Mod woke up and gave #115 - Sacramento CA USA

[Zouave]

Hi everyone, longtime lurker, finally getting around to being serious about this. I'll be posting and updating a lot (I hope!) as this progresses.

So far, this is what I'm planning on doing...

5' x 10' (9' maybe?) cutting surface. Large enough to handle both the European style baltic birch sheets carried by my local wood supplier (5'x5') and full sheets of MDF and Plywood with some room to spare. That being my primary size consideration, I figure 5x10 is nice and even, but we'll see how materials end up laying out, for economic considerations, I may pull that size down a smidge if it'll keep things cheaper and/or more efficient in use of materials.

I'm going to start out with fixed Nema 34 motors, brand undetermined at this point, but I'm actually playing around with doing some casting, so I'll be ordering one set of pulleys, and then playing around with casting duplicates in aluminum (I have 5 or 6 old lawnmower motors that I've scavenged for free to melt down and experiment with) to upgrade both X and Y axis with the belt drives, with a 4:1 ratio. I'm not sold on the size of belt for said drives at this point, with the ongoing debate between XL and L belts still inconclusive.. (?) We'll see how it goes.

I'll probably do some fairly significant redesign of the Z axis, based off some other machines I've seen around, but I'm really not sure about that yet. I like the fairly straight-forward design of the Mechmate, and its obviously tried and tested, but I may play around with a leadscrew and linear bearings or something fun like that. That's kind of my big question right now, I may just scrap that plan and go totally Mechmate, or I may do both.

I'll be starting out running a 3 1/4hp Porter Cable Router, since I have 3 motors in my shop for them. (Don't even ask me how I accumulated three of the beasts. They just kind of show up...) But that will be upgraded to a spindle of at least equivalent power in the relatively near future once the machine is running and making money.

I'll be cutting and machining everything on my own. I'm very lucky to have a good friend with a waterjet and a pretty well stocked machine shop. With the exception of cutting the main beams, I think everything else will be done by me.

Also, planning on using the hardened steel rails attached to the aluminum structural angle, though if budget approves, supported linear bearings look veeeeery nice.

So, yeah, any questions or comments are greatly appreciated. Suggestions as well! :-)

Oh yeah, computer running it will be a 3.0Ghz processor, 8Gig Ram, most likely using Mach3. Should work out pretty well...

[Zouave]

Also, thank you to everyone on this forum that has contributed your ideas, help, suggestions, etc. You guys are great.

And especially to Gerald, for his amazing work on this lovely machine. :-)

A little about myself... I'm 26 years old, started out college as an Aerospace Engineer, but decided that I really couldn't handle that much math, so I switched over to History and am working on finishing up my degree and teaching credential. I have probably entirely too much confidence in my ability to do anything I decide I want to, and that gets me in trouble all too often, but every so often, I really surprise myself. I'm hoping that the Mechmate goes into that category, not the 'perpetually unfinished projects' bin...

I do plan for this to be a production machine, doing, really, whatever anyone will pay me to do on it... Bills need to be paid. For my personal use, I'm leaning to build electric guitars, and I'm looking forward to doing some of that on the Mechmate. A friend of mine has requested that I build some good speaker boxes for him, and I have an ongoing commitment with some vendors who do Renaissance Faires and other similar events, to produce various small items in wood, and I'm really optimistic that the Mechmate will make that work substantially easier.

Really looking forward to getting started. Currently laying everything out so I have a firm pricetag to get my budget approved, and then if that goes well, I'll start some ordering...

[KenC]

Welcome Eric,
Your enthusiasm touched me, you sounded like someone I know when I was a lot younger :)

You have so many plans for this machine & a lot of good ideas to achieve it. BUT (Don't want to sound like an old air bag but this is what I learn over the years.) the first thing you got to decide is what EXACTLY, what you want to achieve & then plan what you do to accomplish the goal.

"I want to build a MechMate" is too general. Do you want to build as MM plan? if so just build as plan. Do you want to design something else? the go to CNCzone to find liked minded people & start the journey. Do you want to modify/upgrade MM? Then access yourself if you know enough to know what is there to improve? Then access your ability to carry out the mod/upgrade. Are you going to build at lowest possible cost? Max out the budget & indulge yourself with everything including the kitchen sink & gold plated toilet bowls? Minimum labor hours? Do everything by yourself?... etc etc..

BTW, I recon casting your own AL timing pulleys should be a different project all by itself; Chances are this may contribute the chance of your MM going onto your "perpetual unfinished projects' bin".

Hope this helps

[Zouave]

KenC,
Thanks for the advice! I definitely understand the need to focus, you probably do know me all too well. :-)

As for what I want to do, I'm definitely sold on the Mechmate's overall design. The only area that I'm even considering playing around with is the Z-axis, and even that, I'm very, very iffy on. I do have the mechanical aptitude to pull it off (I hope?), if I decide to go that direction, as I'd basically be lifting directly from another existing design and utilizing that.

Money is a much bigger consideration than time for me. I'll be doing the vast majority of the work myself, everywhere I can save money, I will be doing so, without compromising the quality of the machine. Thus why I'll be starting off with the direct drive Nema 34s, then upgrading to the belt reduction when I can. From what I've read, the improvement in quality is substantial, which I'm all for. :-)

The Al pulleys are going to be an upgrade, at this point. I'm going to start off with direct-drive to get things rolling, and then upgrade when I have the time to do so. If I get bogged down waiting for parts, or waiting for money, it'll be a good side venture to take up my time and continue towards my eventual goal.

Thanks for the suggestions, and especially the reminder to focus. I need that sometimes. :-)

Sometimes? Scratch that, ALWAYS.

[KenC]

;)
Our plans are identical except for casting the timing pulleys.

[MetalHead]

Welcome to the forum!!

The cool thing about the MM is you build it by the letter you can have a great working machine. You can also mod that Z later since it bolts right in and many have completed mods here for you to sample.

[bradm]

Welcome, Eric. Note that moving up from an 8' cutting capacity to a 10' one may cost a bit more. See more about this starting at post #36 in this thread (http://www.mechmate.com/forums/showthread.php?t=271&page=2)

[Zouave]

Hey Brad,
I looked over the thread you posted, it seems like they're talking more about cutting capacity below the Y gantry. I was talking about total length of the machine, 10 feet long. It'll depend largely on how long of a beam I can get to cut, if I have a lot of material waste, it obviously won't be worth it, and I'll stick to 8/9 feet of travel along the x-axis.
Or did I just not read far enough on the thread?

