Just a quick question,
Is anyone building the belt drive 64*27.5*7 inch table from Solsylva plans? I'm about 50% through them, and have a Xylotec set up wit CandNC Mini -IO -Super-Combo. I'm having some issues getting the materials for the Y axis 36" cross bar... at the moment i have it out of hardwood for prototype purposes and also that allowed me to line up the X and Z. I'm just waiting on my pulleys and belts now. I would like to hear /see from anyone else's experiences building this large home made table so we can swap ideas

Regards

Mark

I guess i'm the guinepig well the build is 70 % done without paint etc all i'm waiting on is econobelt for the pullys and belts.
If anyone wants to chime in please do

Mark

I am considering the plans. Post some pics so that we can see what you have done so far.

Jason

I to am considering this machine. When I bought my plans from David, he did not have this in the book, so I emailed him and had him send me the updated section and I have been looking them over. I agree, post some pictures and lets see what she looks like.

Bill

Do a search for Coogrrr. He's building the belt drive table with some modifications/alterations.

Anxious to see pictures.

yes, me and my brother in law rick are building one. this is our first time to try and build one of these things. he is the computer guy and i'm the fabricator since i own a one man machine shop and have been doing it for thirty years. never any cnc though.all i have to do is put on the belts for the xand y and the limit switches. we're using xylotec with 425 motors and mach3
we are having some what of a problem in that we tried to tune the motors the other day and we couldn't get them to turn at all.we finally decided to
uninstall mach and restore the computer anr reinstall mach and tommorrow
we are going to go at it again
will let you know what happens
fred

Fred, Rick
I’m almost at the same position in the build my, belts and pulleys arrived on Monday from econobelt.com. I did have issues with my motors and set-up originally, the problem I encountered was that the motors (425oz) would stall at a slow speed (built one of the smaller CNC’s for a beta test). I tried 2 different PC’s with the same result I only resolved it by using opto isolated board between the parallel port and the cable (I used the CandCNC.com board). I think the main issue was either noise or not enough parallel port voltage.
Keep me informed of your progress.

Mark

fred hutto
I am considering that build also but Iwas wondering if the plans could be modified for a 5'x5'x7" set up and maybe chain drive instead of belts? any comments would be helpful

today we got the motors running and tuned, for what we know they seemed to run good, did not have much time today. did come to realize that we think we need to install limit switches before run with belts, hopefully will install
both tommorrow looking to put in full day tommorrow
as for 5x5x7", i"m sure the stretched gantry would not be to much of a problembut as far as chains , i dont know , i"m still learning belts
I"m a rookie at this stuff.
Fred

Thanks fred
I finally got David's e-mail straitened out. I kept getting the letters turned around. He said the same as you about the gantry and here are the responses to my other questions I asked....
The gantry could be lengthened with a minimum of trouble but its beam
may have to be enlarged to reduce flex. The extra weight may reduce
the speeds at which the gantry can move as well. I see no real
problems though; nothing different gearing or larger drives couldn't
resolve.
I have tried chains and they are cheaper by about a factor of 2 or 3
but I was not happy with the results enough to pursue fine tuning.
They add significant drag as compared to belts and when tightened
enough to remove backlash the drag increases; there is bound to be a
happy medium, but I have not heard anyone speak well of chains other
than to say they work pretty well and are cheap. In a plasma setting
they may be just the answer though, since there is less chance of
damage from wayward splatter and the resolution of the cutting plasma
is usually worse than the table can hold.
The belt table's gantry and Z axes are completely made of metal. The X
chassis is wood but could easily be replaced with metal when the
proper tools are available. The prototype table with the wooden bed
and X rail supports would be a hazard to use with plasma, but again,
switching out to a steel frame with an "ice tray" grid to support the
metal stock would be straightforward.
Hopefully this helps!
David Steele

I will be ordering his plans soon, review them think about it review again and try to convince myself to not get to far ahead of what this is for, Entry level learning tool that will when done correctly will provide excellent results for a small investment and provide good parts! Wish I could say I'll start posting the build tomorrow but this will be a long process for me, I will post with my progress if the thread doesn't expire :) lol. Just pics no video wife burnt vid cam using night shot during daytime.... ? go figure. any way just try to pass what little info i have, Forward

Mark,
Hoe long did it take you to get the belts and pulleys from econobelt.com?
I've been wating sence Jan. 25th.
Larry

sdpi is not much better. I ordered Feb. 25th and for the dual leadscrew table and they just told me the pulley that is on backorder isn't expected to be delivered until April 15th. I'm thinking of just putting motors directly on the leadscrews.

