Vectric Customer

After 3 months I now have my new cnc machine done. Came out well I think. Its very fast and very smooth. As you can see I built a vacuum box for it. I purchased Aspire for it so will I hope make some nice stuff...Ron

Very nice machine, I like the vac box setup, did you use peg board or drill every hole?

mboydraska wrote:Very nice machine, I like the vac box setup, did you use peg board or drill every hole?

I drew up the holes on cad and it cut them out for me. 7000 plus holes. Glued pegs under it to keep from sagging and put lath stiffners on it also. Works very well...Ron

Your own design? What are the specs? http://www.vectric.com/forum/posting.ph ... =19&t=9348#

GaryR6 wrote:Your own design? What are the specs? http://www.vectric.com/forum/posting.ph ... =19&t=9348#

The table has an y width of 50 inches and the x axis is also 50 but of coarse you can put a sheet of plywood on it if you want too. All motors are 360's and are running on 48 volts with a gecko running the whole show. Rack and pinion on the x and y axis with an acme running on the z axis. This machine if turned loose can move at over 1000 inches per min. Its scary to see it move so fast. I have it slowed way down and its a very smooth quick running machine. It is pretty much my own creation as much as one can be ones own. The use of 80/20 made building it simple and strong. It has both cut 2D and Aspire installed on it. I am learning to use Aspire at this time and so far its been fun. While it could have been done faster I took about 3 months to build it. While not something you would do every day the cross member can be moved vertically to accomidate a large object such as a post or piller. I think it was worth the money and time to build it and now I have two machines I can operate. The old JGRO is doing good and still works well. Just won't be used as often. Thanks for you question...Ron

I want a big one like that but not with the computer set up in that way it looks un-ergonomic for me (I'm 6'1") I'd have a desk for the PC next to it somehow. I hope I will build something like that in the future. Right now, first, I have to get experience just setting up and using a pre-made desktop one and mach3 with a smooth stepper.
I really don't know where all you guys are getting these pc's with a 25 pin printer port on them. I see some older laptops & desktops with 9 pins but no 25 pins and many of you do not mention a smooth stepper which is making me scratch my head because you seem light years ahead of me in CNC'ing yet you all have some kind of super old PC with a 25 pin port and it still runs mach3 and gives you no problems? Is there some kind of card you can buy that will insert a 25 pin serial port on your machines and you guys just never mention it?

What are you using to pull the vacuum with? tks.

I don't understand vacuum boxes
With all those holes, when you put a smaller size workpiece on the table how do you stop the air from escaping through the unused holes?
If you need a spoilboard with clamps, what's the point of a vacuum box?

Cheers
Wolffie

Clamps = good for larger/heavier pieces.
Vacuum = good for smaller/lighter/thinner pieces so they dont fly away or get damaged when clamping

aironeous wrote: I really don't know where all you guys are getting these pc's with a 25 pin printer port on them. I see some older laptops & desktops with 9 pins but no 25 pins and many of you do not mention a smooth stepper which is making me scratch my head because you seem light years ahead of me in CNC'ing yet you all have some kind of super old PC with a 25 pin port and it still runs mach3 and gives you no problems? Is there some kind of card you can buy that will insert a 25 pin serial port on your machines and you guys just never mention it?

You can get cards to give you a parallel, 25 pin port. I fitted one to a PC I got for my Mach3 installation and it works well. I don't know your setup, but with Mach3, certain parallel port cards don't work with it, so you might have to check out any card you intend getting to make sure it will work with your PC and controller.

Jim.

JimG wrote:
.........but with Mach3, certain parallel port cards don't work with it........

Jim.

This helped me http://www.cnc4pc.com/Store/osc/product ... cts_id=203

A good thread on the parallel port for Mach 3 is here:

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index. ... 300.0.html

If you didn't feel like reading, here are 2 cards that are proven to work.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6815124083

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6815166007

Dave