Dit lyk of jy baie besig was laasweek? Dit wil gedoen word!
Goeie insperasie ,maak mens skoon jaloers.

The table went together quickly. On Saturday morning I was riding around trying to find 25 mm MDF or Plywood for the base. Eventually found a sheet of 29mm Ply at TIMBERCITY in Boksburg on the East Rand. Got home at about 14:00 and started assembly. By 17:00 it was bolted together. I had the cross members drilled up to 6.5mm, so it was a matter of making 12mm holes where it bolted to the main beam and 10mm holes for the ply base board.

The beast are getting together at a fast pace....for me :D
Yesterday my motors arrived from China via TNT-Express..no import duty/fee..delivered right to my home. :)Went to my postbox...little slip...wheels from Rick arrived. Went to the Post Office counter. Lady brings parcel, but I had to pay R 292.02 (VAT). Was so happy that everything arrived without incident that I paid her with a smile.
Got home, quickly opened parcels to check. Everything is correct as ordered. Thanks Rick and Media Lee at MotionKing for prompt service.
Went outside..painted the control box the final coat of Ford Tractor Blue....the ONLY blue in the world... and rushed inside to get a stepper to turn on the Kitchen project. Wired one stepper up, started Mach 3, did some mapping and :D:D:D I can control a STEPPER via my computer...What a feeling...WOW !!!!!!!

Veels geluk Kobus,

Now you are really off and running...

Bakgat man! I can see that everything is falling in place at a good rate for you. Have you got your control box done yet?

Painted the box , will start wiring it up soon. Will play with the kitchen project a little to TUNE Geckos etc before final installation.

One little problem. When I had my parts cut the motor mounts were for geared motors. Due to budget constraints I ended up buying motors without gearboxes. I can drill new holes on the X and Y bracket, but it seems that the Z- plate is too small. Any suggestions ?:confused:

Kobus,
The motor holes (bolt pattern) on the universal Z motor plate (M5 10 322) are the same than the geared one. Plate may seem smaller ( witch is) but the not affecting motor mounting. The issue that differs those plates is more about the “gear / shaft hole location. The center point on the geared version ( M5 10 324) is lowered and the hole for the motor shaft is smaller.
I would just enlarge this hole in an oblong shape in order to move the center point of the hole so your std motor w/out gear box can be attached to it.
A part or picture is worth a thousand words, right !!
So, I’ve redrawn you the Geared motor mount so you can see what I believe is your simple solution & should work.
Attachment 1500

Hope I’ve help. If you’d like a pdf or dxf and Gerald approves, I could post it or email it to you !??

Amicalement, Robert ! ;)

Can anybody help me with Uni/Bipolar connection on my MotionKing stepper (34HS9801). Like Gerald suggested only use half the motor. Will this mean I connect the stepper using Red/Yellow and White/Orange according to the diagram.

Attachment 1511

Red/Yellow and White/Orange will be a correct option for "half" motor connection.

Thanks Gerald, Is this now Bi-Polar ? What is the difference to the right hand picture which is also Bi-Polar.
The first picture say Uni/Bi-polar (8 leads) and the right one Bi-Polar (4 leads)
Is the way we now discussed it Bi-Polar HALF-Winding, and the right hand picture Bi-Polar FULL - Winding ?
This is still Greek to me:confused:

Kobus, have another look at the first posts in this thread:

http://www.mechmate.com/forums/showthread.php?t=256

Red/Yellow and White/Orange will be Unipolar

Ok gentlemen since this is my thread on my build I will give a short update.

This weekend i mounted the X-Rails on the table. When I started I thought I will NEVER get it right. The rails were as crooked as a railway line after a massive earth quake. I measured out the width of the gantry, then started with the first rail. I drilled hole for hole, making sure I get it even and straight on the main beam. I then put the gantry on and ran the gantry inch for inch and lined up the second rail drilling hole for hole. The end result is a gantry running as smooth as baby snot on the rails....I am very, very impressed.

Then I fixed the diagonal braces in place. Took everything apart and painted it with MS-Primer and on Sunday the Ford Tractor Blue went on. Still to do the Cross Members with a coat on the OTHER side.

Went into the house, and finished up on the wiring of the Control Box. This finished I fired up Mach3 again and got all 4 motors to turn....even the X-Axis motors in the right direction. All in all a very productive weekend.

Will post some pictures tonight.

Sounds like a good weekend all round! Obviously you didn't have to mow the lawn, clean the pool, wash the dogs . . . . :)

Suggest that you "move" one of the motors at a slow speed for about an hour and regularly check its temperature. (stick the cursor key down to the keyboard). Then you can put the temperature vs power supply voltage issue to bed.

Also tune your Gecko's for midband resonance at this point - easiest to do before they are installed.

Attachment 1534

Just after fitting the X-Rails. The first cross beam removed to be able to fit the diagonal support.

Attachment 1531

Big Blue Brakpan (BBB) is taking colour

The cross beams and bottom supports are painted

Attachment 1532

Control Box taking shape. Geckos mounted on ALU Heatsink. Will be attatched to box after TUNING.

Kobus,

You have a beautiful home and pool. If you have a spare bedroom, I'd be more than happy to come over and help you finish up. I figure we could get her working in...oh....three or four years.

You know Doug, you have given me a thought . . . . .

I have 4 machines to build, and I need more hands badly. Any volunteers to come out here for tax-deductable training perhaps? :)

Hi Doug, you are welcome, but just check on the weather. Cape Town has wet and cold winters right now. Up here in Johannesburg it's .....BLERRIE....cold, but at least when the sun comes out it's nice...The pool is a NO GO area at present

PS, the building behind the MM is my workshop.......former pigeon coop...not my home.....but you knew that...ha ha

Doug, and it gets even colder there over the next 2 months. The grass goes brown (killed by frost) - but there are signs of it going blue already. The cold winter in the Johannesburg area is due to the high altitude (5000ft).

I don't know why, but mommy is complainig that her flowers that survived the frost also has a hue of blue lately...I think it looks great...at least SOME colour in the garden.:p

Just received my new motor mounts. Nice thing about a big city is that it is possible to get some parts fairly quickly. I ordered on Friday last week, and this morning they were ready...R 132.00 for all 4....actually got 5 as the one piece was not cut out cleanly, but he threw it in for free.

Update after this long weekend.:
I moved the BBBB...Brakpan Big Blue Beast into it's home after painting the rest of the parts. When I put it together it did not run true on the rails any longer, and it took me about a half a day to get it all straight and true again. Still have to shim the Y-rail a little....car runs flat and true on both ends of the rail, but in the middle there is a bit of rocking that I need to sort out.
I need to get some nuts and bolts today, will mount my motors tonight and work out how to run the wires. Nearly there...Gerald, get the Serial number ready......

Kobus sms my jou fax nr. dan stuur ek vir jou `n lys.

Gerald,

Can you do me a nice DXF file for the router bracket. My router has a round body 90mm diagonal, and the clamp section is about 60mm high. If I try and do it, it will be a monster, but I trust that you can make something simple and nice for this that I can attach to the existing Z-plate.

Sorry, not soon

Anybody else with CAD experience ? Thanks

Will help. Verduidelik mooi :)
I am still new at this game

Thanks Johan,

The Makita I will put on to start with has a round body. The bracket must look like this photo. 90 mm diagonal and the mounting distance (height) about 60mm. It must be on a " L " plate that screw onto the Z-Plate

Thanks

Attachment 1571