Hi guys,
Christmas project was to design and build a cnc router, I live in perth Australia so I was able to get some local expertise as well. It works beyond my wildest imagination, Ive since construction, built, intarsia items, clocks, cut aluminium, made a wooden clock gear endless amount of plaques ect, it blows me away how versatile these things are. Heres a photo of the unit and a quick photo of a clock gear I gave a go, the gear is 9cm external dimensions with 64 teeth. The cnc unit is 820mm wide gantry and 1100mm long bed

Very nice!! I have been wanting to try out some gears on mine but I haven't gotten around to it yet, I have been doing pictures in wood. And some signs.

Very nice, impressive work!

Wow, great looking machine. Congrats on its completion.

Jason

Simso
Looks like a fine piece of construction!

The gantry appears to be aluminum plate. Is the (blue) table frame of the same material?

Thanks, WT

yeh the gantry is 160 mm x 10mm plate alloy and the lower section of the gantry is a 100mm plate with the ballscrew between them. The base section is all 10mm steel construction on a 40x40mm box steel trolley which houses the computer and electrics. The z axis is a milled 100mm x 25mm plate of alloy gutted for the ballscrew.
Heres a couple more photos of little jobs done already first is some alloy vent holes next is a clock with routed pocket in back for clock mechanism and bored hole for temp gauge, and the next is a piece done for intarsia

Thanks for the material specs & the up to date photos.

Should hold together quite well for you.

Nice cuts you complete!

what was the thickness of that gear, bit used (size) and number/depth of passes made and or feed speed when you cut it? Just curious.

Thanks.

b

I did that as a test unit to see whether its possible or not, so I used craftwood and used a 3/32 end mill cutter with a feed speed of 90, material thickness was 3mm, passes were 2mm. A hardwood would come up a lot better because there nice clean cuts. Ive always wanted to make a wooden clock, so It was a test piece for maximum teeth minimum size. You couldnt use larger than a 3/32 in this application becuase that is the exact gap between the teeth. Gotta love the accuracy of these machines

Simso I would like to add my congratulations to the others. Well done. :cheers:

Great to see another Aussie builder. You don't really use it down that low do you? :D

Originally when I designed it, I actually thought **** yeh this is low. But it actually works fantastic and is quite a comfortable height, I have a standard rolling chair, and the lcd sits at the right height. The jobs are actually quite easy to setup at this height. Its wide enough that I can even sit a standard house door onto the base frame. I had to build the unit this low as storage is a major concern in my shed, at this height it can roll under my main work bench when not in use, Major plus, but ive used it every day since construction, so havent needed to store it away yet. Where abouts in aussie are you

Simso I am in Geelong Vic.

This thread shows my router build so far. I've done a bit more and must take some more pics and post.

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28979

What a small smal world, Local guru rod. "he gets embarrased easily" showed me that photo as inspiration when I spoke to him just before chrissy, when I said I was thinking of building a unit, he sent me some photos of a few builds under way. Nice setup I like the fact youve used your rails ontop of the surface and not along side, alot more ridgid. I started my project mentally after seeing rod about the 20th december, and then physically when everyone re-opened about the 8th of january and had the job finished by about the 19th I think. It now has about a 100hours of cutting under its belt.
Steve

Whether or not Rod is a guru, his encouragement and enthusiasm has been great for me and a lot of others. :)

.

Fair enough, he came through for me, any question instant response, made the process a lot easier, even helped with links to parts I was after. Im under the impression your going rack and pinion arent you, if I was ever to do it again, I would seriously give servo motors a thought and leave the steppers alone. How are you setting the rack and pinion up why not the ballscrew,

Steve

Ps if any ones after the mach 3 file for the above gear just pm me and Ill send them to you, lets you know if your machine can do it or not

R&P appealed to me for it's ability to handle a dusty environment.

And I liked the idea of keeping the X rails closer to the centre of stress so hence the high sides. (probably not the correct term for that)

Also driving the X from both sides instead of from the centre of a gantry to avoid racking.

So those reasons seemed to me to point to R&P.

Gear rack is economical too, however the cost of belts and pulleys offsets that a bit.

I do have a ballscrew on the Z axis. Already had that so that choice was easy. It has good dust seals too.

