Debugging & Fixing Problems

I’ve spent the past ~8 hours to fix problems occuring on the machine.

First of all, the circuit breaker on the electrical side of the machine, turns out it cannot keep all the electricity away from the circuit when it is turned off, so I got some “buzzing” while working on it. Also I learned that for the fixed end of the ball screws, it is needed to install a nut to fix the ballscrew to its place. Because of the lack of it, The Spindle couldn’t move all the way through its mechanical movement range.

Also after testing different accelerations for movement of axes, I saw that the carts on the rails do not move very smootly. I did some research and found out that an amount of grease should be applied via a grease pump inside of the carts, in addition to lubricating the rails, which I did with Superlube lube oil.

While testing movement on axes, X-Axis had a problem where when it approached the fixed side the stepper motor stalls after it is approx. 100mm far from the mechanical range of it. After inspecting the problem further, I found out that length of the ballscrew was actually shorter than the distance between ballscrew bearing on gantry plates. It resulted as the ballscrew getting out of the floating side when it approaches the fixed bearing side. To solve this problem, I’ve made a revision on right gantry piece, to shorten the distance between bearings to where the ballscrew stays completely locked axially, after installation.

To conclude, in order to solve these problems;

• I ordered nuts for the ballscrews,
• I will buy WAGO 221-413 connectors to organize the electrical layout and establish a safer system
• A 2 Phase 16A circuit breaker (Instead of an arduino O-I switch which I was using until now)-I chose a 2 Phase breaker because it controls the ac electricity coming, interrupting only one side may result as the live wire continuing to all the electrical circuit even if the switch is at off position.
• I will switch to C19/C20 power cable and socket instead of C13/14, for security, because the takeoff current of vfd when spindle starts may exceed the rated capacity of C13/14 standard cable and socket, so I want to be on the safe side.
• I will buy a DIN Rail to mount these electrical components
• Not as significant as others, but I will buy M3 bolts in correct sizes, because right now all of the stepper motors shake a little because of too long bolt usage.
• Also I revised the 3D printed parts on the front and back side of the router for mostly esthetic reasons, but also to prevent sawdusts(shavings) to get inside of the sigma profiles.

I will work on the machine after these parts arrive and the new gantry piece is printed.

A photo of the machine’s latest status in design is attached.

Stay Tuned!