Upgraded 3018 Pro using MGN15H Linear Rails and a 500w Spindle

yes, that is true, struggling with being an engineer I sometimes forget the lowest common denominator is"Joe Public" who quite rightly is not expected to have a clue or as you say is just plain stupid and that of course is why these regulations are there.

Spain has changed dramatically since I bought my family here in 2000 when the rules were incredibly lax and we had people dying on a regular basis from unqualified "plumbers" who used to install gas boilers designed to be installed outside on a balcony or similar actually fitting these in a closed kitchen or electricians who when a client just needed a few more amps on a fuse board would then put in a much larger MCB, but not change the cables from the meter to that fuse resulting in numerous fires.

Its better now....We just have left the Marijuana growers tapping into the cables prior to the smart meter and running in new 3 phase ring mains around in a rented house but instead of living there they are growing at least 500 plants per house here !! 3 to 4 crops per year. Its the only way they can support the air conditioners, fume extraction and lighting, its amazing how good they are at installing these so i guess they have a fully paid up electricians somewhere in their books!!

I get called sometimes to go and make these safe for the Police after the property has been raided.... Its legal to grow 3 plants per adult per house here as long as its not on show from the front of the house, however 500 plants and tapping into the electric network for some reason is considered just not good form by the authorities. Its quite amusing sometimes to go around the back of say a block of apartments and check out the rear balconies!! Nice gardens....light

Some video of the latest one here and on my channel.

 

It is but it is wired up correctly, the guy has split and balanced the phases, used timers and relays to control pumps for watering and the aircon and even used fast circuit breakers. Its looks a total mess as the police trashed the place getting everything out early that morning and then about 8 am they sent in their clean up team to remove any valuable kit that could be used on another site....They actually caused more damage than the weed grower did ripping it all out with angle grinders, they just didn't care at all...€25k plus damage the insurers are having to pay to put it right....

 

Mate, thanks so much for all your work here.
Not just the design, physical work and time, but making the effort to post it all here.

Due to your inspo I'm going down a similar route with my poor old flogged out 3018.
I say 'similar' because I ran off half-cocked and mistakenly ordered HGR20 rails instead of the 12's you used.
Oopsey lol, but I'm going to make it work with just a single carriage per rail.
$110 for two sets of rails from Aus seller feels like a steal! Plus I'll have 4 spare carriages hehe.
It's going to go from a Sloppy Joe that's done a lot of work, to a real stiffy in one big step
Fingers crossed my design below actually works out
The blue plates will likely be in aluminium but will ultimately be in steel.

The Z Axis shown there represents the unit you eventually went with.
The ballscrew and rails one.

Cheers!

 

At this stage how would you rate the initial '500W spindle upgrade'?
Without the nice bargain you got on the router, would you have been happy to stick with the 500W spindle?

Cheers and thanks again

 

Oh, I see Excellent heads-up, thanks again

 

Indeed

 

Hey there,

With the extra mass of the your router, plus what seems a little more rolling resistance from these rails, have you noticed the Nema17 motors struggling at all?
I hope not as I'm betting they don't, or don't by much.

My own plan, if necessary, is merely to upgrade my little Nema17s to ones with a little more torque.
Anything to avoid the jump up to the higher power req. of Nema23s, anything to stay with my current electronics...

My next planned machine, a half-plywood sheet sized router, will be tested with pairs of Nema17s per ballscrew to see if it too can use them.
Probably not of course, but there's only one way to find out

Have fun
Loggy

 

Nice, super helpful, thanks a million

 

OMG it's beautiful!

 

Loving your work and I appreciate that you're doing it in a pretty tight-looking space, as I am also.

Being an engine builder, so I've done milling, I've been more interested in exploring laser cutting than milling so far with my 3018.
That's under my belt nowadays, so it's time to get back to making chips as well as smoke
In four years it's paid for itself in engraved tags and laser cut/etched stuff for our market stall, time for some performance mods and to step up the old product-line.

I'll try and be a good boy and post my progress here, as a warning to others lol

 

After 15y doing engines I was done*, not good for the health... so I trained in IT... 15y later I couldn't work out which was worse for my health lol.
Now I work with dogs, but to make sure I'm gonna go crazy again, I also cook/cater.
What an idiot lol.

*Lately back in the trade 1 day a week/fortnight, at a reasonably unterrible workshop, that specialises in resto-work. Bearable

 

Hearing you.

That sounds like a good prospect. I hope they live up to your expectations

BTW the mount-plate you mentioned earlier, assuming you meant the Z Axis one, I'm a bit leery about how it's going to interface with the drive nut.
This is mostly because I haven't modeled that part yet.. so the first one of us to get there should report if there be any dragons
It's also because it looks like I've got some part interference:
(looking through the 22mm X-Axis bearing and motor holes, where the screw and nut are yet to be modeled)

 

No but I came close to taking the plunge recently.

I do have access to one but it's currently down awaiting a fix.
It was the original plan tho.
And I want to try to make them strong enough for long enough to carefully mill aluminium replacements.
I really just want to be able to tell ppl that my robot built itself

Best oc will be to do all three plates in 3mm steel (maybe angle steel for the Y axis) at work.
First tho, I need to get my engine rebuild done and out of there (currently only at 20%), before I bring in any new projects to play with...

Meanwhile it's forced me to learn to be a better 3D modeller.

 

Music to my ears