Garald,
Thanks for the prompt reply. Just to clarify if you meant 33mm rather then 31mm.

If I can omit the chore to reduce the flange height further, I'm happy, will put a note on the motor swing plates, will get there somehow... Its 9pm, I'd been grinding the whole day... need to "play" with the video editing dor a while before I call it a day.

Your question was: "Can I stick to 31mm"

But, the same reply fits 33mm. :)

Thanks, that will save me at least a day of grinding.

I started grinding the rail today, after 5 hours of grinding, I'm only half done on the first rail.... Does it really take that long? or I did something wrong?

The grind is very slow, I set the leading edge of the grinding wheel lower the then the traling edge by a quater of a screw turn.

The contact on the grinding disc is right at the center.
Attachment 8150
It is very to get the rail ground evenly throughout the length, but I'm very please with what I saw till now.
Attachment 8148
Attachment 8149

nice and shiny..:)

A whole day of grinding continues today...

I can't seem to grind any further the 2mm deep, the ground surface is 3mm wide....

I see everyone able to grind a pointed knife edge...

Will mine be enough for the V wheel?

Thanks in advance.

Ken,

The goal is to grind until you have a 1 mm top edge width...not a knife edge.
It can be slightly wider. Just check that the V-wheels are riding on the 45 degree sides, not on the top edge.

Ken: The trick in grinding the angles is to get the leading edge of the wheel to contact the steel first so it will cut with a downward angle. I found this made to job a LOT easier and faster. I just used two fewer washers on the bolt in the front than on the one in the back that rides along the rail. As the cut progresses, I just removed washers to lower the cutter but always with two less in front than behind. Worked like a charm.:) Don't get discouraged, we all go through this phase - It's a rite of passage!

Couldn't had describe it better!

Thanks Joe & John.

I played with the down cutting angle this morning & apparently it works like a charm once it is correctly set.

Will proceed to the last length, hope to have the rail complete by end of the day.

Finally reached the 1st milestone of my MM build...
Finished all the grinding & cutting work on the rails, after... I lost count of the time...

Heres the whole lot
Attachment 8195

& a close up shot.
Attachment 8196
A video will come shortly...

Lookin' Good!, Ken - Keep it up.

Joe, Thanks for the encouragement.

After some serious muscle work, I finally completed most of the cutting & grinding.
Hand painted with paint roller, one coat of red oxide primer & 1st coat Enamel Alkyd paint.
Hope the color gets a seal of approval.

Will leave them overnight before I put on the final coat. That is if the color pass.

Ken, if you are happy with the colour, then I am happy! :D

Nice progress - the hard work is over now.

At this stage, after all the sweat & bruses, any color would make me happy :D
Will have the top coat on tomorrow & clean the workshop thoroughly of grinding dust. may take a day or 2 ...:(

Looking forward to a clean workshop soon.

Timely arrival of my new BOB.

The parcel contain the parallel cable, the flat ribbon cable & the BOB itself.
Attachment 8251

hi Ken - what bob is that - the PP cable looks thin - pls chk wire resistance between each pin, should be less that 0.3 ohm

Your painted parts look great, now just assemble and make some cips...:)
Great work...keep it coming.

I just made a few measured the resistance,
21.6, 23.4, 22.8, 25.3, 29, 29, does this look right? I may not use this cable as I may change my mind to have the mobo build external of the control panel.

Its a chinese board, SINYU 5-axis CNC interface board board Ver 1.0.
The manual

I picked it up on ebay, for US70+15 shipping.

It even has a manual stepper motor control, sort of like a external jogging control can make a joystick or control pad using push button switches. Will play with that in a much much later date...

From my location, Chinese, Indian, Taiwanese, Hong Kong, Korean, Singaporean or even Japanese products makes more economical sense... Product price & postage from EU, US or even Australia are just too high... Quality? Just have to practice better risk management tactics.

Anyway, I had just finished painting the final coat, will leave them for proper curing for next fewday while I re-kinder with my unsucessful control panel. Must get the kitchen project completed.

