Starting - Christchurch, Rolleston, New Zealand
 

Hi guys, I’m John from Richards Bay, South Africa, my collogue Johan van der Walt introduced me to MechMate. :D Wow, :D Awesome, :D Fantastic and I’m humbled by Gerald’s openness.

I’m about to emigrate to New Zealand in the next few months and want to build myself a BB there. Are there any BB’s in New Zealand, Christchurch area?

Thanks
Libbit

The design is done...now the build starts
 

Hi,

Pls see my design as pre G's drawings. Any comments??

John

John,

Interesting design and good luck with your build. When are you moving?

Nils,

Thank you.

We arraived in Christchurch, New Zealand October last year. This year is set aside to build a Big Blue MechMate. I've done a 3M model in SolidWorks from G's design. Currently i'm busy getting prices for the motors, bearings, gear racks, etcetera. As i've said before it is damm expencive. Dual Vee bearings from Nick is about NZ$650, I've had prices localy at NZ$ 2500 and NZ$5500.....:rolleyes:

You will notice I've changed the legs because i got hold some 50x50x2 square tube, other than that i will use G's design.

John

John,

I did see that you changed the legs. Good luck with your build.

I have a friend that lives in New Zealand, it is a very beautiful country, and I would enjoy the opportunity to see it but you are soooooo far away. Maybe it will happen.

It is hard to change a design that works so well.

John why not weld the short pieces together end to end to make them longer, then build conventional?

Go for it John!

Kitchen Table Project started........
 

Hi guys,

I'm starting my kitchen table project. Pls see attached pic's of panel back plate and wiring diagram. Pls, pls take a look and any comments r welcome.

Regards

John

It is looking good!
I see that you will be using 24v contactors.

Most of the wiring done - Auckland, New Zealand
 

Hi, the progress is slow due to, as u could guess, money.

Anyway pls see photo of completed panel (cant seen to upload a pic). Now I'm waiting on the Gecko's and motors to complete kitchen table build. I have used a 230v contactor and will allow the BOB via 24v relays to pull in the router and vacuum motors. I will start with a router and later move to a VSD.

Question to the Forum....can I use old copier stepper motors as test pieces? If so, what do I look out for?

Next job is Ubuntu with EMC2......

Tks to Johan (Lex) for his wiring diagram and help from a friend.

Regards, John

Welcome back. Glad you are making some progress !!!

Hi John, glad to see perservere members around :) Thumbs up!!!
I would prefer to keep the parallel port cable away from the transformers. Even if the parallel port is shielded. It carries the raw signal from your PC & it is the weakest signal in the whole machine system.

Using copier stepper motors may work, but without any spec of the motor, I couldn't tell...

Hi guys,

Thank you Ken and Mike.

Ken your advice makes sence, tks. What I've done is I've got the left side of the panel is the 230vac transformer lines and the right side mainly the DC lines.

CU

Hi Guys,

I have an option to get 6 x 201 Gecko drives here in New Zealand for $500 NZ (about $350 US) and was wondering if the 201 drive is suited for the MechMate? I'm going to use 4 X Motion King stepper motors 34HS9801. Tks.

The 201's will work. Your concern with the 34HS9801 is your voltage and the 201 will beable to drive that voltage and I believe other people have used them on there MM successfully, search the forum to be sure...

Our first machine was with G201's and they are still going strong. In fact, we have since killed 202's and 203's but not a 201 yet. It was recommended practice to put a capacitor directly onto each of the early version G201's.