Interesting concept, would definetly like to see the end result. I dont think racking is really an issue with these, if the ballscrew is central to the rails and pulling accordingly, I cannot see it racking at all unless the gantry wasnt ridgid. Not possible with your gantry, very very ridgid and strong looking. I have nil flex in my gantry as well. Only issue Ive had so far is trying to route to fast through the material. machine is very very capable but the router can only go so fast. have snapped of two 6mm router bits so far. Still okay rewind the job load another tool piece in and wolla youd never pick the starting point again. The other issue is motor couplings coming loose, thats once again probably me driving the machine to fast and not letting the router do its work. Servo motor would also be better because if it misses a step you can recover with a servo and not a stepper
Steve

that is a verry nice machine

Hey Simso, nice work! you got that thing built pretty quick!!

I'm from Adelaide. This is actually my first post. I've been lurking around for a month or so. I've been trying to get my design sorted but need to finalise where i'm going to get my ballscrews/nuts from (ebay, US, local) Where did you get yours?

So you know Rod.. Do you know the other Rod (Bones, not from this forum)?

Cheers

matt

Know of him but dont know him, rod sends me emails through from the local cnc group,

Ballscrews were from homeshopcnc.com, (states) you cannot beat his prices even on ebay, locally they are here in perth 760 with a 3 week wait and then I found out that they order them in from the states as well. I bought from homeshop 3 ballscrews 1000mm 820mm and 400mm with 4 ballnuts and they were delvered to my door for about 350, he is the cheapest around, There not ground ballscrews but rolled, Ive used the ballnuts standard and havent repacked them. Measurements are spot on when cutting, I tell the machine to go say 670 travel and it travels 670. I have since building which was 13 days ago c locked up about 160 hours on the router now, poor thing didnt expect a work out like Ive given it. Hehehehe,
If you need help yell out, Im not the best but now have a very good grasp of the process and If I get stuck I can guarantee rod will come through.
Steve

hi

simso very nice work , so your a aussie to ??

cheers

Yeh mate, the only problem with being an aussie is that when you want to build things like this, you gotta order from the states. ****s you of that our local infrastructure cant support the range and demand thats out there, so where all forced to buy from overseas

LO simso , so true about being a island out in the middle of no where LOL

question ? whos rod ? i see his name pop up all the time in here and havent a faints idea who u all are talking about

what mother board/drivers did u use ???

cheers

Rod's a local guy here in perth who has an obsession "healthy" with the building of these machines, Currently he has 3 machines at home and now is starting his fourth. I used tried and true xylotex.com for the driver boards you cant go wrong with what everyone else uses. I have schematics and wiring for build it yourself units but its just not really worth it. On your first build you just want it to work first go and not be stuffing around with say a dry solder or something like that. If your contemplating doing it all I can say is it will be the best investment you ever make. If you wanted to make an income from them not a problem at all.
Steve

Any chance you can post some more pics of your machine? (maybe in the user gallery or project log forum..) what are the 'missile' switches for?

Did you get the preloaded nuts on the ball screws? I was thinking that if i went with the homeshopcnc ballscrew i would go for 2 standard nuts and have adjustment to account for wear of the screws.
I want my x axis to be quite long ~1400mm, but the cost to ship and 1600mm ballscrew from the states is about 2.5 times the cost of the screw itself! the good news is that i'm probably going to the US for work next week so i might see if i can get the screws shipped to the hotel and bring them back on the plane :-)

Limitations of the postal service is 1000mm in length for items. When I started I thought yeh pre loaded ballnuts maybe 2 together shimmed to remove any backlash ect, but realistically you dont need them, maybe when its all worn out in a year or two then two ballnuts or load it myself, but the fact is you dont need it. When I route aluminium and I say I want a 60mm circle it comes out at a 60mm circle no plus or minus. When routing wood same again but Ive since found that wood is a moving material, when you route it today and set it exactly to say 20mm it will be that but in a weeks time it might be 19.9 ect, thats wood for you. The missile switches are remote switches - first one power for computer and monitor, second one power for motor driver board third power for router and the last one is simply an auxillary power point maybe a vacuum system later.
Steve

So you just got the non-preloaded nuts? and only run one of them per screw?
Did you get the steppers from homeshopcnc too or did you get them in a package with your xylotex drive?

