CNC Mill Conversion Part 5 - Assembling and Testing the Y-Axis

It's ALIVE! and running on Solar energy.
The ODrive system along with the Brushless DC Motor (BLDC) is very accurate, fast and has so much more torque than required to mill anything this machine can take.
This video covers the following: -
* Manually milling some aluminium features on each part.
* Assembling the drive unit (alongside CAD).
* Testing the ODrive at different speeds
* Testing the accuracy
The drive system uses 5M HTD (Heavy Duty Timing Belts and Pulleys) at 15mm Width to reduce the BLDC drive to 4:1, so that current can be reduced by a factor of 4 for each axis, allowing it to run well off small Lead Acid batteries.
The batteries are charged using a 50W Monocrystalline Solar Panel, giving around 250 to 300Wh of charge a day, this should be enough to run the mill (when it's complete) for around an hour (may need an upgrade).
The milling machine is an Axminster Sieg X1.
Once complete, I will share all the files (CAD, Arduino Sketch, G-Code, etc) on my website www.dev255.uk so that you can build one too. Plus I will include all the costs at the end of the project also.
All of this CNC Mill upgrade is to speed up my other project, a 24 Motor water-cooled power unit to drive an MG F vehicle through its existing gearbox.
Feel free to comment or ask any questions in the comments.
Please also consider Subscribing, Sharing, Liking or all 3 to help me create and share these projects with you.
Thank you for watching.
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[@fredfarnackle5455]

Fascinating stuff, have to keep watching. Well done!

[@Dev255]

Thanks, I'll keep making them 😀

[@geekoid183]

That's really interesting that you're using the odrive. Almost never seen that before

[@Dev255]

Hi, I think the ODrive was originally designed for this sort of thing, I am really impressed by its control, accuracy and feedback. I will be using an Arduino to convert GCode to control the Odrive's eventually. Im working on the X-axis first though. Glad you like it 👍

[@KGarage85]

Amazing stuff Neil! I hope to do something like this someday. Just got a 3D printer and have an old Atlas lathe that I'm figuring out.

[@Dev255]

Thank you. It is fun to tinker and upgrade things in the garage. Hopefully I'll get more time now as I've just changed jobs and moved house, so I should get more time for projects like this. You could 3D print elements to test out on your lathe, I have recently bought a 3D printer and have made some prototype parts before making the real thing in aluminium. Good luck with your lathe.

[@ipadize]

i just noticed at 5:00 did you completely clean the motor after drilling? even the smallest chips can create a short if it cuts into the motor windings while its turning. When i did shorten the shaft of another motor a few years ago i put the motor inside of 3 plastic bags and then punched the shaft through the plastic bags to "hermetically" seal the shaft from the rest

[@Dev255]

I did give it a little clean, plus used a lot of lubricant while drilled slowly, although the video makes it look fairly fast.

[@jtreg]

Neil, if you were to buy another milling machine today with similar budget in mid for a CNC conversion - would you buy the same model again ie Sieg X1? Thanks for super honest and helpful story!

[@Dev255]

Hi, for the price I would stay with the same machine. The workable area with the extended table is just under 300mm X, 150mm Y and 220mm Z. I have upgraded the bearings recently from 6905's to 7905's as they are a little stronger (BMX wheel bearings); this does not require any modification to the mill. I originally believed I'd be replacing the nylon gears every so often, although they have lasted over 10 years without fault.

[@mauricejarck3023]

Like it👍👌

[@Dev255]

Thank you.

[@jtreg]

P.S. you could have knocked up a Tk GUI to plug in those values

[@Dev255]

Tk GUI looks like a good tool, I haven't heard about it before, thank you.

[@ipadize]

i also have the odrive but want to use it as a spindle driver

[@Dev255]

Hi MMD, I am looking at the same option as my current spindle motor is only 150W, I don't know yet if you can drive both a position motor (Z-Axis) and a spindle motor off of one ODrive. So one as M0 and the other as M1

[@ipadize]

@@Dev255 that should be no problem. What seems to be a problem for me is, you cannot currently have 0-100% pwm control. Also in velocity mode the controller seems to also hold the position (a spindle should be freely rotatable by hand if it doesnt spin)

[@Dev255]

@@ipadize Could you set it to IDLE STATE at 0 pwm I wonder, although I haven't looked into it yet.

[@ipadize]

@@Dev255 yes... if you have it connected via USB to the computer. This is why it is not a solution for me (probably have to manually set it to idle).

[@Dev255]

@@ipadize I will need to look at it in greater detail, and if I find a solution or workaround I shall let you know. I am very impressed by the ODrive, it's very reliable and position repeatable

[@Build_the_Future]

I love it but I think you need to get a better mic.

[@Dev255]

Tis my birthday soon and I'm looking at getting a Tascam DR-40 with a lavalier mic. So much better for everyone's ears hopefully :-D. Thank you for your comment