Great progress in the garage last week, mostly due to a week off work and a lockdown in place. I have both motors mounted for the X and Y axis, microstep controllers in a tidy box and a working 2-axis solution!!

I still have to calibrate it all and fine tune it, work out the backlash and see whether I can program that in too. But so far I’m really pleased. I’ll see if I can post a video to YouTube and link it here.

As always, whenever there’s good progress there’s still much to do. But I’m very happy to have come this far!

A bit messy granted, but here’s a pic taken mid way through the CNC conversion of the Bridgeport. The X axis motor is connected to the shaft, with a 15mm 5m timing belt running through a 6:1 reduction drive. All bolted up using 6mm plates cut to size.

The X axis is on the left hand side, and took some fiddling to get right. The handle manages the end float of that screw, so I had to make a bush the right size and be careful in the tightening order.

The microstep controllers are mounted neatly in a project box, along with the Arduino running GRBL. Lots to do still, but it’s keeping me occupied during the lockdown. I’m really looking forward to seeing it run now!