Like how you hide your junction box, I haven't a clue how to go about it until your post, will "upgrade" mine base on your idea.

Almost there, Keep em coming!

Haaa….More fun as progression get done !!
It is exiting and also worrisome !
I say worry since, usually when something totally new gets build, some trouble shooting will be asked upon ! It’s part of this whole pursuit & purpose to build this, but still….not quite fun to see a big beauty sitting with some little oups !

Anyway, here’s more of some pics, hopping it can help in some way some others.

Gantry mains push button station wiring (X1 )

Attachment 9176

Attachment 9177

Attachment 9178


Now for the controller.
I’ve plan since the very beginning that I’ll be making my own wood controller box !
In the controller environment, I also planned & fab some plates to lodge the computer & components in it having all in one location, one box ;)
BUT, first thing I did….WAS TO SELECT THE RIGHT wood.
When these veneer came on to my hands, just had to take this sequence as, once the veneer properly bookmatch, it spoke itself……. Your imagination to tell…. :D

Attachment 9179

So…..
This is the assembly without sides & doors…YET !!...but in time, it will !
First, let’s get the beast capable to roll, then cut some parts for our own need as a good ( or not so good) grounds to learn and maybe “de-bugg” if ever….
Attachment 9180

Attachment 9181

This one shows the underside of the box. This rectangle cut out is for a future air filter. The PB panel is only tempo till I get the box done with its doors, as those will go on the front doors !

Attachment 9186

Spoilboard ( 43” x 97”)

Attachment 9182

Z-axis proxy to clear future dust collector tube !

Attachment 9183

And, some final steps in photos !

Attachment 9184

Attachment 9185

Attachment 9187

Attachment 9188

Enjoy, will say soon as I’m getting ready to make beauty roll….

Happy Easter to those who celebrate it !
Amicalement, Robert ;)

Very clean and good looking work Robert.

Bryan

Indeed.

Thanks for the kind words guys… my turn to payback ;)
Funny how my bluish color changes with the different light & camera angles !?!?

Very well thought through, professional work.

Why don't you put a piece of spoilboard on the narrow part of the table as well. If you put a big sheet on, it should be OK to cut over your indexer valley. Just a thought.

Well done Robert, it looks beautiful and professionally finished.

I cant wait to start building mine. Im going nuts with all this waiting. waiting waiting.

Well….
Enough of else said and back to motor tuning with some MotinKing motors, as in this thread, looks like I & others have slipped to another topic :o

Can anyone steer me, in/on reading about motor tuning ?
Not much is said in the Mach manuals !

Is it better to have all axis within the same values ( velocety & acceleration )as the lowest one can perform ( in our case, the “Y-axis”) ??
If not, what is a “tolerable” difference, or better yet, how can one calculate this “acceptable” difference !?!
Step & Pulse width ???
Here too, aside of risking to spend hrs if not days for “seat of the pants feel”, isn’t somewhere written more technical about it and how to calculate some of those values !?
Thanks ;)

Have you seen the thread on this forum where we listed the tuning parameters from a couple of people?

Thanks Gerald….
Most likely I’ve seen it, but lately couldn’t find it. Now you’re advising me on this, I’ll put more time trying to trace it….
With time & increasing threads (which is a positive thing in many sense ), it’s obviously not as easy as a few yrs back to trace what you think you’ve read in a post / thread around here !
And admittedly...... I’m not getting any younger & with increasing life stress + some doses of worrisome, my memory is playing “tricks” on me :o

Hi guys….
Worked my but off this past Easter week-end to make the beast work and giving it it’s first….baby steps ! :D
Not satisfying as I’m off on a few thing, but that is from me who is missing some known or publish values. But I feel that my beast is on the “right track” to say the least !

In short, here’s a few pics that tells where I’m at !!

