First remove the packaging crate....
I though I'd make some brief notes as I go along.
Hmm when I picked it up from arc euro trade at lunch, three people loaded it in the back of the car, now how do I get it out! First remove the packaging crate....
Then the top half....
Finally on the bench (I wish I'd tidied first)....
The key way is just a push fit the bearing now fit OK doh... Thanks Dave. I should also mention I'm using the yahoo group hf47158toCNC_Moderated as well as any other information I can find on the web. Links to follow!
I've clean the main components of the base now, a couple of observations.
The exiting nut has a crude backlash compensation mechanism, I can't remember anyone noting this. My intention is to make Delrin nuts. More on this later.
I also noticed that during manufacture there seems to have been a finishing pass over the top on the dovetails, this pass does not extend to the full depth of the Z axis base, I hope this isn't a problem.
At the moment if I insert the eccentric bolt that goes through the slot in the quill (and the corresponding plain bolt on the other side) then both of these are attempting to go into the middle of the compression spring. I suspect these should locate on top of the spring rather than in the middle of it? Does this means I need to dismantle the all spindle assembly (I shied away from this!) in order to drop the spring down?
Also the fine feed worm and pinion were completely dry with no lubrication of any sort. I guess that why it needs to be stripped and reassembled!
It seems silly to put the machine back together with the naff factory Gibs so
time for a bit of an eBay frenzy:
Teflon grease,
Stock for motor mounts,
Stock for Z Gib.
I've been unable to source bronze strip (apart from £50 for 12 foot!) so far so brass will have to do for now.
First stage, create a jib for cutting the Y and Z on the Proxxon. The X is too long to handle in the Proxxon so this needs some thought.
OK thats the jig made with a blank y-axis gib nearly ready to go!
I've flattened the brass stock with a medium diamond file finishing with figure of eights to give the grease somewhere to live.
The 200mm x 100mm 6mm Aluminium stock (from eBay) arrived today. This looks just the right size to create the bracket for the belt drive modification. I was going to get some 10mm but the 6mm seems thick enough, but this leaves me short on Aluminium for the motor mounts!
Lots of stuff arrived from eBay!
Time for some milling of the Proxxon - let the small mill improve the bigger mill!
X axis gib is now remade in brass. Note this was somewhat thicker than
1/8" so I soft soldered some brass sheet to the back. It's a pity I didn't have
some thin bronze stock, I could have soldered this to the front.
There is a
great tendency for the gibs to rotate as the gib bolts are tightened. This is
alleviated by milling a shallow blind hole parallel to the travel of the bolt
using an end mill to get a plat bottom.
Z axis gib complete, 1/8" stock OK this time, needs to be a wider piece than the X/Y axis though.
The Y axis is now the problem, this is too long to mill on the Proxxon so I've had to do it in three passes. This is not coming out as well as the other gibs. I think I will remake it once I have the X1 back in one piece.
All gibs complete and lapped. Y axis gib came out better than I originally thought.
Spare long leadscrew arrived, now I have no excuse to start on the Delrin nuts!
Teflon grease has eventually arrived.
Dimensions from
Brian Pitts anti backlash nuts have been checked against my mill.
Slight diversion, a rough drawing of the proposed belt drive.
The base plate has slotted holes, the motor mount slides back and forth in order to change gear and is locked in place by a hand wheel.
Chopped off a length of leadscrew, tapered the end, ran a mill cutter down the length and finished with a Dremel cut-off disc and now I have a tap to make the nuts! Not the most elegant thing but it works. The tap is poor at removing chips; maybe I need to go back and put a cutting edge of the trailing edge.
The start of something like Brian Pitts Delrin nuts!
I've decided to use the existing bearing block and bore them for the bearings.
The overall length needs to be shortened by about 8mm to allow room for the Lovejoy connector.
I added a couple of M6 tapped holes in the correct place on the faceplate and a couple of T-slot bolts to balance it up:
Not a lot of metal left near the edge!!!
I also skimmed the front to allow the pillars for the motor mount to sit square:
That's both Nelrin nuts and mounting blocks done.
Bit of a diversion, I now have a ER25 collet adapter for the Peatol (Taig) lathe.
Both bearing blocks done.
Time to start putting the base back together.
The solution seems to be to extend the "flute" more into the section of the tap which has a full thread. Running this through again produced the tiniest amount of Delrin swarf. The result nice smooth nuts!
Petty, the next theory was to freeze the nuts, to contract them slightly, and then run the tap though. Describing a "frozen nuts" technique would have had far better comic value!
Trial assembly to test the nuts without the full backlash compensation method.
One set of Lovejoy connectors drilled and trial filled, this gives me the length of the motor spacers.
One set of motor spacers made from nice polished steel rod from a discarded inject printer.
The start of the motor mounting plate, cut on the Proxxon (in two passes)
Of course the plate mounts on the faceplate using the same mounting points as the bearing block, making turning of the recess straightforward.
Dry run of the motor mount.
I needed to add a washer behind the thrust bearing on the leadscrew to allow the nut inside the Lovejoy connector to seat properly.
At last the x-y motor mounts are finished. 
Major diversion! Arc Euro Trade had C3 Lathes on offer. My original intention was to finish the X1 conversion and then sell the Proxxon conversion as a complete system but this deal was too good .
Well at least now I can sell the Peotol lathe as well
Back to the electronics, as I suspected the Stepmasternc board I bought last year gets rather hot at 2A per phase, time for a heat sink.
It (She?) lives!!
Well X and Y.
I've not fully put the mill thought the paces but the lashed up heat sink seems to be the answer.
I'll add a fan once the unit is boxed.
Its a long time since the last update, but we now have a boxed power supply/controller
Lets hope it doesn't overheat!
A distraction!
Some real milling. This is a 12mm wide by 12mm deep slot in a piece of cold rolled steel made with a 4-flute 12mm end mill.
The result is the basis of a quickchange toolpost holder for a friends Harrison lathe.
It took a while to cut but we got there in the end.
A simple mod to lock the quill. Just a spare thrust bearing.
Swarf guards.
The belt drive starts to become reality. Notice the dink at the front of the bottom plate.
The result of an accident with EMC2, the escape key and returning to the start of the NC file!
I could machine it out but maybe it will serve as a reminder!
Hmm... maybe the hole in the top bracket should be big enough to fit the largest motor pulley through?
This will make assembly a lot easier! Useful things these CNC machines.
Finally the spindle pulley. This was harder to turn than I thought, still I've learned a bit about cutting 'V' grooves!
The bottom disc has 60 2.5mm holes spaced 2.5mm apart (cnc'd of coarse). The intention is to use a slotted sensor and a "Hz" meter from ebay like this Frequency meter
Long time since an update a few things have been finished!
First the belt drive been completed. That ding certainly serves as a reminder!
Here is the position of the RPM sensor, salvaged from an old printer.
At last something useful! A pair of servo mounts milled from Delrin