[Zouave]

Thanks for the welcome, MetalHead. :-) I've actually been a member for like 2 years+ now, just finally getting around to seriously prepping to build one of these monsters. And I very well may do that, or have them set up back to back, with a router and spindle... Who knows? The possibilities are endless, that's why I love this design...

[bradm]

Eric, you've got it right; a standard 20' (+ a bit) will yield a machine of 122 X inches or so, which will cut 8' (or 97" MDF) with a large cutter and a little bit to spare.

If you go for larger, then you have to order two pieces of steel, cutting charges, etc.

[Zouave]

Okay, so I have been sourcing steel suppliers, and the company I just called, unfortunately, does not have 3" x 7" c channel, the closest they have is 2 1/16"x7". Am I going to have issues with my main longitudinal beams being that narrow? I haven't found specific references to how this would be a problem on the dimensions yet, but since you guys have more experience with actually building these, I figured I'd throw the question out there for your feedback.

[Zouave]

Okay, just want to run this by the people here to make sure I'm not crazy and/or missing something...

I'm planning on going with the Gecko 201x drives, they look really good, and seem to have plenty of power and some good safety features for those of us who are not so electrically inclined.

I'll be using MotionKing's 34HS9801 motors (here: http://www.motionking.com/show_products_detail.asp?ID=12&fenlei_ID=2 )

I'll be doing direct drive initially, but I have money budgeted to go up to a 4:1 or 5:1 belt reduction drive in the very near future. Are those motors going to be strong enough to handle the direct drive initially? Intuitively, I feel they are, but I wanted someone's opinion before I actually placed the order...

I also figure that the 201x drives will give me some expansion room should I choose to go to larger motors at some point in the future, and I won't be pushing their limits driving a 4A stepper.

Comments?

[domino11]

Have you looked at the extra features of the G203V? Might be worth your consideration.

[Zouave]

I have, and aside from the safety features (which ARE very attractive), I did not see a significant difference. Is there something I'm missing, performance-wise?

[Gerald D]

I don't think the extra cost of the G203 is justified today.

[Codered741]

Hey eric,

I know that your are not doing the belt drives right now, but just be aware that it is not recommended to use belts for ratios higher than 4:1. At that ratio the small pulley does not have enough engagement.
And worse, if you use timing pulleys at that ratio, it can become choppy, because of the few number of teeth engaged in the belt.

[Zouave]

I've seen a number of comments about that, however, I'm not going to be using a smaller pulley to achieve the higher ratio, I'm going to be going to a larger one. Hopefully it'll give me plenty of engagement.

[Codered741]

In order to achieve a ratio, you need one large pulley and one smaller one. Regardless of arrangement of the pulleys, which one is driving the other, above a 4:1 the smaller of the two pulleys will not have enough engagement. The engagement of the larger pulley will of course be enough. :D

[Zouave]

In order to achieve a ratio, you need one large pulley and one smaller one. Regardless of arrangement of the pulleys, which one is driving the other, above a 4:1 the smaller of the two pulleys will not have enough engagement. The engagement of the larger pulley will of course be enough. :D


I assume that you're talking about the number of teeth engaged in the gear, and the concerns about it hopping out of the teeth, etc.? There are two ways I've seen of handling this problem that I think are pretty viable. One is using a tensioner, having a bearing or similar object that changes the angle at which the belt engages the smaller of the two gears, the other is increasing, if even marginally, the distance between the two gears. That, to me, is more problematic because of concerns of belt stretching, but still a possibility. Is there a particular reason why either option wouldn't work, beyond what I've mentioned?

[Tokamak]

I had thought about this problem and the only solution I could think of was to use idlers on each side of the small pulley. The idlers could be used for tensioning the belt and making the belt wrap around the small pulley. The idler could be as small as 1/2" in dia but will need to ride on bearings.

[MetalHead]

I would think you would need a step pulley setup to get a belt drive to 7:1

But the 4:1 stuff that I have seen looks really good in cut quality.

[Tokamak]

I like the double set of pulleys. It just makes the whole thing thicker and the motor sticks out further. If you use hubless pulleys and install the setscrews between the teeth of the pulleys it would get thinner. The pinion output shaft and motor shaft need to be offset.

[Tokamak]

Here is a quick and dirty 9 to 1 drive. Needs belt tension method for second belt.

[KenC]

Is there any need for a 9:1 reduction in MM application?

[Tokamak]

I already had 15 and 45 tooth pulleys to throw into a model. If they fit then pulleys for a 7:1 will fit. More of a concept than an actual.

[MetalHead]

Yeah that's what I mean ....

I just can draw that purty ;)

[Johannescnc]

Hey John, what did you use to draw these?

[Tokamak]

Solidworks 9.0

[Zouave]

Well, its finally here... I get the money on Tuesday, orders go out on Wednesday, and this thread will officially transition into the Building In Progress area....

[Zouave]

Hah, two years later...
My build is nearing completion, I will be posting some progress pics shortly, but am about 75% done with the mechanical side of things, now freaking out about the electrical...
One step at a time.

[MetalHead]

PM me and I can help on electrics parts

[Zouave]

I'm not so worried about the parts, I just want to understand how and why something works, not just that it does. So I spend too much time worrying about little things. Thus why I am 2 years into this. :-)

[MetalHead]

Yeah divide the system by 4 and it helps. Do the kitchen table project and start with only one motor.

[Johannescnc]

Hi John, glad to hear your making progress! I hope it's going well!

[Zouave]

And lo', there were parts inside! Now if I can just figure out how to post pictures!

[jhiggins7]

Eric,

See this thread (http://www.mechmate.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4007&postcount=1)by Gerald on how to attach photos.

[Zouave]

Well, here is the progress from 2 years ago. I have some other pictures lying around, as in reality, the entire body has been together for almost a year and a half. I still need to add some angled bracing to improve the rigidity. Not that I can move it at all as is, but I'm sure the router zipping back and forth will generate some very small flexing. But hey, we like pictures, right?

[Zouave]

And here we have some more recent progress pictures! As you can see, gantry is all welded up and in place, rails are done (I have pictures of them somewhere) and it rolls great. I had planned on doing Al rails (in one of the pictures, you can see the blanks lying there) but as time has passed, I am considering more and more just going with steel rails for the Y. I need to decide that this week.
So, we have the gantry being primed and painted, with the assistance of my friend Clinton (not me in the picture). And the cable chain supports attached.

