Ok, so far I have sourced the V-Groove bearings and rails, and the Ball Screws!

This design is going to be built around a 24" x24" T-Slot plate. (The biggest I can make in my little shop)

Here are some snapshots of the basic CAD design I have chosen for the base slide assembly.
The T-slot plate will be 1/2" thick MIC-6 with 1/4" T-Slots spaced every 3".
The V-Rails will be supported by the "L" shaped tracks which will be machined from solid 6061 aluminum.
The L-track will also be used as the machines mounting feet.
The base slide will also be 6061, and have 4 V-Groove bearings on each end.
This Router will have mounting holes for NEMA-34 motors too!

The metal materials will be purchased from Speedy Metals in Wisconsin, the V-Tracks and bearings will come from McMaster Carr, and the Ball Screw will come from HOMESHOPCNC

Cost per one MIC-6 plate: $171.80
Cost per one Ball Nut: $95.00
Cost per one Ball Screw: $49.14
Cost per two V-Roller assemblies: $102.98 ea
Cost per two Double-V rails: $45.04 ea

The pre assembled V-Track units will be dismantled from the little rectangular plate, and custom fitted to the ends of the slide block. These units use a Double-V rail & .593" OD bearings, which allows me to make things a little more compact, thus reducing material costs.

I plan on building only one of these as a prototype, and will most likely make many changes along the way! One of the features I likes about the Ball Screw Nut was that it has an OIL hole! So this router will have small tubing and oil passages throughout! The other features is the 4-ball tracks and has rubber seals on the screws to keep oil in and dirt out, plus its preloaded!

This is looking like a fun (and expensive) project! Better mortgage your house ClaudioG :)
To be continued!
Widgit

Because this router will be using NEMA-34 motors and Ball Screws, I have decided to pre-load the end bearing furthest from the motor.
So now I need to shop around for some double row ball bearings, and design a nice end cap. Also, I may have to make the front & rear plates out of Low-Carbon steel for extra strength!

Widgit

should be a great new design widgitmaster,take lotsa pics like all your other builds you have done,lookin foward to it :)

Looking forward to this build. With nema 34's and ball screws, this baby should be a screamer.

Jason

Man am I shaking, we had a Tornado touchdown less than 35 miles from my home! :eek:

Here is the current expense report, I hope my home and shop stay put long enough to finish this project :mad:

This is a lot of scratch to lay out for only one axis !

Widgit

Yikes! I went through a small one in Minnesota. It plucked a 2 foot diameter oak tree out by the roots, about 20 feet from the house. Pretty scarey! Good thing you have all those heavy machine tools to hide under...
Jim

No matter where ya go, there is always something! I'd like to move to Australia, but with my luck I'd get bit on the ass by a poison frog! :eek:


I have spent a little more time in CAD, fine tuning the assembly details. One nice thing I have noticed is that if I make room for a NEMA-34 motor, then there is also room for the NEMA-23 motor mounting holes! So this router will take either motor size :)

Because of the size of this thing, I have decided to use dowel pins on all mating parts, to ensure it retains a little of it's squareness & flatness. So I guess that calls for some adjustable leveling feet to keep it level too!

I can't wait for the materials and parts to arrive, so I can get started!

Widgit

One of these days you're gonna have to build a few machines to assit you in building more machines...

I was wondering what you were doing to keep yourself busy these days Widgit.

After getting your Wide router, I promissed myself I wouldn't buy another CNC machine for a while. Well it's been at least 2 weeks, so I guess that's a while :)

I wish you hadn't started this thread!

Looks like it will be a lot of fun for you. A little different to building about 30 minis, 50 midis and 3 wides (correct my numbers please).

Hope you enjoy it as much as we will.

