OK, so like many others, I've been lurking for a long time, and have had some help from you guys which has been great! So now I've finally got some time on my hands to start my router. My shop has been in need of a cnc for some time now as my business produces some difficult parts to make by hand. I also plan to start making some precision templates for my dealers.

Purchased all the steel locally plus rumaged through their scrap bin for odds and ends.
Ordered the following...all on it's way:
-55" supported hardened rails w/pillow blocks from vxb.com (x axis)
-425oz Xylotex 4 axis kit (2 for x axis)
-3 49" racks (part# 200012) from stdsteel.com
-8mm ID ball bearings (y and z axis)

Hoping to cut:
-49x49x6"
-Mostly MDF, some polycarbonate, acrylic, light aluminum cutting

Plans:
Racks on the side of the table to drive the steel gantry. The Z-Axis will be MDF for now because I have no way of *inexpensively* machining the metal to make mounts... etc, just basic metalworking tools. Still need to buy a PC router, a cable organizer, and misc. nuts and bolts and extras.

This machine has grown from the original design of a 12x12 all MDF/acme router into what it is. I've drawn up (with my limited autocad skills) two different designs which this has changed from, so I'm just kinda wingin' it.

2 questions before ordering any more parts
1. Where do I get gears for my racks?
2. Should I gear down the motors or use a direct drive?

OK - Pictures!

The metal from our local fabrication shop.
http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/1.jpg

All welded together. My poor 944's new home is outside the shop...
http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/2.jpg

The start of the sides of the gantry.
http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/3.jpg

-3 49" racks (part# 200012) from stdsteel.com


The 200010 would have been a better choice IMO



2. Should I gear down the motors or use a direct drive?

I would gear them down using belt and pulleys. However have a look at the Mechmate. They direct drive their pinions

Greg

I'm interested in a steel router of this size, will be following up on this thread.

More pictures coming soon...

About the gearing issue.. How much should it be geared down? 1:2, 1:3 ? What would the benefit be?

I'm getting ready to order the gears and am not sure what to get.

Thanks!



By the way -

Greolt - your blue router is a big inspiration of mine. Absolutely an awesome design - and your input is always appreciated!

I use Geckos but there are quite a few blokes over here using the Xylotex driver and they say that the practical speed you can rely upon is about 300 rpm motor speed.

My thinking when deciding on gearing ratio was as follows.

Belts and pulleys are not cheap and because of the compact design of my mounts it was not desirable to change this part once made.

In contrast the pinions are quite cheap and easily changed if ratio did not work as well as hoped.

The theory is that it is best not to go below 20 tooth with my size rack. Upper limit does not matter.

So I started with 24 tooth pinions and 4 to 1 reduction ratio on the pulleys.

This has worked very well for me so no pinion size change was needed. This is approx 100 steps per mm (1/10 micro step)

I'm using similar motors to what you have ordered and with Mach running at 25000hz I can rapid at 7500 mm per min all day with very brisk acceleration setting.

That's about 375 rpm. Remember I'm using Geckos not Xylotex.

If I bump it up to 60000hz it will rapid at over 15000 mm per min but this is way too fast for my comfort. :)

Remember that my machine is smaller than yours so it is not as far to go before reaching a limit.

Might also be worth getting an idea from Xylotex what a reasonable top RPM can be expected with that combination.

Hope this helps, Greg

up to 14 hours of labor...

http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/4.jpg

http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/5.jpg

http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/6.jpg

http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/7.jpg

http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/8.jpg

Those rails are well worth the money, I can move this ~40lb gantry with little more than a light breeze.

Any comments, suggestions?

kEEP IT UP .. I AM CONTINEOUSLY WATCHING UR PROGRESS.... I WANA SEE THIS MACHINE RUNNING MAKING FLOWERS AND UR DREAMS IN REALITY..:_)

Hi, I am studying different designs and component costs. Could you tell us about how much the rack and pinions costs ?