Nah I got the motors from china, but when you add the seperate postage ect it doesnt come out alot better then getting the complete package from xylotex, unless your buying more than three motors, I use the 267 oz units and they are more than capable, in the end it doesnt matter how fast your machine is because youve got to slow it down to allow the router to do its work. If its plunge routing, you need a feed of about 400mm min or you snap your router bit. Snapped two now being impatient. You can get your motor couplings from jaycar electronics (australia) as well, there cheaper then buying and shipping from overseas, found this out after I had bought mine. Motor mounts you make yourslelf, gantry you make youself by hand, thrustbearings and ballscrew rear support you need a lathe to make up and just press cheap skate bearings in. Anything else, if so yell out
Steve

So you just got the non-preloaded nuts? and only run one of them per screw?


So are you running preloaded?

Did you get your linear rails through linearbearings.com.au? the Abbatech brand?

no non preloaded, I got the rails of ebay, didnt know of the cheaper units available in melbourne, rails are thk very very smooth, curious how good the ones are from linear motions, they realistically should be fantastic as well. I think people get hung up when it comes to making these machines with getting no backlash here and there ect no movement tight ect aiming for .01mm accuracy. In the end where machining wood and wood moves , Im extatic about the accuracy of mine cut 20 get 20 cut 670 get 670, theres no way you can do this by hand. Also dont forget the router is always appliying back pressure and force on the ballscrews and rails. The thing that amazes me witrrh these is you can tell it to centre drill a hole 600mm away and return home and then repeform the progarm and it comes up exactly the same. The only thing I can stress on is rigidty of your unit, nice solid gantry and nice solid base. Acme screws will work as well but they will reduce your accuracy a bit and same with rails of any type except ball carriage units will reduce your accuracy a bit as well. It comes down to how much you want to spend and what you want to make with it. My unit was governed in size by where its going to be stored when not in use, but I did want to be able to load a standard house door into it as well
Steve

Matty heres some more photos from during the build, took me 11 days to go from first part to fully finished, there was a week or so earlier during chrissy when everyone else was closed that I made enquiries and placed orders for parts. The only thing Im not happy with so far is the base board which is 16mm craft wood. Makes it difficult to clamp jobs down, Im currently making a solid steel 10mm thick base to replace the craftwood one with m6 holes gridded out every 100 x 100mm that way I can use jigs for clamping of jobs by simply srewing into the grid holes. Im also looking at making a quick change unit for the router bits as its a pain in the ass changing bits

Hey Steve, Thanks for answering all my questions. Really appreciate it. If you get a chance, do you reckon you could dive me some dimensions for the ball screw nuts. I think i might got he homeshop cnc ones and don't have any detail on those nuts.
Cheers

Really like your machine. Very simial to what i have in mind. Excellent work. Still can't over how fast you did it all. Are you on holidays?

Dont know what you mean by dimensions for ballscrew nuts, what exactly are you after, I was on holidays for 2 days during the build, when I got home from work I simply tackled the next little bit, the trick is not to look at it as a complete job but as little steps example today and tommorrow I want to build the z axis, not the whole machine, I hope this makes sense. Im lucky because I also have my own mill and lathe at home and had someone local I could call if I got stuck or needed ideas. Before I saw rod I was seriously thinking of allthread delron nuts and skate bearings for rails. I can guarantee I wouldnt have been happy with the products it pumps out and may have even given the whole cnc thing away, it was through rods experience and knowledge that allowed me to progress so fast and with a quality product
Steve

Dimensions like the outside diameter, length, thread size, length of threaded part etc. Just so i can see if they'll fit in my design.

Yeah, my Dad lives about 5 mins away and he has a decent lathe, mill, cut off wheel, welder, grinder, drill press etc... so thats handy.

Mmmm hope this helps, if say your y axis is 820mm then you need 820mm plus another 35mm. This is because you machine one end down to fit inside your rear bearing support block, and then you machine the other end down to fit through your thrust bearing and a threaded section to tighten the bearing and ballscrew together and a little bit extra for the motor coupler to attach to. You mount the thrust bearing assembly and rear bearing support block inside the area of concern and allow the shaft to protrude outside for coupling to motor. Heres a photo of my three ballscrews machined and waiting to be fitted, heres also a phot of a job I finished today
Steve

Sorry, think i mislead you. I mean the nut (i think there are three to the left in your photo. Just wonder what the length and the OD is, and what the threaded bit is.