Cheers,

Claudio

Maximum capacity:
-------------------------------------------------------------
Frame material: Aluminum
T-Slot Top Plate Material: MIC-6 Polished Cast Aluminum
y-Axis Travel: 20.0625"
x-Axis Travel: 19.000"
Z-Axis Travel: 9.000"
Distance under gantry: 12.000"
Distance between Gantry Supports: 24.062"
Motor Type: NEMA34 & NEMA23
Screw Type: Ball Screw
Nut Type: Preloaded Nuts
Sliding Mechanism: V-Groove Tracks & Bearings
Spindle Mounts: Kress, Proxxon, Dremel
-------------------------------------------------------------


Another day of CAD, and I have solved a few problems with the Y-Axis! In order to support the V-tracks without having to use a massively heavy back plate, one that would make the machine too top heavy! The solution was found in a simple thick wall hollow aluminum tube! The tube will have a track milled into the exterior so the tracks can be mounted to them, and the ends of the tubes will be inserted into shallow counter-bored pockets on either end! This will eliminate any movement, and increase rigidity!

The tubing comes standard with a 2" OD and a 1/4" thick wall. and they will also be fastened to the side plates with dowel pins and #10 SHCS.

This router has a full 12" under the gantry, and a Z-axis travel of 9"
To support this, I have increased the side plate thickness from 1/2" to 5/8".

If I'm not mistaken, this machine will be strong enough for a 1/2" Dewalt router, not to mention the Kress motors!

Oh yea, I placed the Z-Axis T-slot plate in line with the back edge of the top-plate, allowing the spindle full access to the top plate's area!

Widgit

No matter where ya go, there is always something! I'd like to move to Australia, but with my luck I'd get bit on the ass by a poison frog! :eek:

Widgit

That's exactly what happened to me when I arrived in Australia and I am convinced that is why I am now obsessed with CNC :)

Andy

Another awesome Widgit design taking shape. This will be fun!

Best,

BW

Another awesome Widgit design taking shape. This will be fun!

Best,

BW

Thanks Bob,
Glad to see your out of the office and back in the Zone !
I'm anxiously waiting for materials, as I have burned out from doing production!
Life's no fun without Prototypes!!

Eric

Good news!

UPS dropped of the materials for this NEW 24x24 V-Router, so I'll be working on those parts this weekend!

Widgit

The materials are here, and the milling has started! So far, I have squared up the block for the X-Axis slide block, and the two "L" shaped rail supports. To do this I had to put two 6" Kurt vises on the mill, and center them under the mills travel limits.

Next, I'll put on some soft jaws and remove massive amounts of aluminum to create the "L" shape in the two rail supports. The X-Axis slide block will need to be milled with the vise turned 90°

The 24x24 top plate has arrived, along with the two Ball Screw & Nut sets. The Double-V tracks and slide assemblies have also arrived. Oh yea, the Front & Rear plates too!

A busy day in the shop!
So far I have milled out the bulk of material creating the "L", leaving .025" for cleanup. Then I milled the top section of the track using a standard end mill, but removing the material under the track is a bit tricky!
To do this, I used a Woodruff Key cutter. But first I needed to thin down the shank in my surface grinder, using a simple spin jig and a 5C collet.
After all the long milling cuts were done, I milled one end of each.
I plan on milling them to finished length later on.

It was fun watching the chips pile up. as I started with an empty bucket which filled to the rim! The pile was a foot high! I figured I have at least a barrel of chips from this project!

When the Double-V Rails are fastened to this support, they will be as solid as a rock!

Total shop time: 6hr
Widgit


VIDEO (http://widgitmaster.com/video/100_2841.MOV) (7.6 MB)

Looking good Widgit.

What do you do with all those chips??

Cheers,

Claudio

While standing in front of my mill dodging hot chips, I counted how many seconds it took for the end mill to go from one end to the other! Here is what I came up with (hope my math is OK)

My mill has an el-chepo power feed ASONG AS-250, 150 oz/in torque.

With maximum feed:
41 sec => 23"
23/41=.560976 sec/inch x 60 = 33.6585 (33.7 Inches Per Minute)

Widgit

Looking good Widgit.

What do you do with all those chips??

Cheers,

Claudio

I sell them to the scrap man, and buy new endmills!

Looks like your big flycutter got snuck in there to make it purty too, no?

BTW, someone was saying over on PM that a PCD insert on a big fly cutter makes the nicest aluminum finish if you care about the cosmetics. Normally, they are stupid expensive, but I found a few for cheap on eBay and plan to try it out.

Best,

BW

Looks like your big flycutter got snuck in there to make it purty too, no?

