A friend of mine bought a CNC machine a few years ago. He’s not electronically inclined (mostly just woodworking and welding) and he’s had problems getting it going.
We were discussing some projects I’ve done lately with my CNC and he made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.
My Job: To get his CNC running. It’s a platform CNC and he brought it over in his truck for me to work on at my leisure.
The trade: He brought me a spare planer he doesn’t use anymore and he’s going to weld me up a new firebox for my smoker.
He has all the parts (mostly). The x and y axis are moving, but the y axis is binding at the extents. I need to re-install the z axis and then install all the limit switches and get them working in mach3. He also brought a new electronics enclosure that he wants me to move everything over into.
It’s probably a good week’s worth of work to get everything working for him working on it in the evenings. The only part I’ve found missing so far is a concentric bushing that I had to order for one of the bearings. Looking through the manual, I think everything else is there.
The machine is a beast… it’s also very heavy.
I couldn’t really see how I could say no to this offer. I’m getting to play with someone else’s CNC machine and get some new equipment out of the deal.
Here’s a picture of his machine sitting on the floor of my garage.
Can you post a close-up of the guide rails? They look like some kind of extruded aluminium… Would be interested to know what drives the y axis(bearings, belts, etc)
If i am not mistaken the two Nema 23 motors on the bottom run lead screws on the lowest cross piece. Unless i am confusing X and Y axis. either way the X on the upright looks like a lead screw as well. Most likely only running one Nema 23 on the X. Also the V wheels run along bent steel sides as the actual guide. At first glance that is what i am seeing.
Edit: Dang, Barry got to it before i could type everything out.
I have the y-axis running smoothly from end to end. It no longer bind at the extents. I started moving the electronics from the machine into a standalone enclosure.
I ran into one hiccup while re-installing the z-axis. My friend seems to be a bit of a gorilla when it comes to tightening bolts. I had to drill one out on one of the bearing blocks as the hex wrench stripped out the head. Luckily it looks like he provided a few boxes of spare bolts. I’m hoping I can finish getting the Z-axis mounted tomorrow and test drive all 3 axis by the end of the week.
It was 110 degrees in the garage most of the weekend, which limited the time I spent out there. I still managed to get most of the electronics moved over to the new box.
I started installing the limit switches and snapped my 2.5mm tap off in the first hole.
Went back to the drawing board and saw where people have designed limit switch holders to slide into the 8020 extrusion. I think I’ll give that a try instead of what I was doing. I did order a new tap just in case.
I ended up 3d printing my own brackets for the limit switches. Those took a few iterations to get right.
I finished moving all the electronics into the enclosure he brought me. I had to fab a few brackets for some of that as well.
I got all the limit switches wired up and got everything working last night.
I will say I fought with it for about a half hour before realizing the E-Stop was reversed in the software and was keeping the machine from resetting. Not sure how I did that.
Ask away. I’ll do my best to answer them from the short time I had with it.
Only half the wheels are on eccentric bolts.
For instance, the Z axis has the left bolt eccentric and the right concentric. The X axis has the top concentric and the bottom eccentric. The Y is like the X.