Calibrating the Z by rotating a little rod around its axis. Did this in two heights to establish if any difference at low Z and at higher Z ( 100mm higher ),

Attachment 9209

Attachment 9210

Then, made some “air” test, ….. Wow….it was a true blessing, hart pounding moment for me….:eek:
After over 3 yrs in this, I’m getting to finally see it roll….. in my basement
Like most grown man, I still have a dose of child in me, could not resist trying to make some cuts…..Late last knight :rolleyes:

Attachment 9211

Attachment 9212

In this last photo, you can see my version of a pendant / keyboard / mouse combo.
It’s a LOGITECH dinovo-mini. In my opinion, it’s a real toy & charm.....but not made employee proof....it my toy only !! :D


Not there yet as far as making it the way it is intend to, but now starts the final steps of tuning it before it finally serves its real purpose….. WORKING HARD, helping & assisting me to gain back the money put in it & hopefully balance back the missing revenues while I was building it instead of making / selling woodworking !?!

Next “step” is to tune it, make some repetitive quality work, then, dismounting it to move it to its final work environment….. My new / next workshop site……

Later, Amicalement, Robert ;)

Well done Robert!!

Looks great, I think we all have a little bit of that big kid in us:D I cannot wait until I have that same feeling when I eventually get mine making some dust.

Your MM looks fantastic and is a credit to the hard work you have put into it.

Cheers
Tony.

Aaahhh . . . .at last!! Well done! :)

Typical settings for Mach motor tuning

Well done and enjoy cleaning up after the MDF cutting without extraction.

Well done Robert.
My next thing must be a dust extractor. I collected a full refuse bag of saw dust over the weekend. Hard work. The fine stuf is in everywhere!

Robert, Nice looking cuts. You need some logos! :)

Looks Great !!!

Well done! I'm still fresh with the experience when making 1st dust.

Nice job, Robert! Now the fun continues.... (just in a different form!):D

Looking forward to seeing your number.

Joe

Thanks you all for your kind replies & comments, appreciated ;) :D

Since most numbers I was hopping for were proudly given to some other interesting build, and I mean a few of them since 1st one I was aiming for, I had my priority changed….get it done & rolling, then support others here !!!
Must also admit, I just did not take time to manage this sticker thing & go find a local sticker shop to have them done….soon although :o

Kobus,
I have a tempo dedicated dust collector set up, so dust is V-manageable at this point. But soon I’ll get the beauty to route me a dust extractor I design way back just for this. Just haven’t had time to do it yet, still need to iron out some calibrations, alignment & some issues.
Robert ;)

Congrats on a beautiful MM build!
I too forgot about the stickers completely... but what that didn't make the 1st cut any less exiting.

Congrats Robert.

You have an impeccable machine there !

BTW, why did opt for the 9 conductor IGUS cable? I realize that a 2 core and a 7 core are required and IGUS does not carry the 2 core in the CF6 category. I was quoted 5 core cable to replace the 2 core.

Clayton

Clayton, The 9 core is my data lines with 2 spares in case of……:eek:
But I also have a 7 core, that one is for the proxys + 1 spare.
And for the 2 core, which is for the power of the router, I used Igus CF31-25-04 (4 x 14AWG) as they do not have/offer any 3 core.
For the Motors, I bought their CF6-07-04 ! Best of luck !!
Amicalement, Robert ;)

Robert, have you surfaced your table yet, or are you waiting until it is in it's final place?

Robert,you slipped by me.5 star fit and finish.Your choice of steel schedule,top notch.
Your ability to slide this by the wife on the living room floor= priceless $$$.Honestly
great fabrication.

Kobus,
Haven’t yet surface this spoilboard, can’t devote enough time on all this but I still have more test to do to get in tune the motors and + I haven’t either test square my X to Y. Combine this with the dust foot coming along, I should be done soon!
As for this spoilboard, it is a tempo one till I move all this too its final work space in a few months ! then, another one will replace this one !

Ron,
Thanks for your kind words.
If all this is in our family room, it is cause of that, we still have one after all and…. I promised it be out of here soon as I'm in the final stage to aquire the buiding you can see in post 116 ( look….it's blue :D)
But ya…very priceless and surly a neck barker to say the least ! :eek: :rolleyes:

Why my toroidal transformer humms….sometimes ?
 

