So I have been interested in machining and CNC for a few years now. And almost started building one of these CNC routers a few years ago but the price was just a little out of reach then. Well steppers and controlers have come done in price quite a bit in the last few years and it is time to build one.

Work area will be 26x52x7, with an A-axis coming later after the machine is working properly.

Going to keep a parts list with prices right here at the top of the thread for anyone that wants it.

$489.87 Keling 4-axis kit with 495oz/in motors (Includes $30.87 S&H)
$9.57 GT (3mm) Pitch, 150 Teeth, 9 mm (.354) Wide Neoprene Belt
$10.75 GT (3mm) Pitch, 200 Teeth, 9 mm (.354) Wide Neoprene Belt
$20.62 2 x GT (3mm) Pitch, 60 Teeth, Polycarbonate Timing Pulley With Aluminum Insert ($10.32 ea)
$60 24 x AXS 1614-2RS Bearings .375x1.125x.375 ($2.50 ea)
$25.08 6 x AXS R8-2RS bearings .5x1.125x.3125 ($4.18 ea)
$55.98 2 x 4'x8'x3/4in MDF Home Depot ($27.99 ea)
$23.99 1 x 4'x8'x1/2in MDF Home Depot
____________
$695.95 Total - updated 10/12/07


And here are some renders of the nearly completed design.
http://nlancaster.shackspace.com/CNC%20Router/cnc%20machine%203-4.jpg
As you can see I am going with belt drive on all axis because I like having the steppers hidden away on the inside of the machine. Not hanging out ready to be hit buy someone moving things in the shop and not paying attention.
http://nlancaster.shackspace.com/CNC%20Router/cnc%20machine%20belt%20drive%20assem.jpg
I know this is a more complicated way to do things. And will be proto typing one drive axis before actually building the rest of the machine to make sure my design works.
http://nlancaster.shackspace.com/CNC%20Router/cnc%20machine%20side.jpg
http://nlancaster.shackspace.com/CNC%20Router/cnc%20machine%20front.jpg
Please give me feedback you have.
Thanks,
Nick

Very interesting design, Nick.

Please post some renderings of the A axis when you have time.

I'm also curious how you'll drive the X axis. I'll be using 1/2-10 acme threaded rod, and am not quite sure how it will behave on a long span (48 inches).

My only suggestion would be to enclose the drive belts, just for safety.

I will be using 1/2-10 2 start acme screws on the x and y axis. Enclosures for the belt drives will be one of the first things the machine cuts. :D I have yet to design the A-axis but I have 10 inches of clearance below the y-axis carriage and a total of 7-inches of Z-axis movement. When I design the A-axis I will post some pics of it, but the building of the base machine will come first. If you want to see aproximatly what I am going to do look here (http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41826) at Lionclaw LC-50B

I am not sure if I can build the machine stiff enough for 10 inches of clearance, that is why there are so many holes at the top of the gantry sides. All flat surfaces of the machine will be laminated with Counter top laminate like spalm's machine is, as seen here. (http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15270) I will be drilling all those holes so that if I have to reduce the height of the Y-axis I can just move it down without having to rework anything.

Thanks for the response.

That looks like a promising design. I don't think you will have much room for the machine to rack on the X. The shape of the rails will help to prevent it. I run a single 48" ball screw on mine with good results. I can rapid at better than 350 IPM, but have it set at 270 IPM.

I can see only one suggestion. On the Y axis, if you move the motor outside, you would gains some travel. If the X doesn't interfere, then you are good there. I have all three of mine on the outer ends and use as much travel as possible. Mine are direct drive though. You could leave the Y motor inside with a different angle on the mount. It might then miss the Z.
I look forward to seeing your progress and good luck with it.


Nevermind on that. It looks like it would clear the Z. :)

Hey Nick,

It's looking pretty good.

I got my vacuum bag working and glued up my gantry side pieces.

Alan

acondit, yeah vacuum baggin on a flat surface seems to be the way togo. I am contemplating building my table from a vacuum bagged block of foam, instead of the built up torsion table we normally see on here. I have build many RC airplanes with foam core wings and they are incredibly strong. I have seen 2 guys jumping up and down on a foam core RC airplane that was supported 100inches apart, they jumped 6 times before it started to break, and had to jump twice more to complete the break, and it was only 3 inches thick at its thickest point. That will probably be plenty strong for a CNC table, without the resonating booming noise a hollow box could produce.

Leeway, yes it would clear the y-carriage by .25-.5 inches depending on how far out it is adjusted for tensioning of the belt.

http://nlancaster.shackspace.com/CNC%20Router/y-axis%20clearnace.jpg

Recieved the first parts today. Living in Portland Oregon area we have Mcguire Bearing (http://www.mcguirebearing.com/) right in the middle of town. I got all these bearing for the same price as VXB without having to pay any shipping.

On a second note I have since seen some inexpensive angular contact bearings but only in 12mm, and I can't seem to find angular contact bearings in inch sizes. Does anyone know a source for inch angular contact bearings that don't cost a bloody fortune?