And I just got a package of stuff from McMaster Carr. If anyone needs VHB tape, I have it! 36 yds of it... Let me know through a PM and we'll work something out.

[Zouave]

Started assembling my control panel. Making good progress on that and haven't shocked myself a single time even! Will post pictures when I am back from the US Open.

[Zouave]

got the last of my electrical parts today. Tomorrow, I begin wiring in earnest.

[darren salyer]

Thats exciting.
For me, when I began wiring was the tipping point toward seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

[Zouave]

Finally got wire from Helukabel on Friday! :-)

Am having some issues with the Y-car. It seems it got torqued at some point (pretty sure I welded it square way back when...) so one of my wheels is not sitting down on the rail. Rather frustrated with it. Need to figure out where the issue is.

Out of curiosity, has anyone ever thought about putting a cam on those wheels so they can be rotated till they're at the right level, then, say, tack-weld the cam in place, grind the weld flush and off you go, with it perfectly (or close enough) level.

[KenC]

Your y-car might be twisted or you have not spend enough time to adjust the v-wheel height.
Mechanical alighment/setting take time & if you started with a twisted Y-car, it can be frustrating...

Gerald already designed a cam in the wheel assembly...

[Johannescnc]

I was thinking the same thing Zouave... The radial adjustment of the wheels may not be enough. It's not even .125" if I remember right.
Have noticed that others have had similar issues. I guess a frame bend is in order.

[KenC]

Or you can start making long slot holes for adjustment to make the twisted gantry or Y-car V-wheel yo sit on the rails & cheat yourself in believing the gantry & y_car are perfectly square & straight.

[domino11]

I think Ken is on the money here. Make sure the Gantry and Y car are straight first. Make adjustments there to get things right. I would check the gantry first for propeller twist. There is a procedure for getting this fixed on the forum.

[Zouave]

Y-car issues are being resolved, I think its simply a matter of the bolts I am using being too thick. Am going to mill them down 2mm and use shim washers to bring it up to where it needs to be.

In other news... I got my first motor turning this morning. Out of shame for how atrocious my kitchen table project looks right now, I'm not putting up a picture just yet. Once I have things a bit more clean, I'll snap some shots. Don't want to set a bad example for future people. :-D

[KenC]

We love messy kitchen table project pix!!! What fun when everything is tidy up...

[Zouave]

Well, my kitchen table test is under way. So far, all my wiring has been, as nearly as I can tell, going correctly. This is before I wired up the first motor, gecko and the temporary assembly of my power supply (waiting for a friend of mine to bend the bracket the power supply will mount to. At the moment, I have an uncomfortably large capacitor mounted in an uncomfortably small prototyping board to get a good electrical connection. (Alligator clips just seemed too sketchy to attach to a capacitor, plus having exposed wiring, not making me happy... So bread-board it is. Motors are turning, working on wiring up the rest of the circuits to get the e-stops all tied into Mach3, getting the Prox sensors working, etc. So lots to do!

But here you go, Ken, messy board! (It looks worse now, will get a picture this afternoon)

[KenC]

AND you call that messy???
Nice blue glow under the drive, I LIKE!

[domino11]

It even has a socket for a work light! :)

[danilom]

You could get burns from a bulb inside a small box, place a small neon light instead, I'we seen it in lots of control boxes.

or is that light on the outside, like an indicator :)

[Zouave]

The light is my simulated router. The blue backlight is a led lit fan blowing on the back side of the heat sink.

[danilom]

do you have some fins behind the plate? fan blowing in a plate won't help much but will work if he has enough space behind to pull air

[Zouave]

Back plate will be 1" off the case, with a hole cut in it to match the diameter of the fan. If temps get high, will add a finned sink below each drive. Not expecting that to be a major issue.

[KenC]

I did it differently, I just mount the drivers on panel's mounting plate because tht is about the biggest plate that can go into the panel as heat sink. Use fan to create air circulation to assist heat transfer from the mounting plate to the panel itself. I reckon if the panel is large enough, it will have enough surface area to dissipate heat to the atmosphere to keep the electronics alive. If it doesn't, create a hurricane inside the panel with more fans :D
As you can see in my built (http://www.mechmate.com/forums/showthread.php?p=58454&postcount=33), I mount the fans on the control panel door.

[Red_boards]

I mounted the Geckos directly onto a finned base and put the fan under that. So my arrangement is similar to what you have, but the base itself is finned.

cooling fan with LED . I like that!

[Zouave]

Well, after a bit of a break, in which I went to England for 3 weeks, and have been swamped with work, finally back at it! Ended up mounting my control panel to the side of the Mechmate, near where the wires leave the cable chain. This should make things a little easier to manage. My main consideration, at this point, as I get ready to wire up everything, is how to attach the motors to the shielded cables. I would very much like to have a connector that I wire into, that can be plugged and unplugged, if I need to move this at some point. Any suggestions with that? I'm just going to run the cable through grommets in the side of the control box for now, I can pull the wire back and add a plug later if I feel like it, I think.

Pictures forthcoming....? :-)

[Alan_c]

see here: http://www.mechmate.com/forums/showthread.php?p=13912&postcount=129
and here: http://www.mechmate.com/forums/showthread.php?p=15207&postcount=203

These are GEWIS connectors.

[Zouave]

Wow, those look great. Thanks for the link, going to check those out and see if I can get them locally.

[domino11]

I have seen these used on a few builds as well for a cheaper solution

6 Pin (http://www.ebay.ca/itm/2pcs-6Pin-Male-Female-Panel-Chassis-Harness-AC-DC-Power-Connector-Kit-YJ-133-/170893712750?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27ca0f1d6e)
8 Pin (http://www.ebay.ca/itm/2pcs-8Pin-Male-Female-Panel-Chassis-Harness-AC-DC-Power-Connector-Kit-YJ-134-/180949133319?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a2168a807)
4 Pin (http://www.ebay.ca/itm/2pcs-4Pin-Male-Female-Panel-Chassis-Harness-AC-DC-Power-Connector-Kit-YJ-131-/180949130238?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a21689bfe)

[danilom]

Be careful with those, if using a wire larger than 0.75 sq mm things get tight inside.
In my case the thread on the male ripped the heat shrink just a little bit, enough to get a contact to the ground. Drive tripped and acted like dead, silly me I plugged it in another one... Luckily it only killed 2 mosfets on each and a resistor so I fixed it quickly.