BTW, someone was saying over on PM that a PCD insert on a big fly cutter makes the nicest aluminum finish if you care about the cosmetics. Normally, they are stupid expensive, but I found a few for cheap on eBay and plan to try it out.

Best,

BW

Actually, I hand sharpen my own tool bits for my Fly Cutter, and I can get a better finish just by using the right hook angle and radius combination!
The blanks sell for a dollar or two! I use eithe HSS, Cobalt, or Carbide, depending on what material I'm cutting.

Widgit

lookin good widgit' , also good pics ,i know it takes a while to take all those pictures ,and then post them,but they look good, :) would be nice to use a .015 end mill to cut that stock out, with a slot on one side then flip it up and do the same on the other side, you would then have a nice peice of stock left over then ,instead of a few buckets of chips :) (joke) lookin good tho,keep up the good work!

Another busy day is the garage!
Today I started working on the X-Axis slide block. The slide block will have a bore in the center for the Ball Nut to nest in to, and have 4 small V-Groove bearings on each end.

To make this big slide block, I started with a 24 1/4 x 4 1/4 x 3 block of 6061 aluminum. The block had been all squared up a few days ago, and now it's time to add the details on the ends for the V-Groove bearings.

I started by removing the two vises, cleaned up the table area, and trammed the head. Then I put a vise up in the long direction, and trammed it in. Next I added some soft aluminum jaws, and milled them true.

Now with a stop on the vise, I can flip the block and do the same detail on each end. After the hook was milled on the ends, I re-positioned the turret, and started the detail in the center of one side of the block. This worked out well, as I now have 50% of the block finished in one morning!

Next I sprayed a little blue ink on one side, and used the height gage to scribe my layout lines to guide me through the rest of the part. Because there was a significantly larger amount of material to remove, I decided to push the block through the band saw to eliminate the bulk of material. The band saw cut a full 1/8" away from my lines!

The pile of chips is getting deeper & deeper!

Widgit

Well, after lunch I went back out to the shop and finished the other side of the X-Axis slide block! First I milled the boss in the center of the part, then I milled the height to its finish dimension.

Next I used my face mill to remove all the flat surfaces, and finished up with the 45° cutter.

Usually when milling a 45° angle, all you need to do is set the point to zero using a gage block, then sneak up on the blended intersections. After setting the DRO to zero, and the mill's knee to zero, all you need to do is drop the knee .200 and move the table .200 to walk the cutter up the angle! But my cheesy Enco end mill is NOT a true 45°, so it left deep lines where it mismatched with each step-over :mad:

That is depressing, as everything else on the part was perfect!

So now I have the two base rail supports, and the X-Axis slide block!
This machine is starting to look really cool! I only hope it's a rigid as I tried to make it!

Total shop time 8-hr
Widgit

What, you stopped for lunch!

What, you stopped for lunch!

That's funny!

not to bad if the small step is your only problem so far :) ....something a better tool might fix on the "production model" on a side note if ya dont wanna use a .015 e.m. to cut those peices of stock off ,you could buy a $500,000.00 edm wire machine to those peices off :) lookin good ,and going strong widgit!

A little more progress today!

After removing the vise from the mill, I rotated the turret 30° and extended the ram. Them I mounted my 6x9 angle plate on the end of the table, and dialed it nice and true. Then I bolted a little side plate on to the angle plate, so that I would have a solid 90° corner to work from.

After all that, I clamped one of the "L" shaped parts in that corner, so that I could drill, tap & ream some holes as accurately as possible. These holes will mate with holes in the x-axis front & rear plates, and the "L" will also have the Double-V track fastened to it. Those holes will go in later.

Widgit

Next, I clamped the X-Axis slide block in the corner, so that I could drill, tap, ream, and c-bore several holes.

All the details on this part have to be done from the end, as the V-Groove bearings and felt wipers will be mounted from the inside! Also, there are six 1/4-20 UNC tapped holes and two .1876 dia. reamed holes to attach the Y-Axis side plates.

The Felt wipers are held by two #2-56 UNC screws, so I had to drill a hole that's slightly bigger than the body o the tap, so that I could get the little tap through a 1" thick section.

Also, two M6x1 threads to fasten the two stationary V-Groove bearings. Then a deep 1/2" dia counter-bore with a precision diameter hole at the bottom. This was for the V-Groove bearing with an adjustment cam attached. The counter-bore enabled me to get a 5/16 hex socket and nut on to the little cam shaft.

