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CNC Machine Project Day 5

Today I worked on finalizing the electronics case. This meant finishing the fa mounts and the case mods, as well as ordering fans to mount. I also then worked on getting the stepper drivers mounted and then I went to work mounting my signal generator. This has left me with a very clean looking case and space for wiring and other electronic attachments. I also think that this case will help the CNC look more professional because the wires will be contained and the whole system will be cooled at the same time. Looking to next week I will need to spend time on wiring but I will be starting to assemble the frame of my CNC machine.

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CNC Milling Machine Project Day 4 Today I started out working on finalizing the fan mounts. This will include going to the metal shop to remove some of the aluminum where it would interfere with the airflow of the fan. After I finished my work on that I went down to the tech center to get some old scrap ethernet wires that I will be using as my stepper signal wires. I then started trying to wire up and example driver with my hardline cable, this was hard as the cables were brittle and would sometimes break off in the terminal blocks if I moved them around too much. I think that I might go to start using the patch cable with soldered ends. This would make the connection way more durable because it would be more flexible. Tomorrow I will be able to wire up and hopefully start testing stepper motors proving I find a way to wire the AC power to the stepper’s PSU.   
Weekly Reflection 1 This week I made good progress towards understanding, and assembling the electronics system. This has culminated in the creation of my electronics case for the machine. As of right now I have finished all the necessary physical mounts and mods, all that is left is to wire it up. This week I learned a lot about how stepper motors work, and how they interact with the drivers to get them to work. I also have been learning about G-code, the universal machine code language. It is useful to know when using a CNC because you can proofread the code live on the machine, as well as being able to edit and and insert parts on the fly. This can help a lot when troubleshooting a program on the CNC.

Wednesday - Saturday

Today I worked on in metal shop getting everything ready to weld. This is a critical and time consuming process because I need to ensure that the frame is square and straight. This involves a lot of machine work on top of welding. I am getting it done though the X axis frame is coming along well, and I think that I should be ready to weld by around Saturday. Today I worked on finishing up the limit switch wires in the morning and started getting the computer system set up. I spent the afternoon machining my steel to length in the metal shop. I should be able to weld the top rails by tomorrow, and then I can machine them and weld them up to my other bars. Also the surface plate should be here tomorrow. The surface plate came today, and I welded the top rails, hopefully will be able to clean up the welds, and then start drilling the parts. It is gonna take some machining to make sure everything is square and flat. This is critical as to make sure that the rails are...