More progress, it cuts ! #109 - Hampshire, UK
 

On the South Coast of the United Kingdom.

After three years of watching and finding other things to do, I have started.

Control box on its way.
PMDX-126
Gecko's 201X
PMDX-107 speed control for vfd.
Have managed to get a motor PK296-E4.5A eight wire, turning in test mode.

Will be building an 8" by 4" machine.
3.1 Belt reduction.
Have ordered Wheels and Track from Superior Bearings.
Steel will be ordered in the next week.
Going to use I Beam and rectangular tube.

Need to make this a bolt together job as I will be moving within the next 24 months.

Did think of using a 2.2kw spindel made in china, but have decided to go with one made in Germany.

Will put up better photos when I have something to show you guys.

Cheers
Andrew

Welcome,
Looks like you are almost done with your Kitchen table project.

You look off to a great start.
Welcome, and good luck with your build.

Welcome Andrew! :)

Welcome !!! Looks like a great start.

More parts have arrived, photos this weekend
 

Lots of bits arriving today.....
getting excited.

Wheels, bushes and V cap rails from Superior bearings in the USA.

Aluminium rails

and a big box of laser cut and bent parts

then a 2.2kw water cooled spindle from Germany with radiator, pump, VFD and all cables and tubes.

must order the Table steel work tomorrow
Photos to follow later this weekend.

regards
Andrew

Steel work arrived
 

Thursday my steel delivered at work in Southampton, they wouldn't deliver to home as I didn't have a fork lift truck to unload.

So I had to take the front passenger seat out of my car to get the main beams home one at a time, got all the steel home in two trips.
Heavy dirty stuff this steel.
Not used metal before, wow so dirty and heavy.
Took me an hour to get it out of the car!
My main beams are I beams 23kg per mtr. length 3040.

Saturday I borrowed a chop saw and cut up all the other metal parts.
Took me most of the day. The saw was fantastic, made the whole process so easy and fast.
Really pleased with the progress.

My plan was to start drilling and start practicing my welding on Sunday.

Sunday morning and I'm having problems standing up straight let alone walking, I underestimated how hard moving 437Kgs of metal was, or overestimated my strength, should have done this when I was younger, I'm only 53 but wow some of that metal is heavy !
Funny how all my sons went missing when I needed a hand !
A couple of days and I will be back to full strength.

On another note, most parts of my gearboxes 3:1 are complete just need to put them together.

Awaiting delivery of racks and cable.
Cheers
Andrew

Andrew,
I feel your pain.
Make a friend of a skateboard or two. Great for moving heavy things.
Red

Nice! Keep us updated. Wish I could help!

Andrew, you're moving along nicely, welcome and the best of luck to you.

Started painting parts
 

Cross members in red oxide primer.

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...eat=directlink

A painting question
 

Hi guys, do I paint my vee cap rails?

You can, but the bearing surfaces won't stay painted. I suggest that you mask the actual vee and paint the rest; that way the passive surfaces are protected from corrosion, and the bearing surfaces stay shiny just like train tracks do.

Thanks Brad,

Will keep the paint clear of the vee top.
Have putthe frame together all painted and looks nice,
Just busy painting parts before assembly, most parts done just need painting.
Will put up photos when I have it looking good, currently it's in a very small garage and it will have to live there for 16 months before I move house and find a better home for it

Thanks for the advise

Progress, it rolls !
 

Gonna need a bigger garage, but this will have to do for a while

More photographs

Hi Guys,

I have got progress to report.
The Machine now moves on the keyboard jogging keys.
Spindle works by manual on the VFD water cooled and sounds good.
I have only read the PMDX107 manual twice, so still not sure what to connect to the vfd, to get it under mach3 control to my powtran vfd, hope to have that sorted out soon.

Next job is the proximity switches and push button boxes, hope to have the machine cutting by end of this week.

I have an e-stop question, I have looked hi and low on the forums and have seen both ways just need an opinion, which should I use?

Should the E-stop kill the power to the gecko transformer and spindle but leave the BOB Pmdx-126 live or should the E-stop kill everything including the BOB?

thanks
Andrew

I vote for killing only the power to the stepper motor PSU & notify mach3 of the E-stop signal.

I strongly recommend spending time on setting the machine squareness & installing a Z-touch off. others can wait.... :P

Don't worry about the limit switches & Mach controlled VFD control, I've been cutting without them since day one. POWER OF PROCRASTINATION!!!

Thanks Ken,

I agree with you on the notify back to the mach3, I tried it both ways last night and it feels better to me.

I will spend the time on squareness.
Will let you know how it all goes later this week.
Only get to work on the machine in the evenings and weekends, spend my day programming 2 Weeke machines for oysteryachts.com

Still looking forward to this evening.
Thanks for your advice.

