Well i'd figure i would update this to keep it alive and show i haven't failed miserably yet. It's been almost a year since i started buying parts and i am now finally getting around to doing this. For starters, I finally got rid of mach 3 and am finally going with LinuxCNC. Looking back, i should of just done that in the beginning. But with going to LinuxCNC, that means i need to redo the cabinet. And to help out the next guy who will probably have to trouble shoot something if it goes wrong (that guy being me!) I am taking the time to label everything and make it look better.
I forgot how long this takes. And even using a much bigger enclosure, i feel like im already out of room. I'll post a wiring diagram once i make. doing it mostly for me so i can tape it in there, but also incase anyone wants it to help them out.
The other big part is that i made simple mounts for the motor to go up top. They are nothing special and definitely don't look fancy at all, but they do get the job done and i added tramming screws into them so i don't have to tap the head into alignment anymore.
Finally the most important piece of this is the spindle. After taking the spindle completely apart, i realized that the upper part that drives the splines and lets the quill go up and down only uses maybe an inch of it at the bottom. Seeing that and knowing that i dissembled the quill a long time ago, i went with a different route. I decided to turn the splines down so i can drive it directly from a pully and completely get rid of the backlash now.
The pully on there is a 20t and the drive pully is an 80. But i had to take so much material out of the 20t pully that there really isn't enough room to broach it out to shove a key in there comfortably. Its a nice press fit on there, but having a key instead of just setscrews on there just makes me feel better. So i may go with the 100t and 25t pully i got as a backup to keep the ratio to an even number. That even multiple will allow me to use the index pulse if i ever decided to start rigid tapping (not sure if that is necessary for normal tapping or only required if peck tapping?). Last change to the spindle is that I also will be adding a bearing on the top to help support the shaft. A plus with that is that it will give me the added benefit of having a place to mount an air cylinder for a power drawbar.
That's really it for the update for now. This project is still alive and i would like to get this thing up and running before spring comes around. Once i get done with the wiring which is the easy part, i'll move onto trying to configure the 7i95. There isn't too much documentation on this board, so i'll throw up those files too incase anyone can use them