Converting a Sieg X1

[lensman57]

Hi to everyone,

I am an absolute beginner here so please be patient with me.

I have a basic Sieg X1 which I use manually for model engineering as a hobby. I have recently been told that I have developed osteoarthritis in my hands particularly the right one which is at times quite painfull, I find operating the wheels of the machine very painfull so I have been thinking of putting some stepper motors on the mill and let motors do the work and I could perhaps control the motion by some sort of jog control.
I would really appreicate any advice with regards to the motor type and the controller and etc.
I have been looking at some of these Chinese integrated boards and motor packages on the ebay and although they seem to be good value I feel sort of uncomfortable buying these stuff here in the Uk.
I wonder if anyone could put some advice towards this for me._________________________________________________
Many thanks.

Ali Ghazizadeh

 

[Tin Falcon]

First of all if you have not done so read the getting started in cnc thread. and maybe my x-2 conversion thread.
Mach 3 have a power feed mode that is conversational it works in more or less manual mode but the machine moves itself under power.
As far as buying motors and controls. shop around things keep changing and new products offered.
The biggest complaint I have heard about chines cnc stuff is it is over rated by the manufacturer. Just be conservative and you should be fine. In another words if a controller is rated at 12-36 volts run it at 22-24 and you should be fine.
A x-1 is a small machine you will not need a lot of power to move the table. and not a lot of speed as you only have a few inches of travel .
I like the Gecko product sold here in the USA but they may not be available or affordable in the UK IIRC a 4 axis controller is $300 and motors are $ 59 each
http://www.geckodrive.com/g540-p-39.html
UK distributor is
http://www.charter-controls.com/
Post a link of some of the options you are considering and we can see what you are looking at. .
tin

 

[lazylathe]

Hi Ali,

You can also have a read through this guys site:
http://www.hossmachine.info/

He seems to be the guru when it comes to modding these machines.
It is mainly for the X2 but he does give a lot of valuable information on the electronics side of things too.

First do a search here and read through Tin's posts, they are a wealth of info!

Andrew

 

[lensman57]

Thank you very much to both gentlemen for your replies,

I will surely do as much research that is possible with my limited knowledge of CNC.
The Gecko drives are available through a supplier in the UK but they are quite expensive.

I have already placed an order for one of the Chinese boards from HongKong, its based around a Toshiba chip TB 6560 I think, its rated at 3.5Amps max into each phase which probably means that it could probably push about 2.5Amps through.

Including a rudimentary manual controller and PP it cost me about £44.00 which is not bad for a starter package it claims that is compatible with Mach2, Mach3 and EMC, We shall see. Hopefully it will work with a set of 1.8N/M steppers that I have ordered through eBay.

Thanks again for all your help.

 

[Tin Falcon]

Sounds like you are off and running on your project. Like I said earlier the needs should be modest for an X-1.
You did not mention power supply . have you sourced that yet??

Tin

 

[John S]

Ali,

Those boards from China work but be aware they are very voltage sensitive and you must not go over 24 volts with them or get crossed wires or they are toast.

Double check all terminals before applying power, being a combined board if you fry a chip the whole board is toast.

John S.

 

[lensman57]

Thanks again for getting back to me,
Firs, here is a link for the driver board: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/250852922340?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649.
As for the power supply I have opted for the 24 volts 15amp one, and I hope that its adequate without going too far with the voltage.
I intend to connect the motors in a bipolar-series configuration mainly for the current consideration they should pull about 2Amps with a resistance of 2 ohms and 6.4mH, I believe the motors are optimally rated at 30Volts or at least that's what is on the pullout curve plot. So I am keeping my fingers crossed at the moment. The total cost so far is about £150.00 or so.
As I mentioned earlier I am really a novice at this so please let me know what you think an any advice is really greatly appreciated.

