Hi All,
My first post so go gently on me. I recently finished my first router. The build log is on cnc zone, but having got into it a bit I thought I might put a post here as it still amazes me how cheap Mach is for what you get! Don't know if Art uses the forum much but he helped me out with a couple of minor problems which means I can now run my machine (with steppers) at the max of 13.5m/min with directly driven ballscrews. I posted a vid on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/v/xlGu51uqNgQIt's not running flat out, barely half the speed I can get out of it, at higher speeds I found Quantum better but I don't have the need to run that fast. Took a while to build and cost about £1800. Ebay was invaluable, the ballscrews (10mm pitch x and y, 5mm pitch z) and support bearings I bought new. The frame is all steel box section, with cast steel epoxy joint faces, bolted and pined. It's very solid and way more accurate than if I had tried to weld the joints, also means I can dismantle it if I ever need to move the workshop (I hope not). The Z axis is all aluminium plate and was machined manually by rigging up a temporary fixed z axis and using the fine height adjuster on the router. Motors are 640 Oz in Rexstep and they are just great hardly get hot just nice and warm, they're rated at 2.3V 5.5A, the supply I built runs them at 60V, 5.5A which is probably partly why I can get good speeds. I'm using Gecko 201's on all axis and a Bob Campbell breakout board.
Hope you like it!
Haydn