Another Mechmate in Progress - Atlanta GA

[Jay Waters]

Hello! Just wanted to introduce myself. Been hanging out here for a while now and after much reading have decided to launch out and build a Mechmate too. Have just recently started my own cabinet shop after working too many years for others. This will probably be a slow build, but I am confident I can accomplish this not just with my own very small skill set, but with the amazing help that is available from the many talented people here on this forum. Am in the process of beginning to build a shop building, so that will take priority so I'll have a home to put the Mechmate. Also wanted to thank you Gerald for putting this website together and for the info you provide. I can hardly wait to start building......

[reza forushani]

Hi Jay and welcome. Where abouts in Atlanta are you? I am in Alpharetta.

[Gerald_D]

The pair of you could make a good joint build team. May I come and visit May 11/12 for the launch ceremony? http://www.mechmate.com/Forum/clipart/happy.gif

[reza forushani]

hope so

[Jay Waters]

Reza, I'm in the little town of Social Circle out I-20 towards Augusta. Usually takes me about 45-50 minutes to get to downtown Atlanta.

Gerald, I would be the happiest person ever if I could have mine done by May!! Maybe the shop will be done by then, so I can start on the bigger pieces.

[reza forushani]

I am in Alpharetta-Exit 12A off of 400.
Give me a call 678-873-7955 or email me
reza@tuliphomes.com

[Jay Waters]

Thanks Reza, will give you a ring sometime and hopefully I'll be able to tear myself away from work and come see your machine.

[cacuff]

Jay and Reza,

I am in the Atlanta area (Lawrenceville) and am interested in building a MechMate. Could I come by and see your progress sometime?

Cory

[ccarlhopkins]

Hi Jay, and all
I am west of Atlanta, Villa Rica. I too just started my own shop 3 yrs now going great. I am interested in cnc as well. I would like to see too. I'm not sure when I would be ready to take that leap but thought some research in order for now.
Carl

[Jay W]

cacuff,

Sorry for the long delay in replying. It's been a while since I've visited these forums. I have had to put the Mechmate project on hold for the time being because of work demands. I will post here when I start and will hopefully chronicle the whole thing with a lot of pictures. I desperately need one, but don't have a whole lot of the most precious resource of all....time....to build one at the present. I'm trying to stay optimistic, and hoping for a build time within a year, but..... who knows?

Cheers,

Jay W

[Jay W]

Oh yeah, didn't intentionally forget to say hi to you ccarlhopkins. Just late, and need some sleep! I'm glad your shop is doing well, and wish you all the best. If you're doing some research, this is one of the greatest resources you'll have (this forum) available. Best advice I can think of is read, read, read, and read again all the information you can on the Mechmate, and you'll eventually pull the trigger to build it. It is a great machine, and I can't wait to build mine.

Talk to you later,

Jay W

[neoanderson]

looks like nobody has replied in a while. has anyone finished ther mechmate? or does anyone live in the atlanta area have one that is finished?

[Jay W]

Pete,

Reza has one startedhere (http://www.mechmate.com/forums/showthread.php?t=192http://www.mechmate.com/forums/showthread.php?t=192), but I don't know how far along he is now. Sure is great to see more people from Atlanta here. Hey Pete, are you planning on building soon?

Jay

[neoanderson]

i haven't started a build yet, and i am not sure that i will.
I wanted to see if someone local to the area had completed one, and see how it went for them. Maybe even pay them to help me with my build or even build one for me

[Jay W]

Depending on time and work factors I am going to build one. There's no way I can as of now because of time and work, but when I do start you would be more than welcome to come on over and watch and see it come to life as I gradually tinker on it. Shoot, probably could use an extra pair of hands at times. I would go so far as to venture a guess, you'd probably end up building one! :) Keep checking the forums. I'll post my progress when I start.

Jay

[gmessler]

Hi Pete,

I would check with Sean. I think it is in his plans to manufacture the Mechmate.

[neoanderson]

Hi Jay,
That would be cool. what town are you in?

[Jay W]

Pete,

I'm not too far...about an hours drive away between Social Circle and Rutledge.

[Jay W]

Being that my build is probably in the running for the longest build time, I thought it was high time to post a little bit of my progress. I first countersunk the y car plates.....
5819

and the y carrier plates while I was in countersink mode.
5820

I then proceeded to begin the process for welding the Y Car. Had a piece of granite from a sink cutout I used to keep everything level and square.
5821

Here's a shot of my Y Car after welding and grinding. Gotta get a little bondo! Had a great time welding with my mig welder, though. It got easier as I went along.
5822

[Jay W]

The laser kit I have was purchased a couple of years ago by a fellow that used to frequent here. Well, the Mechmate has changed a little, so I needed to do some "doctoring" to one of the pieces I have. I had 4 of the 10.20.456 and I want to have some nice cable routing when I get to that point so I decided to make a 10.20.456 into a 10.20.458. Here's what I did...
5824

May not be the prettiest, but it will definitely work. Well, now to try to source all the newer parts I'm missing so I can keep going on my machine.

