Having followed www.hossmachine.info since I first got my X2 Mini Mill in 2008 I was very envious when he purchased an RF-45 Clone… Way too large for my shop, but I soon picked up when he announced the G0704, a BF-20 style Mill.
Took a while until I was in a position to buy one, but over this past summer I sold my X2 to a nice Gentleman who was going to use it for engraving serial numbers on parts he was machining on a VMC (He didnt want to tie up the VMC doing it).
I bought the Mill at the end of this past summer and it sat until I purchased the Electronics. Using Hoss’s recommendations I went with –
- KL-6050 Bipolar Stepper Motor Drivers
- KL23H2100-50-4B 570 oz-in Steppers
- KL-600-48 48V/12.5A Power Supply
- C10 Bidirectional Breakout Board (BOB)
I installed and configured Mach3 on my PC (a Dell Dual 2GHZ Celeron with 1GB RAM) and hooked up one stepper and driver to the C10 to test it.
Next step was to assemble all those parts in a suitable housing. I opted to use an inexpensive ATX Computer case (Rosewell brand from NewEgg for $24). It’s cheaper and larger than enclosures designed specifically for CNC so I have plenty of room for extra parts and boards line.
Next was a wait while I went through my options. I’d made my own motor mounts when I converted the X2 using plans I bought from Stirling Steele and I even bought the Hoss DVD with his plans but decided to go with BD Tools/ALM Design/Billy Stepper and Ballnut mounts to make the process go a little faster (plus his parts are many orders of magnitude better than anything I could make). I cannot speak highly enough of Billy – his customer service is amazing and the quality of the mounts is excellent.
The bearings and ballnut mounts billy makes call for 16mm Diameter with 5mm pitch Balslcrews for the X and Y (RM1605) and 20mm with 5mm pitch (RM2005) for the Z. I sent Chai from linearmotionbearings2008 an eBay message with the Ballscrew and Nut specifications I received with the mounts and soon received them in the mail.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGGThfsvkss
I took the screws apart to clean some dirt out and to count the balls (17 per circuit in the RM1605 and 20 per circuit in the RM2005). I was missing 1 ball from a RM1605 Nut, I emailed Chai again and he shipped me a package of several balls.
Other than the little bit of grinding grit everything else was fine and fit well into the 12mm bearings.
I’d already removed the Table and Column before when I broke it down as much as I could to carrying it into my basement so I was familiar with that and it went smoothly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHoqVccW0Ag
The Y Axis installation required some grinding of the Saddle. I tried using a drill press and end mill but it didn’t work out and resorted to an angle grinder. It looks a mess but works fine. I plan on buying a new saddle and using the CNC Mill to make oiling channels in for a one shot oiling system.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qfTgmLqWQU
The X was much easier.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBsdvBsGr2M
The Z is pretty simple, but as you can see in the video there are a lot of bolts to either tighten or loosen and no easy way to do it. The 3 bolts that help hold the head onto the Column are my least favourite part of the entire project.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY4zD-XRU6I
Now its “done” …. the rest of the work begins such as adjusting gibs, checking backlash etc etc.
Note – I switched the Lovejoy couplings out and now use Oldham style, which I bought from Amazon.com. The Lovejoys have quite a bit of play in them and introduce significant backlash, the Oldhams are more expensive (which is why I went with Lovejoy at first) – But offer much better performance.
Here you can see the Ruland Oldham on the right and the Lovejoy L-50 on the left.
Links to Amazon product pages for those (3 of the Disks, and 6 of the Hub’s for a 3 axis Machine) –
Ruland OD21/33-AT Oldham Coupling Disk, Black Acetal, Bore, 1-5/16″ or 33.3mm OD
Here are some links you may find interesting if you enjoyed post.
russtuff – Has a lot of Machining related videos and a G0704 series of videos much better than my own with excellent narration. He used the Hoss Machine plans for his, so he also gets extra credit for that.
jmillerid – Blog entry also about the Hoss plans on a G0704, his Controller has to be the best DIY I’ve seen.
Xnaron – G0704 CNC’d with the same parts as mine – some neat quadcopter stuff too.
MrBallistic31 – Another one with BD Tools mounts and a whole bunch of other machining videos.
Actually, i prefer your video more than Russtuff, but his also is great. I especially like your closed enclosure, where steppers and axis are connected with couplings, because you can easily made some tight plastic cover and sealed it completely from any outside source of contamination. Those are bit on a pricey side, but serve their purpose.
I would like to ask one thing, nobody put “after” conversion process. For example, calibrating whole system, setting induction switchers and so… what happening after mechanical parts are mounted and electrical are connected and software installed?
Thanks.
I was able to get the mounts from BD Tools for a bit less than they sell for now – Otherwise I would have been following the http://www.hossmachine.info plans (Which I have) instead like Russ did.
I’ll put limit/home switches on there eventually, but right now I don’t have much use for them. Usually just machining small parts so don’t need limits as I don’t get close to the ends of the Mills travel and just find my zero off an edge of the work piece each time. When I do add them there will be a video.
Hi, thanks for your reply.
Do you know, if it is still possible to order those mounts for that lower price?
Can you please tell something about other part of setup procedure – “after” conversion process. For example, calibrating whole system…. what happened after mechanical parts are mounted and electrical are connected and software installed?”
Thanks.
I don’t think they are available at lower prices anymore. I got them when he did an auction style listing – he does buy it now for a fixed priced now.
After you get all the motors mounted then you just go into motor tuning, enter the correct values based on your screws and microsteps (I’m not sure if I showed this) and then its just a matter of checking to make sure that’s accurate and lubricating/adjusting your ways and checking to see whats the best speed for your mill, make a few test cuts etc.
Hi. Very much appreciate you sharing your build! Very helpful to me as I’m considering doing the same thing. I really appreciate how you took time to set up each shot for an optimal camera angle. That was so valuable!
It looked to me like you shared almost the entire process, but it was hard to tell since some (nice!) editing was done (like speed ups). I’m curious if you have an estimate of how many hours it took you for the conversion? I’ve heard it takes people up to several hundred hours.
I’m totally guessing but probably about 150 hours, would be a bit less if I wasn’t filming. I’m sorry I took so long to reply, I don’t often log in to the site itself (and I’m supposed to get emails notifying me when I get a message, but they don’t seem to work).
Curious what you have for settings for the motor tuning. I have the identical setup to you, but I am finding not much info on the motor tuning. Right now I have around 8000 on X and Y with 50 IPM and 3 acc…Z I have 12,000 with 50 ipm with 1.5 acc. They numbers seem off from what I see on the net in other builds, but they almost all use the HOSS plans.
I use 2032 Steps Per, 120 IPM, 8 Acceleration on all of the Axis. The 12,000 if that’s for Steps per revolution means you have a LOT of micosteps (and Acme screws?). You could probably reduce the microstep on your controller as using more reduces the torque holding of the motors and the increase resolution more steps creates goes unused anyway. I just used the microstep that gave me less than 0.001 per step (which would be about all this mill can achieve). On mine 1/2032 = 0.00049″ per step, on yours 1/12000 = 0.000083″.
Actually I think my drivers may be different. I have the 5056D and 8070D, while I noticed you had the 6050 units. My ballscrews are the same as yours, I think I even got them from the same guy.
From my understanding, mine should be set at 1/8th microstepping….
Motors are 200 steps per, so 200 x 8 x 5.08(pitch) = 8128 is the formula I have found(though all dedicated to the hoss conversion), but Billy gave me these other numbers and it makes the units WAY off in movement and extremely slow.