Thats all good but in the OpenBuilds Lead 1515 electronics and software (using Blackbox) video at around 49:00 he goes into the Control software, downloads the Hello world and runs it, I do see where he says, find a nice safe area to run the code, but he also states, at this point the machine is running perfectly and is doing what it needs to. rgardless i don't want to get into a pissing contest, just want my investment to work.

 

Yes, i have now learned about setting zero, Thank you!

 

Hello everyone, I am new to OpenBuilds, so hopefully I am going about this correctly. Our company has a large 5' x 20' CNC router that we use for flattening large wood slabs and cutting wood countertop shapes / custom routing and engraving, etc. We have learned that it is best to leave that machine for our big heavy bulk work and employ a second CNC for more finesse work and even laser engraving. So, I'd like to ping the community regarding the LEAD 1515 to see if my requirements are in alignment with this machine or if I should be looking at different models. Here goes...

Major Requirements

• Modular - it seems this can be achieved by placing the 1515 on the appropriate sized rolling tables that OpenBuilds provides
• Spoil board when sitting on the rolling table, but open framed (bottomless) when removing the CNC from the table and placing it on top of large work items (ie. conference table tops, etc.) - This is the one I am unsure of. I have no concern about the spoilboard when on the rolling table, but I'm unsure if the 1515 can support only having two connector frame pieces out at the ends instead of having the typical cross members. The idea is to have a complete open bottom so that routing and lasering can happen on top of the work item without interference from the CNC frame.
• Laser mounted to or beside of router - I am most interested in the J-Tech laser option but am open to recommendations / best practices for making a two-in-one router / laser production machine. I would love to be able to program the router tool path and the laser tool path in one design / G-Code so that both operations can run fully (back-to-back) without needing any re-zeroing, etc. (I am assuming this could only be possible if offsets could be permanently stored for the laser as it is mounted beside the router)
• Increased Z-axis height by raising gantry - is this an option?
• Camera (photogrammetry) add-on - is this an option?

I appreciate everyone's feedback as I try to determine what the best approach towards our build is.

 

Hello all. I am considering purchasing a leads 1515 and was curious to the rigidity and accuracy of this machine while cutting wood. Any comments, opinions or tips would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all in advance. I notice that open builds is currently out of xyz probes and interface. Any ideas on when those items will be available for purchase?

 

To be honest I was considering buying an axiom...however after viewing the prices, the only major difference I can see is the linear bearings...which could be installed on the openbuilds machine in the v slot extrusions or so it seems so I see no sense in paying $5k for that. I can get the linear bearings and install them for less than $2k lol

 

My kit should be here tomorrow. Super excited to start this build! Does anyone know the total height of the machine? I'm wanting to build a table similar to this but am unsure how much clearance I need for the height. I plan on getting the table built while I work on the smaller cnc assemblies.



Thank you!

 

I was going to have only the front half of the table open up. Just to make it a little easier for getting material in and out.

 

I got everything setup and did my first test cut. It seems that I am gaining steps over the course of travel on both the X and Y axis. I ran a program that should have drilled the last holes at 1146mm from the origin and it ended up at about 1150mm. The setting for $100 and $101 are the default for the 1515 profile:

$100=198.109 ; X-axis steps per millimeter
$101=198.109 ; Y-axis steps per millimeter

When using the calculator it puts the steps at 200. I tested at 200 and the DRO reads about 1132mm when I should be at 1146mm. I am using the high torque motors so I am not sure if there is something unique there. I am new to this so there has to be some simple math here I am missing.

 

Thank you!! After calibrating I am in sub-1mm off. May need to work on tweaking it a bit but MUCH better now. As it wears in I will revisit it.

Are there plans to release a double C beam Y axis plate? I am getting a decent amount of flex/deflection at the center of the Y axis. It would be easy to just add another XL carriage/C beam with a taller plate drilled for it. I know I could make one and others are doing so but it would be very simple to just have a kit as an upgrade. Basically a replica of the X axis/gantry.

 

Hi Guys, I'm running out of capacity with my 4 CNC routers while keeping up with sign orders. I don't have room to add an additional machine right now so I'm considering rebuilding my Workbee 1010 into the 1515 size machine. It looks like a simple upgrade to me as long as I'm not missing something important.

My question to all our experienced builders that have built the 1515, what do you think? I have everything in stock to make the conversion and as soon as I get the problems worked out of my "Interface" and get that machine running I can take the 1010 off-line and rebuild it.

 

To get better accuracy when I calibrate I use the nearly max distance I can on my machine. The longer the calibration distance the better the accuracy.

 

For sure. I used 1100mm but I may run through the calibration for a slightly longer travel. Another thing that made it simple is I have a precision tape and used a v bit to push the end of the tape against at the starting position. Then started the calibration process really skipping the first step because I was already at the 0 position. Then let it jog to the max distance you enter on the 2nd screen and see where the point ends up over the tape. My tape doesn’t have fractional mm but I tried to eyeball it the best I could because it matters. After calibration zeroed it again at the 0 on the tape and jogged the machine the same distance I calibrated it to to see if I was right on. The calibration wizard makes dialing in the machine pretty easy. I need to do some more calibrating but all in all I think it is close. Hopefully it holds because the transmission leaves a lot to be desired with the small lead screw and that much travel. When trying to tension the lead screw to take out the whip it is definitely not a perfect science. Others have upgraded to a ball screw and linear rails. I will be doing that as soon as feasible.