24 sealed .375x1.125 inch bearings for the linear rail trucks.
6 sealed .5x1.125 inch bearings for the acme screws.

sorry about the picture quality, bad lighting.
http://nlancaster.shackspace.com/CNC%20Router/bearings.jpg

Hi, looks like a good design.

This is sort of a generic question - why do people build these routers up with the angled uprights ? It seems like it would be stronger and easier to build with straight up sides. Is this just to reduce mass, look cool, or something I am just missing ?

Thanks

Elementary.. It is to take advantage of the X axis travel and even out weight distribution.

By having a slanted upright, you change the CENTER OF GRAVITY of the router, plus you gain X distance at the 0 end.

I am a newbie, but I think I am right?

Well the uprights could be straight rectangles and still get the full x travel. I mainly did it with the angled uprights because it looks better. There would be reduction in weight with the angled uprights, which is never a bad thing. I have long studied design as a hobby, my father was an Industrial/mechanical designer for 27 years. All thru history you will find things that were built that look good. One example, arguably one of the best looking fighter aircraft of all time, the North American P-51 Mustang fighter of World War 2. One of the designers was interviewed after the war and stated that the airplane looked good because they set out to make a good looking aircraft. The first models of the aircraft placed in the wind tunnel showed that the better looking of the preliminary designs really was a better design. I have always found that I like using something that looks good. A good looking car, boat, RC airplane, or power tool, will always be purchased first all other things being perceived as equal. So I am consciously trying to design a good looking machine, within the limits of feasibility and performance. That is why most of the edges of the machine will be rounded over, it just looks better and your edges also last longer. We will see how that pans out.
http://www.chuckhawks.com/p51dnasa.jpg

Hi Ozarkcnc, I am not sure if you are right or not, but I am new to this as well.

The slant I am talking about is on the router side of the gantry. At least so far, I cannot see how it impacts X motion, and the center of gravity change seems small, but maybe you are right.

Hey nlancaster, nice looking design.

On the question of the gantry tilting back; it does look nice, it moves the center of gravity to the center of the uprights, and increases the reach of the router to the rear of the table. One thing that it prevents though is being able to clamp vertical boards to the front of the machine and route on their edges. This may not be a concern, but it does allow some interesting designs. I guess you would have to move your long screw and motor slightly off to one side to allow wider boards (?), and maybe mount the motor at the rear of the machine. Allowing 8 inch boards would probably be sufficient to dovetail drawers etc. (I would recommend dual screws anyway.)

How are you going to get preload on your linear bearings? I don’t see any adjustment ability, at least on the long axis. One method that I used recently is to split the rails and be able to spread them apart, rather than trying to press a cantilevered truck against them.

Steve

The particular angle you mention on the front of the gantry is done because it is excess material. It is not needed for structural integrity. If left in place, it does two things. Adds weight that the X motor has to move. It obstructs the ease in which you can access the router for tool changes from the side.
His Y axis isn't really offset much. The mechanicals are, but the Y itself is bolted inline with the X trucks.
When you see them more severly offset on the gantry, it is to make the best use of the screw as well as balance for this type gantry.

I didn't offset my gantry at all, but I have a bridge type gantry. It loses travel on both the X and Y screw, but gains ridgidity. Here is an image of mine.
44895

All the steppers drivers and power supply arrived on Thursday from Keling Inc.
http://nlancaster.shackspace.com/CNC%20Router/electronics.JPG

4 x 495oz/in Steppers with 3/8in shaft
4 x 40Volt 3.0amp drivers
1 x C10 Breakout board from CNC4PC.com
1 x 24volt 8.3amp power supply
(not pictured) 1 x 24volt 80mm Cooling fan & 5Volt power supply for BOB

I think this is one of the better all in one kits I have seen. I hope it does as good a job as its specs suggest. Now I get to have all the fun of wiring the whole mess up for some testing. :D

Built the first part of the CNC router today. $80 worth of MDF later we now have a very large very flat table to build and eventually place the CNC machine on.

http://nlancaster.shackspace.com/CNC%20Router/table1.jpg
http://nlancaster.shackspace.com/CNC%20Router/table2.jpg
http://nlancaster.shackspace.com/CNC%20Router/table3.jpg

65in long 37in wide 23.5in tall.
That is a 24x16 framers square in the middle of the table for scale. Still some clean up to do in the garage to make room for this beast but we are getting close.

After much hacksawing and fileing first 2 parts of the actual machine are done! These are the stepper moter/belt tensioning members for the Z-axis drive assembly. Tomarrow I will make the HDPE mounting plate for the Drive assembly and by monday hope to have a testable drive assembly to make sure my idea will work.
http://nlancaster.shackspace.com/CNC%20Router/z-motor%20mounts.jpg

