[adam_m]

Made some progress with the spoil board and added some additional bracing for vertical work in the future.

The additional bracing should help with warpage of the spoil board since its MDF as well as give a mounting surface for jigs in the future like a fourth axis or for vertical work, not sure...

The switch wiring is complete and just needs to be tied up at the G540 / control panel its been tied and wire loomed and tested for travel and any kinks.

The spoil board was mounted with serrated bolts and probably will be changed since they aren't counter sunk, well see how it goes. I can see the bolts being a problem with handling material but they were on hand..

If you hadn't noticed I have a few linear bearing left over.. if your interested ping me.

Adam,

[roundrocktom]

Looks great!

With my MDF I find it does change shape with humidity. If I'm engraving something and need a fine depth control, I'll use a Surface Planer Bit (Magnate 2706 on amazon, there are different sizes). Light cut, Z down 0.005" light cut.... if needed a third pass. Local wood store sells MDF in 1" thick sheets (heavy!) so I''' have then cut it down to 60" long for my 50 x 50 router so I can move. The remaining 3' section I use as a waster board and surface as needed. You need a good shop vac and HEPA for MDF surfacing (Or open shop doors, fans on high, and leave the building!)

[adam_m]

Thanks Roundrock, I know what you mean by MDF dust... shops a mess and dust is everywhere!

Adam,

[adam_m]

This should be getting close to the last of the build.. there's still a lot of little things to do and upgrades to make once in place but in general I'm over all pleased with how the project has come out.

Here are few pics of the G540 wiring, doesn't mean much and its all going to be redone later.. nothing earth shattering as most of the progress was made by reading the G540 manual and bugging Val with some SuperPID questions that will be folded in later.

Adam,

[adam_m]

So for completeness of this thread I've included some links to parallel threads I started, I hope that's not a forum faux pas... on with the updates and progress.

From a hardware side I mounted a monitor arm with dual screens, the top screen is a Dell touch screen. Initially I mounted the arm directly to the frame but soon realized that it was in a bad spot so I manufactured an arm to extend it off the table, its better but not what I would call optimum. I'll see how it goes after a bit of cutting and what not.

I've started working on the front control panel and will post some of the drawings and what not later.

I've also cut some access holes for PC connectors and will be cutting a couple of plates shortly to clean that mess up but for now its wired up and working fine. I then finished off the wire mess with some wire loom I had laying around.

After the monitors were mounted it was time to fire it up.. first I needed to get Mach setup and I needed some help with that. I watched the video's on Mach's website but I still had some unanswered questions and things I needed cleared up. So this thread (Another sPID, G540, and Mach wiring question for the wiring challenged..) was extremely helpful in getting the initial setup going with the G540, Mach3 and my Steppers. I really appreciate the help from Spk64 and RicknBeachcrest for getting me over the hump. I plan on posting my final setup and screens at the end of this thread for comparison sake.

With the G540 and Mach somewhat together it was time to fire it up.. I was careful to double check my work and that the eStop was functioning, safety first... just in case. If your interested the videos are below.

Well there was no "Magic" white smoke.. sweet!!!

After firing it up for the first time this lead to the discovery of the Z axis being too stiff at full extension which led to the dis-assembly of the axis. I essentially moved the anti-backlash nut further up the plate re-assembled the axis and she was smooth as silk. The other small tidbit of information was the I had to make small adjustments to the Axis potentiometer on the G540, its the small opening on the front of the controller, Z needed a little tweaking.

So, next on the list - draw/cut something but first I needed to test my home and limit switches, they seem to check out.. but after making an attempt to jog the machine I realized I was still missing something... I needed to "Tune" the motors, what its not a "plug-n-play", damn! Oh well a chance to learn more... cool!!

This thread http://www.cnczone.com/forums/diy_cn...nge_rates.html was an eye opener and many thanks to Ger21 and louieatienza for getting me through it... In the end this turned out to be a Stepper tuning class for me, my take away is that you need to start with calculating the steps for your machine and its particular hardware, from there get in the ball park for Velocity and Acceleration and then tune it from there, read the thread...

Adam,

Christening... - YouTube

Christening 2 - YouTube

[adam_m]

I can't believe its been 3months since my post on this thread.. wow time fly's.

I wanted to finish posting my completed configuration from Mach as I said I would earlier in the thread in case it can be of use to someone later on down the line experiencing some of the same problems that I encountered, the screen shots are of the final settings that I'm currently using. From my signature you can see the hardware that I'm using, your mileage may vary and I would encourage you to tailor them to your machine specifically.

Here is a thread I was able to illicit some help from Gerry and Lee on squaring my X and Y axis, much appreciated the help. The lesson learned here is to have moveable switches and use some scrap when making test runs. http://www.cnczone.com/forums/diy-cn...ent-issus.html

Here is another thread on the terrible racket the motors were making initially before I tuned them. Its a very important part of setting up the motors, the tuning process. In my case this was accomplished with the G540 and the small potentiometers on the front and following the guidelines in the manual and the thread here. http://www.cnczone.com/forums/diy-cn...l-run-gah.html

With the above completed I now have a viable machine to run some projects on.. The first test was a trim plate for my video cables. I took a blank plastic cover plate and essentially mounted it and and let er' rip.. it came out rather well.. very small piece complete very happy owner!!!



I realized three things from that project -
1) I need dust collection!
2) Project list just increased *1000.
3) I needed to be able to view machine from remote locations assuming a large project was running... IPCamera, here we come.

Adam,

[adam_m]

Just a little more to post for anyone interested.

The IP Camera is in, sorry its only private but here is a screenshot in a no light situation, very impressive if you ask me. I reworked the camera, a Geeya 720p for POE (power over ethernet) since I didn't also want to have to run a power line to the camera. Anyhoo, it works great and is accessible from my iPhone and any browser.

So, I started noodling on how to do dust collection and landed on needing a support arm for the dust collection hose, I currently have a large dust collector and just figure I'll adapt to the 4" hose with a reducer, I realize this will effect the amount of suction but I think it will suffice, we'll see.

The first step was configuring a rotating post for the arm I already had lying around, 3/4 by 3/4 thin steel and seems to be sturdy enough for hanging a hose on it, perfect. Since my monitors are on a support arm at the rear of my router, I wanted to use that post, I think it will make a good pivot point. I've currently fabricated a pivot that will work by using a needle bearing, 1" piece of 6061 and a bronze flanged bearing.

Here is a quick few pics, I still need to mill the top of the post square to fit the arm and devise a cover for the top bearing but I think it will do nicely. I don't have a lathe so I butchered this on my table saw, no need for precision as most of this will be hidden from view.

I'm still finalizing my plan on a dust boot.. but think I have an idea of what I want to make.

Adam,