[timberlinemd]

This is what I used:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103251&znt_campaign=Category_CMS&znt_source=CAT&znt_medium=RSCOM&znt_content=CT2032231

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062448&znt_campaign=Category_CMS&znt_source=CAT&znt_medium=RSCOM&znt_content=CT2032231

[MetalHead]

Most have just started direct wiring the motors. It reduces costs and removes fail points.

I even suggest only using compression type fittins at the control box to pass your wire through. Either straight to the Geckos or to a terminal block.

If you go from the motors to the Geckos you can eliminate up to 6 points of failure per wire. 24 per motor or 96 for all motors.

Where I get 96 fail points? Each side of the plug at the motor. Each side of the plug if you have terminations at the control box. Each side of the terminal block. So that is 6 points on one wire x 4 wires x 4 motors.

Oh yeah - the plugs and terminal blocks could fail also. Not so much the terminal blocks. So add another 48 fail points bringing the total to 144 possible points to fail.

I think I am doing my math correct on this. Someone check me though. It is early and I am waiting on my coffee to brew :)

Wow I had never actually sat down and counted that before !!!

[KenC]

LOL!!! Getting rid of the connectors is the best decision I'd made when I built my 1st MM. confirmed by my current Plasma table built which I decided to make use of the pile of connectors left-over from the router built :D
As for the plasma table, I'm now regretting using connectors... there are just too many possible error points...

Mike, you forgot to include the E-stop, remote buttons & proximity switches... :D

[Johannescnc]

I used these (http://www.digikey.com/scripts/dksearch/dksus.dll?vendor=0&keywords=molex+15-24-4048) and they worked great!
http://www.molex.com/mx_upload/family/disk_drive_power_connector/disk_drive.gif
And it takes just a few mins to make them. Takes more time to find the crimp tool... :rolleyes:

[smreish]

John,
Those look like your standard Trailer 4 wire connectors. Great idea!

[danilom]

Those look like hard drive dvd etc connectors for power, 12v gnd gnd and 5V
its molex 8981 connector

[Zouave]

So, in getting ready to wire up my control panel, it occurs to me that the flat 25 conductor printer cable Ribbon Cable I was planning on using to run from my BOB to an attachment point on the case (so I can plug my computer into the outside of the case and not have a stray cord coming out of the case that is stuck there permanently) is unshielded. Is this going to be an issue for the relatively short length I may potentially be dealing with? 10 inches? Maybe? It is relatively well separated from my wires and other cables in the control box. Just curious what kind of interference I might potentially be dealing with if I did that...

[KenC]

Lets get the terminology right. "the flat 25 conductor printer cable" has a common name "Ribbon Cable".
There are no simple answer to your question, no one know when & where the Evil Interference Noise will strike... until you get into trouble with it...
All you can do is try your best to stay away...
Some of the good practice in laying any wires I know & practice are
1) give some air between signal cable from Power cable
2) give ~25~50mm (1~2in) from any inductive components, eg transformers, motor, solenoid, electromagnet...
3) try not to run wire alongside, if you must, try to space them out, if you can't, cross you fingers & pray nothing bad happens.
4) if you must cross wires, make sure they cross perpendicular to each other.
5)lay the ribbon flat on grounded chassis wall/plate & minimize as much length flying across air. The logic is :- when the cable is in the air, it will receive all sort of noise/interference from every direction; When the cable is laid flat on the grounded chassis wall it will reduce 50% chance of noise/interference.
So far, I have little problem with this kind of layout arrangement so far but if you have any problem, you can shield it by sandwiching the cable between the Chassis & a Aluminum foil/tape which need to be grounded. but this is very tedious, I won't go there unless my life depends on it.

#PS,
its impossible to cater for every possible events, there will come a point when you MUST draw a line & do as much you can.

[Zouave]

:-) Thanks. If I make a shield of sheet metal (I have some 22ga lying around somewhere) and screw that to the panel, that should create a pretty good shield, yes? Basically just to enclose the ribbon in a box of metal that is grounded.

[KenC]

That is another way to shield. I won't go there if there are more than 1 bend along the cable path. Also, having pointy screw sticking out everywhere is irritating.
Try running it without the shield & see if you need to do the extra chore. My personal preference is to have everything visible. If I can see it, I can inspect it.

[Zouave]

Call me crazy, but i have no pointy screws. I drill and tap everything and use bolts...
Will play around with my configuration and see what i wasn't to do.

[Johannescnc]

I would say no... But it might be a point to keep in mind if you find your having some issues. It wouldn't take too much to make a shield for this area. Tin foil... :rolleyes:

[Zouave]

Well, here is my control panel, finally coming together. The cables going to the cable tray will exit the box to the right, the computer's location, and my mains power, will be to the left. Didn't really want to divide up the box quite like this, but seems to have been what was required. Now I have to cut a bunch of holes in my box for the buttons. Anyone have any suggestions for 30mm holes? Just use a 1.25" hole saw?

[smreish]

An 1.25" hole saw is really 31.75mm. Check your clearance and rake of the tooth on the hole saw. You might find a 1.125 (1-1/8") might work better.

[danilom]

If you are drilling sheet metal then this step drill works the best

http://www.northerntool.com/images/product/images/335327_lg.jpg

[KenC]

Actually, 30mm is a big hole, big enough to enlarge with a round file.

What I'll do if I don't want to buy a new hole saw, drill a anysize that is just under 30mm hole say 1" or 1-1/8" & file it down to 30mm. or to fit what ever you wish to poke through...

[smreish]

<---owns a lot of the step bits. Perfect for panel work.

[Gerald D]

I don't like the ones with the steps. I prefer the smooth taper. You can see some here (https://www.google.com/search?q=cone+drill&hl=en&safe=off&tbo=d&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=WEuaULv1DYOmhAez0IBg&ved=0CAQQ_AUoAA&biw=1387&bih=910#hl=en&safe=off&tbo=d&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=taper+cone+drill&oq=taper+cone+drill&gs_l=img.3...172911.174748.0.175971.6.6.0.0.0.0.30 9.1320.1j0j4j1.6.0...0.0...1c.1.O0qPY1MoXVw&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=bc43103d372eeb6c&bpcl=37643589&biw=1387&bih=910)

[Zouave]

I am going to rename Northern Industrial as Eastern Industrial. There are no stores out here in CA! Grr. I think I'm going to give the step drill bits a go and see how they do.

