@genmediaclub: repost @_ak_eric_ on IG Custom fabricated pin lifter for my CNC potter complete. Solid steel, cut with Dremel discs, pounded into shape with a blow torch and my anvil. I've really been enjoying pen plotting on my x-carve CNC, the only downside is the z-motion: the linear screw that lifts/ lowers the router head is "not fast". Nor does it need to be for cutting wood. But if you have thousands of up / down motions on a plot, and that z-motion takes 3 -4 seconds, it really adds up... At first I thought about buying a whole new plotter kit, but that has cost and takes up a lot of space I don't have. I thought I may be able to find a kit for a z lifter, but I found very few available. The only one that looked viable was by OpenBuilds, and they're out of business. The idea of designing my own sounded interesting. I built the design in Fusion 360 to make sure everything would fit. Servo drives the up/down down motion now, being counteracted by a spring. The GRBL gShield shield sitting on top of my Arduino that drives the CNC has an extra unused pin that can drive the spindle speed on a much fancier CNC: I figured I could hijack that to drive the servo that lifts the linear carriage up and down. I got all that working, but during prototyping, even though I knew it was sending a signal, the servo wasn't moving. Long story short: the frequency being emitted by the gShield to the spindle wasn't being listened to by the servo. Realized I could intercept that signal with another tiny Arduino nano, and emit something that the server would like: worked like a charm. However, this required a separate power supply so as not to introduce noise, so a lot more wiring was required. What's important is it works: the up/ down z-motion now takes less than half a second, probably 10x faster than the screw lifting the whole router assembly. This will open a whole new set of algorithms for me that I've been avoiding in the past just based on how long they take. Feels great when things actually work. #penplotter #plotting #cncplotter #metalworking #arduino #plotart

594

There are no more comments for this video.

To see more videos from user @genmediaclub, please go to the Tikwm homepage.