@SirGeekALot I’m sure we can work something out bud. You might be surprised by the printed ones though. You can also stretch them vertically as much as you would like.
They are designed to be 1/2” 6061 Al.
Thank you for the input guys!
@Brandon_Satterfield so you are saying that it worked with TinyG PWM but no better than the rio rand controller?
@donkjr Seems I could make the riorand act the same with Carl’s guide. It was good, not perfect but a great base, looked for the link this evening, maybe it’s moved on. Does look like the Synthetos group picked the vital settings and added them to a page. They are awesome.
It seems the signal remains the same. I believe we are throwing out 3.3 in a China 5V world.
More testing required. But you asked and wanted to provide trial run findings.
@Brandon_Satterfield @donkjr I’m going to ask a stupid question that maybe you guys can answer. I recall hooking my spindle directly to the 48V power supply–it worked. I only did this temporarily to troubleshoot a problem I was having at the time (now fixed), but it spun the spindle at what seemed like max speed. Isn’t connecting the spindle directly to the PS roughly the same as a 100% PWM duty cycle if connected to the VFD?
@SirGeekALot on a dc motor running 100% PWM is the same as directly connecting to the the 48V. Why?
Its not a VFD though?
@donkjr I guess I’m just wondering why I would ever want to go slower than max.
@SirGeekALot I am no expert on this stuff but I have learned the hard way that speed matters. For example with the right bit and slower speed you can cut acrylic like butter with a smooth finish. At the wrong speed you will melt the plastic on the bit, create crumbling chips and even crack the material. Of course its a mix of surface speed, cutting edges and RPM.
My favorite reference:
http://www.precisebits.com/tutorials/calibrating_feeds_n_speeds.htm
I found some time tonight to work on the 3D printable mount that should work with this dust boot. I haven’t tried printing it yet. Once I’ve verified it actually works, I’ll share the STL and the FreeCAD files on my github.
Printed in red PETG. It looks/feels pretty good! I won’t have time to try it out until tonight at the earliest.
@SirGeekALot spindle speed is crucial. You can find the right feed for max speed but not easy.
Anyone have a chance to suck some debris up?
@Brandon_Satterfield sorry, but no, not yet. The few moments I’ve had to geek out have been used to diagnose my laser cutter.
@SirGeekALot completely understand sir. I know @Michael_Forte was gracious and got it bolted up. Not sure if he has had a chance to make chips yet, but had time to shoot over an email.
@Brandon_Satterfield When I saw that the boot had a place for the 2.8W laser, I went ahead and ordered it. It’s being delivered today so no cutting until I get that installed as well. I’ll let you know what I find.
@Michael_Forte sweet!
@Brandon_Satterfield Hi Brandon, I have the boot installed, took me a while because I needed to remove the entire z-axis from the gantry (my bolts were reversed!!!). Now that I have it all together the boot works great, however my original spindle mount didn’t line up with the dust boot spindle hole. I jury rigged something but it’s not ideal and now my tramming is off and it’s a bugger to get aligned. I now see tracks on the wood after resurfacing. Long story short I would like to know when your spindle mount is ready to order, the one that fits the boot better. I have a 52mm spindle.
@Rob_Mitchell I installed the boot and used 2 of the 52mm spindle mounts that SMW3D sells. It seems to fit fine. I haven’t installed the laser yet so I’m not sure if there will be any conflict there. I’ll upload a pic.
@Brandon_Satterfield I didn’t get a separate acrylic block with the boot to mount the 2.8mW laser to as I read in the instructions so I was wondering if I was supposed to or if you had an STL file available so I can print it.
One other thing I noticed is the side thumb screws attaching the boot to the rail have some play in them. I tightened them fairly tight by hand and then put slight pressure on the hose. The result was the entire boot rocked forward in the mount so the bristles were not level anymore. It’s probably not a big deal with the spindle but if a laser is mounted on the boot and it rotates (there won’t be a hose in it) due to some settling, then the laser could shift. Of course, I haven’t tried it yet so I don’t know if there is any issue there but either way I may try putting in a thin piece of rubber to act as a washer and hopefully prevent this movement.
If anyone has any pictures of a laser mounted in the boot I would love to see them.
@Rob_Mitchell do you have the machined aluminum spindle clamps? It should put the spindle right through the hole. Can you shoot over some pics please?
@Michael_Forte sorry about missing the block will be happy to make an STL and get it over to you.
Completely agree about the rocking back and forth. When I ran the laser test we had to use needle nose pliers to tighten the thumb screws. There should be a better way. It just hasn’t come to me yet. I need to fix two things in the area, one of them being the thumb screws touching the plate at max height and the rotation issue. Perhaps 3 thumb screws per side, or like you mention a rubber washer. I can also shrink the holes in the arms a little.
Thank you guys for updating!
@Brandon_Satterfield There are two things I would try to stabilize the boot and prevent that rocking. I think the issue is cause by acrylic just being so nice and smooth. I would try to:
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Rough up the surfaces of the acrylic on both sides of the thumb screws and possibly the static, vertical acrylic mount at the thumbscrew locations. This should prevent some of the slipping.
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With or without #1, I would put rubber gaskets on both sides of the acrylic to prevent slippage. It should allow the tightened thumbscrews to compress into the rubber slightly for a more snug fit. I’m going to try this one today with some rubber washers I have and see if it works.
My 3D printed spindle holder that matches the distance of the aluminum clamps seems to be spot on! I’m pretty sure my wife is angry at me already for being up this late, so I’ll try to get the dust boot on tomorrow.
You guys are great at providing feed-back and thank you for the time you guys have put into it.
It appears this design is too similar to another that is on the market, and we have been contacted regarding the similarity in a polite way.
Never has been my intention for anyone to feel I steal from them; so in good faith and with some of the issues we are seeing here I will most likely sit down and figure out another way to keep the load on the front gantry plate but make sure it looks like nothing on the market.