Forrest, How did the aluminum & garlite cutting go? Also what Microstepping setting have you found works best with the gShield 1x, 2x, 4x, or 8x?

 

More parts came today in the mail. I am hot to get going but having trouble finding the electronic. The power supply is out of stock. And the G shield and Ardrino bundle are out as well. Any other places I could get them. I am a newbie and I need something easy to put together and configure. Is the power supply a garden variety unit. I see similar ones on ebay but I don't want to end up with the wrong one. Thanks in advance for your input.

 

Have you taken a look at the Ox build video's yet? The Ox and routy use the same components as far as the electronics go according to the parts list. How to wire everything up is demonstrated in the video as well. OpenBuilds used a 12V power supply there not sure of any of the other stats on the supply they used. I just recently got my power supply from work. I plan to use the recommended (in the video) 24V power supply that is rated for up to 10 amps. Should be enough to easily supply routy and I can use the same supply when I upgrade routy to a Ox later. In case your interested I have a 24V 10A supply. Model number ABL 1REM24100. See attached PDF.

https://synthetos.myshopify.com/collections/assembled-electronics/products/gshield-v5 has the shields still available. After that just pick up the arduino and your done. You can get an arduino at https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11021 or http://www.adafruit.com/products/50. Don't use your 24V to supply your arduino directly. I would recommend powering the arduino over USB. The gshield will need a 24V or 12V supply however.

 

Thanks Vic I didn't know that the Gshield could be powered by a 24Volt power supply. I will look at the other sites. I don't hear any talk about the Inventables company. Maybe they are to similar to a mainstream big business and people prefer to get things from a more open businesses.

 

Vic,
I left the micro-stepping set to the default of 8, did not play around with it. Cutting garlite works good with setting in the OX plate files. I had some loose screws in the Routy, so disassembled it and put it back together a bit more square. Cutting anything with Routy and Dremel tool is a bit slow, but cut Garlite well ... dry and not too dusty. I just got my mills for aluminum, have not had a chance to play with it yet, but will start out with the feed setting in the files in the Alum OX build.

 

Synthetos has Gsheild without the shapeoko mod. It looks like all the mod is one jumper? I could do that myself.

 

Have a look at the gshield site for more info. I found the info about its voltage range 12V to 30V on the wiki there: https://github.com/synthetos/grblShield/wiki/Using-grblShield

As for the shapeoko mod ya its just 1 jumper on the V5 board.

 

hi all
someone could give me the settings for GRBL with NEMA 17?
pololu I'm using 4988, I have no doubt with $ 0, $ 1, $ 2 ... but I would like to optimize $4, $5 and the rest.
Thanks for all

 

Suggest you refer to picture in Step 8 of Routy Build ... seems to have the important ones.

 

Just spend 4 hours trying to find right combination to mill 1/8" think aluminum sheet to make some brackets. End result, think I will use Garlite! Never could get it to run consistently to cut with any sort of speed at all. Seemed to be an issue with motor power in Y and X directions. I will try a bigger power supply when I get it maybe this weekend, but problem mostly seems to be Dremel tool is not powerful enough, although maybe not, as I can push the aluminum sheet through the mill without too much force ... maybe the mill will just not cut well with the first mm or so of the bit? Or maybe this is a job for an OX? Perhaps back to Garlite milling for OX plates ... ;-)

 

I tried milling Aluminum with 1/8" mill at thickness from 0.1 to 0.5 mm and speed from 10 mm to 200 mm, no joy! See previous post ... could be 24v power supply does not have enough juice for 3 X,Y motors under heavy lode ...its a Mean Well RS-150-24, with 150 watts output should be around 6.2 amps ... I may put a volt meter on it tomorrow and try again.

 

What kind of issues were you running into? and were you using LUBE? I have been doing some Aluminum on my big joescnc2006, and a little WD40 sprayed at the cut area now and then did wonders!

 

used WD-40, did not seem to help ...

 

Mostly just seemed to stall out, which is why I think it is a power issue.

 

I think you need to go even shallower on your cuts. .1mm is .039 inches and I could not get good cuts at .040 inches. try at .05mm. I made my good cuts at 30ipm, .025 DOC. 24k RPM. with a 1/4in single flute carbide bit.

 

.039" is nearly 1 mm ... I was talking in mm ... so I tried much less than this. I would be happy to get 1/64", 0.4 mm. You were really moving ... maybe I am trying to go too slow. I am limited to 1/8" bit and about 15k rpm, so surface of bit is moving about 20% the speed of yours, and 30 ipm would be about 760 mm/min. About 4x my fastest try. I will check voltages tomorrow and maybe try at faster rate, with 2 flute carbide bit.

How powerful is your motor ... seems jonescnc206 is made for full size router ... as compared to my little Dremel. I may have to put off the aluminum unit I get my OX mods done.

 

Yep bad math on my part. lol. Thought I had devided 1in by 254 which would be tenth mm, but I had not. lol. And yes the JoesCNC2006 is a big 350lb 24x48inch machine.

Yes I am running a 2.25 hourse router. On your dremel what kind of bit? how many flutes? Max RPM on the dremel? I have seen people with shapokos cut aluminum with a dremel on 12v steppers.