BTW, I'm high or the paint fume...

Pull the control panel from the dark storage corner.

To ensure success this time round, I will divide-and-rule. :)
Extract the Mobo from the panel & build a separate PC, the casing is only 50mm high with room for 1 cart slot. .
Modify a handphone charger that I have no use for as the power supply for the BOB. To further simplify the electrical scheme, the PC will take its power from a separate wall plug.
Will shop for a suitable casing during weekdays for this purpose. It has to be small enough for me to strap it to the back of my 15" LCD monitor...

Studied both Mandarin & English manual of the BOB. I believe equip with one burnt board experience, things should turn for the better....... this time round....
This board is interesting, it has
4 sets of 3 terminal (Vcc, S, GND) for 4 proximity switch (X, Y, Z, A) all labeled nicely.
1 set of 2 terminal for E-stop input
1 set of 10 pin connector for spindle VFD control. I am puzzled that it says it can provide PWM signal, if it is true, there will be a great saving.
2 sets of relays rated 250V @2A for switching on auxiliary equipments such as dust collectors. but they do recommend to use is run it at 60V to turn larger contactors.
Features which drawn me into the purchase are
A Manual override plug which we can connect to a home-built push button jogging pad. via a 10 cable ribbon cable.
10 pin ribbon connectors to the stepper motor drivers. The circuit is shown in the manual.
Charge pump feature
No need to build separate power supply for the proxy switches.
Draw backs?
The one I think is the printer port pin is not configured in usual logic, its all jumbled up! e.g. x-Axis Step is pin 7 & X-Axis Dir is pin 17.
Like most manuals from China, it takes quite a bit of getting use to...

Gentlemen,
I am a switch away from powering up my Kitchen Table Project.

Tested the 240V circuit, the contactor behave as expected. :D
The Stepper motor PSU, & connected to the Driver & Stepper motor. The motor locked up good upon power up. :D
AC power to the BOB which is a small 1A rated 0-9V tranny I picked up at local electrical shop for just under USD3 & I see the power LED lit. :D

Some Pix of my test set up.
Attachment 8283

Another View
Attachment 8281

The Stepper PSU + Driver
Attachment 8282

My tranny for my SINYU BOB
Attachment 8284

Before I crank up the PC, I need help on one issue.
Do I connect the GND of the BOB to the Chassis GND point? I'm sure its been mentioned elsewhere in the forum, but I don't think I had even read it... Help please.

Thanks in advance.

Found it here in the PSU thread...

Kitchen Table Project a near success
 

Its Alive!!!! but limping.... :o

Tied a thick cable between PC's Chassis to the Control panel's star point.

Switch on the power, the contactor "thump", the stepper motors jerked once & the shaft locked up...

Switch on the PC, everything powered up nicely.

Summon the Stepconfg wizard of EMC2, clicked on the "test this axis" button and nothing happened... Checked & found the chargepump LED didn't lit, changed a few config, played with the trimming resistor R24 for a while & nothing happened...

Eventually, disabled the charge pump on the BOB by swapping the X3 jumper from 1-2 to 2-3 & viola, D7 lit... :p

Test the x-axis & only one motor turned, (I connected the 2nd X-axis motor to the supposedly A-axis & inverted the signal)

The Y & Z axis worked as advertised.

I then select the XYZA axis selection & the A-axis (A.K.A. the 2nd X-axis motor) turns happily :D

No doubt that I didn't achieve all the kitchen table project criteria, but for now, this near-miss shows that the wiring are OK, don't have to send back the motors & drivers back to the supplier & the Stepper hardwares jive with the PC & EMC2. ;)

Next step is to read through the forum (again....) & hopefully will see some light regarding the charge pump & how to get both X motors to turn together under EMC2 command...

Would greatly appreciate all the help that I could get.

##PS, At this moment in time, I am a joyful man :D

With Mach, the computer must be on and mach up and running before you turn on the controller box. I would think that it is the same with any software. It is looking for inputs.

