My machine improvements
Posted: Thu 30 Mar , 2023 22:24 pm
I have just done a bit more improvement to my starmill and thought it may be useful to others.
The starmill is stated to have 170x100mm table travel. I had to replace my stepper motor on the x and lost 5mm. Since then I have machined down the end bearing block down by 10mm to get to 175 once the block no longer interfered with the case I made a new plate to hold the y home switch. That gained me 10mm on the y travel. I have also made a lever action TTS tool changer system which is working well.
I have upgraded the electronics cabinet and am running modern stepper drivers through UCCNC. I also sealed the cabinet and added a small flood coolant system to the machine which has really made machining easier.
In the next few weeks I intend to swap out the Y axis motor as it is showing signs of struggling and adding gas springs to the head to allow for faster z movement.
Finally I have purchased a replacement spindle motor good for 9000 rpm and will swap out the spindle bearings at the same time.
Finally I built a heavy box section fram for the machine to sit on to increase the vibration damping of the machine I have some places I intend to fill with epoxy granite and also fill the 80mm box section with concrete.
Each one of these mods has made the machine far more capable machine piggy backing off denford excellent build quality has been a pleasure. Recently acquired triac is the next project.
The starmill is stated to have 170x100mm table travel. I had to replace my stepper motor on the x and lost 5mm. Since then I have machined down the end bearing block down by 10mm to get to 175 once the block no longer interfered with the case I made a new plate to hold the y home switch. That gained me 10mm on the y travel. I have also made a lever action TTS tool changer system which is working well.
I have upgraded the electronics cabinet and am running modern stepper drivers through UCCNC. I also sealed the cabinet and added a small flood coolant system to the machine which has really made machining easier.
In the next few weeks I intend to swap out the Y axis motor as it is showing signs of struggling and adding gas springs to the head to allow for faster z movement.
Finally I have purchased a replacement spindle motor good for 9000 rpm and will swap out the spindle bearings at the same time.
Finally I built a heavy box section fram for the machine to sit on to increase the vibration damping of the machine I have some places I intend to fill with epoxy granite and also fill the 80mm box section with concrete.
Each one of these mods has made the machine far more capable machine piggy backing off denford excellent build quality has been a pleasure. Recently acquired triac is the next project.