 

Try regular old vegetable oil that you cook with, WD40 is mostly fish oil and stinks to high hell
I use Crisco
It also plays a little more nice with MDF spoil boards as it does not expand the wood.

 

@Forrest DIetrich
What drivers are you using?
What current are your drivers set at?
What motors are you using? And what are their ratings?
I run my mill with a single 15amp 24 vdc switching supply with no problems

 

@Robert Hummel

I am using the setup in the OX build ... Arduino with gShield v5. Current is set by 3 pots by turing up until keeps running without heat issues.

• 2.5 Amps per winding
• 12-30 Input Voltage
• Open Pin Pass Through
• 8x Microstepping
• Screw Down Terminal Voltage Input
• Hardware 3x Axis (x,y,z)
• 3x Robust TI DRV8818 Stepper Drivers

The motors I am using are not the best Nema 17's ... they are
Kysan Electronics NEMA 17 Stepper Motors for 3D Printers 42BYGH4803-DC

• High Torque: 5.5 kg-cm, 53.9 N-cm, 76 oz-in, 4.77 lb-in
• 4.2 Volt, 1.5 Amp, 1.8 deg per step
• 21 mm long, 5 mm Shaft with D Cut
• 2 Phase, Resistance per Phase 2.8 Ohms
• 200 Steps per Revolution, Inductance 4.8 mH, Class B Insulation

I plan to change to Nema 23's per OX build with OX plates and use a 1 hp router.

You have 360 watt supply, more than twice what I have now ... I have 480 watt (24v, 20 amp) on order from the store here, should have it on Thursday.

I can cut Garlite OK with my setup now, will try it again soon to cut OX plates ...

 

@Robert Hummel

I cut the Garlite dry ... and have seen some people cut aluminum dry, blowing or vacuuming out the chips. I think I will try some 3-in-1 oil, or some other light cutting oil next. Crisco seems like it would eventually go rancid?

 

Believe it or not the veggie oil out does 3in1, I know this as I use a 3in1 bottle as my refill/despencer.
It is a lot cheeper also haha, clean up fast with a little soap and water

As for the cutting it's all in the bit my my friend, all I use is 1/8 bits.
The power supply is a good start for sure if it's that lightweight.
Also look for a bit made for aluminum,
Two flute made for aluminum or a single flute up cut will help alot

 

Read up my friend, hope the dust is under control, tip 1 tsp dish soap to 2cups warm water in a squeeze bottle will give a lot cleaner cut and keep the dust down.

I just hear bad stuff about milling the stuff

 

@Robert Hummel

Thanks for the tip about Crisco oil.

I realize the Garlite dust is carcinogenic, so OK, will try a bit of soapy water .... but dust is not too bad, does not get more than a foot or two from the bit, and I vacuum lots.

For aluminum I have been trying these bits from LakeShore Carbide, seem like well made bits:
1/8" Rougher/Finisher Variable Flute End Mill for Aluminum ZrN
1/8" Rougher/Finisher Variable 2 Flute End Mill for Aluminum ZrN
maybe these are the wrong bits? But I have tried a few others also.

Really seems like a power issue that is also affecting the Arduino, as it looses the USB connection at times. When I air mill, no problems.

 

Well you got the bits right that's for sure, so that ends that possibility

Must be a power issue for sure, always a little thing but hard to figure out
The USB issue may be that your sharing the same hub on your pc with say a mouse/keyboard ex... It's always a good idea to power it externally or use a dedicated hub "nothing else plugged in USB"

Hope this helps

 

@Robert Hummel
Yes, helps to know I have the right bits.
Yes, good idea to use the powered hub, I certainly have done that with Raspberry Pi, and even have one on the shelf, so will use it. Actually I was thinking of powering Arduino from separate 5v supply and using Bluetooth Arduino, but not sure if I can get that working yet ... I left my Blue Tooth Arduino in Beijing apartment, where I play around with simple robotic stuff. Maybe I will try to source some good stepper motors, etc. next time I am there.

 

Made a bit of progress today with powered USB hub, and unplugged and re-plugged everything ... but still seems X and Y motors are underpowered. I will play with current limits a bit, and see if I can keep the motors running and moving the bit correctly. Checked 24v, seems to be holding up OK. So seems to be a matter of finding the right settings ...

 

Got most of my parts in for my build starting on it soon. About to find out the quality of the parts list I got. (hopefully good)

 

When I switched back to cutting Garolite for OX plates, which I have modified for 60 mm rails to run on the Routy base, I had to tweak setting for motor current on the gShield. Seems I had them set for too much current, they would run the motors a few minutes, then overheat. And it seems slow speeds make for more tendency to overheat. So now cutting Garolite with same bit I had for aluminum at 450 mm and 0.667 depth per pass, with no problems (have completed about 20% of cutting for the 4 plates in about an hour). Seems to be cutting true ... logos look good in black Garolite. But I will switch the build to OX X and Z build and add Nema 23 motors before I try aluminum again, with a 1 HP spindle also.

 

About to give the electronics their first run. Hoping my ineptitude doesn't rear it's ugly head.