Looking Good. I just sold my cnc a few weeks back to a great fellow member of the zone. Now I am looking to build another one. I am gonna follow this build. It looks like what I had building up in my head. Gonna be a great looking router. I am gonna mount my rails on the sides about 6" below the table surface. There is another router a member here has built and It looks great. Hope he dont mind if I post one of his pics. But here is kinda what I had in mind.
Steve

Hi, I am studying different designs and component costs. Could you tell us about how much the rack and pinions costs ?

The racks cost 16.50/ea from stdsteel.com - with shipping it was $74 for three racks. They don't accept credit cards which is odd. And they don't sell gears, so I'm still sourcing them. I need to order the gears and an acme screw for the Z axis and I should have everything to complete it.

I'm up to 20 hours of labor so far. Kinda had an oops moment, didn't take into account the rail and bearings for the lower gantry support and ended up with very little room underneith, so it's gone. Thats what I get for building without much of a design. It is very sturdy with just the top support, and now has rails on it. This thing is so smooth, it could probably be driven on just one side with no problems.

It will better to use Ball screw in place of acme rods:-)

Looking Good. I just sold my cnc a few weeks back to a great fellow member of the zone. Now I am looking to build another one. I am gonna follow this build. It looks like what I had building up in my head. Gonna be a great looking router. I am gonna mount my rails on the sides about 6" below the table surface. There is another router a member here has built and It looks great. Hope he dont mind if I post one of his pics. But here is kinda what I had in mind.
Steve

I had my eyes set on this one for a while too, indeed a sturdy looking and attractive design, and the speeds are nice too, did you see the videos he has of it?

Cxixer, looking good so far, you know how we in the zone love those pix, keep em coming.

It will better to use Ball screw in place of acme rods:-)

Yes it would, and more expensive! Although it may not seem that way, I've been trying to cut costs here and there, which is one of the reasons for R&P instead of ballscrews. And why I'm using skate bearings on the Y and Z axis instead of nice linear bearings. I believe they'll hold up just fine and I bought some nice ball bearings for this purpose instead of costing me another arm or leg.

I'm trying to get this built rather quickly as to start producing parts asap. I'm also trying to figure out the CAM and Control software - about 1/4 through the Mach3 manual now...

More pics soon!

Delete. Sorry I found the answer a few posts above
Steve

More pics as promised.

Everything moves!
http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/9.jpg

http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/010.jpg

It's a little taller than the 6" travel I was needing, but now it can handle 10" high workpieces!

http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/011.jpg

have you seen my design under thread " Build the router in 10 Days".

who the manufacture of your Yaxis rails and also what diamaeter are they
looks like 30mm OD. And the linear bearing set who makes them?

Can you tell use where u got them and how much...

how much does the gantry weigh do u guess when your done?
what motor type are u going to use stepper or servo for this size of table
and what size and torque?

can we get close look of the mounting of your rack relative to the y axis..of the linear set bearing, want to see how your going to drive the rack
with rack and pinion.... had the same idea,,, but was thinking of away to keep
saw dust / dirt away them.



looking good...

up to 14 hours of labor...

http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/4.jpg

http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/5.jpg

http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/6.jpg

http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/7.jpg

http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/8.jpg

Those rails are well worth the money, I can move this ~40lb gantry with little more than a light breeze.

Any comments, suggestions?

have you seen my design under thread " Build the router in 10 Days".


Yes I did see this, I'm afraid it will take a few extra for me as I still need to order my gears and timing belts/pulleys for the motors.


eloid - The rails are 1" ID conduit from a hardware store.. ~1.25OD, ~$18/ea. The steppers I have are listed in the first post. And I'm not sure about the drives yet, havn't built them. :)

OK, so the only timing belt pulleys I can find that will fit my 1/4" shaft xylotex motors are polycarbonate and will only accept 3/8" wide belts. Should I try to find bigger (and metal) gears and just figure out a bigger shaft to attatch them? Or will these small toyish gears work?

Hey,

The build looks great so far.

Brian

Brian@cncroutersource.com

Hmm... have u bought the software to run this machine?