I got the pulley that I order for sdpi in seven days.

Hello all,
Sorry I haven’t replied earlier but for some unknown reason it didn’t tell me there were new posts in this thread. The belts took about 3 weeks to arrive then I had a short order on the 2 belts for the X- axis. I e-mailed them and they acknowledged there error within 2 hours and shipped my other 2 next day delivery no charge (I’m actually very happy with there customer support although the initial delivery time was long).
Ok so here is the update I have played over the last week cutting air and have the Z running at 75ipm (not bad at all sounds good) the Y runs at 200ipm no issue at all now comes the fun part the X axis will run quite happy at 150ipm (although I want to re-cut some parts for the machine on the machine for the X).
Tonight I decided to go on an adventure and cut the bearing blocks and the X axis idler supports from ¼ Hardboard and to also drill mark (not drill jut a 1/16” of an inch) all the positions for the ¼ in aluminum stepper end plate. I thought that it would be a lot more accurate than my initial attempt and it was.
I didn’t do any circular interpolation in cutting (I manually drilled the bearing holes etc after the machine had marked the holes and cut the part). And I must admit I was rather proud of myself and the machine. I kept my feed’s down on the Hardboard to about 20ipm cutting with a 3/16 duel flute router bit
I have noticed a couple of things during this build and test phase I would advise that all gears are either Aluminum or Steel (I have 4 plastic ones mainly because econobelt had them in stock and will reorder them in aluminum). The plastic ones are to flimsy actually one of the flanges came off in my hand before it made it to the machine. However that being said the plastic ones are performing well so far but I don’t give them a long life expectancy. The other thing I have noticed but this is not a error is I only have my flat bed laid down I wont have my T-Slot finished until Saturday so I cut my parts on a 2” torsion bed clamped to the table top. The table vibrates in the X Axis on G1(cutting speed) cutting movements I’m hoping this will be cured when the extra weight is added with the 1 ½ inches of MDF.
All that said the plans are good and very forgiving to the builder and for a large size hobby machine, as I only intend to use it to rebuild itself then only cut Ply or Balsa for my hobby and a few customers (to make it pay for itself in the long term it’s a worthwhile investment so far.
If you want pictures I can post but don’t laugh because it’s still in prototype stage and won’t be painted for a few weeks until I get all the kinks out and get some circular interpolation done. If you want video I can also try to post that some where with it moving at the feed rates I have so far.

Regards,

Mark

Yes pics, pics, lots of pics. Nice big ones if possible.
A video of the machine running would also be great

Jason

A few Pics

Looking good...

Is the X (long axis) drive a single belt loop, or a flat belt with travelling motor, or two belts? It's not obvious from the pics on the Solsylva site, or from the two you've show so far...

Just curious, the idea of belt drive for a larger table is interesting.

Cheers, Chris

Though I'm not building the belt drive table, I have the plans and I believe it has two fixed belts on each side of the table. There is a motor on the back of the gantry(opposite side of the z/spindle) that uses a short belt and pulley to drive an axle that sits parallel to the gantry. This axle is supported by bearings on the gantry ends with the ends of the axle extending outside of the gantry. There is a timing gear on both ends that ride on the fixed belts.

Kiwichris
It’s a flat belt (actually they were to round belts that I cut in half due to the size of the table) and the X motor is on traveling the center of the Y axis gantry with a drive shaft that keeps both of them aligned driving both X belts . I have my MDF cut for my T slots today and will install them in the morning. Let me know of any areas you want me to photograph and I will when I’m home. As I said it’s my prototype to rebuild itself and so far its doing well. But I did go overboard on my electronics this build could be done quite cheaply
Regards,
Mark

Thanks for the pics. Some pics of the side and back of the gantry would be great.

Jason

Thanks for the pics. Some pics of the side and back of the gantry would be great.

Jason

Beat me to it, given that the X motor is on the gantry, a shot of the back would be great.. :).

Not so much about photos, but in general about the Solsylva belt table design...

