@umut4kova

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!

I can’t tell how excited I am right now. The machine’s all 3 axes and the spindle works perfectly fine. The chassis is rigid, and all motors move the system smoothly.

Since the last devlog, as you can see from my timelapses, I spent 4 hours:

• Assembled the remaining parts of Z axis, and successfully mounted the Spindle
• Extending the Step motor cables
• Mounting Step motors
• Assembling the cable chain and trying to fit the spindle’s power cables + 2 step motor cables to a 15x15cm cable channel(that was a nightmare)
• Designing&Printing new mounts for X and Y axes
• Wiring the SpindleAssembling and wiring the Electrical Control Box, which includes the VFD and 12V power supply.

Also burnt one 5A cartridge fuse by miscalculating VFD’s input current:/

There is the video of machine jogging in 3 axes and the spindle spinning at a low speed, in below.

I am looking forward to either buy a solid Aluminum plate to use as fixture plate or buy a pre-drilled fixture plate, and buy some MDF wood to put over the fixture plate to make fixing the stock piece easier.

Stay tuned:)

Got a great progress in the assembly, with the arrival of some missing size bolts, I was able to assemble the “cutting zone” profiles to the chassis, and it made it even more rigid. Mounted all of the ball nuts to X,Y,Z axes. There is just the holder plate for spindle that is not assembled and after that the main assembly is done besides the electrical box.

While working I spent approx. 50 mins just to make a ball screw fit a screw bed, which I still don’t know why it was very hard to. Also because I don’t have enough M4 bolts, I had to drill&expand mounting holes of the ball screw beds and used M5 bolts instead, and it was pretty hard to do without damaging the internal system of them, especially without a vise I had to hold it with pliers:)

At the moment Y axis parts and mechanisms are all done, X just the same, and Z axis near completion. It seems like all the ball screws are rigid enough and it excites me to build the machine and see the tolerances.

The thing I’m waiting for to complete is that I couldn’t find the right couplers to fix the NEMA17’s shaft to the ball screws so I ordered online and probably it will arrive on 10th or 11th of August. After that, there is the electrical part like mounting and wiring the VFD, 12V PSU, and an input socket.

I’ll do my best to publish the progress, and to update the CAD parts at github.

Started the assembly of the machine, the gantry is assembled.

When started to assemble the side support parts for the gantry movement, I accidentally hit one of them and it broke, so the assembly got delayed 1 day for me to print that part again. At the moment gantry slides smoothly.

Please note that the gantry will have to be removed tomorrow, because the ball screws will going to be lathed tomorrow and also one of the side parts have incorrect positioning for the mounting holes of the ball screw nut.