You also need to have the controlling software set up correctly for the interface with the controller box. Things are not going to work if the interface is not correct. For mach, Ports and Pins need to be set up correctly.

Well done!

But I will disconnect the PC ground and chassis ground from each other. Also disconnect the BOB ground from the chassis ground, because the BOB ground is connected to the PC ground via the parallel cable.

Nils,
Tried that I no luck with the charge pump.

Gerald,
Done you advise on the ground wire, tested the system with no noticeable difference. I will stick with this arrangement.

Thanks

Hi Ken,

Good to see you are having a win with your electrical, I'm dreading that part!!
Good for me that Paul (skippy) is reasonably comfortable with it. :D

Good luck
Cheers
Tony.

Congrats Ken,

I am glad to hear that you electronics do work this time!

Ken, I am pretty sure that stepconf doesn't enable the charge pump signal of you test your system from there. I can check tomorrow to be sure.
i fyou have your CP connected properly, then try jogging from axis, and then it will work.

Ries

Gentlemen, Thanks for all the kind words. Wouldn't have come this far without your help.

In my case, this kitchen table project has been a long uphill struggle from the start :(

My Kitchen Table Project result fell short of expectation, still require work on it.

Hope to iron out the charge-pump & the x-axis configuration before I proceed with welding up the table with peace in mind.

Its late now, need to catch up with my freelance contract work before my client throw me out....

Ciao

I hope that you agree that it is better to find the problems at the kitchen table, rather than at the CNC table?

OoooooHHH YEEEESSSS!! Couldn't have agree more!!!

I recon without this kitchen table project, my MM building project will grind to a stop after the CNC table were built & goes straight to the scrapyard...... :)

Reading is one thing, but putting your hands on it is another.

One thing for sure, I'd learn a lot from this. It also confirms that I'm undeniably Electronic handicapped... :(

I`m happy for that you made it. Good progres....

Nothing like hearing that solid click when you throw the switch and seeing the green light(s) and then hearing the motors whir when the Mach3 program starts a run. Makes me smile every time.:) Congratulations, Ken

Ken

I agree with Ries, I couldn't get anything to happen with EMC until I had completed ALL of the stepconfig wizard, go through this, and just put in what you consider are reasonable values were you are unsure (being sure of course that the pin allocations are correct) it is very easy to change the setup once you have it all running.

Jed

I skipped steps (which I learnt the hardway not to) and went on to run the AXIS program, Toggle the Emergency switch by pressing F1, Home the axis, click the GO button & the motors quartet sang like angels from heaven!!!

WOOOO HOOOO!!!

Next on the agenda
1) Sorting out the Charge-pump issue
2) Study the Huayang VFD, started a new thread for discussion & educate myself. Hopefully can sort out what I can/will do with it. Hence plan the necessary space & accesories.
3) Check out the spindle...
4) Decide & source the component for the sealed cooling water system for the spindle.

The are above involves plenty brain juice drain, for draining my muscle power, Welding will start tomorrow.

Done some welding

some pix

Welding equipment
Attachment 8330


Makeshift welding table, (don't laugh...)
Attachment 8331


Set Leg on Channel beam
Attachment 8328


How I fit the tube trusses on not so even floor
Attachment 8332


Fit the 2nd Leg on the main beam
Attachment 8329


Done for the day
Attachment 8333

I see you had some distortion where the round pipes formed T's. (your long round pipes are maybe 15mm off straight?). Not a problem for the function at all. It is just a lesson about the effects of welding.

You are right again it went off by about 10mm, the extra 5mm you see is contributed by my poor quality handphone camera lens :(

My welding skill has went to bad to terrible... so I intentionally planned to weld on flat position...

After fliping the assembly over for welding the tube trusses, I realised my original plan to weld the table bearer in the top-down position may lead to problem when flipping them over... My table is 4.4m long x 2.3m wide, with max working area of 1830 x 3810mm because I don't want to cut the racks...

Any suggestion to go about this?