James -- Sure which z-axis plates did you need?

@Metalguru I don't really recall, I use to do custom wiring harness for restomods and engine swaps. This stuff was just left over. EvanBruner -- Yeah I have worked with paracord as well stuff is sweet to work with so many uses.

 

It is alive! grbl is running smoothly. Only thing left to wire up are my aviation motor connectors and the start, hold, reset buttons. My bec is doa so I can not use the internal pi 3 as planned in tell I come up with another way to power it. I should have tested it when it arrived. Also the green led on two of my drivers are very dim in comparison to the other two drivers they all seem to work just fine, and they each have their own power connection so I am not sure what to make of that.

Spoiler board is mounted and in place two M5x40mm bolts in the front and two more in the rear go right through both .5" mdf spoiler boards through the 1/2" tooling plate and bolt directly to the cnc frame tying it all together. If I was to do this again. I would skip the t-nuts here and simply tap the tooling plate with threads. Getting the t-nuts lined up was a pain.

 

Yeah those aviation connectors can be a pain. While I don't have a vise or third hand to help hold them, I did find mounting them to the panel as a means to hold them in place helped a lot. As did your tip on tinning the pins and wire in advance.


And she is complete! Time to put her to work making parts for my next build I look forward to seeing everyone's build. It sounds like a few have already started. Don't forget to come back and post up !



Here is a quick look at the inside of my electronics box. Wiring was straight forward a bit unorganized as far as wire routing goes but I was limited by space. I wired the drivers up as was discussed in my prior post and videos. Here is another short video going over my components and settings ( drivers / grbl / ect ) If I left anything out you need me to cover just let me know. I downloaded the data sheet for each component and followed the directions nothing to complex with this controller ( phoenix cnc ).




In the end I can not recommend the bec I used ( doa, I suspect not up to the task for 24v ) nor can I recommend the power input plug I chose; very lose pins and overall poor quality. Those will be the first to be replaced.

The Dewalt 611 has proven itself up to the task on my plate maker so I chose to run a dewalt on the Sphinx as well. I have thrown wood , mdf, acrylic, aluminium , ect at it with no problems. A excellent budget choice for a spindle.



I can not wait to get started on my next build, I have already started the design phase.

 

It should be getting some, but you are correct they are not shown in those photos. I need to take some updated photos. On the rear panel I am hoping to house a couple fans functioning as exhaust fans that will always be on when the controller is on.. Do you think I should add a intake fan on top as well?

 

Rummaging in my fan bin, I think I found just the right fan to pull fresh air in from the underside. I will see about getting it installed when I put in the new pi 3 power supply.

Nice find, I have used hardblok in the past never would have thought to use in this way.. Now that I think about it I never have used it as intended. hahaha ( works great for plugging un needed ports on cast iron manifolds. )

Thank you I have had a lot of fun building and documenting everything. I always enjoy taking something from a quick sketch to cad to final product. I am starting to think I enjoy the designing / building more so then even using the end project haha. Can not wait to get started on the next build.

 

Yeah I was looking forward to using the bec I think I just got a bad one. I would not rule out trying another one.

New step down converter came in the post today. Works excellently. No adjustments or soldering required with this unit either. Solid screw terminals and clear labeling. 12/24V input and 5V 10A output.
I also got around to installing my panel mount dual usb ( keyboard and mouse ) and hdmi inputs. Cables turned out to be about a 20mm shy of reaching the rear panel so I had to do a little butchering of the front. If I measured my cables before hand, I could have included cut outs in the laser cutting of the front panel.

With the pi3 installed internally and having built in wifi and Bluetooth I am able to send my gcode files over to the machine on my local network without having to transfer via usb or sd. I can get use to this

 

I picked it up on amazon for a few bucks. It has been up and running for a few days now. Excellent choice for powering a pi from either 12v or 24v power source like the OB 24v power supply I am running. It is not very large either; smaller then the pi itself. I ordered a second for the in car pi computer I am planning.

This is a direct link "Here" to the one I bought if you wanted to pick one up.

 

Thank you! I look forward to seeing your build ! The machine is definitely strong enough to be stored like that. I have seen some of the guys who received a shapeoko on youtube store their machine in the same way. It would have to be a strong hanging system! My small desktop machine weights in at 32 kilograms according to the scale (70lbs). Making the machine larger will add to that weight. I think some form of lifting table might be a better option over hanging on a wall. Or you could place it on a torsion box and use a chain hoist to lift it straight up suspended from the ceiling.

 

He makes a nice product and his stepper driver board is pretty sweet. I have thought about picking one up to run some nema 17 motors.

But in all honesty if you wanted to run pololu style drivers instead of dedicated external drivers. I would pick up the Protoneer raspberry pi hat. It takes what would be 3 separate boards and a bunch of cabling and provides you with a nice compact package.

 

It is compatible with the OB gt3 pulleys and loop belt. One thing to note: the bearing orientation is not ideal, which is why I did not end up making it.. The only real difference from my plate and the original OB unit is thickness ( mine is 1/2" replacing the c-beam end mount all together) and a few extra holes to allow a full cover to be mounted.) If your not in a hurry I would wait to see about the new belt reduction plate OB is working on.

Correct the 20t pulley goes on the motor while the 40t pulley will go on the screw.

 

@Glauco Welcome to OpenBuilds Glad to hear you like my project and would like to build your own. To get started head over to the "Files and Drawings" tab at the top of the build. Here is a direct link.

You will find all the files and manuals you will need for this build. I have included a bunch of different file types so you should be able to get started no matter what cad software you use. The complete cad model was completed in Sketchup and you will need Sketchup to review it. The pro version of Sketchup is nice, but all you will need is the Free sketchup Make.

 

^ No Problem..

Forgot to post this earlier. Just a short video of the C-Beam Sphinx finishing it's first cut. a few of the finer details were lost; narrow fins and mdf do not mix well lol. Other wise a solid cut. Quickly drawn and cam'ed in easel.

 

Hello Les,
Welcome to openbuilds

Sounds great! I look forward to following your build. Yes, Please go ahead and post your modified b.o.m and any tweaks and mods you do. That is what I love about openbuilds. The community involvement. It is all the upgrades , changes , tweaks and suggestions that drive each design forward..

Yeah the end caps are purely cosmetic, they can be 3d printed, machined on the cnc itself after the fact or completely left out. They only serve to close the exposed v-slot ends. When using the cast corners just file off the nubs with a file or belt / disc sander. It only takes a second and in a few orientations they can get in the way. Otherwise they are just as good as the milled ones and you will have no problem using them..

Sweet electronics setup. Any more details on the lcd and how everything works? I do not think you will have any problem connecting your current electronic setup to a sphinx build. The sphinx makes use of four nema 23 motors and it sounds like your current machine uses three so you may need to add a driver if you don't already have one.