Now I have the Double-V groove tracks and bearings finished on the X-Axis slide block. I like the fact that the bearings are adjustable, so that any slop can be eliminated as the machine settles in with use!

Widgit


Oh yea, I had to modify a 7/16" open end wrench so that it was thin enough to access the nut under each V-Groove bearing!

I have been pleased with the progress of this V-Groove design, that I may take this router all the way with electronics! So that I can have one in my shop, as it seems odd that I don't even use these routers that I build and sell so frequently!

While working with my CAD drawings, I have been thinking about building a sturdy stand and cabinet underneath it! Then I can have a place for the electronics that's not going to be effected by the HOT flying metal chips from my big mill! For this reason, I never bring my laptops into the shop! Imagine a big old hot aluminum or steel chip melting it's way through the screen or keyboard :eek:

Widgit

I have been pleased with the progress of this V-Groove design, that I may take this router all the way with electronics! So that I can have one in my shop, as it seems odd that I don't even use these routers that I build and sell so frequently!

While working with my CAD drawings, I have been thinking about building a sturdy stand and cabinet underneath it! Then I can have a place for the electronics that's not going to be effected by the HOT flying metal chips from my big mill! For this reason, I never bring my laptops into the shop! Imagine a big old hot aluminum or steel chip melting it's way through the screen or keyboard :eek:

Widgit


That last pic is the money shot!

Looks awesome. Very beefy.

Cheers,

BW

A little more progress today!

So far I have made the front & rear plates, which will be fastened to the "L" tracks with three 1/4-20 SHCS, and two 3/16" dia x 1" long dowel pins.
Then I drilled & tapped all the #6-32 holes which fasten the Double-V tracks to the "L". and shortened the Double-V tracks from 24" to just under 23".
After a trial assembly, I found the slide was a little tight, so I took some measurements, and re-cut the "L" where the V-Tracks are mounted. After removing .008" from each "L", the assembled unit was tracking nicely.
During the design stage, I had to reverse engineer the V-Bearing & Track system, and decided to leave an additional .010" on the "L". I'm glad I did as it would have been .002" out of alignment, which would have required shimming the V-Tracks.
Another item I have added is two 1/2" dia aluminum rails in the middle of the unit, one on top, and one underneath the slide block. This is to ensure the force of the lead screw does not push against the front & rear plates without having something to retain the force! The two rails will be finished sometime today.

I have ordered bearings & thrust bearings with a .500" ID, for use on the ends of the lead screws.

Widgit

This morning I squared up the top T-Slot plate, it was 24 1/4 x 24 1/4 so I removed about 1/8" from all edges.
Because of the size of the plate, I can only do one edge at a time. Then I have to re-position the plate on the mill, dial in the previous cut edge so it's parallel to the mills axis, clamp and mill to finish size. Then I have to rotate it 90°, dial the plate parallel to the mills y-axis, clamp and cut one edge. Leaving one more edge to rotate, dial in, and mill parallel.

The whole process took about 3.8 hours. While the mill was running, I slipped over to the lathe and made a few other parts for this big router!
After my late lunch break, I'll go out and finish up a few T-slots. This is also a time consuming process, as I can only do a few slots per setup due to the mill's travel restrictions.

All total, I'd estimate 18-24 hours to make one plate with all it's holes, slots and c-bores.

Widgit

Widgit
nice design , looks great so far
i was looking at the slide , could you not build that as a 3 piece assembly rather than one solid piece ,you could use shoulder bolts to bolt it together , you may save a fair amount of machine time and save on material costs

Thanks dertsap!
That would have been too easy, and this is not a production machine! (Not on my budget anyway)


After lunch I finished up the whole plate! Milled slots, drilled holes and deburred it!

All I have to do now is wait for some screws & pins that have been ordered!

The adjustable foot pads that I ordered from McMaster Carr arrived Friday evening, now I need to get some 3/8-16 flat head screws, and countersink the base rails to fasten the 6" long 1" dia legs I made in the lathe today!

This Router is getting too heavy to move around, so I'll have to get a cart or wagon to transport it in my house!

