I mostly use my lowrider for 3D carving and there’s two quirks that I want to improve on. First is very slow z-axis travel, it slows down the XY travel as well if it involves a movement on the Z-Axis. Next one is the skateboard rollers may wonder a bit.
So when I received some linear rails and NEMA 23 for a separate project I’m planing in the summer, I used them for now to beef up the lowrider.
I’m using SKR Pro 1.1, replaced the TMC2209s and use external drivers DM542 (Just use TB6600 in the marlin firmware). The 2X (series) and 2Y stepper motors are 178.5oz/in NEMA 23 using a metal mounting plate. While the 2Z is a 425oz/in. Note that I upgraded them for increasing the speed of the 3D carve and not to increase the cutting force/load. It’s mostly for the finishing pass which cut’s at average < 1mm.
I’ve bee using it for a while now cutting hard maple 30mm/s speed (Rough is 1/4 ballnose and 4mm depth of cut) (compared to 8mm/s with the Nema 17s). I also pushed it to 50mm/s but I’m too chicken to keep it that way. My two day projects(1 day for rough and 1 day finish) I can do in a day with time to spare.
So, it’s been a while since this post… how is it running with the nema 23’s? How is the belt drive holding up? I’m starting to build another cnc (gantry style) planning to use skr pro 1.2 and external drivers with nema 23’s, maybe 34’s. Any issues with the external driver control from skr?
Hi, I used it for a good 6 months, it was running well during that time, but I since switched to a new design using HGR20 rails and SFU1610 ball screws. I still reused the Nema23s/DM542 drivers.
What type of design? I’m building another cnc, much beefier gantry design. Nema 23’s with dm556t drivers, linear bearings and ball screws. It is still just a collection of parts. Do you have any pictures of your machine?
