Tom

After reviewing your photos in more detail I have a few questions.

1) Did you do away with the holddowns for the carriages?

2) What is the pitch of the ballscrew on your Z?

3) From the photos it looks like the belt drive on your Z is a 1:1 ratio, is that correct?

4) How do you like the Keling Steppers?

Sam

Sam,

1) With all the extra weight from the angle iron, new z axis and larger motors, and  except for lowering the z into the spoil board I have not seen a need for the hold downs. Even though I do plan to do something in that area in the near future.

2) The ballscrew I got off of ebay came with no documentation, I just hooked it up and it worked. There are 5 threads per inch and I don't know how to determine pitch, but it takes a little over 4000 steps per unit in Mach3.

3) And yes it is 1:1 ratio belt drive

4) The quality and price of the steppers is excellent, but in my case if I had to do it again lacking gearboxes, for a little more money purchase a geared motor.

5) Yes the 1 1/2 inch angle iron stiffen the frame alot and I was able to use the original wheels over.

The whole conversion process took about four days to complete, as I also need my machine up and running quickly.

I basically did only as mush as I had to get the increase performance from my Ascension upgrade, this was just a learning process.

By the way thank you for your great pictures, I am in the process of designing my next machine and just might play with that option.

Again anyway I can help just ask, if you want to talk one on one send me your phone # (I have one of those local call anywhere lines) and we can talk.

Tom