I am going to buy a used X50 but have a small home wit a one car garage. I want to hang the cnc vertical, I have seen they have a kit to do that, but but my question is would it not be better to have the y axis go up an down so it would work like the screen sort of, and plus you have two steppers moving it up and down, instead of the one stepper moving the spindle up and down. Just looking for some input as I see all of them the i see the z axis moves up and down tile you change the parameters. Just is there a reason?
What you should think of, is that if your machine is on the wall and your spindle/router is on a horizontal X axis, it would be usually under the rails so manually changing tools could be more difficult. But you could also mount the Z assembly on the other side of X carriage block, so that the spindle would be on top of the X rails.
Just in case you ask, yes, you can change X and Y assignment in the Onefinity Controller settings, so that X,Y=0 remains bottom left, as well as a flipped over rail (so that stepper motor can be on the other side).
Thatās how I hung my x35. It requires more torque from the steppers to operate properly due to the heavy X rail.
A couple unexpected consequences were no longer being able to just lay something on the wasteboard to laser it and in the case of a crash (or an estop), the whole X rail will fall to the bottom, very much ruining everything. Ask me how I know.
which would raise the usual discussion about retrofitting stepper motors with brake to avoid this
But especially on the open-loop steppers on Standard Series, exchanging the stepper this way is rather easy as they are available (unlike on Elite Series, where an exact stepper replacement with its integrated closed-loop stepper driver, but with a brake, is not)
Iāve been using a wall-mounted Journeyman X50 for a few months now, in the officially suggested orientation with X-rail vertical. As someone completely new to this, I wasnāt confident enough to figure out how to change the orientation at the startā¦ but as Iāve seen mentioned elsewhere, the dust falling on the lower Y-Rail can be a bit unnerving and require special clean-up attention during longs cuts (although itās little enough now that I have dust collection working that Iām not bothered by it). Another considersation that havenāt heard mentioned is oil - I didnāt think about this when I set it up, and all of my oil ring ports face downwardā¦ so I canāt really use them (meaning lots of manual oiling).
I will also say, that now that Iām actually thinking about building an enclosure to really keep the dust at bay, Iām kind of wishing I would have just made the space to have the machine on a table to begin with - You really donāt save all that much room when you consider the space you need around the machine to work on itā¦ and as Nick saidā¦ you lose a lot of convenience when it comes to starting up quick (I now just screw everything into the wasteboardā¦ as I cannot for the life of me run a program without hitting a clamp).
that would be my sorrow too. But I have seen that many people make a cover for the rails and ball screws, even when the machine is operated horizontally. See a few examples here.
I think you could swap them so that the oil ports are on the other side.
Yes, thatās what I generally think. I cannot imagine if you use the machine more or less seriously, a vertical mounting of worksurface can be a source of joy. I think it is a solution if you really have not the room but see yourself in the urgent need to use the machine anyway.
thank you all for the suggestions and info. now a lot makes since. I am going to look into the tilting table that rockler has so I can tip up the router after use and still be able to park my car in the garage.
Interesting advice, Aiph5u. I am moving my X50 from itās table to the wall to make room for my new Elite, and wish to hang it with the X axis horizontal. My relief carves all run in the x direction, so the y steppers are only raising the X gantry one stepover increment for each pass. Iād like to upgrade the y steppers to a braking model I saw in your link, and am considering the 3.0Nm model rather than the 1.2Nm model. Iām electronically ignorant, but if the original 1.8Nm Z steppers are stronger than the 1.2Nm y steppers to begin with, wouldnāt the 3.0Nm be even stronger? Or is that overkill? Not sure why the larger one is about $22 less, but I like that savings, too.
Aiph5u
(Aiph5u (not affiliated with Onefinity))
10
Hey Justin,
what is relevant here is the current (in AmpĆØres). While a single stepper driver in the controller can supply a peak of 6 A, all stepper motors together must not exceed 10 A over several seconds. The Onefinity controller has an overcurrent protection which will give you a āMotor overloadā error in case the load is too high.
Regarding dimensioning the Y motors, think of that the weight is distributed over two motors, so that the single motor does not forcibly need to be that strong.
I would use stronger steppers if you switch to a heavy, water-cooled spindle. However regarding Z motor and normal horizontal setup, Onefinity stated that their stock motor is strong enough for a 2.2 kW water-cooled spindle. But that applied to the Z motor.
If you want to be able to maximize available room in the front of the garage, Iāve done this on a couple of my houses. I took a pair of industrial grade light curtains (typically used in automotive robotic weld cells) and mounted them on each side of the garage door rails, wired to a red LED stop light on the front wall of the garage. That way, any vehicle whether pulled straight in or backed in, etc. will trigger the light when the light curtain is unbroken. I mounted a small āflagā of sorts on the inner garage door handle to break the light beam when the garage door was down so the light wasnāt on all the time.
This all came about when my wife had a Pontiac G6 with a hood that was sloped so low that she couldnāt see the front of the car, and always tended to pull up almost to the front wall. Once that was implemented, it maximized working/walking room in the front of the garage.
I use mine mounted to the wall with a tool balancer suspended from a pipe trolley, works great. It doesnāt drop with power off and the X servo only moves it, itās not supporting the weight.
Chris
I appreciate your input. Because the Y motors will be lifting the X rail and Z assembly against gravity, Iāll be upgrading the two Y steppers to the 1.9Nm braking model, as they are rated like the existing 1.26Nm steppers, at 2.8A. Iāll need to add a 24V power supply for the brakes, but that should be the only other issue. Thanks!
