New user, new build, join me as I figure out all out

3 posts were split to a new topic: New Zealand Primo

I’ve done a bit more work on my setup, I put more time into it in the last couple days than the previous two weeks.


I disassembled a lot of the machine so I could make a ton of adjustments. That included cutting the factory wires off the stepper motors and soldering on beefier/longer wires. Everything is much more tight, including the upper Makita tool mount that I forgot to tighten when I first installed it (I wondered where the excessive wobbling was coming from).

I think I settled on a good wire management solution. Flexible wire conduit wasn’t cutting it, but thanks to the more rigid wires to the steppers, basic split loom conduit is working out very well.

I still need to deal with the Z motor and router wires, but I’m fairly convinced to build an arch over the unit to keep it above everything.

I’ve also got another project going on for my MPCNC. I’ve been keeping it under wraps because I didn’t have much designed, but I should have a good bit available for show here soon. I’ll reveal it soon :wink:

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Be careful with that ethernet wire. Solid core can fatigue and break over time.

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It’s actually not Ethernet wire, it’s stranded 4 conductor 18 gauge wire. Each conductor has about a dozen stands, so I’m hoping that is enough to prevent too much fatigue. I’ve got a massive spool of this stuff.

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So the MPCNC took a bit of a back seat because work had been absolutely insane over the last month. I’ve been working 7 days a week at around 70 hours a week, so my off time has been dedicated to eating and sleeping.
I have poked around with it a little bit.


Here is the current condition. Wires are pretty much taken care of and routed around well enough. I want to clean them up further, but that will be for the future after I have it running solid.


For the Z axis wires, I had made a mount for the core to hold the drag chain. It works well, but the other end on the truck is what has kept me stuck. I finally said screw it last night and did just that…

I cut a rectangle out of acrylic, screwed it directly into the gantry rail, and connected the drag chain to it. The wires come out and run along with the other wires perfectly. It’s not great, but it works.


I wanted the motors and router to be able to disconnect quickly, and not with screw terminal blocks. I ended up with aviation style terminals that screw on. Each has 4 pins for each stepper motor. The router will keep it’s plug and I’m going to build a normal electrical socket into the driver box.

At this point, the MPCNC is ready to go. I’ll make some changes in the future, but mainly to clean up stuff. The driver box is functional, but now that I understand how the interfaces work, I’m going to build a more suitable case for it.

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FINALLY! Someone else using the provisions on the core clamps for a drag chain solution! I was starting to think that I was the weird one for following Ryan’s advise and not attaching the drag chain to the Z tower!

I made a plug mount system for the gantry tube end for mine. A split plug goes into the tube (With room for the wires going across for motor and endstop) that holds the outer end of the drag chain.

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Yes! I really looked over your build and liked your drag chain system. I’m not a fan of plug mounts in general, so I was trying to make a clamp to 3D print to secure onto the gantry rail. The area I have mine screwed into is a dead zone that doesn’t interfere with the core range of movement. I got irritated with not being able to put a decent design together, so I just cut out the acrylic in a fit of annoyance. Turned out half decent lol!

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I also decided to rebuild the driver box. It houses the power supplies, Linux CNC parallel port interface and stepper drivers. Everything was pretty much screwed down to a piece of wood for testing, so now I’ve gone back and made it neater, smaller, and overall better.

It’s actually almost done already. I mainly need to verify the proper motor coil pairing so all of the motors spin the right way, then I can peel off the protective covering on the Lexan.

Once I finish this bit, everything should be 100% for the whole system, so I can start destroying bits. I mean milling stuff.

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Welp, I figured this would happen, but luckily its not a major deal. A part finally went bad.
One of the five stepper motor drivers in my driver box decided to go crazy. I hooked up the driver box to my MPCNC, fired everything up and started to calibrate the axis. X and Y went smoothly, but the Z axis went bat shit crazy. Rapidly moving up and down and just loosing its mind. I swapped two of the drivers and sure enough, the Z was fine with one of the Y drivers.
Oh well, already got another one on order from Amazon… should be here in the next couple days. Nothing really lost, the drivers are cheap and its going to be HOT this weekend where I live, so I won’t be doing much in the garage. Since I know everything will be good I’ll be able to put the finishing visual touches on the box in time to bolt the new driver in and fire away.
Maybe I should put a fan in the box to keep the drivers cool…
Or an E-stop button?
No brakes on this train!!

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Been out for some medical stuff, but luckily that’s over for now.

Got the replacement driver for the motor and got it all put together. Recalibrated LinuxCNC and ran a quick program.

Video is at normal speed, I was able to speed it up a bit from when I was still goofing around with things.
I used Estlcam to convert a jpg of a Corgi to tool paths. My mom loves corgis, so I made a “coaster” for her as a test. I use the word coaster very lightly.


The “bumpy” lines were from the jpg conversion. It was a full color photo, so it wasn’t the best results.

So at this point, the hardware is pretty much done. I have a few very minor things I’d like to do, but they are more of a “nice to have” that uses LinuxCNC abilities. Now it’s going to be a matter of really learning the software side of things, but I have a fairly basic grasp of the flow already. I need to spend some time with Estlcam and learn all of it’s options.

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