Dream: 6x12- 6 axis plasma, router, torch w/rolling water table.
Reality: No CAD, CAM or CNC building experience. No Mill, No Lathe. Little $$
I see everyone ends up building a second table or at least doing lots of rebuilding. So instead of pretending to get it right the first time, and wasting alot of time and money, I'm going to try to do a really good job of half-@$$ing it. Also it won't risk falling into the unfinished project abyss.
I just happen to have this boat anchor(pic1,2,3) that i built many years ago before i knew what CNC was and only had a few bucks in my pocket(some things never change).
All my Q's are in red.
Linear rails: 35MM 18.5" of z travel; 86.5" Y travel; one spare 10ft rail and block(for the X?) Never heard of the manufacturer- the carriages have KUSE-35 and INA stamped on the end cap. Google says that is the Schaeffler Group and KUSE is:
"Six-track linear recirculating ball bearing and guideway
assemblies of series KUSE have the highest load rating
of any recirculating ball bearing guidance system with the
same envelope dimensions, and allow very high accelerations
and velocities. Linear ball bearing and guideway
assemblies of series KUSE should be classified between
the traditional linear ball bearing and linear roller bearing
guideway assemblies.
Linear ball bearing and guideway assemblies of series
KUSE derive their high load carrying capacity from the six
tracks of preloaded balls. They can take loads from all
directions and moments about all axes. The low friction
characteristics of this new linear recirculating ball system
allows very high accelerations and velocities."
.............Sounds good to me untill I have to buy more carriages
Are you guys using 6 track carriages?
Notice the rail is not thru-drilled so that makes it hard to deal with
I was going to use the motovario(blue) worm gear boxes for my servo reduction, because i can get more and 20:1 shouldn't be toooo slow. The Tech Dept said the motovarios(free) are "only" 10-20 arc min.
Oh and yes that is a swivel plate mounted behind that super-precision router holder
. Its actually off the base for a captains chair in a van. Its stamped out of .100" but its very tight. I think i'll leave it to play with.
So in 10 easy steps....
1: Cut off the 8" angle currently holding up the Gantry I beam,
2: Find cheap gear rack for the x and decide what to use for rails.
Was thinking maybe my extra linear rail on one side and v-bearings on
the other.
3: Lengthen the table from 4x8 to 8x12ish and beef it up. Mount rack and rails
4: Add sides onto Gantry beam w/ bearings and/or carriages. Probably move the gear rack to the outside of the ibeam so i can have more room for the cable chain on the inside.
5: Mount a drive onto the Z
(maybe just use gear rack?) and put a floating head and torch holder on it.
6: Order the 5 Axis Plazpak package from C&CNC
7: Throw the servos/gearheads on the x,y,z w/Limit switches and wiring
8:
Hook up my harbor freight plasma cutter because my old PCM-70 just died
(prob not worth sending to the shop, its high freq anyways)
9: Buy CAD/CAM and read the tutorials
10: Throw down some
(1/4" bar grate?) for slats and START CUTTING!....in the driveway till i get my water table built
Okay....set me straight.