Hi all,
I purchased an x3 a few years ago and hardly used it as I found it a bit limiting and so purchased a used bridgeport. This is great but on one of my recent projects I have to make 16 small brass parts and it is a lot of repetitive work. There are also a lot of other small bits I am required to make multiple items of. So I have taken the plunge and I am now in the process of modding the x3 to cnc.
I am a complete novice at this but have done a fair bit of hobby machining and tinkering.
I have to thank Ben at 3dtek.xyz for his help and the thousands of questions I have thrown at him. Doing this mod has always been a project I wanted to do. I purchased the ballscrews from ebay as a mod for the x3. This kit needs modding as what I see all x3's are not made the same so the mounts need machining to fit. Ben has supplied the masso ,powersupplies,wiring,masso limit switches and a special enclosure to mount it all in.
So far I have the x3 stripped down and the z ball screw mounted.
Stepper motors for x and y are Integrated Stepper Servo Motor 425 oz-in 24-50VDC NEMA 24 Closed Loop, since these have the controller built in I only run power wires and control lines to them
and for the z axis Nema 34 Closed Loop Stepper Motor 1204oz.in Encoder 1000CPR with a controller to suit Closed Loop Stepper Driver 0~8.2A 24~80VDC for Nema 34 Stepper Motor . This requires a bit more wiring as the encoder requires wiring up to the controller. I will see how it goes.
I have hooked the masso up and it worked better then I expected. Still a massive learning curve to go though. The stepper motors for x and y move via the keyboard exciting times.
I have ordered the recommended touch screen and see how that works when it arrives. When I figure out the forums I will post pics of progress if any one wants to see.
Cheers
Gene
I purchased an x3 a few years ago and hardly used it as I found it a bit limiting and so purchased a used bridgeport. This is great but on one of my recent projects I have to make 16 small brass parts and it is a lot of repetitive work. There are also a lot of other small bits I am required to make multiple items of. So I have taken the plunge and I am now in the process of modding the x3 to cnc.
I am a complete novice at this but have done a fair bit of hobby machining and tinkering.
I have to thank Ben at 3dtek.xyz for his help and the thousands of questions I have thrown at him. Doing this mod has always been a project I wanted to do. I purchased the ballscrews from ebay as a mod for the x3. This kit needs modding as what I see all x3's are not made the same so the mounts need machining to fit. Ben has supplied the masso ,powersupplies,wiring,masso limit switches and a special enclosure to mount it all in.
So far I have the x3 stripped down and the z ball screw mounted.
Stepper motors for x and y are Integrated Stepper Servo Motor 425 oz-in 24-50VDC NEMA 24 Closed Loop, since these have the controller built in I only run power wires and control lines to them
and for the z axis Nema 34 Closed Loop Stepper Motor 1204oz.in Encoder 1000CPR with a controller to suit Closed Loop Stepper Driver 0~8.2A 24~80VDC for Nema 34 Stepper Motor . This requires a bit more wiring as the encoder requires wiring up to the controller. I will see how it goes.
I have hooked the masso up and it worked better then I expected. Still a massive learning curve to go though. The stepper motors for x and y move via the keyboard exciting times.
I have ordered the recommended touch screen and see how that works when it arrives. When I figure out the forums I will post pics of progress if any one wants to see.
Cheers
Gene
