Sounds like it is stalling as the z is trying to move up. I would first try putting 3-in-1 oil on the screw and run the z up and down a lot as fast as possible so you can confirm the z is capable again. It could also be the shaft or the lead screw slipping in the coupling. Finally, check the wiring where there may be zip ties or other places where the wires are fastened and look for chafing. This can cause intermittent shorts in the wires.

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i zero out the z axis on a file and about half way through, the bit is lower then it started. about 1/8 off

a 2' (24 inches) diameter workpiece for a 2'x8' machine may be a bit too much for an overhang. I would recommend the 4'x8' that can house a 4th axis in a cavity within the limits of the machine for a 24-inch part. If you need the rotary axis on the side of the machine, I can design a machine that would work.

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[790] Is there a way to build a 2x8 flat cnc with a 4 th axis on the side so I can do 24” diameter objects. Or have the z axis that tall

We are developing plans for our machine, but they are not completed yet. Please let me know if you would like to be added to our list of customers wanting plans. Thanks,

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If you have specific questions regarding CAD, CAM and Control, please add another question to the customer service and I will answer them in detail.

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How do I get started I would like to build a cnc router. Making the machine I can do, but I am weak on cad,cam and mach3. I am thinking about a 4’x4’. Do you have plans I can buy?

Increasing the size on your Z-axis is possible by making the over z axis longer (rails, wood structure). Remember the location of your router/spindle and over all integrity of the z-axis structure.
Now another way of getting a longer reach is making a adjustable height table, so that you can raise or lower the material section(2' x 4') to add taller material or get a deeper cut.

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Is it possible to increase the Z axis on the Blacktoe 2x4? My ideal would be to have 8" of travel.

The KL-4030 is a Keling 3.0 amp stepper motor driver. These are generally pretty robust drivers. You mentioned in the question that it worked for one hour. This sounds like it could be a contact issue with the wiring in the terminals. I would recommend that you check all of the connections. The terminals that are used in these drivers have terminals that are easily used incorrectly.

Make sure to open the terminal all the way using a small screw driver. Then insert the exposed wire into the opening and re-tighten the terminal. Make sure of a good connection by tugging on the wires.

Also, check kthe digital wires that connect from the driver to the control board.

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I have a KL-4030 stepper motor driver that I only have about an hour use on it but seems to be bad already. Has anyone out there had the same problem?

Cooling is not as tricky as you might think. There is 3 ways to approach this, only 2 really matter for a low scale 40w setup. First one is the cheapest and easiest. The higher the temp of water the worse your performance will be, from what I understand anything in the 30C range is about the most tolerable it gets. Lower is better. But not frozen...from what I've been told a very experienced cutter, he found 8C was the highest power he achieved.

1. Use a 5 Gallon resovoir system which gives you a fairly large space of water to heat up before you need to tend to it. Add about a cup of anti-freeze to the mix of DISTILLED water. You don't want ANY minerals in the water that might build up in your system. The anti-freeze works to keep algae and other ickies from growing in your water.

2. Use a smaller resovoir system (or even closed loop) and install 1 or more radiators found in CPU cooling systems with 120mm fans attached. This will continously cool your water system to ambient room temperatures, but with a tiny resovoir it will be difficult to add things like ice-packs to drop the temps if the ambient is quite hot.

3. Using an industrial coolant system. Overkill and unless your cutting A LOT, this is a very expensive option to take. You can also explore the idea of Peltier cooling but it is extremely expensive electricity/BTU wise compared to an industrial cooler.

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BUT DIDN'T SEE ANYTHING ABOUT COOLING THE LASER OFF - IS YOUR SETUP LIKE MOST OTHERS NEED BUCKET OF DISTILLED WATER TO PUMP THROUGH MACHINE?

We have ran across this issue on occasion, and usually results is there is something along your wiring that is causing a fault or is not getting good contact.
We would recommend going through the wiring thoroughly and checking continuity with the y-axis wires, going from your USB or Parallel BoB to the driver.

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My CNC machine has suddenly started going in only one direction in the Y axis. It was working fine for several days and then started going in a single direction when I would do a manual job.

Yes, if you are using 1/2" standard allthread lead screw coupled to your stepping motors, you can increase the speed by changing the lead screw to 10 TPI 5 Start Lead Screws with antibacklash nuts. This will allow you to have up to 200-300 IPM (inches per minute) travel and cutting speeds.

The reason why the feedrate and jogging speed is faster is because the lead screw will travel a farther distance for each turn of the motor. A standard allthread will only travel one inch after 13 turns of the motor. The above (link below) 5 start 1/2" lead screws will travel one inch with only 2 turns of the motor! That is a drastic difference and you will get more torque from your motor since most of the torque is present at low speeds.

Lead screw link:
https://buildyourcnc.com/item/mechanical-leadscrews-lead-screw-!5-5-starts-10-tpi

Antibacklash nut link:
https://buildyourcnc.com/item/mechanical-leadscrews-antibacklash-nut-!5-5-starts-10-tpi

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I built a 2' x 4' cnc about 2 years ago and bought all the plans and part through this website. My average 2D design takes approximately 35-40 minutes to complete. Is there a way to make my cnc faster?