[sailfl]

Jay,

Thanks for the update. Doesn't matter how long it takes, it is the journey and the finished machine.

[Doug_Ford]

Welcome back Jay. Looking good. Hang in there.

[Jay W]

Figured I needed to run this info by you guys and see if my calculations are okay. Machine will be a 5 ft x 8ft and here's what I've decided to purchase:

Steppers: Keling KL34H280-45-8A steppers 4.5A / 2.2mH (640 oz in although when wired unipolar will be less)
Drivers: Gecko 203V
BOB: PMDX-122
Power Supply: Antek PS-8N48R12 800 Watt 48VDC 16A w/ 12VDC 1A

According to my calculations with these items I will need 47.5 volts, 18 Amps, and 855 Watts. Does this sound about right? I didn't want to order anything until I had someone double check my calculations. I'm not married to the Antek power supply it just seemed to fit the bill nicely, so if there's any other suggestions I'm wide open. Thanks.

[MetalHead]

ps seems to be overkill. I think the 5N ps should be fine.
I spoke to antek for the same setup and John said to use the 5N.

[ger21]

If you run them bipolar parallel, at 6.3 amps, then that sounds about right.

[Jay W]

I was wanting to run these wired unipolar for several reasons mentioned such as less heat at the motor and control box and general all around good torque at low and high speeds, and also another chance to wire it again if I burn these up! So with that decision made, which 5N Power supply was John referring to? Thanks for the reply Ger and Mike.

[ger21]

How do you run an 8 wire motor and a G203 to run unipolar, as the G203 is a bipolar drive?

[Jay W]

Hmmmmm....so is unipolar the same as half coil?? Are you saying that the G203 won't work with the motors wired in half coil configuration? From reading Gerald's recommendations for wiring the motors I thought half coil wiring was the better way to do it. Just want to get this straightened out so I can get the motors, PS, and drivers ordered.

[smreish]

http://www.orientalmotor.com/products/ac-dc-step-motors/system/PK-wiring-connection.html

1st link is the Wiring guide for OM motors

Gecko's suggestions are here:

http://www.geckodrive.com/ark-2/support.html?id=14

This guide shows EXACTLY how to wire half or full coil to your Gecko.

You can wire either flavor for your project. If you need more help than this, post up your considerations for the Power Train components and we will help you with the math part.
Reading up on the "motor selection for your MM thread" will help a bunch too!

[Gerald D]

In the early days I did use the term "unipolar" as interchangeable for "half-coil" and that has caused some confusion with the purists who actually know what unipolar means.

The recommendation stays with half-coil, to get the best compromise between motor heating and good cutting performance.

[Jay W]

Guess I've been here a while then because that's how I remembered those two terms being sort of interchangeable, if you will. Thanks for the links Sean...some great reading there! I've done the math on these motors (see post #23 above) and I didn't know if that particular power supply would be okay. Now that I look at it, I believe it would be too large. I'm not an electronics person, but I'm steadily learning more! From the thread Calculate the Voltage and VA size of the DC power supply for stepper motors/geckos I gather that I need 2/3rds of the drive's current requirements. From my calculations above (post #23) I have 47.5 Volts for the 4 motors and they are rated 4.5A eachs (18A total for 4 motors), I should take 2/3rds of the 18A. This would be...(12A x 47.5V = 570VA or watts). From these calcs I need a PS of approximately 600 or so Watts and approximately 48 Volts for the motors and another voltage of 12V for the PMDX122 BOB. Does all this sound on the level or am I way out in left field?

[KenC]

300VA transformer is all it takes to run MM, disregard of what voltage you run it. It is well documented in this forum.

[Jay W]

Thanks Ken. For that very reason is why I have not purchased the PS yet. Before I spend the money on something I wanted to make sure I was getting exactly what was needed. I even tried to contact John at Antek and as others have found he has been unresponsive to any inquiries. Will try to find one elsewhere now.

[MetalHead]

I think we have covered this pretty well here on the forum. I had a test done with these motors and the 5N PS worked fine. Both the 39v and the 48v drove this motor in half coil and parallel fine. The 48 ran the motors warmer of course but not at a point that would cause issues.

I have one 4N 48volt that should run the motors also becuase of how the MechMate operates.

Thse are both Antek PS and I will sell the 4N for $121.00 Delivered and the 5N for $134.00 delivered.

Just a side note for you. IN my thread http://www.mechmate.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3354 that is the same Keling motor you listed.