Looking at this one, since we apparently don't have better stores around here that have a reasonably priced set. That I've found so far, at least.

Irwin Unibit HSS

[Zouave]

Why do you like the smooth taper better?

[Gerald D]

Because you use smooth pressure to push it in. The step ones are "jerky" and sometimes I went one step too far if I pushed too hard for too long. You have to push them harder at the steps.

[danilom]

I use smooth ones too, but could not find the image right away, its very easy to enlarge the hole once you drilled the initial one with a ordinary drill

[Zouave]

Thanks for the feedback. Are there any issues with the hole wandering off-center with the tapered drills? I like that the step drill has, essentially, a center guide built in. I'm presuming the tapered bit does roughly the same thing, but don't want to make that assumption and get proven wrong.

[Zouave]

So where are you guys getting beveled washers from? McMaster seems to have the best price, at almost .50ea. Is there a better source that I haven't found just yet?

[Zouave]

How many of you guys are running both hard stops and proximity stops? I am, but I'm a little fuzzy on how that logic works. Is there some type of override that lets you ignore your proximity targets while squaring up the gantry against the hard stops? Gerald alludes to Mach3 being able to do this here: http://www.mechmate.com/forums/showthread.php?p=24619&postcount=196
But I wanted to confirm that that is, indeed, the case. To square the gantry, you override the proximity switches, pull the gantry against the hard stops, then jog to a point inside the proximity switches range, remove the over-ride, and home to the proximity switch for your starting (0,0) point. Am I roughly understanding all of that correctly? At that point, you've squared the gantry via the hard stops, and have homed to 0,0 via the proximity switches, and can go about your merry way...?

[Zouave]

And, to add to the complication today, discovered my stopper blocks are only 1.25" to the CL of the proximity sensor, instead of the 1.5 or so that I actually need to get to the CL of the target hole. I have a few worries about putting any kind of spacer/washers in there to get the correct off-set distance, for fear of it shifting over time as I pull it against the hard stops. Am I worrying too much about that, or should I go ahead and cut off the bent section and weld on a piece of square steel to give me the proper offset? Or just find some 1/4" flat stock, cut a spacer the proper size, drill some holes through it and call it good?

[KenC]

Locktite will save your soul. :D

[Gerald D]

Eric, the squaring against hard stops is done outside of Mach. Have motor drives switched off, hold gantry manually against stops, switch on drives.

[Regnar]

You can just elongate your hole if you have enough material left over to still keep your rack mounted securely. Another option is to weld the hole close and re-drill.

[Zouave]

Ended up taking the rail that didn't have the stops and putting it on a Bridgeport my friend let me play with for the day. Half an hour later, and I have oval holes that nicely eliminates my problems. Rails are down and in place. I'm seeing very, very little light between my architectural alum angle I'm using as reference and the tops of the rails. Not really seeing a good way of getting the rail perfectly straight except sighting down the length of it. Any suggestions on that? I've seen the fishing line suggestion, but I'm not sure it would actually get anything straighter than it already is by eye. But maybe it would. Also got my power supply soldered together (again, thanks to another great friend). And I broke down and spent the money for an industrial level power disconnect on the control panel. So I now have a 4-prong twist-to-lock recessed male plug on the control box, and a female cord end to go into it, much like computers have their plugs. I figure that's my best shot at not electrocuting myself, having a good connection, and being able to remove power from the box itself without having to take something apart.

Will be installing that this weekend, hope to have motors spinning some time this coming week. Its getting close!

[MetalHead]

http://www.mechmate.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3440&highlight=wire+method

Use the wire method.

[Zouave]

Finishing wiring up my control box, and in looking at Gerald's box, I noticed the fuse box attached to his power supply. I am scratching my head as to whether or not I still need those, running G203Vs. I know there is an internal fuse, should I go ahead and have an extra layer of protection, or am I just adding another potential failure point on each line? I have the box for 4 fuses, and have a spot I could put it in relatively easily, just curious as to whether or not its still needed, with the extra protection built into the G203s?
Thanks.

[Zouave]

Nevermind, found it in the G201/202/203V comparison thread. No external fuse needed. Peachy.

[alan254]

Erick,

Fuses are not needed that is correct. But it is nice to have during setup and later for trouble shooting as you can pull any fuse like a switch to isolate a driver/ motor problem.

al

[Zouave]

That's a good point, Al. Thanks for the suggestion. :-)

[Zouave]

Well, making some good progress out here, finally. Got my control box almost completely wired up. Need to cut one more hole for the 2-wire cable gland, because I'm dumb and forgot to put it in when I drilled the other holes. Got a 4-prong twist-lock outlet installed on the side of the box, so I can unplug the control box AT the control box. Works great, stays positively connected, comes out easily. Going to put a 90 degree connector on it, like I have on the wall, though. So the cord hangs straight down instead of coming straight out.
Ran most of my wire and connected up my Y-car motor because I wanted to get some satisfaction of making something move. Ran it back and forth in test mode via the BOB, so we officially have movement, if not exactly computer-controlled movement just yet. :-P
I am having trouble running the 4-core wire through the cable gland I got (which has 4 holes). Any suggestions for slicking down the wire a little bit to get it to go through?

[KenC]

some pic of the cable gland & their arrangement would be great.

[Zouave]

So, I managed to fix my problem. After struggling and fighting it, I finally just grabbed some lubricant. A drop here, a drop there, and they slid nicely in.

Will post another pic in a little bit. But I'm happy with how the wires are organized at this point. Need to ziptie them down at the entry to the cable chain, but otherwise, in good shape there.

I'll also be making a cowling to go over the wires and protect them from getting bumped, dinged, etc. and keep dust from settling onto the cable glands. Those glands are really tight, so the chances of dust ingress are pretty much nonexistent, but protecting cables never hurt anyone.

[MetalHead]

http://www.amazon.com/Clearglide%C2%BF-Pulling-Lubricant-1-QUART-Squeeze/dp/B0019J8AGC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359839999&sr=8-1&keywords=wire+lube

works great -

[Zouave]

Hmm, will have to look at that next time. Really happy with how the cables are sitting at the moment, though I'm going to make a 1/8" thick platform to raise my cable tie points up level with the entry into the cable chain. Currently, they're a little low, and bump up and over the cable chain attachment point.
Also going to make a bent bracket at the top of the X-axis cable chain for the other end of the cable chain to attach to. I feel like the wires are a bit tight where they bend at the end of the cable chain and I'd like to relieve the strain a little. Anyone else run into that problem?