Looking good!!
The last 5% will feel like it is taking the longest, but stick with it.

I'm sure it will Darren.

But it's getting there are already puts a big smile on my face.
Thanks for your help.

To quote another " There are many others like it, but this one is mine !".

I might adopt that ! I like it.

I am using the PMDX-126. An emergency stop should kill all potential (air, hydrualic, electrical, etc) except if the potential is more hazardous if disabled (like an accumulator holding up a 10 ton ram). I kill everything with my estop wiring. I have used it many times and it has been needed. Just remember an estop is not a control stop and should not be used as such. When you have to hit is it is assumed that the need is greater for safety than protecting the product. If you have followed your wiring, the estop circuit is required with the 126 and the jumper is to be removed. That being said it is common practice with a PLC to kill only the outputs and leave the inputs live for diagnostic purposes. So you could use a relay to disable any power to the output relays that have dangerous potential but leave power up to the PMDX-126. Keep that in mind.

Thanks Pete,

I have wired to kill all dangerous power and leave the bob live to send a signal back to the pc.

The question arose when looking at the original wiring diagram on the mechmate plans which showed e-stop killing all power as it killed the supply to the transformer feeding the BOB( although the 126 is supplied with mains voltage).

Looking at the PDMX drawing shows killing power but leaving the bob live to send a signal back to the pc.

I have adopted the latter and I'm happy with that, all other wiring is as the mechmate plans and through a contactor, so e-stop will break supply to the contactors coil and therefore kill power to spindle, and motors etc.

I have sat next to this for six years and used it once in anger, when one of the 9kw spindle broke its bearings , although I test it once a week.

This e-stop kills both of these machines ...

It cuts ! Just got a lot of things to sort out, limit switches, push buttons, z zero; but it cuts very well; first test cut was micky mouse for my grand daughter, 60 degree vee cut 1mm deep 12000 rpm on the spindle feed 3000mm on x and y and 1500 on the z axis

Good news that is. The first milestone is made.

I used 2 parallel ports with the PMDX-126 to give me the amount of inputs I needed. The limits and home use the same inputs for X, B, Y, and Z so only 4 needed to be used for those. The A-Axis only uses a home. I also use a touch probe mounted on the crossbearer for my Z Zero touch off setting. The two remaining inputs are feedhold and start that are interpreted through brains. I hope that helps give you some ideas.

Thanks Pete,
I have Managed to fit and wire up The push buttons, got them talking to mach3 and the bob
Next job was the auto z with a floating plate and a fixed plate, managed to get them all working with mach3 and the 2010 screenset , very happy with all of that.
Have fitted proximity switches and run cables back to the gantry where I am going to fa junction box.
Fitted a laser and trying to get that switched through a relay k2 , I can get the led fir the relay to light up but the contacts do not change state, something still not right there, never mind will get there soon.
I can set the vfd speed by hand but haven't managed to get it running using the pmdx 107 speed controller, thought I had wired it correctly and set the parameters on the powtran vfd , but it just wont work, spent two days trying to get that to work in the end I took the cables iut and reset back to manual. Will contact the vfd people for help on that, main problem is connections and settings theres not much else to it, but I think I have gone as far as I can with that .
Still its running and cutting parts
Using alphacam will put up more photos later this weekend
A big thanks to Gerald for making this all happen and to Mike for taking over and keeping this all running and to all you Mechmate builders out there for inspiration and help, if itwas not fir you and your posts I could never have got this far, I salute you all

help my Pc just died !
 

Well I thought I was getting closer and then the PC locked up !!
I had the spindle speed working as well, cut two parts and then the pc died, I guess that's the problem with old secondhand pc's !!

I re booted and got it running again and it lasted five mins before dying.

I have spoken to the shop where I got it from and they dont sound that helpful !

So Im looking for another pc and I need it like yesterday.

All the pc's in the shops are multi core ! can I use one ? any advice as I can't find a single core processor anywhere.

Ok I think I have answered my own question after reading and reading,
I think i have found a pc, an old pc with a 6 month warranty. it's an
HP d530 PC. Intel Pentium 4 HT, 2.8 GHz, 3GB RAM, 160GB HD. Windows XP Pro.
I Think I will get that and see how that goes.

At least I managed to get the spindle speed controller working, after finding a German clip on youtube setting up a Powtran VFD ( i don't speak German) but managed to work out what he was saying, the power of the internet.

Chipping away.

Thanks to help from Steve at PMDX I have full control over the spindle speeds in my programs.
Had an issue with an incorrectly set factory parameter ( last place I was going to look).

Happy to say running with my new pc and chipping away.
Made a couple of Chopping boards from some scrap Maple.

well done, congratulations!