Ethanol Free Gas
After several days of fiddling, (and wondering when Rome might burn), finally got the machine to move under its own power. This was
a terrific moment, long awaited. You may notice that the quill didn't move down, only because the wires to the Z stepper are not yet hooked up.
One of the unexpected benefits of this project is that I'm meeting other guys who are doing, or have done, the same project. And they all seem quite willing to help. Below is a link to another machine or two.
The initial movements were done with a generic config file, and didn't match the parameters for the Bridgeport, and I'm not quite sure what
the parameters should be, so a trial and error process starts. Looks like I've finally got the scale figure right, but am getting a
following overrun error from time to time.
Mounted a dial indicator on the bottom of the table, with the probe touching the side of the saddle. Wrote a quick G code program to move the table left and right by tenth's of an inch, incrementing the movement each time. The video shows that the movement is accurate and
fairly repeatable, with backlash under 0.001".
Haven't found a good location for the indicator to measure the Y axis travel. I think the table or the saddle bumped the indicator mount, making
the test very non-conclusive.