Protection for the Ballscrew
 

Hi Marius,

Here´s a pic of what we have talked about. I use them neoprene socks for covering my shock absorbers from be eaten up by dust and mud on my Enduro bike. You can easily also buy a piece of neoprene in the shop and make them for your needed size and lenght.
Advantage of this kind of protection is that they are absolutely impermeable to dust and dirt, but still ultra flexible.
Maybe it fits your needs.

Some small steps...
 

Finally the Z axis is up ! Still something to finish but most of it is ready and is spinning. For the moment I need to wait because the spindle is still on the way. I make the payment last Friday and the Italian seller told that he will send the spindle and VFD in the same day. Till then here are some pics.

Beautiful work Marius.

Nice Work
 

Hey Marius,

Looking gooood.:)
All problems solved with the technicians? Is the screw straight again?
Hope youre cutting soon.

Bye

Thank you Doug. Yes Claudiu the screw is straight. I found some profesionists in this kind of screws. It was a joke for them to fix the problem... It's a shame that we have here in Bucharest an old factory who produce such screws (Rolls Royce import screws from them) and there are a lot of land sharks who want to build malls on their land...

Spindle & VFD
 

Friday finally the package arrived with the spindle and VFD. From the package is missing the collets and the wrench but one on the other everything looks OK. I spoke with the Italian seller and he said the package was to heavy (over 10 kg) and he sent the other stuff with another package with normal post.
Yesterday I was plugging in everything and the spindle moves. The spindle it's very silent. Cool stuff :D. Here are some pics with VFD and Spindle.

Hallo Marius,

What is the brand and type of the spindle you bought?
Can you give a price indication.

Thanks,

Bart

Hy Bart,
The spindle and VFD was bought from Italy but I guess both of them are from China. In fact the VFD its for sure from China because is written on side but the brand is very well represented worldwide -"Delta".
The spindle is with the Italian company name on one side and is the same with another Italian "producer" Teknomotor. But one on the other the spindle is very silent and runs quite well. I'll keep everybody update regarding the spindle...
The seller was very nice and the delivery very fast. The seller has made all the settings even he wire the VFD with the spindle. Nice guy.
The total cost including shipping was around 680 EUR.

Marius, how does the cooling fan of your spindle work? Is it driven by a separate electric motor, or is the fan on the back end of the spindle shaft?

Gerald the fan is on the back end of the spindle shaft. Wich is is a good thing in my opinion. The result of mounting the fan this way is air stream very strong. The air stream goes along 4 holes on the spindle body from one end to the other. Should I take details picture of the spindle ?
On the maintenance instructions the producer said that the spindle is normal to go with temperature around 60 C.

Thanks Marius, I don't need pictures of it.

First cut !
 

Well guys finally I can see my first cuts... :)
Here are some pictures. It's bad that I dont have MDF around me but I'll fix that soon.

You made my day! The first MM that is offically cutting "behind the Iron Curtain" :)

Well done!!

Well Done Marius! :) Just need some logos for the serial number now!

Some adjutments...
 

Well in order to be correct to all members I should wait a few days to make some SMALL adjustments to the X rails.
What happened ? After finishing the small cuts I put the bit on zero. Then using the jog I start to move the spindle along X and Y axis. Surprise :eek: ! In some area is not touching the table and in other to much. When I remeasured the X rails I found small differences in the height of the rails (27.5mm, 27,8mm, 27mm, etc.). So for the moment I send the rails to a metalworking shop to fix that.
But this is a small issue compared to the beautiful moment when something appears on the wood :D!
At the end of the week everything should be set properly.

Marius, we do not worry about small differences in rail height . . . .

First we screw the rails down as straight as what we can. Normally we have to add thin plates (shims) where the rails are too low, or where the big channel irons have problems. With the shims we can get a very straight rail. A popular shim is cut from a beer tin/can.

Then we take a 25mm cutter and cut the whole table surface to be parallel to the rails. We call this "surfacing" or to "surface" the table.

So, with a combination of shims and surfacing, the cutter runs exactly parallel to the table.

X rail reloaded...
 

