How Should I Machine This?

Sure, I've attached some of the cnc modifications.
I'm pretty sure the lube system doesn't work very well, but it is what it is.

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Nice installation! :encourage: Is that a NEMA 42 motor on the Z? It looks huge! How are you counterbalancing the quill to compensate for the backlash in the rack & pinion?

Some lube is better than none. More is better :)
 
Thats easy, I don't, since I only cut conventional and down ramping I don't seem to need to (or haven't run into it yet!), I do leave the plunge brake partially down to give it a little more resistance, but otherwise nothing special. My plan was, in the distant future is it appears that I can slave axis's together in mach3, I could run a breakout board output to a relay of some sort, to a solenoid and have a little pneumatic cylinder engage/disengage the axis lock whenever that axis isn't moving, but that may be over complicating things.

Thats way after tuning it in, turns out that a scribe in a 1/8" collet is pretty concentric but I cant edgefind with it to save my life, or something else is still off, the tuning continues :)
 
Also the part for today, 3 half done wheel frames for the robot, when I did the other side, again things got trapezoidal so I'll hit the meters again tonight and make sure I have that backlash set right, if not its got to be a zeroing or leadscrew wear issue.

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Here is a picture of my quill lock and the counterbalance cable connected to the quill stop. The other end of the counterbalance cable is connected to a 1.5 inch air cylinder. With the quill counterbalance, the Z will consistently hold 0.0001 (one tenth). I have not implemented the quill lock yet. I have all of the parts, but haven't been in a big hurry to get it finished.

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You mean an air spring, not an air cylinder(?) if not when/how do you pressurize it, to what?
 
Yes, air spring, I kinda misspoke there. :cower: It is 1.562, double acting, air cylinder, with air plumbed to the rod end, with a filter on the back end. The airline from the regulator is T'd to about a 3 gallon air tank to keep a large air reservoir so the pressure stays constant, rather than relying on the regulator alone. I run it about 35 PSI or more if needed for larger endmills. The 2 inch square tube housing in front of the cylinder is where the cable to cylinder connection is made. The assembly is attached to the top of the Z axis drive gear case. The cable is about half of a Yamaha Banshee brake cable.

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Oh neat, thanks for the info.
I blew a gecko320x over the weekend so no machining for me for a while :(
 
That sucks :(

Oh BTW, I keep the quill counterbalance pressurized all the time. At about 35 PSI it has about 50 lbs of up force. Hardly noticeable when operating manually, just makes a nice quill return.
 
Yeah I have no idea what caused it, I'm running 2 motors off of a 72v 20a power supply so it shouldn't have even been able to output enough power to burn up the controller, and it did it to the Y axis, while it was stationary and the X axis was slowly coming in to touch my finger (testing out a probe) I've already shot gecko an email for repair/advice on what caused this and ordered a replacement (should have a spare anyway)

Also found out my one shot lube system isn't delivering lube to all the points properly, ugh its always something isn't it
does that replace your clock spring(?) I'm also noticing a hole in your head which leads to what I assume is the gearhead. shouldn't that whole compartment be more or less full of oil?
 
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