Monthly Archives: August 2010

CNC Build, Day 18 – First Sawdust!

Mellow greetings from my new robot friend. The “spare” Z axis motor arrived today. A bit of solder and I was ready to test it out. It took a little bit of time to get the hang of the basis … Continue reading

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CNC Build, Day 17 – homefield advantage

I got the CNC machine unpacked and put back together today. I had in my mind that this is one of the last times I am going to be doing this, so I was careful to make sure that the … Continue reading

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CNC Build, Day 16 – on the road again

Keling has agreed to replace my faulty stepper motor; I just have to send it back with a copy of the invoice. Gecko has agreed to replace my faulty motor controller (I confirmed that it is just the single axis, … Continue reading

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CNC Build, Day 15 – first major roadblock

I am pretty sure that I have a blown motor. I did all the troubleshooting that I could, and the failure follows the motor. Also, while trying to diagnose the problem, I am pretty sure that I blew a motor … Continue reading

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CNC Build, Day 14 – Troubleshooting begins

I only got a small session on the CNC machine today. When I left it, both X and Y axes had locked up. I have several suspects, not the least of them being non-linearity of the various bearings and holes, … Continue reading

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CNC Build, Day 13, part 2 – First sawdust

I got a chance to install the control software (Mach3) and try out the machine tonight. It went about as well as I expected. I got all 3 axes to jog, but I need to tune the step size, because … Continue reading

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CNC Build, Day 13 – Finished!

I came to the machine today knowing that I just had a few last pieces to complete before the machine was done. I drilled the Z-axis motor mounts (no measuring required — I just taped them to an already-complete motor … Continue reading

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CNC Build Day 12 – Final cuts

I borrowed a mouse from my father-in-law, and worked on cleaning up the CNC PC. It didn’t really go all that well, but I do have a working mouse. I also checked the third critical measurement again, and cut the … Continue reading

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CNC Build, Day 11 – back in the saddle

I got a good solid evening in today. I decided to drill the holes to attach the Y-axis rail, because it was bothering me. That was pretty easy, although I busted a 1/8″ drill bit. Probably needed a new one … Continue reading

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CNC Build, Day 10 – Things you can get done when you can’t get anything done

I spent the past couple of days driving up to WA for summer vacation. I packed the CNC machine in the trailer; it takes up a little less room than a telescope imaging rig. Everything seems to have made it … Continue reading

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