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With the direct drive motor, and shorter unit, how tall is it off the waste board? I have a total height clearance problem, but if it will fit I am interested in one.
Patrick,
I’m still quite a ways off on the design of the direct drive – I have mainly just started working out how to handle the bearings. By my estimate though, the top of the motor mounting point would be about 13" from the waste board (assuming factory waste board height). Then you would have to add the full length of your motor including the shaft.
If that’s too big I could probably make a one-off 9" version for your application . It would eliminate the benefit of extra Z travel while still allowing for vertical motor and other benefits of the system in general (largely rigidity / stability).
One thing I am curious about regarding the direct drive preference – what are the specific reasons for this? I’ve had only minor backlash on my Z with belt drive and I’ve narrowed it down to 2 things (slop in the Z bearing / pulley assembly and in the delrin nut). The former should be solved by the axis kit which includes spacers to tighten up the bearing, and for the latter I have designed an anti-backlash delrin nut (still have to build and test one).
I was mainly going by what others have found with their upgraded Z and going with direct drive instead of the belt setup. For me, the belt setup would help with the height issue but I can work around that if needed. I just don’t want to go upgrade my Z and have a belt be the weak link, but it sounds like you have fixed those issues.
I got a bunch of shuddering last night so I’m even more interested in upgrading now.
I am definitely going to be releasing the main upgrade kit first before I get the direct drive finished. I also just got some thrust bearings in to play around with so I’ll see if I can alleviate some of the bearing related issues with a simple fix. The original design uses one bearing for both axial and radial loads on the leadscrew which works but is not ideal, especially if it’s not a pin roller bearing (i’m not sure if it’s ball or roller honestly). I will try some things out with the thrust bearings and some spring washers etc. to see if I can eliminate vertical movement in the lead screw without overloading the main bearing.
Alright thanks for the feedback – since I got the thrust bearings in, I think I am going to incorporate them into the base slide design. This will improve the slop for those who keep the original motor mount / belt drive, and simplify the direct drive design somewhat (since the lower thrust bearing will already be there, it will only need the upper thrust bearing)
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I may be interested in the taller unit once direct-drive is ready. Any chance you have any youtube vids showing your prototype Z in action? Apologies if I missed it above but on a quick glance I didn’t see any.
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Count me in as well.
@PatrickLesher I am going to aim for end of this month to get the first units out. I may have a few ready a little sooner. I am waiting on some key supplies and equipment to arrive before I can start producing them.
I had mine apart to play with the leadscrew design and some ideas for thrust bearings etc. but I’ll get it back together and do some sample cuts on video as a demo within the next few days.
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@JoshWelsh I put my machine back together and made a quick video of some aluminum cutting.
A few things I failed to mention in the video:
CAD / CAM using Autodesk Fusion 360
Cutting is using “climb milling” which normally I could never get to work reliably.
I tried more aggressive depth / width of cut but ran into issues with the X and Y axes missing steps. I am running fairly beefy NEMA 23 motors but I think the X/Y axes may be the limit since the belt drives don’t have the inherent strength of a leadscrew or ballscrew system.
If you have any specific requests for tests let me know! I have several of those 1.5" x 2" chunks of 6061 so I can do some more test cuts
@RhysMackrill I should be able to though shipping may be fairly expensive - over $50 USD for USPS. Prices from FedEx and UPS are astronomical (in the $200 USD range). USPS First Class International may be a little less but I will need to get the exact size and weight of the package including packing material which I don’t have at the moment.
No worries @KyleKronyak I will keep an eye on this post or let us know when your closer to completion
I’m sold! The flexibility on the stock Z-axis is really concerning to me, so I found your example cut video to be jaw-dropping. Count me in, just say when and where to send my money!
I did cry a bit for you poor plastic wheels rolling on all the alu chips 
Looks and works great !
That is one thing I’ve wondered about. What do people do about all the chips? Can they safely go through the dust collector? Or do you just let em fly and sweep them up later?
Count me in for that price point.
Any concern over the chips igniting the sawdust? I bought new buckets for my dust deputy just in case (firehouse pickle buckets…$2 each and it goes to charity!)
Hmm. I had heard that mixing the two could get explosive with a static discharge, but I don’t have first hand knowledge about it. I suppose so long as things are well grounded, it should be okay.