[Zouave]

Aiming for #114 (can someone PLEASE finish up #113? I'm almost done!)

Working on fixing my proximity switches and hard stops. Have a bit of work to do on the Z-axis still (not installed at the moment, that's the next step I'm tackling) but otherwise, about ready to hook a computer up to it and start playing. But I want the hard stops installed first, even if I'm just jogging it back and forth in the middle of the table.

[Zouave]

Well, #113 is done, I guess its time for me to get this thing going. Official first cut scheduled for this Sunday. :-)

[Zouave]

Well, yesterday was frustrating... From Mach3, on the Diagnostics screen where it shows the pins of the Parallel Port cable, I'm only seeing 4 active pins (in green). How many should we be seeing? I've checked continuity through the parallel port cable, and all 25 leads were in good shape, low resistance. When I jog the x-axis, the motor makes one very faintly audible click, and nothing. I'm in the process of reinstalling Mach3 and redoing all my settings from the ground up, but if anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

[paulus]

Hi eric.
Don't know if you did already but check the connections on the. BOB. I found that I had the slave wrongly conected. Maybe it can help. I allso had n problem with a paralel cable before where all looked good but it just didn't want to conect so I chucked it and got a nother one problem solved.

[Zouave]

Thanks Paul, I actually just got the problem figured out. I had a dyslexic moment, and had entered the Step/Dir pin numbers in reverse order when setting up Mach3. Walked back through my setup from the very beginning (make new notes along the way) and now I have the gantry and Y-car jogging all over the place very smoothly. G-code movement is still pretty rough and slow, but I'm sure that's just settings that need to be tuned.

[paulus]

Cool have fun

[darren salyer]

Excellent!!

[lonestaral]

Eric.
When you have your settings set and all is running smoothly, make sure that you write your settings down in a book or diary.

Nothing worse than having to go through it all again.
The hard drive went on my old machine and I lost my settings.

[Zouave]

Great suggestion, Al, thank you! I will do so. It'll go in the front of my Mach3 folder.

[smreish]

Even better....make a copy of the XML file once it's configured.
I have had to restore my Profile more than 1x per year on the #28 machine.

[Zouave]

Well, it has been a long, hard-fought battle. But yesterday, I cut this...

I'll post a video up in the next day or two, but its finally going!

Quick stats on the machine:
5'x9' cutting area.
8" Z-axis.
SuperPID control of router (PC 7518)

I think I may be the current 'winner' for longest buildtime... :-P

[darren salyer]

Very Good!!
How do you like the SuperPID?

[Mrayhursh]

Having a 20 foot machine sounds great but why would you need it that large. All the material I see at the lumber yards is 4x8. Just want to know. I saw a guy on TV that makes jigsaw puzzle boats. He uses, I guess 4x8 marine ply and cuts out all the pieces.

[Zouave]

Its only 5x9. :) Love the Super PID, except for one thing. Working on how to keep the router from starting up before i get a +5v control voltage to it. Kind of a weird little situation, but not a big deal. In general, though, it is fantastic.

[lonestaral]

Looking good Mr. Smiley.

If you are using Mach 3, I believe there is a "Charge Pump" function.
This has something to do with stopping the spindle from switching on accidentally.

[Zouave]

I think the Charge Pump is active, but I'll check. Should the PMDX-126 be supplying any +5V before the charge pump is activated?

[Mrayhursh]

I read the PMDX instructions. I think the name charge pump is misleading. I would think charge pump would supply positive voltage to a device and keep it at a ready state. It is just the opposite. It keeps the voltage at a low value so that the device is not able to run. I would think they would call it safety mode. The are probably the same group that told Obama to call the insurance package affordable.

[Zouave]

So what do I need to do to get a Serial number?

[MetalHead]

Need a shot of the machine with logos.

[Mrayhursh]

Send message to Mike Ray aka Metalhead

[Zouave]

Well, I should post this before everything gets messy! Because its about to. I have to true up the Z-axis a little still, but we're getting close. As soon as I'm done with the current project (which doesn't need the Z to be perfect) I'm going to go through and adjust the rollers a little bit. I'm only a couple thousandths off currently. Shouldn't be too much of an ordeal to get it right. :-)

[smreish]

I see you made a little more robust cable chain attachment on the y carriage.
Was that to get your chain - in - plane or did you need an alternate hole pattern?

[Zouave]

I didn't like how sharp the bends were coming out of the cable chain, just attaching to the pre-drilled holes. I need to cut out a couple of links on the chain, unfortunately, because I increased the length of the cable chain with the bracket. It also had the added benefit of bringing it more in-plane, and making that corner a little easier for the cables to go around.

[Zouave]

Well, in running today, I'm a little concerned about my motors. They are definitely warm to the touch. I'm using MotionKing 34HS9801s, specs are here (http://motionking.com/show_products_detail.asp?ID=12&fenlei_ID=2).
I'm going to adjust them tomorrow at the trim pot off my Gecko 203V's, as they screech a little while I'm running at speed. I tuned them before, but I think I was moving absurdly slowly compared to how they're running now, so that may be part of the issue, I think? Would that be something that would generate excess heat? They aren't hot enough to burn my hand, but they're certainly uncomfortable to leave my hand on.
Thoughts anyone? They'd been on (though just holding position for a fair amount of the time) for about 4 hours when I noticed it, but had noted the heat they were generating before that as well.

Also, had my first 'accident'. I misunderstood how helices were programmed, and managed to plunge my bit directly into the work, instead of a nice helical progression downward. Any G-code Gurus want to explain how the P descriptor works in a G2/G3 command? I assumed that, based off what I read, it set the number of rotations to reach the final depth, but that is apparently NOT the case.

Bit survived, my toes and fingers survived, machine survived, but it lifted the piece out of the clamp as it retracted when I hit the E-stop. Lesson learned: side clamping is insufficient, clamp downward as well. That and use downcut, not upcut spirals.

[Mrayhursh]

sorta did the same thing today with my lathe. Had the feed rate set to high and crashed a tungsten carbide bit into steel part. crack!!! Trash bit and part.

[Zouave]

Ouch! You have a Mechmate Lathe, or another kind?

