Awesome thanks for your help...have you been running your cnc with the new setup? If so anything you would have done diff? Thanks again

 

Sweet man good luck with that! Thanks for the info

 

Aloha
New builder/ operator here, just finished building the Lead 1010 with the high Z mod. Movement is all correct (directions), but when i lower the Z high to the material i getting a fault error 15- jog exceeds machine travel. Command ignored, and also error 9 g code locked out during alarm or jog state. Im assuming that the controller assumes the standard Z high, i also assume this is corrected in gcode setting?
Mahalo (thanks in advance)

 

aloha
no I did not, that's what I need to know how to do, sorry I'm new to this

 

#132 z axis max travel mm
set to 500mm for the high Z mod?
also should I change the y and x? currently at 200mm

 

thank you for your help Peter, yes I have looked at the gnea,grbl wiki but it will need reading and rereading to understand, as I said I am new to all this

 

this forum is tons of help

 

How heavy is that water cooled spindle? It looks like it's 80mm diameter, so 2.2kW? Is that the ER20 collet or ER11? So many questions I know! I want to know if I can put a 2.2kW (5.3kg) spindle on the Lead1515 with the high Z mod without it flexing.

 

I have the 1.5kW with ER11 collets. I did not weigh it but this information should be available from the vendor.

 

I am stuck in a "if not this, what about this" issue with this mod. I have the configuration modifications done on paper for the z-axis movement based on what I am interested in doing. The z-stepper and leadscrew can handle either weight with ease. The main question is this: What is the max weight the configuration will handle for a spindle motor? I am looking at one of two spindle motors - one weighs in at 7 lbs / 800 watts and can handle 1/4" shanks and the other is 12 lbs / 2.2 kW that can handle up to 1/2" shanks.

Thanks in advance.

 

Thank you for the advice. I was thinking of the same thing but I wanted verification. 800 watts will allow for milling aluminum at slow, sane rates but the rigidity needs to be there to minimize edge chatter. Plus, the added stability would come from doing the work on the edge rather than in x-axis mid span. Now to pull the switch.......

 

When you get to that point lubricant/coolant (I use meths) and a jet of air help a lot when milling aluminium.
Alex.

 

Can I get this at 300mm on the Z instead of the 500?

 

I've just completed the build of my lead 1515 with the high Z mod (everything apart from the spindle, that's on back order). I've been tuning it and can get the Y axis to travel at 4000mm/min, though the X axis can only go 3000mm/min. Just before the stepper binds there's a resonant vibration around the x gantry. I tried very hard to get the two X axis C-beams parallel. There's a 0.3mm drop across the 1500mm span. I think it'll be difficult to get it closer than that. I have the slave X gantry about 8mm below the driven gantry.

What would cause a mechanical bind at high speed? Could this be the lead screw nuts? I have lubed it with PTFE oil. Looking at the design it would seem that the slave gantry may "lag" behind the driven gantry and cause a twisting. Though both gantries are tightly coupled to the Y axis C-beam which should be a rock solid connection.

I'll try connecting the back of the two gantries together to make them more rigid.

Is it possible to run two X axis steppers so the lower slave gantry is also driven? Can the XPro V5 drive 5 steppers like this?

Does anyone have ideas on how to prevent this binding, and hence be able to run X as fast as Y?
Thanks,
Allistar.

 

Hi Peter,
I bought it from makerstore.com.au (it's much faster and cheaper to buy it from there as I live in New Zealand).

Thanks,
Allistar.

 

Are the parts from makerstore.com.au are unofficial? They do claim to be a distributor of OpenBuild product.

Can you confirm how tight the wheels should be? I have another CNC machine which has skateboard bearings running on stainless steel pipe. When the lead screw is disconnected I can push it and it'll gently roll to the end of the pipe with very little friction, and the slop in it is negligible. With the Lead 15 15 I can't do that. I can roll the gantry by pushing it but when I let go it immediately stops. Should it be able to roll freely? I wonder whether having the eccentric nuts too tight could cause this.

