XY Table

by ReDo.Pro (@ReDo.Pro)

XY Table

Description

A motorised XY table: two linear stages stacked crosswise, each a saddle on two MGN12 rails, driven along a T8 lead screw by a NEMA 17 stepper. Everything is off-the-shelf 2020 aluminium profile and hardware.


## How it is built


- **The frame.** Each stage runs on two 300 mm profiles. The lower one stands on two cross profiles, squared to them with corner brackets, so its motor clears the table.
- **The rails.** Each profile carries a 200 mm MGN12 rail, screwed down into V-slot T-nuts in the profile's top groove. An MGN12H carriage rides on each rail, and a 110 × 110 mm plate is screwed across the pair on 2.5 mm spacers, which lift it clear of the lead nut's flange.
- **The drive.** Two nut blocks under the plate, each on a spacer of its own, hold a flange with the lead screw's flanged T8 nut against it; the screw runs between them. At the near end a 608 bearing is pressed on the screw and turns in the end plate. At the far end a flexible coupler joins it to the motor's 5 mm shaft, its four grub screws tight on both shafts. The motor is held on an L-bracket by four screws through the bracket's slots, which let the bracket slide 1.6 mm along them to sit flush on the back profile. The lead screw runs 13 mm above the profile's groove, so one of the slots in the bracket's foot crosses the groove: an M4 screw through it bolts the foot to the profile, into a thin M4 nut in the groove.
- **The second stage.** The upper stage is the same stage turned a quarter turn, its profiles tied to the lower saddle with T-nuts. Its plate is the table.
- **The controller.** A SparkFun Pro Micro and two TMC2209 drivers share a half-size breadboard on the bench. Each driver plugs into its own 10-pin header and overhangs the breadboard's edge, so the holes beside its pins stay free for jumpers. D2 and D3 drive the X driver's STEP and DIR, D4 and D5 the Y driver's, and D6 and D7 each driver's ENABLE. The power rails carry the Pro Micro's VCC and GND to both drivers' logic supply.


## Build it


1. Square the lower stage's profiles onto the cross profiles with the corner brackets.
2. Drop T-nuts into the top grooves and screw the rails down, then slide the carriages on.
3. Screw the saddle plate to the carriages through its spacers, with the nut blocks and flange under it, each block on a spacer too.
4. Thread the lead screw through the lead nut, press the 608 bearing onto its near end and seat it in the end plate, and couple the far end to the motor.
5. Build the upper stage the same way on top of the saddle.
6. Plug the Pro Micro and the two drivers into the breadboard and run the jumpers: D2 to the X driver's STEP and D3 to its DIR, D4 and D5 to the Y driver's, D6 and D7 to their ENABLE pins, and VCC and GND through the rails to each driver's VDD and GND.


Each driver's screw terminal takes the motor supply (VMOTOR and GND, 12 to 24 V) and its motor's four coil wires (OUT1A, OUT1B, OUT2A, OUT2B); neither is drawn. The T8 lead screw has four starts at a 2 mm pitch, so one turn of the motor, 200 full steps, moves a carriage 8 mm.

Bill of materials

Licences

Open in the ReDo Playground