- Thread starter chrisg3103
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chrisg3103
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Wait till you get to the XY part, and there are 2 of them!
What you printing with? looks quite shiny
What you printing with? looks quite shiny
decca
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It’s PLA. There was a a spotlight shining directly on it and not the best camera phone. I sped up the one on the right as the first one took nearly 4 hrs to print at 30mm/sec so I changed the speed to 50mm/sec and it took 2.5 hrs. I can live with the slightly worse finish.
I’m new to 3D printing so will fiddle with the settings.
I’m new to 3D printing so will fiddle with the settings.
Bladevane
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@chrisg3103 - I really admire your capability in creating this machine. I'm a bit worried that it is mounted on a wooden frame. A plasma torch is like holding the power of the sun in your hand and I fear the timber frame will not last long. Wouldn't like to hear your pride and joy had gone up in smoke.
chrisg3103
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Fear not, it just looks a bit self combusty at the moment, it's far from finished. The plasma part will be clad in aluminium and hopefully turned into a down draft table, just waiting for it to stop raining so I can get outside with the hand plasma to cut the panels. Possible spindle arrived today, so that can appease my tinkering till I can make it less flammable
chrisg3103
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Had you been printing parts already? if not thats some speedy work sir!
I have been looking into spindle options and ended up going for this - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07Q9HVXCZ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Its not the cheapest and these things get differing write ups, the key difference with this one is its actually brushless, has 3 wires instead of 2 and is run from a driver.
These - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/500W-Dia...825516?hash=item340ce7ed2c:g:iOcAAOSw2Mxc~gvH crop up all the time in searches and some are touted as brushless, they are apparently not and can be a bit electrically noisy.
Then there are the router options, which would probably have been a bit cheaper but i like the idea of speed control, quiet running and low voltage. The spindle runs at 48v so should be safe to put a socket on the Z axis and route the power cables through the cable chain, then just plug the spindle in when its fitted.
Just printing some experimental mounts and can try it out
I have been looking into spindle options and ended up going for this - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07Q9HVXCZ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Its not the cheapest and these things get differing write ups, the key difference with this one is its actually brushless, has 3 wires instead of 2 and is run from a driver.
These - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/500W-Dia...825516?hash=item340ce7ed2c:g:iOcAAOSw2Mxc~gvH crop up all the time in searches and some are touted as brushless, they are apparently not and can be a bit electrically noisy.
Then there are the router options, which would probably have been a bit cheaper but i like the idea of speed control, quiet running and low voltage. The spindle runs at 48v so should be safe to put a socket on the Z axis and route the power cables through the cable chain, then just plug the spindle in when its fitted.
Just printing some experimental mounts and can try it out
chrisg3103
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Not had too much time on the machine this week, and still waiting on parts to arrive for the table ventilation so had a go with the spindle.
The mounts i printed didnt turn out great but thought id try them anyway, downloaded a generic smiley face, converted it to a dxf and fired it into estlcam, bit of farting about figuring out the differences between parts, holes, islands and pockets i had something.
These are the first two fails left one, i hadnt tightened the collet 
right one... i turned on the hoover and all hell broke loose! i had the hoover on earlier in the cut with no issue, this setup is VERY sensitive to EMI it seems. If anyone out there knows anything about shielding or isolation i would be interested in any ideas 
Same issue as i had with the plasma when it got all sparky, the z axis throws a wobbly, interestingly the x and y seemed to stay on track, as the end mill was taking massive cuts.
Tried again with no hoover, and moved the ramps into the carcas of my plasma table, shielded on 3 sides at least by metal sheets.
Hes a bit hairy but intact
Quick shave with some sandpaper and hes quite respectable, think i need to adjust the stepover slightly, is a little ridge between passes.
Accuracy wise its not bad at all, the outer perimeter that was done first is exactly 3mm deep. Oddly the eyes and mouth ended up 3.2mm, but it did behave a bit strange when cutting those, it was set to 3 cuts of 1mm, but the first seemed to be near 3mm and the other 2 very light
In all not bad at all for a setup jury rigged like so:
No leveling or pre milling the surface, spoil board held on with 2 clamps and the work piece screwed to it.
Finally i had to have a quick look at aluminium before calling it a night, i screwed a bit to the board and disabled the steppers. Spun up the spindle and moved the axis manually to see how much chatter id get, in hind sight this was pointless as i wouldnt have the holding force of the steppers to help reduce it, but didnt want to go ploughing in with a program just yet..
The result is an extremely light cut, at least i think it cut
shows promise though
The mounts i printed didnt turn out great but thought id try them anyway, downloaded a generic smiley face, converted it to a dxf and fired it into estlcam, bit of farting about figuring out the differences between parts, holes, islands and pockets i had something.
These are the first two fails
left one, i hadnt tightened the collet right one... i turned on the hoover and all hell broke loose! i had the hoover on earlier in the cut with no issue, this setup is VERY sensitive to EMI it seems. If anyone out there knows anything about shielding or isolation i would be interested in any ideas Same issue as i had with the plasma when it got all sparky, the z axis throws a wobbly, interestingly the x and y seemed to stay on track, as the end mill was taking massive cuts.
Tried again with no hoover, and moved the ramps into the carcas of my plasma table, shielded on 3 sides at least by metal sheets.
Hes a bit hairy but intact
Quick shave with some sandpaper and hes quite respectable, think i need to adjust the stepover slightly, is a little ridge between passes.