Given that the gantry is made from Alloy rather than MDF, are there any bits that require milling or precise metal work? i.e. can the average garage hobbiest with a hacksaw and a drill press build it?

And one more question before I go back to lurking... Is the main gantry itself made of Alloy? That's gotta be a big lump of Aluminium if it is....

Cheers Me.

Ill get some shots from the back tonight and post them for you, everything on the gantry (plans) is either 1/8 or ¼ inch aluminum the y axis span is 4” aluminum channel. I couldn’t find any so mine is 2 * 2 inch angle iron bolted together soon to be TIG welded (I got a tig welder from e-bay for $60). The plans are very forgiving and require no milling and as for tools the average tool set will work a good saw is a necessity as are good drill bits. All belts and pulleys and bearings can be ordered on-line and shipped world-wide.
Regards,

Mark

some more pics

Any videos of cuts or work samples.

Jason

Man that looks, VERY NICE!

The only thing left to do is trim the zip ties down.

Bill

Very nice. Where did you get that pendant?

For those of you considering belt drive machines, I'm trying to get rid of some fairly long T5 belt hardware (belts and drive mechanisms). I have an ad listed in the CNCzone classifieds, with some really low prices, especially on the belts. These belts should be compatible with the T5 16mm wide hardware on econobelt if you don't want the sprockets I'm selling, and vice versa if you wanted to buy new belts:

http://www.cnczone.com/classifieds/showproduct.php/product/1347

Thanks,

Ahren

Hows progress on this one?

Be really interested to hear your impressions of the end result, and maybe a video of it cutting, photos of stuff cut? Anything> :)

Or even the story of how it exploded and took out a city block would be great...!

Hi all,
I’ll try and answer some of your questions. Sorry I haven’t posted in a while but the weather and real life came into the picture. Walter I got the pendant from CandCNC you can find them on the web. It works well for most functions however small movements sometimes go in the opposite direction instead of the commanded direction. They are looking into this issue.
I leveled the bed at the weekend and took some video and pictures of it I’ll find somewhere to post it for you unfortunately on the last section I damaged the cutter so I need to go and get another one. The belts are working out well but I did snap the X axis small motor drive belt (my fault and I thought that might happen during building commissioning and tuning so I ordered double for the motor belts for all axis (not the main drive belts)) however I will have to replace the “X” left hand side pipe as it isn’t straight I have a 1/8 inch difference between centers. This hasn’t caused a problem to date but I’m sure it will so I may as well use the machine to remark the positions on a new pipe. The same is true of the bottom Y axis as my local store had run out of black pipe when I built it and I used EMT.
If I had to do it all again (which I probably will this summer) I would change a few things all the pipes would be solid with pillow blocks (may be not the Z axis). I would also look at another design for the 2*10 on the X axis that holds the pipes maybe from an aluminum frame. The table itself I would keep as MDF as its solid and heavy. I would also weld the end plates to the Y channel.
It’s cutting well for me as I only use it for large Ply and Balsa aircraft formers (up to 52 inches) and the tolerances are better than I could ever achieve by hand. Now I know I can do this I’m watching e-bay for a 60watt laser to actually laser cut the parts for a new business venture for the family but this will involve a major redesign (so long as it pays for itself and a bit more, in the long run I’ll be happy). Mach 3 works very well and I also use sheetcam which is another good product.
Well that’s all for now I’ll be playing again this weekend

Regards,

Mark

p.s. if anyone can handle a 4 meg video i'll send it via e-mail let me know. its short but you can see it leveling some of the bed at 40 I.P.M.

M

Yes Cris we have finished the router and it works really well.I haven"t had time to post because of business. Rick is out of town this week and I"m covered up but we are hoping to get something on line next week.
Fred

Fred,
Have you found repeatability on the X axis? if so how are you measuring it ? I’m using a dial gauge and getting approx 10 thou on short runs 20thou on long cant work that one out but I think it may be flex (due to the X axis pipe twist). Y and Z are fine.

Mark

Chris,
I have e-mailed you a short vid let me know what you think

Mark

jsfjet
I haven"t checked the repeat. one thing I"ve noticed is that when you jog it,
it goes .0007 three or four times and then jumps .0014. I guess because
of the belt. I"ve got my x on the short axis, and y on the long, as I like to stand at the end of the machine so I can see everything without looking over the rail. well I gotta go won"t be back until next week.
Fred