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Old 10-06-2011, 09:17 AM   #308 (permalink)
NeilBlanchard
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A small update on CarBEN EV5: one step forward and two steps back on using the PhlatPrinter 3, unfortunately. It was working but I was having trouble with the sheet of foam skewing i.e. drifting so the second cut pass was not lining up with the first. I think I have the solution for that (side rails with rollers to hold the sheet straight) and I redid the layout of the parts on the sheet to reduce the length of the cuts, and to add attachment tabs so the bit lifted up out of the foam regularly to both cool it and to help clear the dust.

But, when I tried to run the revised sheet, the X-axis direction was "compressed" to about half of what it was supposed to be.

I had bought a stronger stepper motor on the X-axis (that I understood would still work with the Planet CNC driver board), and the stock motor was quite warm to the touch after this brief aborted run. The X-axis is doing a lot more work than the other two, since it has to move/accelerate the entire sheet of foam.

I decided to then install the stronger stepper motor but the motor pulsed about 3 times, and blew the fuse. So, I reinstalled the original stepper motor, replaced the fuse (2.5A) and it blew the fuse after only a second of being powered up.

Also, I have figured out that the deepest I can cut is ~1 7/8", due to the limits of the Z-axis rails on the gantry. I can live with this, but I have asked Mark and Trish the good people who designed and built the kit for the PhlatPrinter 3 whether a revised gantry could be made with ~2 1/2" of Z range could be made. This would allow there to be 2 1/4" of cutting length on the bit, so ~1/16" would stick through the sheet, ~1/8" would be above the sheet so the dust / cuttings could be cleared out, about 1/16" of straight shank out of the chuck, and there would be about 1/8" clearance on the topside when the bit is traversing.
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