Accuracy wise its not bad at all, the outer perimeter that was done first is exactly 3mm deep. Oddly the eyes and mouth ended up 3.2mm, but it did behave a bit strange when cutting those, it was set to 3 cuts of 1mm, but the first seemed to be near 3mm and the other 2 very light
In all not bad at all for a setup jury rigged like so:
No leveling or pre milling the surface, spoil board held on with 2 clamps and the work piece screwed to it.
Finally i had to have a quick look at aluminium before calling it a night, i screwed a bit to the board and disabled the steppers. Spun up the spindle and moved the axis manually to see how much chatter id get, in hind sight this was pointless as i wouldnt have the holding force of the steppers to help reduce it, but didnt want to go ploughing in with a program just yet..
The result is an extremely light cut, at least i think it cut
shows promise though
chrisg3103
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After yesterdays plywood success i thought id have a go at aluminium, it sort of worked. 0.25mm depth of cut on a 2mm sheet, last 2 cuts it got very chattery so stopped it, not much to take a photo of (and i just forgot)
so a bit more investigation found the Z axis has a lot of free travel, this seems to be the springyness of the coupler and the insides of the stepper motor moving. Far from ideal, With this setup the weight of the Z axis and whatever is attached to it is transmitted through the stepper motor
Thats the spindle resting on the spoil board and the leadscrew unscrewed, like it was trying to lift, on a downward cut the forces go through that little bearing, masquerading as a thrust bearing.
So there is internal movement in the stepper bearings and the spring in the coupler to deal with, so i initially tried this
stick a bearing in the top half to act as a thrust bearing
Then squish it together to take the spring out of the spring.
Worked great, no up or down movement in the Z axis, unfortunately it was too stiff for the motor to turn either
So plan B, got some 8mm thrust bearings and solid couplers coming tomorrow, i rehashed the printed parts to hopefully accept them top and bottom
The joys of tinkercad and 3d printing! Think something might work? give it a shot and it will be waiting on you in the morning, if it dosnt work, give it a tweek and your away again
so a bit more investigation found the Z axis has a lot of free travel, this seems to be the springyness of the coupler and the insides of the stepper motor moving. Far from ideal, With this setup the weight of the Z axis and whatever is attached to it is transmitted through the stepper motor
Thats the spindle resting on the spoil board and the leadscrew unscrewed, like it was trying to lift, on a downward cut the forces go through that little bearing, masquerading as a thrust bearing.
So there is internal movement in the stepper bearings and the spring in the coupler to deal with, so i initially tried this
stick a bearing in the top half to act as a thrust bearing
Then squish it together to take the spring out of the spring.
Worked great, no up or down movement in the Z axis, unfortunately it was too stiff for the motor to turn either
So plan B, got some 8mm thrust bearings and solid couplers coming tomorrow, i rehashed the printed parts to hopefully accept them top and bottom
The joys of tinkercad and 3d printing! Think something might work? give it a shot and it will be waiting on you in the morning, if it dosnt work, give it a tweek and your away again
daedalusminos
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Be interesting to see how that mod works out - did you make any progress on EMI shielding?
Meanwhile I've got a way to go on the printing...
Meanwhile I've got a way to go on the printing...
chrisg3103
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Not made any progress on the shieding yet, if your still starting out I'd recommend you look for some kind of shielded cable, cant hurt.
Some folk seem to be using data cable and just paring up the wires to take the load.
I have found you can buy tinned copper braid to run the cables through, might save rewiring the machine, but not got any yet, still waiting on parts for the plasma side and its literally freezing here, so nice warm inside work, like printing parts is more appealing.
Think first call will be to put the brains inside a faraday cage type thing and then try to get it to glitch, dont know if the interference is acting on the board itself or coming down the cables?
Some folk seem to be using data cable and just paring up the wires to take the load.
I have found you can buy tinned copper braid to run the cables through, might save rewiring the machine, but not got any yet, still waiting on parts for the plasma side and its literally freezing here, so nice warm inside work, like printing parts is more appealing.
Think first call will be to put the brains inside a faraday cage type thing and then try to get it to glitch, dont know if the interference is acting on the board itself or coming down the cables?
chrisg3103
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Also a little tip to anyone building this thing, if you dont have the specific sized m8 bolts to hold it together and dont want to buy a load for just one or two. I just cut some threaded rod and welded nuts to the end can see them in the pictures, not pretty but functional
can see them in the pictures, not pretty but functional
Seadog
Save the planet. It's the only one with rum!
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Get hold of some ferrite rings and loop the cables round two or three turns. Position close to the electronics. Clip on ones are available, too.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_...Xferrite+ring.TRS0&_nkw=ferrite+ring&_sacat=0
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_...Xferrite+ring.TRS0&_nkw=ferrite+ring&_sacat=0
chrisg3103
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Cheers, do you need a ferrite for every wire or can you do one per stepper? Each stepper has 4 wires
chrisg3103
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I shall get some ordered.
Had a quick go with the thrust bearings, need to redo the motor mount half, didnt take into account the length of the stepper shaft!
Took stepper out and mocked it up
Not one bit of vertical movement with the parts clamped tight, and the leadscrew turns easy. So long as there are no alignment issues with the solid coupling this looks like a winner.
These are the bearings im using, cheap and nasty! several have fell apart in the bag already
New part rejigged and already printing
Had a quick go with the thrust bearings, need to redo the motor mount half, didnt take into account the length of the stepper shaft!
Took stepper out and mocked it up
Not one bit of vertical movement with the parts clamped tight, and the leadscrew turns easy. So long as there are no alignment issues with the solid coupling this looks like a winner.
These are the bearings im using, cheap and nasty! several have fell apart in the bag already
New part rejigged and already printing