 

Thanks for your help. The binding is definitely mechanical in nature, I can tell it's going to bind at the X gantries get a build up of what sound like resonance, like they're being forced to move in a way they don't want to. The noise is like a high pitch squeak that gets stronger. I suspect I have the wheels too tight. I'll loosen them off a bit and will see if that improves things.

I've been cutting air with a large gcode file that does a vcarving (one of the Aztec calendars that's been going around). This has a lot of very small movements and the Z axis moves up and down quite a lot. Even without a spindle it's noisy! Granted, I still have most of my tools scattered over the table, and it is sitting on a table tennis table which isn't super rigid. The steppers seem to bark at particular speeds. The movement is quick (350mm/s^2 acceleration) and it's not losing any steps. Is this kind of noise from these stepper normal? Will changing the microstepping from 8 to something else help this?

 

I have a mod idea to the Z-axis actuator in mind to support my spindle. I have it worked out on paper but I have one question left. My plan uses a hole modified C-beam XL gantry plate to be bolted to the C-beam using low-profile screws through the gantry and t-nuts in the slots to catch the bolts. What I need is a verification of the screw length needed. The plate is 6mm thick. So I believe that I will need the M5x10 screw size. Am I correct in this belief?

Thank you in advance.

 

Hi Folks, just getting started building a modified version of the LEAD 1010. Been working in CAD so far to tune things in to the dims required for this setup.

One question we've punted on so far, but now coming to, is the Z-Axis. I note the "HighZ" mod, and the extra components required. A couple Q's 4 Y'all...

1. In terms of "stiffness" (we'll be cutting Aluminum) how much is this increased by adding the second beam and carriage? Or put another way, how much twist/flex does the single C-beam gantry exhibit? What we're wondering is how much overall stiffness is gained, vs the single-beam gantry. Some "quantitative" metrics would help us to understand the trade-offs.

2. I've read elsewhere that part of the rationale for the particular design of the HighZ mod is that it uses components already in inventory. Are there any community thoughts about perhaps condensing the design a bit by creating a single 160mm carriage plate, and only 2 sets of wheels? From the designers, what might the pros/cons be of such a design? (we don't need as much travel as the stock mod provides, but perhaps more than the "standard travel") Seems like it's always the "outside" wheel set that is going to be taking the bulk of the lateral load.

3. To enhance X-Beam stiffness, has anyone considered an orthogonal beam to the X-carriage beam, or adding another beam to create a "laminated" beam? Again, would require some re-thinking of the design, but may perhaps add some stiffness with less height. This question is really more exploratory... Again, looking to the designer of the mod, or others who have experience with this and those who cut Aluminum with this type of machine.

For background, we're looking at this both for our own use right now as a prototyping tool, but also perhaps more generally as part of our project to enable others. Won't bother folks here now with details of that except to say we'd be able to "optimize" the design for our use case because we'd be making quite a few (of the router systems).

Thanks for your help and insights as we work to tune this in!

 

Hello Again Community!

A follow up to the last question we posed...

Has anyone looked into rotating the X-Axis C-beam by 90-Degrees? This would change the orientation of the X-Axis carriage, of course, so a little cleverness would be required for mounting Z, but with this, one gets a bit more clearance, and also the added stiffness of pushing against the C-Beam in its strongest axis. The Y-Axis is by far the "strongest" axis in terms of its ability to exert force when cutting (two motors driving, vs. 1 on the other axes), hence it may be beneficial to have the X-Beam be oriented in its stiffest orientation to resist flex in this direction.

Added Benefit to this orientation is that forces against the bearings in the wheels of the X-Axis are in the "correct" direction. As designed/implemented, there is a lateral load on these bearings, which may cause premature wear. With the rotated X-Axis beam, it would then be the Z-Axis presenting lateral load onto the X-Axis bearings. The Z-Axis is likely to see the smallest loads, since one can't "force" a cutter into the material they are cutting.

If someone has tried or thought about this, we'd love to learn from you. We'll noodle on it a bit here as well from a design perspective, but wanted to check in with the community to see if this had been considered & discarded for some reason which we're not immediately seeing.

Much thanks!!