 

Don't overthink it. Just use the whole mm and disregard the fraction. On a run of 1100mm, or more, the error of a fraction is so small it's not worth talking about. If you cut would it's a mute point anyway since IT'S WOOD!
If it's metal, let's say that the error was 0.5mm. On a piece of metal the size of 110mm the cutting error will be 0.05mm or 2thou". For our kind of work, with these kind of machines it's more than just excellent precision.

 

I bought my 1515 a few months ago (October) and was just able to get around to assembling it this weekend. When I bought it I did purchase the additional parts you listed in order to do the high z mod on it, however assembled with the normal gantry just to get everything setup according to the video.

After everything is together and double checking all my screws I notice that there is a noticeable height difference between the x c-beams where they connect to the vertical extrusion on the y axis. Not really an issue as I should be able to align them better. However, that brought a few things to my attention which I wanted to get input on. I am new, so bare with me if I have overlooked anything.

Considering the possibility of an offset, I can probably design a new plate and cut it out for both sides to keep things aligned better. But then the thought of rigidity on the height has me concerned, which you mentioned why it was initially kept low profile. Since the x axis has a double c beam, it should be possible to add additional c beams and wheeled gantry plates (similar to the way the x axis is setup) for more stability, but the only way I can see to properly align them is similarly to how I am thinking about doing the double x c beams, with a double plate...or at least a way to put 2 separate plates together with proper spacing and alignment. There is also no way that I can see to attach 2 separate y c beams together without a double plate.

Is it possible you guys are working on a double c-beam plate already? If there is a way to purchase pre-made plates I would rather go that route than trying to design and make my own with currently no experience using this machine.

The next thing I noticed was in the video for the high z mod assembly. In order to cut shorter materials the entire z actuator has to be unscrewed and lowered. To me it would make sense to have adjustable fixing handles to make it easier (and less wear on hex screw heads) for adjusting the height.

Lastly, I am sure it is possible to add a 4th axis (or at least disable the y axis to control a rotary chuck for the 3rd axis) but is there maybe a guide, or know of someone who has already made that modification and have it hooked up to the black box?

 

I built the 1515 with the high z and am struggling. Getting it setup I was optimistic because when there is no load on the router everything was pretty well dialed in. I need to cut some thick material so I need the height but the amount of flex at the bit is unacceptable. I used a digital fish scale to pull on the collet. Not terribly scientific but gave me an idea of the flex. I could grab the C beams and twist them with very little force. The eccentric nuts are at their max tightness in a few places and the wheels are spinning freely. Add the wheels, Z height, and weak router mount and it is just about unusable for my purposes. I haven't even bothered tramming it yet because I know that any fix is going to require me to tear it apart. I am looking at possibly trying this:



Netechsys is building an amazing machine on here if you haven't checked out his build. What he has done will solve most of the problems.

On top of it, when I try to run any job more than 8 mins or so it throws Error 9. I've grounded my dust collection, put ferrite beads on everything, pulled all my wiring apart to try to ensure I am isolating the power wires from the motor and stop wires. Short of isolating every wire I am not sure what else to do. With the wheels being plastic it is hard to ground the machine effectively.

to

 

Thank you for the quick reply. I am just using a cheap trim router. No VFD/spindle yet. No way I am putting anything heavier than a trim router on this machine until I get the bugs worked out.

 

Thanks for that. I've been looking into what it will cost to buy the extra parts for second y axis c-beams, and the total comes to $325.64 if I am correct. That is without plates which I will have to make from scratch, and hopefully this will be sturdy enough to get those completed. I'm going to go ahead and make matching ones for the x axis beams too, so that is 6 plates in total.

That being said, I probably should have done a bit more research before buying this and just went with a smaller machine to keep me from constantly tinkering on it to dial it in.

 

I'm very new to CNC and will be purchasing the 1515. I would like to know what the bare minimum of the add-ons (4 High Torque NEMA 23 Stepper Motors, BlackBox Motion Control System, DeWALT DWP611 Router 120V, etc...) I should purchase and any options I should strongly consider. Thank you in advance.

~ Shawn

 

I've just completed the the lead 1515 high Z build and finally have it cutting. I wasn't keen on the way the plans call for the spoil boards to be mounted from underneath the machine. Doing it that way will be a major hassle when it comes to replacing the spoil boards. To allow the spoil boards to be attached from the top I put 19x19 pine rails around the edges as shown in the photos. The spoil boards are screwed to that (in deeply recessed holes). Taking them off no longer requires access to the underside of the machine. You could always face off the rails which should mean that the spoil would be nearly perfectly true (assuming they're flat to begin with).



I've drilled a grid pattern which has M8 tee nuts underneath so I can use an M8 clamping kit. The spacing of the holes is 100mm apart in the first 700x600mm, then 150mm apart for the rest.

I trammed it by facing off a small piece of MDF (300x300mm) to see how much the 25mm face off bit if not flat. The biggest issue was the Z uprights weren't perfectly square to Y. This as easy to fix. After facing off the small piece of MDF again it's now perfectly flat in the X and the Y.



The last job is to face off the entire bed. For this I'll by running the spindle at 7000rpm with feeds of 2800mm/min and a depth of cut of 0.2mm (this worked well with the test face off).

I hope this information helps someone.
Regards,
Allistar.

 

hi there
hope every one doing well
i have some questions if any one can help since its my first CNC machine
i bought 1515 and looking for recommendation like spoil board designs and thickness, clamping methods

are there any files to guide me for running the machine
or any article to follow up ?

also, what is the max feed rate for the machine?

thanks
Oun

 

hi
thanks i appreciate your kindness and help
these were perfect answers
thanks again