Re: low cost drivers

> Cut my first part on 1-1-2000.
> Hey, it was New Year's and a new millennium,

Seein's how we all gotta get the math straight, you beat the
Millennium by a whole year !

Basically as I see and have experienced, what you have is this hobby
is all a big kit see...

but none of the assemblies are from the same manufacturer see....

You need a PC, keyboard, Monitor, mouse, software, ... lemme see that
could easily cost $500.00, if you bought all the pieces chips,
resistors, made your own mother board... , you could easily save a
few dollars. maybe $50? $1,000 ?? Where is the best place to spend
your time ?

Linear rails and bearings, or home built bearings and steel rail or
drill rod ??? there is easily a $500 difference or LOT's more.

Steppers, salvage, e-bay, used, new-old stock, new.... huge savings
for the patient. could save $300 by being alert.

stepper drivers, new Gecko's $150? Model 1 Gecko's and API run about
half that, and low amp ones about $150/3. home brew, $50 in parts
(about) savings, between $100 and $400 depending how much you time
you want to spend.

Power supplies, Scavenged PC to new kits, spread from zero to about
$200. depending on your resourcefulness and patience you can save
$200.00 without spending much time, but you will still need to
assemble the parts into a box of some sort.

So to sort this out, you have to be some sort of machinest to build
the structure, an electrician to wire it, an engineer to design it so
it will actually be structurally sound, an electronics wizard to get
these dis-related parts to talk to each other. and a metallurgist to
know what parts cut at what speeds.

As a hobby it is all fun to do every part. In the end, what do you
want to have the greatest knowledge with ? (grammar was not my strong
point)(op's IS not)

You will spend excessive time building the structure working/learning
the software,

in the end, do you want to be a chip fly'in, part making, floor
sweep'in guru ? (yeah all those chips need to get swept up)

or do you want to know you were able to save $100 and spend a month
building your own electronics ?

If you lay out all the work involved, you would be foolish not to
just buy an FULLY functional Bridgeport or plasma table or router.

The fastest ends to the project is easy, just throw money at it.

If you build all the stuff you HAVE TO, machine, PC, software, and
along the way pick up the specialty items, steppers, power supply,
etc, and when it is all ready to run, but you find you can either
spend another month assembling some electronics OR buy a kit, OR
fully operational drives, you will find the 'cheap' ones are the ones
that get you cutting parts the fastest.

My $0.02


Dave

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@y..., "alenz2002" <alenz@b...> wrote:
> DASH,
> An excellent post. It's about time that someone pointed out that
> the emperor isn't wearing any clothes. You described my
> experience
> almost to the letter. But before we scare off the next wave of
> newcomers, I would like to address your comments; there is a light
at
> the end of the tunnel!
> First, I had a Sherline mill, knew nothing about CNC. Joined
> Bill's
> list early on. Read, read, read,…. Got Dan's 2Amp kit,
> Sherline's
> mounts and steppers, CncPro. All from recommendations from this
list.
> Had a 133MHZ PC, and an old PC power supply. Used half-step and
> wired the motors half winding. Cut my first part on 1-1-2000.
>
> > I recently put together a 2A kit. First let me say that it is
very
> well
> > done and works well.
>
> Agree 100%.
>
> > I keep hearing people trivialize the amount of time that it takes
> to
> > put together -- don't be fooled: there are a lot of parts, the
pins
> > are close together, and unless you do this sort of thing for a
> > living, it can take some time to put together right.
>
> Right on. I hate to admit how long it took me. Crap, I didn't know
> where pin xx on the DB25 was, I didn't even know what a DB25 WAS!
> But, even tho the instructions were a bit terse, it could be worked
> out, and Dan was always there to help.
>
> > One MINOR nit is that the instructions in the kit only help you
put
> > it together (just look at how many posts there on this board
about
> > power supplies, wiring motors, etc). This took me some
> > additional time, once again because I was trying to save money,
> > when I wired up my "salvage" motors. Even using the
> > "suggested" test software took some time to configure properly.
>
> Right again. Got help from this list, found a booklet at Radio
> Shack on Power Supplies, etc. All part of the learning process.
> But, be warned, if you are as slow as me, it will take some work.
>
> > Finally, this is no speed deamon. I can only get about 1000
> > steps / second before I start loosing steps. This translates to
a
> > little over 7 IPM of motion.
>
> Almost exactly, what I got. BUT I have to confess. This was all
> hay wired together on the kitchen table. Now no one in his right
> mind would admit to this, but there were jumpers, 4-conductor wire
> from the kid's train set, (22, maybe 24 or 26 gauge?) powering the
> steppers, alligator clips and thankfully I don't remember what else.
> Hey, it was New Year's and a new millennium, and give me a break.
> But, the good news. Installed proper cables, replaced the crappy
> PC power supply, (which actually delivered about 9VDC under load)
> with a 36VDC 10 amp one and now get 8000 steps/in. I KID YOU NOT!
> That's 1200 RPM and 60 in/min! Way more than you want on a Sherline.
> Like Randy, I set the max at 20 or 30. More than that and the lead-
> screws start to vibrate.
>
> > My conclusion: unless you are REALLY hard on cash, and are
> > not REALLY sure this CNC stuff is for you, go for the assembled
> > stuff. This goes double if you aren't that slick with a
soldering
> > iron.
>
> DASH, I understand your conclusion, (been there, done that) but I
> would not discourage newcomers from following in our footsteps. You
> will save lots of money, learn a lot, have a bunch of fun, and end
up
> with a first class machine. As for soldering, get a soldering
> workstation, and adjust the heat just so that it doesn't 'burn'
> (oxidize) the tip. Get some small solder, .020 or .031 is about
> right for this project, and you will solder like a pro in no time.
> And ask anyone what it is like to watch that first part being cut!!
> Almost better than ……oops that's another story..
>
> My 2cents
> al