Senior Week 22

Before break I pretty much determined that the motors were too weak. This week I upgraded the stage to the new motors.

Monday #

On monday I started to modify the CAD model. I quickly determined that I would need to re make 4 different parts. The stage booster, Y arm, Y plate, and the X plate. This day I got alot done, but not much to write about.

Tuesday #

On Tuesday I finished modifying the CAD model. This overall wasn’t a massive deviation from what it was before, but mainly modifyied existing parts for the new motors. A different stage booster was necessary, because the motors are a different height. This same reason is why the y axis arm was redesigned. This part is the one that was most changed, offering a significant upgrade over the usability of the first y-axis arm.

After finishing up the CAD, I started on the CAM and machining of the Y motor plate. This is the one part that HAS to be machined, simply due to the fact that it has a thread in it. I chose to use the smaller tormach for the first time, due to the fact that the bigger tormach was being cleaned. I did learn however that the spindle speed of the smaller tormach is about double the spindle speed of the larger tormach.

Wednesday #

I started and finished machining the motor plate, along with deciding to resin print all the rest of the parts. I was getting very impacient at this stage, and the resin printer is much faster than machining. The part itself came out really good. I am very proud of how I’ve come in my machining skill.

One thing that I found out is that we were not using the good motor voltage in. We were using the metromini power rail, and not the a bench supply. Unfortunatly even after running the smaller motors with more amperage, they still weren’t enough.

Thursday #

After waiting for the resin prints to post process, I was able to start assembling the stage with its new parts. I had to shim the y axis because it didn’t line up quite right, but after that it worked great.

The X-axis had a similar issue, however I had to lasercut a motor plate with an offset mounting pattern. This took a couple of tries, but I got it down and it worked great.