Scratch Build – In Progress Puddidium235 - 11-1-21- switch assembly and a dicey port

Thanks, guys.
Let me say up front that you really don't want to accidentally back the ball nut off the end of the screw. I thought I was safe until it started pooping tiny ball bearings. -and BOY, they don't like to go back.
-anyway...

-I made some spacers. I really don't care if this one doesn't have corners.

-I DO care if it stays stuck to the tape.

-That knockoff tape! The entire chunk of polycarb came free. The part is OK. It was nothing I couldn't finish up with a wood chisel.
I'm a little worried about the chunk of aluminum I just prepped, though. It's def going to come free.

-Here's that spacer in the motor assembly. I still lack a buttload of M5 screws.

-So I need to convert an Imperial pulley system to 8mm metric. I reamed the part out in increments in hopes it would stay centered.
You can guess where this is going, right?

- It worked on the first one, but his brother is just not right. I'm hoping it works anyway.
That's where I'm at. I also sent a set of models to Bill. I'm hoping he can make the last parts I need.
Last? I still have a dozen bits I need to make here.

 

Metal and Plex! i just had a champagne moment!

 

Who builds a tool to build a build is a true builder.

 

Thanks.
@ Def - Acetal and polycarb, actually. I haven't touched plexi in a while. I'm having withdrawals.
@Flux - I was told they were procrastinators.

 

-I managed to get one and a half more parts made, then disaster struck. This is an end cap for the open end of the Z screw. I don't want to re-pack one of those ever again.

-The disaster? Well, right in the middle of a part, the cutting stopped. I had a signal/reset error, no hiss coming from the motors...I did the classic try of turning it off and on again, but she's stone dead. No power at all. At least the last TWO failures had signs of life in the motors.
-Anyway, I yanked her out and disconnected from Hypnotoad's loop.

-There's no visual indications of a problem. The fuse is even intact.
SO... any ideas where to start? I'm a little too stressed to think about it right now.

 

Follow the power. Start at the source and keep going until to can't find any power (when you'd expect there to be power).

 

Oh Dear god! i always wondered what happened to Orac 3 !

 

@Dr. Coin - You missed the post about my multimeter dying of old age.
Orac didn't have 3 foot hoses running around outside the case.

 

Thank you very much for the invitation . Best wishes.
PS: How are you? I am from France

 

Hmm I must have missed that.
Okay if you have a spare lamp, and a incandescent light bulb you can build a voltage present tester. Cut the plug, split the cord into two and strip 1/4" of the end of the cord. Does it make the lamp glow?

 

@Dr. Coin - Sorry man. I was a little frayed the other day. I got some sleep and had a clear head to work on it.
The first thing I did was wire up the old controller. I remember it still had life, it was just screwing up a lot. =No life.
I dug out one of those two wires and a lightbulb circuit testers and tried the transformer. =Life.
I tried it on that capacitor pack. =Life.
At that point I was a little confused why the old unit didn't work, so I tried it again. =LIFE?
So, really confused, I wired up the current controller, AND IT'S LIVE AGAIN. Is it Easter?
wtf? I'll see if I can stuff everything back under the mill and get it working again later. I have no clue what happened. Nothing disconnected. My only guess is that an 80 degree ambient temp is slowly killing it, even though I have it watercooled.
I gotta dig up a ton of thermal paste.

 

No worries. Trouble shooting intermittent issues is the worse. Just when you think you are understanding the issue it does some unexpected and works again.

Temperature is a leading cause for electrolytic capacitor failure. At 80 that won't be a slow death. I cannot tell from the photo how those two capacitors are wired into the circuit so I am not sure if a cap failure could block voltage.

Edit.
Wait, your American so when you said 80 you mean 80°F i.e. 27°C, which is a slow death, or do mean 80°C?

 

Yeah, 80°F. I'm thinking I'll send my old unit back to the maker and see if it's fixable. If it is, I'll have a backup for when this one goes out.

 

-Hey, nice editing job, Cheaps. Anyway, I had to tear everything up, so of course I got an air pocket in the pump. It was about time I did something about that. All I did to install in the cabinet was tip everything on it's side, so this was bound to happen. You can (barely) see the pump's pink hose clamps in the hard drive bay with the feed line below it. I jammed the pump against the bottom of the case with packing foam and routed the hoses higher. I also disconnected the reservoir and hung it from the top of the mill cabinet. [/ramble]

-Everything seems to be fine again. I have no clue what happened. Here I'm cutting a 2" 'luminum angle.

-*Squint* Great photography, Cheaps. This is that angle in it's role in the Z axis motor assembly.

-I got SO oily doing these. This is the plate the spindle mounts to. Many holes, much holeness.

-.015" model tolerance was perhaps too tight. Maybe I just didn't care when I drew this? Check out that gruesome single-pass edge on my plate. -Yeah, I probably didn't care.

-I knew if it was a problem I could lop off the sides of the ballscrew mount, so I did. The whole time I was milling with a dull bit, and finishing with a dull fly cutter, I was thinking, "I have a belt sander. It would be faster."
-But it is heavy... Man, this lockdown is making me lazy.

-Nice. but is it possible I moved the parts .015" in the wrong direction? Knowing me, yes.

 

Cool making your own CNC How much is it going to cost to build?

 

No insights on the mystery controller death? Hope it stays a fluke event.

Depends on how many mistakes Cheaps makes that he cannot fix on the fly.

 

@riekmaharg2 - So far, it's under $600, but I just spent $40 on screws. I'm using a lot of scrap and calling in a favor from @mnpctech for milling the big parts.
@Dr. Coin - TRUE. The on/off way I'm working on this leaves a lot of room for forgetting things.
The mill is running fine, and it will probably stay a mystery. That was bizarre.

 

-Speaking of mistakes; I drew holes for m5 tap and copy/pasted them all over the model. I also forgot to change the ones that needed to be through holes. Here I'm setting the part back up to cut. I have a tiny notch near the corner I use to align and zero to. The alignment bit is a Dremel bit that comes to a nice stabby point.

-The X- rail half mounts to this 80-20. If tightened, it could potentially lean towards the bolts. I made these T-slots that sit flush with the outside for that.

-Other mistakes may have been made. -These are brackets to put the frame together. I drew them on the fly instead of in the model. It's an easy fix...

-The first one came out pretty awful. I also didn't flip the model properly for the second side. I already had these made when Dr.Coin commented on my mistake-making skills.

-This is one of the reasons for a bigger mill. I have the vise very close to the Z axis rail here. I had to hang this part way off one side of the vice to make these cuts.

-T-slot access

-I started fitting the Z axis parts, and I can tell this is not going to be fun to fit together already.

-That's most of the Z. I'm still short a big plate that all this attaches to. I noticed the M5 screw holes on the rails are too small. I was going to drill them out, but my shiny new 5mm Chinese bit was exactly the same size, 4.8mm. If I was going to have to drill them out anyway, I could have saved some money and used 10-24 screws.

 

So far I only have a ugly looking bracket. The tolerances on the bearings is troubling, though.