My Masterpiece (3 x 1,5 Meter)

[Retro]

Hello,
i was long a lurker here around and now i'm presenting you my planned masterpiece.
I'm a 21 year old (nearly) masters metal constructor from bavaria, germany and my masterpiece shall be an CNC Plasmacutter.

The cutting area is roughly a 10 by 5. In the european area there are 3 typical sheet sizes. They are called Kleinformat (1000x2000mm), Mittelformat (1250x2500mm) and Großformat (1500x3000mm). And my machine is working with the big sheets.

Its driven directly by Closed-Loop Steppers with 12 Nm and controlled by Mach4. Hereby i got some questions: What breakout board can you recommend? And do i need a Smooth Stepper?

I'd like to read your opinions to that thing.
The big block on the side is the Plasmacutter. I will go with the stamos 125 cnc.

[Retro]

Hello,

after a while i should show you the progress i made the last month:

1642008023145.jpg

I'd like to show you the first cuts - but it doesn't cut. Not really actually. I got big problems with interferences between the Plasmacutter and the laptop. The programm starts the arc and sometimes it works, then the next start (ich got Stamos 125 CNC with PilotArc) the program says "no controller found" or something like that. I tried to earth everything, but it made it worse - the steppers stopped moving so i disconnected them from the ground. So i'm still here with the problem, that the cutter makes. Without it, everything moves smoothly and fine - then i turn that thing on and the controller says goodbye. No monetary loss, i just reconnect it to the laptop and here i go again.
Any suggestings?

[acourtjester]

First thing I try is get a desktop computer to replace the laptop, just as a test only. Is you plasma cutter a HV start or Blowback start, if HV you may have a noise problem. Personally I do not like having the Plasma cable in with the motor/signal cables. I use a boom for the Plasma cable on the tables I have built. Great looking table you built

4X8 table for sale (1).JPG

[weldguy]

Nicely done! Looks fantastic so far, will follow your build.

[Retro]

The Boom could be usefull, but for the presentation next week, i keep it within the cable track.

Yeah, that thing with the desktop computer i already read that in a germany forum about CNC. And its said that the stamos makes the most terrible HV-Noise. I "feel" it, when it comes to use on the cutter. Then it shuts down the board.

[adbuch]

Hello,

after a while i should show you the progress i made the last month:
1642008023145.jpg

I'd like to show you the first cuts - but it doesn't cut. Not really actually. I got big problems with interferences between the Plasmacutter and the laptop. The programm starts the arc and sometimes it works, then the next start (ich got Stamos 125 CNC with PilotArc) the program says "no controller found" or something like that. I tried to earth everything, but it made it worse - the steppers stopped moving so i disconnected them from the ground. So i'm still here with the problem, that the cutter makes. Without it, everything moves smoothly and fine - then i turn that thing on and the controller says goodbye. No monetary loss, i just reconnect it to the laptop and here i go again.
Any suggestings?

This is a nice looking build! I will look forward to seeing it in action.
David

[East German]

Good luck
I had already written the rest in the German CNC corner.

Peter

[Retro]

Ach Grobblech ist auch hier! Ich versuche jetzt wirklich alles, dass ich zumindest nach der Meisterprüfung schneiden kann.

[SRdesign]

Looks very nice! Hopefully you get your issues sorted out soon and you are up and running. What thickness gantry side plates did you end up going with? Also what size linear rail did you install?

[Retro]

I bought a 20mm Plate of Aluminium and used 20 mm THK-Linearrails which i got extremly cheap.
When its back tomorrow i'll take some more pics bevor its painted in RAL5010 (In german its called "Enzianblau"). I still try to sell that Stamos thing, but no one wants to buy it.

[adbuch]

I bought a 20mm Plate of Aluminium and used 20 mm THK-Linearrails which i got extremly cheap.
When its back tomorrow i'll take some more pics bevor its painted in RAL5010 (In german its called "Enzianblau"). I still try to sell that Stamos thing, but no one wants to buy it.

Thanks for the update! Love to see more pictures of your progress.
David

[Retro]

Update is wanted? OK, here we go!

1643389082797.jpg

1643389082787.jpg

Its back from the examination! I'll paint it the following days and then assemble everything together and get everything up to level.

Thats where it will go, the final place:

1643389082787.jpg

[acourtjester]

Very nice someone is very serious about DIY hobbies.

[adbuch]

Looking good! That is going to be one heck of a table once you get it up and running.
David

[Retro]

Ok guys, i got a serious problem! I painted it and now i wanted to calibrate the steps. 100 mm, perfect adjusted. I ran it dry without a gcode back and fourth and it looses steps. No clue why. Where should i look for the problem?
And the Polabs THC got the E-1 error and the support isnt helping me.

[adbuch]

Check for slop in the gears/belts and/or binding in the motion when moved by hand.
David

[weldguy]

If what David mentions above checks out and all is smooth it could be that your trying to accelerate too quickly and loosing steps there. Does it lose steps at slow travel speeds also?

[Retro]

I run it at 5 m/s. Accleration... no idea.
The gear is direct from Stepper to the Rack and Pinion bar. I got all 3 steppers as 12 Nm. No slop.

[weldguy]

OK, so have you tried it at slower speeds to see if it loses steps?

What speed was it at when you noticed the lost steps initially?

This info will help to narrow down your issue.

[Retro]

I only tried 5000mm/s. I ran it already with 20000mm/s, no bigger problems.

[adbuch]

Speed and acceleration are two different things. Try reducing your settings for stepper motor acceleration. I know that when I built my first and only diy table the motors would miss steps if I set the acceleration too high.
David

[weldguy]

5000mm/s seems extremely fast! Why do you need that speed?

[Retro]

Because of the speed tables from Hypertherm.

I got two newer problems:
1st: The Z-Axis is moving by itself. Its on, of course, but theres no moving signal (at least there shouldn't). But this axis is moving downwards so i crash into the metal.
2nd: The Linearbearing from THK is broken. Completly ripped apart. I think the gap between two rails is too wide. Tomorrow i try to replace both bearings. How can i line up both rails perfectly? I tried it to clamp a rail over the gap and then screw it down but it didnt seem to work.

That thing costs me my last nerves. At least i passed; i'm a masters metal constructor! But only 60 Points from 100 - two weeks work and many more in CAD for only 60 points...

[weldguy]

Because of the speed tables from Hypertherm.

OK, but Hypertherm charts are in mm/min not mm/s which is what you specified in your post above. Are you at 5000mm/s or 5000mm/min?

[Retro]

Did i wrote seconds? I meant min of course! That would be crazy fast.