In a uneven cycle & intensity, my transformer has either a “hum” when tuned on and some other time, none ?
When “humming” it is giving me the impression of an electrostatic hum cause of a zzzzz–alike electric noise in the back ground. But when it hocuses, it is more than just discreet, you can hear it clear at good 15m from the controller…. But…all is apparently functioning ( the beast that is ) the same without me actually gone measured the output, at this point !
Should I measure it ?
Is this humm “normal” ?
Is it occurring to others too ??

Thanks ;)

Transformer humming is cause by the harmonics, here, we can return the transformer for this reason.
It won't affect your voltage & current, but sometimes, a humming tranny is warmer then a quiet one.

Using that wooden box ...will it not act as an amplifier ? Acoustic Guitar effect. I would make sure everything is screwed down tight....no movement.

Ken,

you are absolutely right about the transformer. It's humming because it consumes energy. it's usually a sign of a bad made transformer, they are not well vacuum sealed or bad wiring.

Be carefull also with them, since you don't know the core temperature when they get warm/hot it's hard to tell if they are starting to short circuit. Due to the nature of a transformer it's even possible that the high voltage can enter low voltage destroying your low voltage circuits.

The hummmmmmm you are can come from various parts of a circuit, so for the next couple of hours and days, check the transformers temperature very often. They are allowed to get hand warm, but not hot. If they get hot, then replace it A good test is to turn on the transformer with a low load (5-10% of max rated) like a big resistor of the right resistance and see if it get's hot..

Ries

A toroid transformer should not make a noise - they are absolutely silent to my ears.

Okay, they can make noise, see http://www.plitron.com/lono.asp

Kobus, any rigid board will turn into a sound board, metal plates are the worst. If you insist on using this singing transformer, the normal way to dampen the sound is to mount the transformer on vibration absorbing mount, e.g rubber gasket/wadher for the mounting screw.. etc. & double sided tape works pretty well as a quick fix.

Guys, thanks for your inputs.
I read & heard both comments.
Meaning, some say it is to expect, some say it should not happen ?
I’ve monitored the heat part manually, but by just touching by hand frequently, it seems fairly low, maybe a few deg higher then room temps. No concern at this point I’d say !?!
Where it gets me, is, it’s it occurrence, it’s inconsistent and irregular.
Some time it happens at start up, sometime not.
Some other times it rises after a few minutes of efforts/motor moving, and some other times it just starts when all is on but no motors are moving, meaning the beast is standing still power on, not moving after some time while waiting for me to transfer a new G-code!
One thing certain, Nothing to do with the way it is mounted….on a steel mount, fixed on a steel backing plate, screwed on a wood panel no box yet, meaning it is still not in a closed box !!

BTW, it’s a Hammond, maybe it not the ultimate best, but known to be a descent & honest brand !
Called tech and a rep should call back to explore possible fixes !
Will see…. ?
Later... ;)

Those hum are are cause by trensient state, due to flawed manufacturing.
There are no possible fix that you can do,, rubber mount, damping coat... etc etc won't solve the real problem, just sweeping the dirt under the carpet... I would strongly suggest getting them replaced.
Hammond do have QC problem... thats why they are comparatively economical... BUT they are reputable.

I found this quote elsewhere -

"If you are experiencing mechanical hum from your
transformer, it is often caused by the presence of
DC on the line. Usually this comes from some appliance
using current asymmetrically, such as a lamp dimmer.

The hum comes usually from toroidal transformers, which
saturate easily with DC, and when they recover, they
draw an extra pulse of current, causing the noise."

Note also that transformers can hum if they get heavily loaded.

Also see this -

http://sound.westhost.com/articles/xfmr-dc.htm

Hi Robert,

I was looking for suitable pushbutton boxes but was not happy with those at
Factorymation. I would like blank boxes (no holes) and larger than what is available there. Gerald has indicated that a larger box would be better for the gantry.

Where did you purchase the pushbutton boxes on your machine?

BTW: I purchased some of my electrical parts (cord grips, heat shrink, etc) at www.elecdirect.com in Missisauga, Ont but their boxes are their boxes are quite pricey.

Clayton

Thanks for the reply Robert.

BTW, how is the part you designed for the spring on the z-slide working out? Is it a part that you would recommend to others?

Clayton