Thanks Jeff! Also I think I found that my controller woes were due to a loose serial connection. At least now it seems to be ok, I taped the serial connector to the rest to keep it from popping loose by itself./
Neil,
The power buttons\switches are for the controller and the LED’s. I have a ESP01 on the TFT but I’m thinking of moving it to the control board and just using the web interface (ie also going headless). I have a $15 kindle I’ve dedicated to just using for this so I may make a mount on the red shelf to mount that somewhere. I fixed the IP of the esp01 on my router so it’s always the same IP so really I don’t need to even look at the TFT to determine the IP that got assigned. Still on v2 though, I was just looking through the recent ESP thread here, I may play around with trying some of the stuff the gang has been figuring out. Being able to air drop gcode onto the sd card and have full names would be awesome.
Thanks. Makes sense with the switches. I just have my LED Wired direct to 12v in So it’s constant on
Airdropping code over wifi is silly slow. I tried it with the crown gcode and it was not fun hanging out for the 8 minutes it took before I switched it off and out the card in. yMMV
I’m using a kindle HD8, and I bought a Rii BT keyboard. Tiny little thing. Makes typing Terminal commands easier, and I can jog it with the arrow keys, which is great. Some funkiness in the V3 but it’ll get ironed out. The ‘jogging’ function with the arrows has X on the up/down keys for example.
Coolest part of the interface is the Macros, tbh. They’ve been great for getting set up for a job really quickly.
first post on here but kind of went nuts when I upgraded my mpcnc to the low rider and made it 4ft by 8 ft… and might have added a water cooled 2.2kw spindle everything works great just has some slop while flattening slabs from the extra weight. it can handle cutting aluminum and straight cuts pretty decently just cant get good surface finish from it since one it gets to the midpoint it starts flexing down. any chance you could upload the files or send me the files for the 3 tube gantry design to give that a try before I go into the solid works rabbit hole.
Is it sagging or twisting? I can support my 195lbs on my 2’ beam pretty easily. I could see some twist being a possibility, not so much sag from a few extra pounds.
What are your strut plates made of and how thick are they? You want as thick and as rigid as possible. MDF is great if you have some, some plastics are more rigid. Plywood is too flexy.
I have the aluminum for the xz and mdf for the y. It’s more of a twisting force when doing any kind of surface passes it digs dipper in the front than the back leaving lines at a consistent distance apart and more noticeable in the center
Approximately how much does the spindle weigh? Are we talking 5 kg or 15 kg?
Maybe the simplest solution would be a counter-weight. If you have room for it, you could attach a long (maybe 1 meter) bar out the back side and attach a weight, maybe 1/10th of the weight of the spindle.
If that works then you are on your way and you can still consider rebuilding if you want. I am skeptical that the third gantry rail would make enough difference, and it is a lot of work to find out.
Another option would be to use a Makita router. There is a very good chance you could achieve your goal with less effort that way.
I have 3mm-4mm mdf strips as the struts. I’ve been thinking about changing them to acrylic though with a couple aviation plugs on the back for motor connections so it’s easier to take apart later on
The spindle weights about 10 kg. I used to have the mikita router for the last couple years and it started to die on me, so i decided to go big or go home and running 3in surfacing bits is pretty nice just gotta fix that twisting force to get the finish just right. Nothing sanding can’t take care of but I’m trying to advice for perfection
If it’s smoothness and not flatness you’re after, you could try surfacing in one direction, moving only in the -Y direction. This test pattern / tool path generator allows you to surface by cutting only when moving “South”, i.e. starting from +Y and moving toward -Y.
Then you will end up with a relatively mild scallop (depending on your step-over) and not a hard edge between passes.
That is just too big really. You will get much less scallop and you can move faster with a smaller bit. I don’t think you will notice a job time difference with a more appropriate sized surfacing bit. You will notice a much smaller deviation, if any at all.
Moving to 1/4" strut plates will do far more than adding a 3rd rail.
A makita is 2.8kg, and what this was designed for. As for it dying you probably just need a few dollars worth of a new brush set, super easy fix. Swinging a smaller surfacing bit and it will probably last longer next time around.
Tone it down a little bit, instead of taking a bigger bite take smaller bites faster. Lots of ways to end up at the same goal.
Ill hove that a try everything comes out flat just has lines that im able to sand down since it digs more in the front im going to keep experimenting and see if i can make it work