That pic looks great. Did you design it yourself?

Yes my own picture from a scanned piece of paper. The nuts are supplied by homecnc, they are the standard non preloaded units. I dont know what the external size is Ill have a look later but need to access some remote areas to do it, Im pretty sure however they are about 28mm dia with a length of about 45mm. Basicaslly just buy his units and build from there

Great job on the router build. Looks like some pretty impressive projects you have been doing with it.

Thanks Rob, Matty the ballscrew nuts are 43.5mm long total, 27mm dia on but the one side with the ball recerculating tube is an additional 7mm in dia, the threaded section of the unit is 13.5mm deep. When attaching these to you axis's all I used was a block of alloy drilled and tapped and simply screwed thes ballnut into the block, the block is attached to the axis with two bolts as well. I have seen people simply use a piece of 5mm angle line instead of a solid block and it works fine too. Hope the picture explains all
Steve

Hi Steve,

Can you please upload a picture like this one but taken of the front of the gantry. I am a one handed (LH only) who is soon to be building a CNC and a view, or views would be pretty good as I am just at the stage of working out where everything goes to do with the gantry and the up and down things. :)

I do know Rod from over there too :)

I have so far got Router, Xylotec 269 ready to go kit, linear bearing blocks and slides. I have got ballscrews and pre-loaded nuts coming from homeshopcnc and all the ITEM coming from Melbourne to build a frame.

Your machine looks great by the way!

Regards,
Bob

Hey bob, yes rod gets around doesnt he, he doesnt have an obsession with these at all, I think hes planning unit no 5 now. Okay heres some more photos hope they help. PS I didnt use preloaded ballnuts, just the standard ones and I can guarantee there accuracy its phenomenal. Theres also a pic of a 23 piece unit cnc cut out and sanded and assembled on page 3 of a roo drinking beer, to show you how accurate they can be.
Steve

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the photo's, just what I needed :)

Looking at the centre photo, is that a piece of 25mm square or something similar. It goes the full height and I would guess there is another on the other side too. It looks like that is how you get enough room for the leadscrew to fit, just the info I needed... Thanks!

Your talking about the z axis. That is a piece of 25mm thick by 100mm wide piece of aluminium. I milled the whole centre out to a depth of 15mm so that way the ballscrew and nut could fit smoothly in and the rails sit on the two sections left proud after milling out the guts. I looked at just simply bolting some 25mm by 25mm onto a base piece, but the feasability accuracy ridgity ect became issues and this was just easier and came up a lot better as its one solid piece.
The trick I found was to complete an axis and make it independant by itself. Example finish the y axis as a completed unit. Then make a z axis complete by itself and then bolt the two together, that way neither part relies on partys from the other to work properly, they are completley independant. Example my y axis is complete with a 160mm by 300mm plate that moves from left to right. My z axis simply bolts onto this plate
My x axis is a complete stand alone unit where you simply bolt the gantry onto, the gantry does not complete the x axis but simply attaches to it

Thanks Steve,

Just had a call from Linear Bearings, they are cutting my ITEM as we speak :)

I can't get that much machined but I think I can get hold of some 25mm square section and that should do very nicely until I can organise something better :)

Regards,
Bob

Hi Simso, Nice machine..
Have the same problems getting bits.
Me i am just starting out to try and build my own cnc. looked at BOBart seems to do the job, but who knows.
Dont suppose i could ask you for some guidance. if you have time

Dave

Scotland

Course its okay, thats what its all about nowadays sharing information and helping others with the same interests. If it wasnt for a local person who I met through this same process I would probably be still building mine and altering and redesigning ect

Thanks
I have designed the table. still to be built though.
What i would like to know is what equipment i would need to start running if you have a schematic layout of what i would need i would point me in the right direction. i dont know what else is needed besides stepper motors even then which one what else goes along with the to make the machine run in all 3 axis. god i sound dumb.. i do have autcad and i am pretty good with it if that helps?