Budget SX2L CNC Conversion

Hi All,

I have recently purchased a pre-owned Sieg SX2L Mini Mill. I very much want to convert this machine to CNC but looking through the forums I found that most of the conversions people here have done have been pretty expensive.

I know most people would recommend hardware from CNC Fusion and electronics from Planet CNC or some other good quality supplier, but I am investigating some more budget friendly options. I was hoping some of the more experienced members of the forums could offer some advice.


Here are the options I am looking at currently:

Controller: New products !!! 4 axis USBCNC with hand controller driver board-in Motor Driver from Industry & Business on Aliexpress.com
X and Y Steppers: NEMA23 270 Oz in CNC Dual shaft stepper motor/3.0A-in Stepper Motor from Industry & Business on Aliexpress.com
Z Stepper: NEMA23 425 Oz in CNC Dual shaft stepper motor stepping motor/3.0A-in Stepper Motor from Industry & Business on Aliexpress.com
Ball Screws: (need to check lengths but something like this) SFU1204 ball screw set : RM1204 L400mm with end machined +SFU1204 single ball nut + BK/BF10 end support + coupler for CNC parts-in Ball Screws from Industry & Business on Aliexpress.com
Stepper Mounts: Free shpping, Stepping motor NEMA23 Mounts bracket the installation Block-in Brackets from Home Improvement on Aliexpress.com

I figure if I can get these parts to work I can do the conversion for about $500 instead of over $1,000 using better parts. Aside from general concerns about quality can anyone tell me why this would be a bad idea? Alternately can anyone reassure me with some reasons why this could work ok?


Cheers,

Justin

The USB controller board specifies that it does not support Mach3, which may (or may not) be an issue for you. You will need to buy a power supply too, and find out what is the maximum voltage that can be used with the controller board. Many of the TB6560s based boards specify 12 - 36 Volts. Go with the highest voltage allowed to maximimze performance. --md

Very good point about Mach3. That is a deal breaker on that controller board.

I looked again on Aliexpress and found quite a few options that specifically claim to work with Mach3.
This one caught my eye for having a nice professional looking enclosure:
CNC 4 Axis Stepper 5A TB6600 Motor Driver Controller Box Standard Mach3 12775-in Motor Controller from Industry & Business on Aliexpress.com

Found one that looks even better. Mach3 support, USB and more connections than you can poke a stick at. And only about $150

Downside is that it doesn't have integrated stepper drivers so I would have to buy 3 stepper drivers as well adding at least another $60 to the project cost.

Upgrade XHC MK3 CNC Mach3 USB 3 Axis Motion Control Card Breakout Board 200KHz Support Windows 7 @SD-in Motor Driver from Industry & Business on Aliexpress.com

Look for an ethernet product not USB. Less headaches.

If you are wanting to do it on a budget then save $175 using linuxcnc (free) instead of Mach 3, use an old desktop pc with parallel port for next to nothing in cost, and forget the usb or Ethernet solutions for now and save that $150. I run my g0704 on a free pc with a $12 breakout board and it has been rock solid to 200 inches per minute. Linuxcnc has a live cd download that you can run it off of, or install it permanently.

Using cheap Chinese electronics rarely turns out well. First, you have no clue what the specs for the parts is. There are no specs for the motors. They could well be high-inductance motors, which will have terrible performance. The Chinese no-name stepper drivers, BOBs, and motion controllers have a TERRIBLE reputation. The Mach3 forum is littered with posts by people unable to get them working right, or even at all. Most of these products are virtually undocumented, and being sold by people who know absolutely nothing about them. This leaves you to figure out for yourself how they work, and how to wire them up. Bugs in any drivers/plug-ins (which is a virtual certainty)? Good luck getting updates. Once working, the performance is often poor, and they then go up in smoke.

If you go this route, prepare to do it all over again before long, and end up spending much more money than if you had just done it right in the first place. A Gecko G540 and motors and power supplies with known specs would be a MUCH wiser option.

Regards,
Ray L.