$489.87 Keling 4-axis kit with 495oz/in motors (Includes $30.87 S&H)
$9.57 GT (3mm) Pitch, 150 Teeth, 9 mm (.354) Wide Neoprene Belt
$10.75 GT (3mm) Pitch, 200 Teeth, 9 mm (.354) Wide Neoprene Belt
$20.62 2 x GT (3mm) Pitch, 60 Teeth, Polycarbonate Timing Pulley With Aluminum Insert ($10.32 ea)
$60 24 x AXS 1614-2RS Bearings .375x1.125x.375 ($2.50 ea)
$25.08 6 x AXS R8-2RS bearings .5x1.125x.3125 ($4.18 ea)
$55.98 2 x 4'x8'x3/4in MDF Home Depot ($27.99 ea)
$23.99 1 x 4'x8'x1/2in MDF Home Depot
$126.10 32ft 1.25x1.25x.1875 Aluminum Angle Metalsupermarkets.com
____________
$822.05 Total - updated 10/20/07

Add $32 12x24inch HDPE to the total. I have now cut out the Z-axis motor/belt tensioning plate and it looks like this is very feasable.

http://nlancaster.shackspace.com/CNC%20Router/Z-motor%20mount%20and%20bearings.jpg

Unseen is the second bearing in a pocket on the bottom of the HDPE plate.

How do you get the HDPE to look so clean and smooth? everytime i try and cut it, it looks all chewed up and rough.

Jim:confused:

60tooth Carbide 10" Table saw blade, and regular twist drills, also forstner bits for the bearings. Also it is not perfectly smooth. There are saw marks from the table saw down all the cut edges, but they are still fairly small and smooth to the touch.

And I just noticed this morning that somehow I screwed it up. The bearings are not lined up vertically. The lower bearing that protrudes is offset to the left about 1/32-1/16th of and inch. So now I have to make the part all over again. But thankfully I noticed this before inserting the threaded inserts.

Well I spent all of monday night 3hrs trying to fix the drill press to drill square holes. I have been unable to accomplish this. I am stumped. I would appreciate any help any one could give me.

acondit, ygpm.

You need a mortising attachment to drill square holes. ;)

If the head is tilting from front to back, I don't have an answer for you.

;P I ment square to the surface of the bearing block :D

And what I am talking about is the table is tilted side to side or front to back. every adjustment I make sends it oneway or the other. sometimes not even the way I tought it would go, extremly Frustrating.

Side to side should fairly easily be adjusted with the table. Use a square on the table and a long straight bit to check. Front to back would depend on the machine, I don't even know how to adjust my own for that. Is the head flexing when you drill, by chance?

Well this thread is going to be dead for a few weeks at least. I had a hard drive failure in my system that took out my entire raid array and all copies of my design. I have to start the design over from scratch. :( I will be back it is just a matter of time. Thanks.

Nick,

Sorry to hear that. Hopefully, the reconstruction of your design will be easier than the first construction.

Best Wishes,
Alan

Yeah it should go pretty quick because i dont have to figure anything out. I already know what the general dimensions and so on will be. acondit, once I get the design back up I will shoot you a dimensioned drawing for those parts we were talking about. I am going to be all about getting this thing built as fast as possible after this major failure. Thanks for the support.

So I have now recovered to where I was 2 weeks ago. redone the entire design in solidworks and made a few minor changes. We will start building the Table torsion box in the next few days.

http://nlancaster.shackspace.com/cnc router/table.jpg
Most of the torsion box is 1/5inch MDF with 3/4MDF for the rail mounts and top of the table. I will be insetting T-track in the top of the table for clamping. Some of the people here have used t-track for clamping but they did not show alot of detal on how the mounted the track. I was just going to rout slots in the table top with the machine itself and then glue/screw them into place. Will this hold in the MDF?

I hope to make better progress over the next few weeks.

Edit: Now it appears that all of the pictures I had posted in this thread will not open in the forum. Anyidea why that may be.

http://nlancaster.shackspace.com/CNC%20Router/table.jpg
Above is the direct link to the picture and they work. and that is the same in all the other posts on this thread. I have tried it without the "%20" with the same result. Help.

Edit: Well I just figured it out. I had used caps when creating the folder. and that used to work but for somereason I had to change the folder title to lowercase and now it works... strange.

Nick,

Just in the last couple of days, they made some change in the zone and now everything appears lowercase in the forums. Even though when you edit you can see it in mixed case. I asked about it, but I never seem to get answers to my questions.

Alan

Hello,

Very interesting design and build so far. Keep up the good work!

Keven

Well after redesigning after hard drive failure. I am now making more progress on the machine. Here are some pics of the 3/4 finished table.

http://nlancaster.shackspace.com/cnc%20router/table%20build.jpg
http://nlancaster.shackspace.com/cnc%20router/table%20close%20up.jpg
As you can see the table is quite thick with much cross bracing. Spent 5 hours on friday making all those peices. First built a template piece and then used a router with pattern following bit to make all the other pieces I dentical. (notice all the fine MDF dust all over everything) Started glue up after leveling the work table that is just big enough to build this table on, so that the work surface was as flat as possible. Glue up consisted of clamping to the table and also using pocket holes and screws to secure the long parts of the table. The sides may not be perfectly square but we have a solution for that, you will see when the gantry gets built. Only the long pieces adn end peices are glued in right this moment. There will be 4 pieces of 3/8th threaded rod running across the table with nuts and washers to allow adjustment of the rails themselves. The bottom will not go on the torsion box until the t-slots are inlet into the top to allow bolting them in. Next week we start building the other torsion boxes for the gantry.