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Below are pictures of the conversion process
Click to see the X Axis Details
The above picture is my attemp to use my X3 with a 3/4 inch 4in Long end mill to mill the back side of the base flat
in order to mount the Y motor to the back of the mill. Most of the coversions that I have seen mount the Y motor to
the front. To me, that will always be in the way when setting up work on the table. I want the conversion
to be as compact as possible.
This process of cutting the back flat on the X3 was big SLOW job on the little X3. So I gave up and brough the
base into work where the guys cut it flat on a large Monarch VMC.
This picture shows the back side of the base after it was machined flat
Here the Z ball screw mounted to the original Z Nut Mount. The adaptor plate is 1" thick 6061 aluminum. This
ball screw along with the ones for X & Y were aquired from Ebay. They are 3/4" 5TPI Ground, with double
circuit ball nuts. They were a nice find!
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| Z Axis |
The Z axis mounts are fabricated from 1" 6061 plate and all cut on my CNC X3. Here is the Z almost completed, just
waiting for the motor pully. I'm using 4:1 pulley ratio with a servo motor with a 860 in/oz capability.
The Z servo motor is a Motor Power Company Penta 5M
60 Volt, 3000 RPM 860 in/oz Peak torque. I aquired three of these motors from Ebay. I need to install an
encoder on it.
I will be driving the servos with gecko 320 drives
I have on order (3) US Digital E2 500 Count encoders, I will need to turn the shaft down to .375 for the encoder.
I hope to make some nice alum covers for the encoders as well.
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| Y Axis Bearing Block |
Here is the Y Axis bearing plate, also made from 1" aluminum plate.
These bearing plates hold two angular contact bearings and are retained by the round plate plate with the 6 5mm
socket head cap screws.
The X and Y servo motor are Reliance Electro Craft 643's. I also found these on ebay. I will need to mount
encoders on these motors as well
Y Motor mount being machined
Here is the completed motor mount with motor.
Here is the back side of the casting where the Y bearing plate mounts. After machining the back the lower 1/2 inch
is only .150 thick, but then it steps up to about 1/2" thick cast iron. Plenty of beef, espcecially with the large
surface area bearing plate. It's rock solid!
Here is the front end of the Y screw to give you an idea to where it is in relation to the original screw hole.
Z Axis Slide with new bushing, this allows the slide to be tight against the Ball Nut Mount on the back side.
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| Head |
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| Z Axis w Ball Screw Visible |
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| Y Axis PreAssembly |
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| More Z Axis |
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| Y Axis Ballnut Mount |
This shows the ball nut mount fastened to the cross slide (Y).
I milled a nice 2.5 X 2.5 pocket for the mount to sit in. I didn't really need to do this, but this allows me to
use a larger foot print for the ball nut mount. Just trying to make it as rigid as I can. The machined surface
from the original screw nut was a little narrow.
Toroid power transformer that will be used as the primary power source for the controller
Here is the NEW Smooth Stepper USB controller
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