I would agree with a couple points above. Use linux cnc and then get decent drivers. I don't know about geckos but look on amazon and there are decent ones for around 25 a piece and they usually have decent return service. just make sure you hook everything up ASAP to test them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by antichip

I would agree with a couple points above. Use linux cnc and then get decent drivers. I don't know about geckos but look on amazon and there are decent ones for around 25 a piece and they usually have decent return service. just make sure you hook everything up ASAP to test them.

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I can assure you any stepper driver that sells for only $25 is not "decent". Most in that price range are either very low current, using L298 chips, or based on the Toshiba TB5650 integrated stepper driver chips, which are downright notorious for being extremely easy to blow up, even when used within specs.

Regards,
Ray L.

well they seem to work for me on a x2 with 490 ozin steppers. Sooo YMMV I guess. but it would still be better than the all in one integrated board and not a ton more money. And easily replaced or upgraded down the road. Kinda seems a win win to me. Considering your post regarding mach 3 users not being able to get "Chinese" drivers and bob to work, well mach-3 does not have the highest reputation for getting the brightest customers first off. A little searching and such can usually resolve any issue in hook-up or lack of documentation. To each there own.

I'm just saying you can get decent 5 amp peak drivers and bob that is mach compatible (not usb) for just over a 100, a couple 7 amp 48 volt power supplies. Spend a couple extra bucks for a couple spare drivers. Use the rest of the budget for the really expensive pieces, like tooling.

saying it rarely work out is silly considering the number of machines out there running these bits including lasers, routers, 3-d printers and what not.

Some very good low cost stepper drivers I have been using are the Stepper Online DM542T. These drivers are 50 V, 4.2 A, and are made for Stepper Online by Leadshine. The best part is they are available on Amazon Prime for $33.95. I bought them through Amazon because there is no question that I could return them if I had a problem. These drives have very good mid-band resonance dampening. They are also very smooth running. I am running mine at 48V and 3.5A without any problems.

https://www.amazon.com/STEPPERONLINE...r+driver&psc=1

Also, for a budget build, don't count out GRBL. Grbl is a 3-axis controller that runs on an Arduino and the host software resides on any number of devices. I run mine using an old Netbook. There are many interface programs available and they run on Windows, Linux, Raspberry Pi, etc. The cost of the controller is the Arduino, which you can get an Arduino clone for about $5 if you dig around. Yes, Five dollars. If you just want to take the easy road it is still only about $12 from amazon (See link below) The Grbl firmware is easy to load on the arduino using the Arduino IDE software. It isn't perfect or a full fledged solution, but it can run a 3 axis milling machine. Here is a link to my G0704 running on Grbl. The arduino does all of the time critical stuff and the PC or whatever just serves as an interface and a means to stream the g-code to Arduino running Grbl.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFPGYXlt7x0

Here is a link to a an Arduino Uno clone from amazon

https://www.amazon.com/SainSmart-Ard...+arduino&psc=1


The Arduino basically takes the place of the breakout board, so the connection is [PC to Arduino via USB], and [Arduino wired to stepper drivers]. Here is a link to the Grbl WIKI page about connecting, and another like to some of the interfaces that can be used.. You can also check out the other WIKI pages to see if it may be something you would like to try. Again, I'm not saying it is a perfect solution but it is very good for the cost and platform it is on. I decided to try it because it only cost a few dollars even though I already had LinuxCNC controlling my machine. I look at it this way --- If you try it and it works you saved at least $100. If you try it and don't like it then you only wasted $12.

https://github.com/gnea/grbl/wiki/Connecting-Grbl

https://github.com/gnea/grbl/wiki/Using-Grbl

Good luck

I have used TB6560 without any problems for a long time. I switched to TB6600 drivers and i am very pleased with it. I am sure leadshine or gecko will give more speed and probably less noise but they do cost a lost more.
If have bought Nema 17, 23 and 24 steppers and never had a problem with them.
My advise is to start using separate cheap TB6600 stepper drivers (buy a spare).
For the controller you could start using GRBL witch runs on a cheap arduino or a cheap parallel BOB if you like Linux and have a old PC with a parallel port. If you ever need more, then only a few bucks are waisted but you have learned a lot and you then know why you should spend more money.
Have al lot of fun
Huub