[Bl@ckrat]

looking great !

what size kit do you go for ? is that the dyn2 ? or the dyn3 ?

mine arrives next week wahoo

[matth]

400w Dyn2, it seems to have more than enough power.

[matth]

Bit more progress on the control enclosure and the operator panel:

Attachment 247750 Attachment 247752

[matth]

More progress on the electronics:

[nlancaster]

That is am impressive control cabinet!

Once it is up and running you should make a nice etched aluminum or plastic faceplate for the cabinet with all controls labeled.

[matth]

Thanks. That's the plan and a nice bezel for the touchscreen.

[matth]

More progress on the cab, only need to wire in the machine and power now.
Also the main live 230v busbar will be replaced with a row of suitably sized circuit breakers once they arrive.

[matth]

Got the breakers in place now.
All that's left is to wire in the final hookups from the router and then I'm ready for some testing,

[cncadmin]

Very clean layout I like!

[Wombilly]

Please let me know if you have issues with EMC and EMI, the panel is impressive and very well laid out

[matth]

Please let me know if you have issues with EMC and EMI, the panel is impressive and very well laid out

Indeed, it will all be in this thread as it happens.
My spindle cable and limits/homing switch cables are both shielded. I need to add a small metal clamp to each which will clamp the cable and shield against the main back metal mounting plate, this should effectively ground them out. Hopefully between that, the filter on the input of the VFD and the clean layout including the centralised grounding should prevent issues, but time will tell.

Cheers Admin.

[matth]

So, finally moving along again with this project.
I found out that the USB controller I was using didn't support axis slaving even though it was a 4 axis card. I have now replaced it with an ESS connected to a simple opto isolated breakout board.
I'm also not happy with the Muhi card, it's a good board but the Mach3 plugin just doesn't give the versatility required. I have a new Pokeys 56u ready to install which I will start on in the next couple of days.

I'm at the stage where I need to sort homing etc, I have added some very nice limit switches to the x and a axis so I can square the gantry on homing.

But first a couple of vids of the test cuts I just completed. These are the same as the cuts I was trying with the machine when it was stepper driven and show a good comparison of the capabilities.

Both cuts are using a 1/4" carbide two flute endmill. The first is a 1mm DOC cut at 3mm step over, 1000mm/m and 10KRPM on the spindle:
Cnc router 400w DMM servo Aluminium cutting test - YouTube

The second is the same with a 2mm DOC, 15000mm/m feed and 15KRPM:
Second servo drive aluminium test cut - YouTube

[nlancaster]

Looking great!

[matth]

Furnished wiring and configuring the pokeys and levelled the machine today.
Mainly just need to sort out the table top now and a few other little things.

Did a very quick test vcarve:

Quick V carve test cut - YouTube

[widgitmaster]

When using a V-Bit, make your Z-Axis feed rate the same as the X & Y axis!
Make the Z-retract distance 1/16" or less above top survace, and the whole project will run much smoother!
Don't be afraid to use the full-cutter's depth in one pass either, the v-bits can remove a tremendous amount of material is little time!
Widgit

[matth]

Thanks for the tips Widgit. Most of what I am doing at the moment is non optimised and is really just to find the capabilities of the machine. I will do another vcarve tomorrow and do as you said.

Here's a couple of vids showing the machine cutting a lithophane. Nothing to exciting and again non optimised for end result but not bad never the less:
Cnc router cutting lithophane - YouTube

Cnc router cutting lithophane 2 - YouTube

I've got some aluminium strips arriving tomorrow that will be bolted to the steel cross members and then machined level. Once this is done I can mount the 20mm table top and start laying out a grid of bolt holes.

[matth]

Started on the table levelling strips today. Got them all drilled and counter bored using the router. Tomorrow I will skim cut them and mount the main table top.

Attachment 249900

Milling circular pocket for counterbore - YouTube

[matth]

I've got both the tables done and mounted now with the top smaller table skimmed flat:

Attachment 250210 Attachment 250212

I've also mounted up a vacuum table purchased from EBay, I was going to make one but from what this cost there was no point:

[matth]

Cutting sacrificial table to length:

Cnc router trimming table - YouTube

Skim cutting table:

Skim cutting the table on my cnc router - YouTube

[embraced]

Where did you get the vacuum table?