Due to popular demand
Some while ago I described how I had fitted stepper motors to my Myford VMB milling machine. It was not the intention to convert the mill to CNC but simply to give my arms a rest winding handles back and forth. This was particularly so with the Z axis. The secondary advantage is that the motor driven movement leaves a much smoother finish than my hit and miss erratic winding of the hand wheels.
The design is Arduino based and allows selection of a single axis at a time with variable speed control in forward or reverse direction together with the option to fit limit switches/emergency stop facilities. The PCB, with appropriate stepper hardware, could be applied to any other machine needing motorised movement.
You can read the full article here.
Following some recent publicity of the conversion, I received a number of requests for the unpopulated printed circuit board. I now have a few of these left in stock if anyone is feeling adventurous. Here is a view of the external connections needed.
This conversion started off as a ‘I wonder if I can’ and is now probably one of my favourite projects in terms of its impact on my day to day use of the VMB.
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