Note: It appears the BOM lists 46 X 20 mm low profile screws to assemble. There's 32 in the end caps, 14 in the nut blocks and 2 on the 20x20 extrusion that supports the drag chain. I found out when putting on the last end cap. I have stainless screws that will work, so now I have to remove the ones from the 20x20 because you don't see them, so I can use them in the end caps.

 

Not to be impatient, but...

err... well... actually, I guess it's entirely to be impatient, since there's really nothing else I could convincingly call it. "Differently patient", maybe?

So, just to be impatient... Any status updates on the black bundles? I was looking forward to the 10th in hopes of seeing a shipping notice, but my inbox has been unusually silent (even the spammers and the politicians... and the spammy politicians, too!).

I would've written it off as being at the bottom of a big stack of orders & waited (and only cried just a little bit) to see if I heard anything tomorrow, but on checking the LEAD CNC (seriously, guys - what's the significance of the all-caps LEAD?) page on the store and noticing that it now says "Expected release date is Dec 21st 2018", I got worried.

So... what's the story? Do I need to cry a lot, or just a little?


-Bats
[ LEAD: Lowercase Eliminates Acronym Debates? ]

 

Dude... you are way too verbose!

 

I don't know which of these replies hurts more to read.


-Bats
[ :'( ]

 

hey guys,

when turning on the motors do a small pitch sound or hum is that normal I have the high torque ones.
not sure if this go away when start running something or the other noise hide that.


thanks.

 

That’s the motors just being on! All normal! Have fun!!

 

Hey fellas, make sure you check your 50mm m5 screws that mount the motors. I discovered last night as I was finishing up the machine side build that one was 45mm long and not long enough to mount one of the motors. Pretty disappointed as I was looking to fire the machine up this weekend. Luckily I found some on Amazon with one day shipping but I had to buy a 25 pack

Check your BOM. Other than that, the packaging is awesome and the machine is looking great.

Jesse

 

I had other screws missing as well. I had some spares from my xcarve build but it happened at least 3-4 times during this build

 

Yeah, pretty frustrating.

 

Mark, Just finishing up the build and moving the gantry around, etc....are the stock settings very conservative? My belt driven x-carve has way more speed to it using 9mm belts then this machine does having screws...just curious if you guys made the stock settings very conservative just as a precaution? Thanks!!

Dan

 

...
...
But...
wait...
Now I'm going to have to wait for the slow boat from China to show up with my spindle!

:smilingthroughthetears?:

(seriously, though - thanks for the updates. and it looks like the tracking number just hit my inbox, so, Yay!)

Awww... Less Exciting Acronyms are Disappointing... but I suppose Linear Extruded Aluminum Device just wouldn't be specific enough.

In any case, I hope it proves less of an "educational" "learning experience" than the Largely Extemporaneous Automated Disaster it's replacing.



-Bats
[ will a Lazy Entropic Activity Disrupter make me spend more time being productive and less time sitting around posting random garbage? ]

 

Following up on this, maximum speed can depend on a number of factors:

It the speed the steppers run at can be constrained by the steppers themselves (naturally), or in the electronics by the controller or PC (Mach 3, for instance, ends up capping rapids based on the kernel speed option, which is in turn limited by CPU). This will sometimes put a hard limit on the rapid speeds you can set, or, depending on what's running your motors, could just manifest as a point where things start to stop working the way they're supposed to.

The travel speed that the motor speed translates to will depend on the drive mechanism - the gear/pulley ratios on a belt drive, or the thread pitch & starts of the leadscrew. As Mark pointed out, lead screw builds tend to sacrifice the sheer speed available to belt drives in return for precision and power, but it's possible to tweak that tradeoff by swapping in different leadscrews & nuts (this can also be helpful .

Of course, this is all purely about rapids - which is what it sounded like @Trooper11040 was experimenting with. Looking at maximum cutting speed brings machine construction/rigidity and spindle into play (not to mention workpiece materials & cutting tool). This is where a solidly build leadscrew-based machine shines, because it can handle cutting harder materials at speeds that would make a lighter belt drive machine bog down. Cutting air or foam, the belt drive will cruise along at crazy speeds, but I'd much rather have a leadscrew when it comes time to push that tool through hard maple or oak.


-Bats
[ there are exceptions to all of this, of course - I've seen belt-driven industrial machines that could cut through leadscrews like the LEAD cuts maple ]

 

Using the 90 Degree Joining Plates on top of the X-Axis gantry will limit the amount of travel that the X-Axis carriage can move. The carriage will hit the 90 Degree Joining Plates before hitting the vertical 20X80X250 V-Slot rails. I watched the video on assembling the LEAD CNC machine.

 

No it won’t

 

The X-Axis carriage is the one that holds the spindle or router. Move that carriage so that it hits the 90 Degree Joining Plates before trying to hit the V-Slot rails. You'll lose some build area.

 

I jave been looking at different machines and kits from different companies over the last 6 months and was going to order a Workbee as soon as all the options were available again, now i see the Lead machine and I'm not sure. Is there a big differance between the two? What could i do better with one over the other. I need the 40x40 work area for a project i want to do in wood that will probably be repeated. I would also like to try aluminum at some point. It would also be nice to be able to modify any weak areas i or someone else finds. Any help would be appreciated.

 

For me the work area is around 730x810 mm (32.6772 x 28.7402 inc) unless I assembled that wrong, the 40x40 is the footprint.

Cheers.

 

Started going through my BOM and found that I was missing two of the 65mm screws. I emailed customer server, which by all accounts here should be a great experience. It might be a few days before I can start making sawdust, but I'm still getting up to speed on Fusion 360 anyways. Other than that, the build is going great!

 

The work area is big enough for my project it is around 26" in diameter. I kinda worded it wrong by saying work area and not foot print. Im syill interested in the differance between the Lead and the Workbee.

 

Will there be any issues generating gcode from MakerCam to use with the OpenBuilds Control?

 

Hopefully someone who actually knows what they're talking about will step in before I can do too much damage, but the impression I've gotten (after asking the same questions a number of times, comparing designs, and reading the first few pages of this thread) is that the Lead is basically an evolution of the Workbee 1010, designed to be more modular & eliminate a lot of the custom-cut plates. It uses the same C-beam/leadscrew actuators as both the Workbee & C-Beam Machines, and the overall build is pretty similar to the Workbee 1010 - the biggest differences being the Lead's substitution of 20x80 V-slot for the gantry end plates (which @Rick 2.0 has suggested should be even more rigid), and cutting the number of wheels in half (I'm still not sure what sort of impact this will have, but it looks like the plates have mounting holes for adding extras back in later, if there's any need).

Due to space constraints I'll probably be cutting the footprint of mine in half with a shortened X-axis, but hardwood & aluminum are my target for the machine too. As far as weak areas, I'm hoping the modularity of the Lead will make modifications a little easier & that the growing crowd of unsuspecting victi... early adopters here will help with the troubleshooting.

Sounds like you assembled it either precisely right, or precisely backwards. According to the store, the Lead is supposed to have 29"x32" (730x810) travel, the Workbee 1010 has 32"x30.5", and the belt-driven Workbee 1510 has 32"x50".


-Bats
[ *goes back to sitting on the curb and glaring impatiently at the mailbox* ]

 

Actually, I got the hang of OpenBuilds CAM and just realized how much better it is, including the interface. Very easy to use.