3018 with MGN12 and 500W Upgrade
Description
Bought a 500W spindle motor and figured the old 3018 needed significant mods to use it. The supplied motor clamp needs a solid mount to clamp the motor so I bought a length of 101.6mm x 12.6mm aluminium. An 89mm section of that forms my motor mounting plate that will have the 5mm holes tapped with 6mm giving me 3 heights to place the motor bracket. I provided a motor mount model but it is not intended to be printed, it is solid aluminium. I have provided a model that could be printed, or I might integrate the Z sections and the sliders if anyone wants it, just ask. Photo is of a 100mm wide one I drilled holes in, major pain to get it accurate on all holes. I only use about 8 all up but left myself some options, they are not that accurate on mine so not all line up, works though. The original long 10mm X rails were bending so best upgrade was to replace them with MGN12 linear rails and 4 MGN12H sleds. That meant I had 10mm hardware to replace the 8mm z rails, so cut one of the 10mm linear rods in half for this. I had to move half of the LM10UU bearings above the z plate otherwise there was very little z travel, as it stands I have about 35mm when completed. X is reduced to around 260mm due to the wider carriage. I made this as compact as I could to still leave as much useable area since the new motor and bracket are a lot deeper, so though Y still has full travel the spindle overhangs the front by about 12mm, I could mount the bed differently but I have no need of the full size, could also hang the waste plate off the front. I had to increase Z stepper current slightly, my lm10uu are a little jaded. Rails are a tight fit in the holes and I hammered them in, hole is 10mm diameter, the LM10UU I gave a little leeway and modelled the hole at 19.2mm for the 19mm bush, I still had to hammer them in. May need superglue if your printer is super accurate. Bit of a puzzle to put together, be aware of things like the z rails hiding screws, pain to mount the z motor, tricky to assemble the anti backlash assembly (I purchased new ones instead of the original 3018 versions). Entire model file is provided if you want to modify anything, use designspark mechanical, free download from RS components if you create an account. Now it is running, it is FAR more solid than it was. A quick test with a dial gauge shows 0.12mm deflection from a 2kg weight place on the motor bracket. I am just running the 500W spindle on the 24v supply at the moment, looking into a safe method of using the current spindle supply to enable the 500w controller. This needs extreme caution, the 500W motor runs directly from unisolated, rectified mains voltage. I will be using an optocoupler. The existing on/off control is not ideal as it works by disconnecting the internal 12v regulator. Need to simulate the speed pot. Rough schematic is here https://td0g.ca/wp/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/2019-11-30-500W-Spindle-Controller.pdf (Thanks for that Tyler)
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