Today finally I finish to repair the X rails. The funny moment was when they try to put the rails on machine and realize that is no space. What they did ? They cut a small window in a wall near the grinding machine :D!
Finally I get back to my place, put everything in place and all goes well :). But...
When I try to "make some dust" something goes very funny.
My MM is traveling along axis to fast and when I try to decrease Steps in Mach3 the cutting job area become very,very small.
My initial settings was 180 Steps than I go down at 26.526 (as I read in an old thread written by Gerald) and the cutting area as I said become very small.
In that spirit I change the Steps settings to higher value :200. Another surprise ! The cutting area now is larger than the beginning. What I should I verify in Mach settings ? Here are some pictures.

Marius,

Congrats on the first cuts !! :)

The picture of the hole is the wall is great. :D I like it !!! That is dedication to getting the job done.

I just had new rails fabricated to replace the originals (the original rails were not 100%, I did not replace because of "mileage" ). The first machine shop said they could not do the job. The second shop took 3 weeks and way too much $$$$$$$$$$$. :mad::mad::mad: I was too lazy to implement the new rail design and I paid for it.

Again, Congratulations !!! The best part of this whole project is yet to come.

Marius, go carefully on the Mach settings . . . .

Make sure that you are in millimeters and not in inches.

Then use the calculation spreadsheet from here. I think your motors have 7.2 gearboxes, the gear tooth size is module 1 and your pnion has 24 teeth? (Your "Steps per" setting is then 190.986) Remember to "save" each motor setting before you close the window.

Settings for Mach 3
 

Yes you are wright with my configuration motor, rack, pinion, etc.
My main problem with settings was to understand how the software works combined with the rush for quick results before reading...:o Yesterday I use that spreadsheet with calculation and everything runs quite good. What happened in fact ? Using the Mach to calculate the "Steps per" I get 180 but my settings for "Velocity" was around 8000 mm/min and "Acceleration mm/sec" was 500.
Result: MM start to move like a Suzuki GSXR 1000 which is not good. Not good at all ! Then I start to decrease the Steps per and MM start to decrease speed but the job become smaller and smaller. Next day I remember your spreadsheet with calculation...
Now the settings are:

Steps per - 190.986
Velocity - 1000
Acceleration - 210

Now I'm using ArtCam Insignia who gives a report for the "Machining time" and compared with time in Mach for a job the result was quite similar.
I'm still wondering what happened if I decrease the Acceleration. I want to play more with that because I still got some brutal movement. If I decrease the acceleration to 60 for example the A axis start to move in a funny way and twist the Y axis.
So the 2 cents question is : Is there any formula to get the best settings for Acceleration ?
But as I said in a way or other the beast now is under control :D.
Thank you for the moment :).

Can anyone remember the thread where we compared our accel/decel settings?

Your A motor must have exactly the same settings as the X-motor . . . to prevent the gantry from going crazy.

Typical settings for Mach motor tuning

For your millimeter-based machine:
Steps per: 190.986 (not negotiable)
Velocity: at least 9000 mm/min (very negotiable) but as high as the point where you loose steps.
Your acceleration can be 500 to 700 mm's/sec/sec (not very negotiable)

I will check my machine tomorrow but it sounds the same.(got the hick up with the z-axis again)

Number please !
 

Hello everybody !
I didn't post for a long time so here it is my situation for the moment: 99% MM is ready, tested, etc. 1% is for the ballscrew which I forgot to grease him and it start to make strange noises...:mad: I presume a new one is the logical answer.
Touch plate is in my opinion one of the most important feature for MM. It works very well and in the near future I'll finish a touch probe to get the exact corner.
End switches: I use for the moment mechanical type. Of course soft limit is activated...:D
Pictures, pictures:

Gerald you are the best ! :) And of course all the members of this forum.
P.S. I'll post pictures with my setings for Mach. I change the "standard" setings because I like the MM to have a "soft" movement.
Marius

Marius,
Nice Pics. Congratulations! :)

Gerald,

Looks like Marius qualifies for a Serial #. He's painted, he's cutting and he's got logo's. What do you think?

Yup, it certainly gets the number!

Marius, are you really sure that you are a lawyer? :D

Marius,

Congratulations on completing you machine and serial # 32.

Congrats Marius. Looking good.

Congratulations Marius! Looking great!

I have decided that my short-term goal in life is now to bring my MechMate in with a serial number less than 100!:D The competition is heating up!