Brian,

Not being a wet blanket, but if this isnt thread hijacking..... (nuts)

CX - Have you tried looking on the econobelt website at the HTD5's?(Linked here (http://www.econobelt.com/Q460/RFQ/default.asp?Page=Pg_1-151_1.html))

They have all kinds of gears. I'll try to look through the printed catalog.

Khalid,
I have AutoCAD already as well as CorelDraw for that side of it. I have downloaded Mach3 to test it out and see if I like it and have been religiously reading the manual because it is completely foreign to me. I've never used a CNC before and am trying to get use to the control software. Graphics and CAD have been around for a while now though so that part should be easier. I figured out I can also export Illustrator files to be converted to G-code, which makes life simpler.

I do like the looks of V-Carve for cam software, anyone else have good results with this?


OzarkCNC - I'll give that a look and see what I can find. I appreciate the help!

Yes I did see this, I'm afraid it will take a few extra for me as I still need to order my gears and timing belts/pulleys for the motors.


eloid - The rails are 1" ID conduit from a hardware store.. ~1.25OD, ~$18/ea. The steppers I have are listed in the first post. And I'm not sure about the drives yet, havn't built them. :)


no,no the yaxis with the with full support on the T channel what
size, whose the vendor for the linear slide

no,no the yaxis with the with full support on the T channel what
size, whose the vendor for the linear slide



https://www.vxb.com/

Looking Good. I just sold my cnc a few weeks back to a great fellow member of the zone. Now I am looking to build another one. I am gonna follow this build. It looks like what I had building up in my head. Gonna be a great looking router. I am gonna mount my rails on the sides about 6" below the table surface. There is another router a member here has built and It looks great. Hope he dont mind if I post one of his pics. But here is kinda what I had in mind.
Steve

which build was this? got a link....

Updates! OK, not much more done on the 4x4, but I got bored waiting on parts for it so I built a smaller router. Didn't follow any plans, just made it out of my head from what I remember reading here on the forum. It probably resembles other designs - you guys give a great education here on the forum!

http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/12x12wip.jpg

http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/coupler.jpg

http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/12x12.jpg

http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/zaxis.jpg

I don't have much use for it since I'll be finishing the 4x4 (just got in my belts and gears), so this one will be up for bid on ebay around tomorrow after it's final assembly. I'll post the item number for anyone interested!

I'm happy with how it turned out, looks clean, it's tight, and the rail adjusters are a real great design idea. I already have some plans for the next one I put together... I see what you guys mean about this being addicting.

Here are more pics of the finished small router!

http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/sm/1.gif

http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/sm/2.gif

http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/sm/3.gif

http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/sm/4.gif

http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/sm/5.gif

It's up for auction, item number 120182140968.

Well, back to work on the big one. I only got a few things done, hard to source the proper parts locally, and I have a limited selection of tools here at the shop.

Start of the Z axis - very smooth travel.

http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/012.jpg

Starting the gear boxes.

http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/013.jpg

They're a little rough, but I'll get them nice and finished off.

http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/014.jpg

Now, you know those 1/2" hardened rails you can buy? Well, no one tells you that they are not exactly 1/2"... So I "turned them down" on my "verticle lathe", but they're very smooth, and shiny.

http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/015.jpg

Hopefully I'll get these two gearboxes done tomorrow, only a few holes left to drill and a few pieces to weld.

Well, back to work on the big one. I only got a few things done, hard to source the proper parts locally, and I have a limited selection of tools here at the shop.

Start of the Z axis - very smooth travel.

http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/012.jpg

Starting the gear boxes.

http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/013.jpg

They're a little rough, but I'll get them nice and finished off.

http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/014.jpg

Now, you know those 1/2" hardened rails you can buy? Well, no one tells you that they are not exactly 1/2"... So I "turned them down" on my "verticle lathe", but they're very smooth, and shiny.

http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/015.jpg

Hopefully I'll get these two gearboxes done tomorrow, only a few holes left to drill and a few pieces to weld.

what the size and ratio of your timing pullys on the gear box?

