Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Well, Actual progress

I finally have gotten materials and tools to the point where I can start doing some building. This is the lead screw for my Z-Axis. It is 1/2-20 Acme rod. I turned one end down to 8mm and threaded it to hold two bearings and a nut to hold them on. I also made the anti-backlash nut for it. It is made out of Delrin and is 3/4 in externally with a lip that will be clamped down to take up the backlash. It is going to be much like the system that they use for Sherline mills. I was tuning one up at work and liked the simplicity of the system. The leadscrew is about 18 in overall. I want to make a wide stance to help keep it steady.

The other end is turned down to 8mm to hold one bearing and the remainder is cut down to 1/4 in for the flexible coupling for the stepper.

In other news, I have all the electronics working. I have 1 nm stepper motors for each axis and two ways I can run it. Either with a parallel port controller or I also have my grblShield with the g-code interpreter already loaded. My next phase will be to make the Z-Axis unit and linear bearings.

See, and you thought I had given up.

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