Stepper Motor Question

Hello,hopefully someone can advise me. I have one of these machines **LINK**. The standard horizontal version,the previous owner aquired a vertical head for it which works well enough. There was a lot of slack in the X and Y directions so I've fitted new leadscrews and nuts.

The problem is I've lost the X power feed and need to make one. I suppose a windscreen wiper motor conversion will be too weak for this machine ?

Would it be possible to use a stepper motor and presumably a driver with a directional switch and speed cotroller or will I have to set up a 1 axis cnc machine ?? I have a spare laptop so could do that.

Any idea how big a motor I might need ? I wouldn't know a Ncm if I fell over one. Hope someone can help. Thanks John.

Hello John, good after noon.

Yes it's possible. Please see **LINK** .
If you need further details, please let me know.

Dias Costa

Dias, thats great just what I want. How do you control it ? How do you power it? How do I calculate the size? Do I need to gear it down as you have? I know nothing about it and have loads of questions.

Thanks for putting the pictures up. Perhaps you can point me to a forum where I can learn a bit more.John

Hello John,

Materials:
1 - step motor from ArcEuroTrade (220Ncm - 10mm shaft - hybrid stepper motor ref. 160-010-00400
1 - 3179KT - standalone / PC Unipolar stepper motor drive electronic kit from Quasar electronics **LINK**
1 - Power supply for the stepper motor (I use a regulated power supply 0-30Volts 3A ref. PS613), but as I can see, usually the stepper motor only needs a maximum of 14Volts. I think any other power supply respecting this specs will do.
1 - Power supply 12Volts DC 1000mA for the motor for the board
I think I remember the power supply should be different for the motor and for the board.
Then you only need to make the pulleys and the support for the set.
If you have more questions, please feel free to ask.

Best regards
Dias Costa

Thanks for that Dias,very helpfull. Read the driver details and I see the speed pot and direction are all with it.Will see about getting the bits together ...John

I am in the process of building an X axis driver and found that the latest 400Ncm stepper motors give a decent torque without being too large and heavy. I got mine from CNC4YOU along with a driver which uses an ac power supply (up to 60V) which makes the power supply simpler to construct as all you need is a transformer.

You can do clever things with multi stepping, rapid traversing and using the enable control on the driver to remove power from the motor when it is not driving the table, which prevents the motor from overheating. Some form of variable pulse generator is also required to operate the motor driver.

Doug

Doug, Looks interesting although the price rises a bit. Any photos ? John

Very true John, not cheap but very nice! I've reached an age where saving money is less of a priority, no point in dying rich, although I intend living for quite some time yet.

The drive is not complete yet but I will dust off the camera and see what I can show so far.

Doug

Doug,that made me laugh. I'm at the ripe old age of 62 and can't say I've had those feelings yet. One thing for sure though is that whatever I do I won't die rich . Look forwar to the photos..John

Well John I will be 65 in September so still very much a youngster. I have added some pictures to my album and as you can see there is still quite a bit to do. The trouble is I keep needing to use the milling machine for other things so progress is delayed.Any questions, just ask.

Doug

I've been thinking about trying this out too for awhile, thanks dcosta. Time to order some bits.