Z head counterbalance

[Eric Mims]

Joey/Frank/etc.. what are the specs on the Z head counterbalance piston you guys had on the machine at the IWF show? I'd like to know how to set one up on my X3 head so the Z motor doesn't have to work so hard. What all does it take to set it up as far as the piston, air valves, etc?

any component numbers, companies?

[james mcgrew]

eric, i have recieved a gearbox and new motor to change the z for this reason.

just need the time to stop and change it over

[Eric Mims]

you mean to make it rack/pinion or to multiply the motor speed to the ball screw?

[Joey Jarrard]

Eric,
What Jim is doing is going to change his gear ratio on the z,
Give me a call on my cell and I will help you out. i will also PM you my number if you lost it.

[james mcgrew]

joey which is the better plan?

[Joey Jarrard]

I like the air balance it makes the work load of the motor nil. I also like the new Coupler we started using. i do not know if it will make a difference on a stepper system but id does on the servo. With the software for the servos we can see where there is resistance in each axes. The solid coupler we did use did show some strain on the servo. Not so much that there would be a problem but was a good reason to upgrade. the stepper system however has much more torque and will power through the resistance. The new Coupler with spider gear is $80 but is a good way to help the Z out as well. See pic bellow.

[Eric Mims]

like a Lovejoy, huh? I suppose the spider doesn't compress enough to cause any backlash?

[Joey Jarrard]

No the red spider is made for our application and was highly spoken of by our servo supplier. There are many types.

[Joey Jarrard]

Plus with the servo it keeps it's place by talking 2 ways with wincnc. It would auto correct if it got off, if it could not then it would fault out.

[Eric Mims]

sent you a PM, Joey

[Eric Mims]

hey joey, seeing if any progress was made in putting the kit together for me

[Joey Jarrard]

yea we just got a shipment in it will go out monday

[Eric Mims]

great joey, if you have any extra pieces of tubing and a splitter/tee or whatever I may need to jump off of the air lines feeding the T2/T3 routers, please include that. I'm guessing I'll jump off of those same lines, then into a regulator, into the piston. Is there a way to measure the weight or do you just guess until you think it's holding? How much does the X3 head weigh anyways?

thanks again

[Joey Jarrard]

Will do Eric.

We set the air to 50-60 pounds the head is more than this but you will be taking care of the majority of the weight.

[Eric Mims]

cool, I had tried to weigh it by using a bathroom scale with the machine turned off, and then using a bar clamp to push the head up (to put weight down onto the scale).. I was getting 52 pounds a couple times and occasionally closer to 70 which I figured the increase was due to the ballscrew/motor friction forces being added on.. cool, glad to know I was close with my ghetto test!