10teeth and 30teeth. And the pinion has 24 teeth. I think the 3-1 should give plenty of torque and acheive a good enough resolution for my application.

OK, got a few more things done. I got motor mounts made, and here's the Z axis. The router mount will be made of polycarbonate for now as I don't have the tools to make it .. well... out of steel.
As soon as finals are out of the way the rest of this monster should go pretty smoothly. I only have a few hours here and there to work on it right now.

http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/016.jpg


http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/017.jpg

Updates!

Got the router pretty well done and ready for testing. I'm going to hook up the motors and test out the machine to see if it needs any modification before the final finishing (paint) and assembly. I got my electronics setup, just going to build a vented casing for them. I tested one of the motors as stated in the xylotex drive board setup instructions, everything is working great!

I'm going through the process of setting up mach3 to work with the router now, it's quite the process for someone who's never worked with a cnc before!


http://able-audio.com/cnc/018.jpg


More pics soon!

good job...waiting to see some artwork by ur router:)

What this machine was designed for is hardly art... but I would like to try some creative things with it. If I can get this software setup.

She's alive!! She's a bit, off... But I love her anyway! While cleaning, the Z axis took a spill, and it got a little bent. If I can't fix it I'll have to make a new one, but it doesn't track right like it use to. Other than that, a few quirks here and there to work out, it's ready to go! I just need to make a router clamp and a dust hood, and she'll be ready to cut her first pieces!!

Anyone else excited?! :)

By the way, I know how it looks. I have the paint ready, I just wanted to test everything out and work out the kinks before I paint it.

http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/019.jpg

OK! First use of the router, I thought it was appropriate for a former programmer.

I grabbed what I had out there (USPS Priority mail box), clamped a perm. marker to the z axis, and went to it. I should have cut the box in half so it would have layed down properly, which is why the text is a little cut off, and the market bends slightly making it not 100% straight, but it's still cool!

Thanks to everyone who has helped, answered questions, or inspired me through this process! I'll post more pics once I get cutting. Still need to make the router holder, and I need to slightly adjust the Z axis to make it run a bit smoother, but it's just around the corner!!

http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/020.jpg

OK, completely not happy with the Z axis, so I re-made it, and it dropped about 5 pounds in the process, and now runs much smoother.

First cuts below!

It's sure something else watching something you build from scratch make something for itself! Had to use the old "print hello world" to make this a real nerd's first cnc router. :)

http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/021.jpg

http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/022.jpg

http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/023.jpg

http://www.able-audio.com/cnc/024.jpg

<center>
Router's Finished!

Engraving to test it:
http://able-audio.com/cnc/ebay/court.jpg


Video:

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More Video:

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who do you get your rack from, what size is it tell use about your gear box of your rack...

Hey,

Got the racks from http://www.stdsteel.com/, part number 200012, they're pretty reasonable if you buy three racks from them, they have a minimum order and don't take credit cards - but good experience other than that.

I ordered pulleys for a 3-1 ratio and built the gearboxes but I did it by hand and there was some slop ... instead of re-doing them, I set up the direct drive and it worked out well. Now that the router is running, I could cut the gear boxes, but it runs real well, and cuts precise for what I need it for.

I got 24 tooth pinions that ride against the rack. The only issue I had with this was when I had the pinion shafts bored to fit onto the motor shafts, the place that did it bored it slightly over .25", so there was some play in the shafts, which led to serious backlash slop. I fixed this with bearings on the end of the shafts hooked to springs to pull the gear toward the rack. This helped out tremendously.

did you end upp tack welding the rack?, there doesnt seam enough room to
make mounting hole in the side of the rail to bolt in place, do u have a pic
to confirm my suppions?

I welded the rack to a piece of angle iron, then welded the angle iron to the sides of the table, and one to the back of the gantry. I don't have any pictures of that close up, and I'm having a memory card issue right now, let me know if you have any more questions!