If you flip the Y axis supports you will lower the rigidity due to lowering the moment of inertia of the part. Think of a 2x4 laid flat vs stood up on the short end. The vertical orientation provides a lot more moment of inertia. More than just lying on the table ( if thats the way you set it up) the machine will be producing bending forces from operation, so the more MoI the better.

 

sorry for the delay. I've been

sorry for the delay. I've been out of action for a while.I checked them & found pd 177 = EoUd, 178= ELun, 179=EOC.n 180=EEr.n. I reset all 4 & they stayed clear after an afternoon messing about , trying to get my mG540 to talk to my 1.25 spindle. I can get it to operate from the push pad but not from Mach 3. Would appreciate any guidance.

 

MARK YOUR CALENDAR - C-Beam Machine XLarge mechanical bundle will be at it's LOWEST PRICE EVER OFFERED on #BlackFriday. While Supplies Last. SHOP EARLY!!

 

Some of the other queries you had 1.Yes. Received English Manual with box
2.No potentiometer 3. Input& output terminals are the same.
I have a new friend who is kindly supplying "hands-on"
Truly a case of the blind leading the blind at present.
Workimg our way thrrough Connecting Huanyang VFD to Mach3 via Gecko 540 "talk" again soon.

 

I think I'll be converting my C Beam machine over to this as I gather up the parts stash needed. What are your thoughts on staying with the standard Nema 23 motors as opposed to the high torque series. Asking as I already have three of the standard motors on my C Beam.

Thanks,

Paul

 

Excellent... Thank you sir!!

 

@Glenn Weston
What electronics did you end up going with?

 

Hi @walkb4god, Here is my full build Log.

"The Moagie Mill" My C-Beam XLarge

I will be posting an update later today and changing the build status to Completed, as I managed a real cut (OB Logo Engraving) just last night with success.

But with the electronics here is what I setup on my system:

OB High Torque Nema 23's
Using MACH3 with standard Parallel Chinese Break Out Board (BOB) Only Because the BOB was free with the Driver Purchase on Ebay.
I think there are better solutions than the BOB's these days, probably why they are giving them away, but I wanted to learn about MACH3 with a BOB config and it has been a worthwhile exercise to learn about.
I am waiting on OB to release their new controller board and will decide on the upgrade path from there, however the setup I have now is very capable.
For the Drivers, I ordered 4 x DQ542MA 4.2A Stepper Drivers and am running them at 48V.
For the Power Supply I ordered an Adjustable 36V-50V 15A unit from Ebay, This is well over the Current/Power rating required for those steppers and should just cruise along, the Voltage adjustment is as per the advertised figures, great little PSU.

Here is my first cut, in true OB tradition I lost my CNC Virginity to the Open Builds Logo !!

I'm Hooked now.

Cheers Glenn

 

Hi everyone , finally pulled the trigger and ordered a xl due to the BF deal.
Here's the the problem , I might have **** in the closet ( a Scandinavian term ) , i do feel i have good understanding of the mechanical part of actually operating a cnc machine and doing research on forums like this just makes me feel more and allot retarded. hard wiring should not be a problem but i have zero knowledge in programming or understanding how to convert your ( sketchup , cad , fusion etc ) to linear motion of the machine.
In my world you draw something on the computer , mac or pc , and then you send it to the machine and parts be made

i hope that i making some sense with my limited swenglish

here is the real Q:s

Bought a xPro v3 controller - should that be hooked up to a arduino or can i plug it to my mac via usb an all is good

Steppers are connected directly to the xpro or does it just convert from data and should connect to stepper drivers ?

Is a 2.2 water cooled spindle VFD ( ebay , ali ) a better option than recommended Bosh Colt ?

How do u run this offline via mach3 ?

this is just a small amount of questions fo a complete clueless like myself and it would be really ice if someone could rely since most of u seem to origin from the software side , there is allot of build tutorials for the hardware part but none for software.

mvh// from the north !

 

Thanks for the replies and im sorry for your loss moag.

The thought with the spindle was rather go big right away instead of bying a colt or similar and needing to upgrade right away , and where i live the cost of a bosh colt is pretty similar to the 2.2kw. I will be cutting some 12mm MDF and if posible some thinner alu.
The concern i have with the china spindle is wheight , 5kg might be more than the machine can handle.
Well i could by the colt overseas and use it with a transformer.

 

Has anyone had success using a Dewalt 611 on the XL? Opinions?

 

I got a fairly good deal on a DEWALT D26200 wich seems to be the equivalent of the 611 used i alot of builds and i can use it for some regular woodworking. From my understanding the spindle mount on the c-beam is 71mm and the dewalt is 67 so some chimming will be required, or i could just by the mount from x-carve since the dewalt is what they use.

 

My buddy made me a shim on his 3D printer. Fits like a glove.

Here it is. Router Mount Shim 69mm to 71mm ( 0penBuilds Colt to Dewalt Mount ) by JimmyBuckets

Looks like it was designed by one of the posters on here.

 

Here is a cheap way to make an adaptor, I think Moag has Adopted this method too with his spindle on his XL from puctures that he has posted.... It certainly worked for me with a Makita RT0700 which is 65mm from memory.

Grab a piece of 65mm PVC water pipe, cut about 30mm off length wise, then cut a slit all the way down the side of it so it becomes a big C clip that can be opened up, this will now go around the spindle mount and should fit into the OB mount.

I used pressure pipe so it has thicker walls, you are working with 67mm so there is another 2mm extra than me, maybe 65mm non pressure pipe with less thickness on the wall might do the trick.

It should be a pretty cheap purchase to try out anyway, once you get it fitted this way it will be solid enough so you can then mill your own adaptor from MDF, Plastic or Aluminium.... It will be a great first practise real job.

I have not done mine yet but thats what I intend to do. Make the Mill work for you and make its own parts.... thats what Mill's are good at !!

Cheers Glenn

 

Some good advice here , i have acces to an old lathe at work so I'll probably sort out the shim while waiting for all the parts .

 

@Ktm530, sorry didn't have access to my photos when I posted earlier about the PVC pipe but here is what I was describing.

 

Thanks Glenn Weston.

 

I'm just starting an XL build. It's my first CNC and everything is a learning experience. I'm mostly intimidated by squaring up the extrusions. I've cut them to length using a mitre-saw and it's close-ish to square but not perfect. I'm concerned that I may introduce more error by inexperienced hand-filing. Does anyone have any tips or tricks to squaring up the ends of extrusion?

-Jamie

 

How about using shim stock on the short side of the error to build it back up to 90 degrees as opposed to filing off the excess. if it is not too far out of square, the 8mm screws will still have plenty of thread to bite into the tee nuts.

Paul