[Mrayhursh]

Sorry, I have a Grizzly G4003g lathe and a Grizzly G1007 Mill. Both are fun to play on. I am trying to learn how to cut threads with it. The general stuff I learned after I came out of trade school. I worked for a Fortune 500 company in one of their proto-typing labs.

[Zouave]

Very nice. How do you like that mill? I did a lot of manual machining in high school and first few years in college (but that was 10+ years ago), but the CNC world is a lot newer to me. Loving it, though. This MechMate is amazing. Finished a project yesterday in 2 days work that, previously, would have been about 60 hours. Got it down to 16 on the machine, with about 6-8 spent on the computer. And that's with a couple of more spectacular screwups too. :-P

I picked up a metal lathe on Craigslist last year that I'm just now getting around to tuning up. It needs it pretty badly, but I'm optimistic I'll get it pretty well dialed in by the time I'm done with it. Its an old Clausing 12x36 bench-top model. Next thing to get is a proper tool-holder. The old ones just aren't as stable as I'm looking for. Think I'm going to get a knockoff Aloris, the wedge type...

[Mrayhursh]

I really like the Mill. Someday I would like to convert it to CNC

[timberlinemd]

Did Mike ever give you a number?

[Zouave]

Not yet.

[timberlinemd]

Mike give him a number! ;)

[Mrayhursh]

Please send Michael Ray aka Metalhead a private message.
I am Michael Ray Hursh aka Hurshey

By the way you were mentionimg that you wanted to get an Aloris post. Do it. I love mine. I just added two more tool holders. I bought right and left cutting tools with tungsten carbide inserts. I also bought the knurling tools. I have modified a couple of tools. It improved their functionality and safety. Best of luck.

[MetalHead]

Wow - I cant believe I have not given this machine a number !!

You get #115

Sorry for the delay on this one !!!

Congrats !!!

[jhiggins7]

Eric,

Congratulations on completing you MechMate, Serial #115.

Here's your Builder's Log entry (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AttqjIPMBEXKcExveGc4d3U0V25zQmMyX1U1eUVhU Xc&usp=sharing).

Please let me know the "cutting dimensions" of you MechMate for the Builder's Log. I see the mention of 9' X 5' and 10' X 5', but I notice your comments about these being the overall dimensions, rather than the cutting dimensions.

[lonestaral]

Well done #115.
I am glad that someone else has taken the baton.
Long may this relay run.:)

[Zouave]

Thank you! I don't suppose anyone has a font set for the MechMate logo, as I want to design up a few more decals and add a serial number to the mix on the control box?
Next up: Dust collection foot, because Holy Dust Everywhere, Batman!

[parrulho]

Congratulations on your now numbered machine, she looks good.
You can find the logo in dxf format together with laser cut parts designs.

[lonestaral]

These should do you.

The # and number I drew and printed on to paper.
I cut them out of spare material from the MM logos from the print shop.
I cut them out using a straight edge and a razor blade.
Hope this helps you.

[timberlinemd]

Mike, A.K.A. Rip Van Winkle, nice!:rolleyes:

Congrats on a number!

[Zouave]

Thanks! By the way, cutting area is 5'x8'. I'd originally planned on doing a 5x10 with 2' of that dedicated for a 4th axis on the end, but I'm just going to build a small purpose-built rotary MechMate. So I scaled down to 5x8 cutting area as my base machine. :-)

[jhiggins7]

Thanks for the dimensions, Eric. I've updated the Builder's Log, here (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AttqjIPMBEXKcExveGc4d3U0V25zQmMyX1U1eUVhU Xc&usp=sharing).

[Andrew_standen]

Congratulations on your build number.
Nice looking machine.

[pblackburn]

Great Job Eric.

[domino11]

Congrats on a fine build! :)

[sierra347]

Congratulations on 115 Eric!

[Zouave]

Thanks everyone! Been a busy month with lots of sawdust made, but I ran into some issues very abruptly yesterday. Plunged a bit when it wasn't spinning, caught it and stopped the program running. But now I'm suddenly getting odd movement on two motors. On the Z-axis, I'm getting intermittent loss of power, and some odd grinding noises. On one end of the gantry, I'm also getting odd grinding sounds, periodically unpowered motor, and very unpredictable motion, almost like it is getting random signals. I thought it might be electrical noise, but with the loss of holding power on one end of the gantry, I really doubt that. Thoughts? I've gone through and checked my wiring, it appears to be in good condition, but I'm going to take a multimeter down there tomorrow and see if I can't sort it out better. Anyone have something similar happen and know what the deal is?

[Alan_c]

Have you checked that the gantry and Y-car is still well seated on the rails, I have had a few occasions where after a crash or stall that the wheels are not seated properly.

[Zouave]

Everything is seated fine still. I can turn the motors by hand when they should be energized and holding.

[parrulho]

The only thing that occurs to me is the motor set screw sliping...

[Mrayhursh]

do you hear the stepper motor engage. Are you using G203v as drivers? The light should be green. If red you have an issue. If you have a VOM check the voltage on each leg of the stepper motors. Or power down and do ohm test of each wire. Oh! if you have geckos check the little green fuse. best of luck

[lonestaral]

Check your earthing (Grounding)
I had some phantom e stops.
I earthed the computer to the machine frame then ran a wire to a steel post in the garden.
Every so often I throw a bucket of water on the post.

[KenC]

If you are using LPT port, with this kind of symptom, most likely the LPT cable came loose.

[lonestaral]

It might be worth taking the cover off your computer and control box to check for dust.
Vacuum the printer connection pins and circuit boards.

[Zouave]

The problem appeared again after a well-behaved morning as I was jogging the Y-car along the gantry. #1 X-axis motor jerked back and forth like a fish out of water, than lost power completely. I am rather mystified.

[Zouave]

Well, update... Checked all my wiring, cleaned out the computer and connectors (control box is still pristine, no dust there...) and everything ran fine for two cycles through the program I'm doing. After the second cycle, I hit 'Tab' to bring up the manual jogging. I immediately got the same symptoms I'd seen before. The motor basically going haywire (goes back and forth, both directions, for short times, angry sounding noises). Am I potentially looking at a Mach3 problem here? Should I uninstall and reinstall? It seems like it is triggered by me going into manual jogging mode, when I have a cut program loaded, but it doesn't always do that, it seems like. I am going to let everything sit for a bit, then see if I can reproduce the problem with those same parameters.