Best Regards To All,

Ali Ghazizadeh

 

[Tin Falcon]

Thanks for posting the link. It really helps when we know what you are talking about. You should be fine with that board .
it is cool they include a jog pendant.
Like johns said do your homework double triple check your wiring.
I see they include a copy of MACH3 I would expect it to be A try before you by copy and if you use it you will need to license iirc that will run you 175 to make it fully effective but if you are just doing one line commands and jogging you will be OK. . If you can handle unix EMC2 will be cheaper . Turbo CNC is DOS based and IIRC about $60 for a license the last time i looked.
Have fun
Tin

 

[lensman57]

Hello Tin,

Will do once I've got all the stuff that I ordered.

When its all done will post again.

Thanks to all.

Regards to All,

Ali

 

[Tin Falcon]

What plans do you have for mounting the motors ? You will need some sort of mount and either timing pulleys or coupler/couplings to get the motion from the motor shaft to thee lead screws.
Tin

 

[lensman57]

Hi Tin,

I have seen a couple of examples of home made aluminium mounts when I googled for X1 cnc conversion. I just have to measure the bolt distances as best as I can and mill the mounts manually. There is one example of which that seems interesting: homepage.ntlworld.com/andy.birkett/mill/index.htm.
I might follow this path but I am a little nervous about boring the original handwheel mounts for the ball bearings.

Regards,

Ali

 

[HS93]

I am in the same boat as you, and a couple of years ago I started converting my X1 I decided on the stepper with 2 to 1 gearing the main reason is to make it as compact as possible but also to allow me to use it manually, each way has been balanced and the main thing was the fitting of decent thrust bearings, this and the 4" handles made the machine a lot easier to use , a mate made a box that enabled be to use under the stepper control but there a lot of easier ways of doing it now, I have sold my mill very recently and bought a WM14 mill I am in the middle of doing the same with that mill and have just completed the milling of the Z way to belt and am doing a simple electronic board to control it. I also did some mods for someone else balanced and thrust bearings but no belts his was for CNC and works well

Peter

 

[HS93]

Hear are the non belt converthion . I have a clip on U tube showing parts of mine working.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/user/onehs93#p/u/21/vvNn0qE0KJc[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/user/onehs93#p/u/22/PNgjPquce8c[/ame]


Peter

 

[lensman57]

Hi Peter,
Your stuff is inspirational, far beyond my skill level i'am afraid.
I will diffinately take my time and try and do the best job that I can.
Many thanks to you all for all your replies, I am really honored.

 

[lensman57]

H Peter,
I am very sorry about my last post, something went wrong with the laptop and I couldn't finish the post.
My version of the X1 is the old basic one with the fixed pillar and the short Y axis. I wonder if I could adapt your design to my mill. Will you be kind enough to post the dimensions for the motor mounts if possible and I will try and adapt them to my motors. I think that they are Nema 23s.
As for the belt drive, it would be grand to see a couple of designs.

Many Thanks and Best Regards to All.

Ali

 

[HS93]

Hi Ali ,Mine was bought a short bed and I just bought the long table the Colum does not make any difference i can help you with pictures of most of the work but I have sold my machine .so will be unable to take measurements, but they are all simple to find as they are based on your stepper.

 

[lensman57]

Hi HS93,
I am sorry that I didn't reply to your post earlier.
Thank you for your kind offer of help, as a novice i could do with all the help that I can get.

So far I have got the steppers, they are 1.8 Nm Nema 23s, I have got three flexible aluminium flanges and have turned the 4 mounting bolts for the motor plate from silver steel. I intend to mount two sets of bearings ( one thrustbearing and one ordinary ball race) on either side of the cast iron bearing block of the X and Y axis.
I have not decided on the z axis implementation yet be it a coupling or gear set and belt drive.

I have posted with regards to the TB 6560 driver- controller elsewhere in the forum.
As this is just a hobby and because of my work the progress is very slow and I have also started to build Elmer's no3 engine in to the bargain so any help is greatly welcome.

Best regards,

Ali