Yes, you can control the speed of the 2.2 kW spindle, and the other spindles we sell, through Mach3 software. It requires making some changes to the settings in Mach3 and in your inverter. It also requires an additional part, which is called a USB to Serial Converter, found on our site here:

https://www.buildyourcnc.com/item/Interfaces-newbiehack-Interfaces-TTL232R-USB-UART-Serial

I have some additional instructions, that I will send upon request, by email. I will also be adding a complete tutorial and video, to the website, on how to do this soon.

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can I control the speed of a 2.2 spindle through your 5 axis breakout board with relay?

To use a touch plate on any controller, all you need is a conductive flat material with a known thickness and some wire and alligator clips. Solder a wire to the touch plate and connect the other end of the wire to the free input terminal of the controller. Connect a wire with an alligator clip to the ground of the controller (on the Mach3 USB controller, this ground is the DCM terminal, or the digital gnd on the 24VDC power supply). Connect the alligator clip to the end mill.

You can either use a script to serve as the probe, or you can use the ref all home button and setup the touch plate as a home switch.

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I there a tutorial on hooking up a Z axis zero touch plate to the usb controller?

The motor that is attached to the 4th axis is wired as follows:

The motor should have red, green yellow and blue wires coming form the motor. The red and green are paired as one coil and the yellow and blue is paired as the other coil. You can wire the motor to a 3.0 amp driver with red to A+, green to A-, Yellow to B+ and Blue to B-

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HOW DO I WIRE THE 4TH AXIS THAT YOU SELL. I HAVE MACH3 SOFTWARE. NO INSTRUCTIONS ON YOUR SITE

First, you should check the configuration in your CNC control software and determine if the spindle control pin is correctly set. That pin will engage the relay.

The P and O position of the relay is set as Normally Open where the relay is open (open circuit, or no connection) at idle and when engaged will be closed (closed circuit, or connected). If you suspect that the relay is damaged, the recommended action would be to disconnect the spindle from the relay and operate the spindle/VFD manually using the Run and Stop buttons on the face of the VFD (until the breakout board can be replaced).

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The spindle has started on my Machine while the machine was sitting idol, I'm not sure if the relay has failed on the breakout board. Is there a way to test this?

Does your breakout board (interface) have a relay? If so, you can connect one of the router/spindle's ac lines through the relay. The M3, M4 and M5 codes are used to control the router/spindle. Typically, the M codes are automatically added to the g-code regardless if you configure this in your CAM software. If you have the breakout board from buildyourcnc, you can go to the product page for the breakout board and the relay connection diagram and narrative is in the instructions on that page.

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WHAT IS THE MOST EASY WAY TO HOOK UP MILL IN THAT AUTOMATICALLY STARTS WHEN CYCLE STARTS, AND STOPS GCODE THROUGH?

Thank you for your feedback. Generally we are considered to be quite sane as a collective, although this can change from time to time.

We have a disclaimer on shipping rates, especially if you are ordering from outside of the United States, rates are generally shown only for air-shipments from USPS, UPS, and FedEX, which can be quite expensive. We do work with several freight and shipping companies that allow us to calculate options for lowering shipping costs. These companies do not generally have APIs that we can integrate into the website, so we need time to process quotes.

If the shipping quote you received from the website seems unreasonable, there is a good chance we can quote you a better rate. All you need to do is inquire with sales@buildyourcnc.com and we will make sure we get you the best possible rate.

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are you out of your freaking minds with these shipping rates. About to go through with order but you lost me! Good luck!

Sounds like it is stalling as the z is trying to move up. I would first try putting 3-in-1 oil on the screw and run the z up and down a lot as fast as possible so you can confirm the z is capable again. It could also be the shaft or the lead screw slipping in the coupling. Finally, check the wiring where there may be zip ties or other places where the wires are fastened and look for chafing. This can cause intermittent shorts in the wires.

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When I run a file with a lot of z movements, the Z seems to get lower

What interface board are you using? Typically, this will be an issue with the computer that MAch3 is installed. The only other component that may affect this would be the interface between the computer and the machine.

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mach3 freezes in the middle of a run, I don't get any message. I have press reset and then the jog buttons work. I have to reset the zero and start from the last line when the machine stopped. It happens mostly during the finishing part of the g-code file

To move two stepper motors simultaneously with the same signal, simply wire the two stepper motor drivers to the same interface board signal terminals (CP and CW).

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using a ardino uno controller and a cnc sheild on top of that how to wirer 2 motors to 1 axis its the x axis ?

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I have my motors wired like the wiring diagram I have two motors on Y axis how do I wire the second motor

For purchasing on our website, our account log in is a safe way to keep your personal data at hand for future orders. However we do not keep any bank information in our systems, it is a single use system.

Now dealing with the cnc book, you can view our web version of the book with a list of materials and hardware that will be needed here (https://www.buildyourcnc.com/cnckitintro.aspx).

Adding the items to your cart in the quantity's needed, now for certain items for example, or ACME screws, and aluminum angles will require a total length needed, but the specific lengths required will have to be email here (customerservice@buildyourcnc.com) or called here (281-815-7701) with the completion of your order.

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I want to purchase some items from your co. How do i go about it. I already have the buildyourcnc book and wand to begin.

To rush/clean the water from the spindle, you will need a air compressor or air tank that you will use with a blow gun, which you will rush air through one end cleaning the water from within the spindle.

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My spindle is creating an unreasonable amount of pressure headloss! Is there a way to clean our the water channel inside the router to get the water to flow through it better?