Small Milling Table CNC Conversion a Worthy Endeavor..?

[RonGinger]

Gekos are very good, but dont rule out the Leadshine drives form keling- now Automation Technologies. They are made in China, but they are fine drives. You might also have look at the version with the encoder feedback. That is something Geko talked about for years but never delivered.

On the question of manual operation on a CNC machine, you do things like touch off with a jog function. The Mach3 software will let you jog in increments as small as .0001. So you jog close with faster moves, then when you get close switch to the small increments. The jog moves are made wwith the cursor keys on the keyboard, or keys on a pendant. There have been hundreds of pendant designs, just browse around the machsupport.com forum.

 

[Tin Falcon]

The only limitation I see in the G-540 system is the power limits and therefore the motor size. that being 50 volts and the 3.5 amps per motor. .
But this was designed and built for the hobby market ant the mini lathes and mills of the world. And a 100 watts per axis will move a 40 lb objects at an impressive max feed rate.

Like I said you need to decide what performance you need or want and calculate the weight of the mill table and estimated heaviest object you are likely to machine on it . Then go to the gecko site find the formulas and plug and chug.

THE WEIGHT OF THE HEAVIEST OBJECT BEING MOVED: This will typically be your gantry and, for this example, we will use a gantry with the weight of 40 pounds.
INCHES PER MINUTE DESIRED: This is a number that will make you deliriously happy with the performance of your machine and, for this example we will use 1000 IPM.
Now multiply IPM and pounds together and divide that number by the normalizing constant of 531. The answer will be the total number of watts needed for your machine. Below is the formula in basic form:

(Heaviest object * IPM) / 531 = Watts required

And solved for the numbers above:

(40 * 1000) / 531 = 75.329W

Soo a 120 * 333 /531= 75.25 watts.

So you should be able to move a 120 lb (estimated ) mill table at somthing like 5.5 inches per second. And a max table travel of 18 7/8 inches . so at that rate you can move the table in a little over 3 seconds.
http://www.geckodrive.com/support/choosing-a-drive.html
But please look at ALL the information and measure the torque you need.
As much as I like my g- 540 I have it is on a mini mill . You need to be happy with the results of your choices. And I have no affiliation with gecko. Buying from them puts no cash in my pocket. I am just trying to encourage you and others to consider american made first.The last thing I want is for you to spend hard earned money and be disappointed with the results.


Tin

 

[Tin Falcon]

encoder feedback.

sounds like a nice feature.
Tin

 

[aonemarine]

Ron, is the kelling 8056-d driver the leadshine m series??

Looks like I answered it myself..
http://www.leadshine.com/productdet...roducttype=stepper-drives&series=M&model=M550
http://www.automationtechnologiesin...stepper-driver-kl-8056d-heat-sink-is-included

 

[JAndrew]

On the question of manual operation on a CNC machine, you do things like touch off with a jog function. The Mach3 software will let you jog in increments as small as .0001. So you jog close with faster moves, then when you get close switch to the small increments. The jog moves are made wwith the cursor keys on the keyboard, or keys on a pendant. There have been hundreds of pendant designs, just browse around the machsupport.com forum.

Mr. Ginger,

Thank you for that! That was unclear to me.

-J.Andrew

 

[aonemarine]

Well I did it, I ordered the g0704 and the kelling 570 oz stepper kit with digital drivers. Waiting on the cnc conversion kit to be available, im on the waiting list I have watched every video by hossmachine on youtube and feel this mill has alot of potential and should do what I want it to.
Im still up in the air about what cam software, I know alot of people like cambam and may go that route just to get up and running but am really looking for something that can handle a 4th axis. Most of my cam work will be from importing 3d stl files. Any ideas?