[Zouave]

Ran fine for a while, then just after beginning the second cycle, problem reappeared. Does not appear to be repeatable under specific circumstances that I've been able to find thus far. This time it started mid-run.

[dbinokc]

Under what conditions does the problem go away? Do things just start working again? Do you have to restart Mach3? Do you have to power cycle the control box or computer? Do you have an IR thermometer so you could take temperatures of the steppers as well as the gecko drivers?

Do you have a second computer you could install Mack3 onto and test again?

Just throwing out things you could try.

[Zouave]

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get the problem to repeat. I tried slowly unplugging the parallel port cable as the router was moving, it gave a very different reaction, so I doubt its loose cables. I am leaning towards the 203Vs going into shutdown mode due to excessive heat, as I don't have the motors turning to 'standby mode' when things aren't running, so they're at full power when standing still (which would explain why it happened when I wasn't cutting, and the machine was just idling, but under power). I can't really imagine it being a voltage issue, even though I went with the higher voltage motors, the power supply I have, and the Caps used, should be providing more than sufficient power. Any other ideas? I'm going to track down an IR thermometer to get some temperature readings off the Geckodrives some time this week.

[pblackburn]

Do you have the Geckos on a heatsink? Pretty sure the book says anything over 3 amp needs a heatsink and make sure you are using a good thermal compound like Arctic Silver Arctic Alumina to transfer the heat properly and will not run when heated.

[Mrayhursh]

Heat sink does sound like a prime candidate. When starting off "cold" how long does it take for the problem to manifest itself. Can you touch the Geckos and do they feel hot. Hope you find the problem. Harbor Freight sells a thermal sensor for $89.99 take off %20 with a coupon.

[dbinokc]

There is picture of the panel layout in post #75. There is what appears to be a modest heatsink. There is another picture of the of the outside of the case and no apparent ventilation holes. If the panel is oriented in the case the way it appears in the picture, I could see the heat accumulating at the top of the panel and maybe overheating one of the top two drivers.

Again just wild speculation, but things to consider.

[pblackburn]

Looking here as DB found. (http://www.mechmate.com/forums/showthread.php?p=59564&postcount=75)
Solid heat sinks will not dissipate your heat rapid enough. You need the surface to thin out for the heat to travel or else you are just making a hot plate to cook with. I do not see any thermal compound out to the edges either. It may be there but a complete thin layer of surface coverage is crucial. Any air gap and even metal bolted tight together will not transmit heat efficiently. Reference is here. (http://www.geckodrive.com/g203v-rev-7) A finned sink would be better also. Types of heat sinks here. (http://www.techsourcethermalsolutions.com/enginres.html) You also want the sink to dissipate the heat outside the box not in. For a quick test, use a high cfm fan and have it directed so the air is flowing both in back of the plate and in front. See if the problem lessens. Just my opinion and I hope you understand that. Hope you get it figured out.

[pblackburn]

Boy I am slow at reading, I would not be so concerned about box ventilation unless a through the box heatsink is not getting enough out. A sealed box is always cleaner than a vented one. I run 6.3A on 2 of my 203V and have no box ventilation but the box is 24" x 36". If you do use a through fan design, get the filter media with a tactifier already on it or by a small bottle of tactifier and spray the one side of the filter in the direction of air flow. This will help attract the smaller particles that normal would travel through the filter media.

[pblackburn]

Al brought up a good point about grounding, if you are using a bulkhead connector on the side of your box to connect your LPT cable. Most of them ground out to the case when you attach them. If that is the scenario, you may have a ground loop because your computer LPT is already creating the ground path for stray currents from the metal shield that is on the back of the computer. Something else to try.

[Zouave]

Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone! I've been out of town for a few days, so I haven't been able to test anything just yet, but I am thinking that it is a heat related issue. I did forget to put thermal compound behind the drives when I put them on. They'll be getting a coating of arctic silver this afternoon, then we're going to turn the fan off and see if I can get the problem to replicate more quickly.
As for the grounding issue, the LPT cable is attached to an ungrounded plastic through connector, so it is not grounded out to the case. It took some doing to find one of those, but I was able to finally.
I think the issue is, as most of you have pointed out, heat related. I'm going to take a look at modifying my design for my heat sink, possibly to mounting each Geckodrive on a finned heat sink or something of that nature, if the thermal compound doesn't do the trick (which it very well may).
Thanks again for all the suggestions. Off to run some torture tests!

[isladelobos]

Zouave, and your power supply specs is? (vdc,va,vac).
What wiring system? (Unipolar, Bipolar Series, Bipolar parallel).
dont know your confiuration.

for your drivers, you know the resistor config?

1. 1A – 7.8K
2. 1.5A – 12.8K
3. 2A – 18.8K
4. 2.5A – 26.1K
5. 3A – 35.25K
6. 3.5A – 47K
7. 4A – 62.67K
8. 4.5A – 84.6K
9. 5A – 117.5K
10. 5.5A – 172.33K
11. 6A – 282K
12. 6.5A – 611K
13. 7A – OPEN

[Zouave]

After a very busy spring, I'm finally getting back around to this project. Just ordered a large heat-sink extrusion from http://www.heatsinkusa.com/, I'll report on how it works once it gets here.

[darren salyer]

I have a large heatsink on my control box and never had a problem...good luck.

[smreish]

I followed the plans.
5 geckos drives on a 1/4" thick x 4" x 20" piece of aluminum on 2" standoffs. Sealed box with internal circulation fan located behind it.

No issues...ever.

[Zouave]

Well, the saga continues with further mysterious results... I've checked my cable connections, all were tight and clean. I've run a solid ground wire from the heatsink to the DIN bar (as grounding for wires coming into the control box and the wires from the BOB terminated on the heat sink). I've also acquired a large heat sink that will be mounted on the side of my box, as others have done, once some basic machining is completed on it (cutting in a slot for a rubber gasket to seal against the box) and drilling and tapping holes for the Geckos.
Symptoms I've noticed at this point:
LEDs on the BoB out immediately after errors appear.
High frequency buzz from the motor that most often loses control.

Possibly related is that after the latest error, I started up the computer & MechMate, and the X-axis had reverted to running the same direction instead of opposite directions (being on opposite sides of the MechMate). Upon test motion, gantry tried to twist off the tracks (boy is this thing stout!) but was unable to. No damage to machine, corrected axis slaving setup, and cut project without issue.

Is this sounding like a computer issue, suddenly?

[pblackburn]

When you say errors, what are the errors specifically?