Now that the base is finished, I have been thinking about the side plates for the Y/Z axis. The offset of the plates is determined by the diameter of the spindle motor. otherwise the spindle will be off the front of the t-slot plate when the x-axis is at it's maximum. So now I need to decide which spindle motor!

I have a 30000 RPM Makita Die Grinder with a 1/4" collet, and a 1.5" dia clamping surface. It is slender, but very noisy! Is there a better choice, like a Dewalt with 1/2" spindle?

Widgit

This Router is getting too heavy to move around, so I'll have to get a cart or wagon to transport it in my house!

So now I need to decide which spindle motor!

I have a 30000 RPM Makita Die Grinder with a 1/4" collet, and a 1.5" dia clamping surface. It is slender, but very noisy! Is there a better choice, like a Dewalt with 1/2" spindle?

Widgit

A couple suggestions.

First, a 1000lb lift table has been a very handy and inexpensive addition to my shop.

Second, somewhere on these boards was a nice review of the Bosch as a spindle choice. Very low runout.

Best,

BW

Unfortunately Bob, I don't have room in my little shop for one of those lift tables, but I'll find another way!


As for the Router project, I think I'm going to build the whole Y & Z axis assembly without building the Side Plates. This will give me time to shop around for a nice spindle motor.

Now that all the heavy milling is done on the X-Axis, I'll start working on the lead screw & ball nut placement, the pre load for the end bearings, and the placement of the limit switches.
I have purchased four sets of three different types of limit switches, they were not very expensive and will make the task easier!

Widgit

pretty nice lookin base ya got there , heavy = less vibration :) altho it also... heavy = heavy ...goin well so far ,shiny,and smooth you building that machine to help ya wigit? or as a proto type for some to sell ? lookin good :)

goin well so far ,shiny,and smooth you building that machine to help ya wigit? or as a proto type for some to sell ?

Thanks!
I think I'm going all out on this one, as I do need a good solid CNC machine to engrave the WidgitMaster logo on all the parts and stuff I build!

Eric

you sure do nice work....

Joe

Thanks Joe!

- - - - - - - - -

I'm taking it easy today, I pushed myself yesterday to finish up the top plate! So I tinkered in the shop for about an hour finishing the legs with the adjustable feet. Then, I made a quick trip to ACE hardware to get four 3/8-16 Flat Head Stainless socket head screws 1" long.

After a quick assembly, I popped a few more pictures!

Widgit

Great work so far Eric, it looks big and heavy, is it going to be more accurate than the midi? Are you going to produce a limited quantity?

- sorry double post -

I think he mention before this machine is for himself, so not sure if he will make others because of the cost involved.

Great work so far Eric, it looks big and heavy, is it going to be more accurate than the midi? Are you going to produce a limited quantity?

Thanks!
It is much stronger, and hopefully will repeat more accurately!
As for production, well so far I have spent $1350 to build just one axis!
Unless I win the lottery, its not going into production! Probably special orders only!
Widgit

I found a large metal Hoffman Box to hold all the electronics for this big router!
The box is 24x24x12 with a nice hinged lid!
It's slightly dented but at a small fraction of its new cost!

This is going to be so kool!
Widgit

Very nice Eric.

Still got that trademark widgit look to it.



Probably special orders only!

Widgit

Should be putting my special order in soon :D

Claudio

Monday morning I plan on ordering the metal material for the Y & Z axis components, along with more V-Tracks & V-Roller assemblies.
But before I start cutting any more metal, I have a set of Turners Cubes to make out of Cast Acrylic for Geof :)

Here is a list of out of pocket expenses for this big router so far!

Last night I spent several hours designing the Y & Z-Axis slide assemblies. One of the main criteria was to keep the width at 4.000", so that I would maintain a full 19" of travel in the Y-Axis.
The 2nd criteria was to keep the centerline of the lead screw in line with the center of the Double-V track and V-Rollers. This resulted in a very crowded design, but it all worked out perfectly after I rotated the Ball Nut so the narrow sides were between the V-Tracks.
This design is easy to machine, but must be held close in order to ensure everything in the router is sliding perpendicular to the table.
This morning I placed an order for the materials needed, as well as a low-carbon ground tooling plate.
The tooling plate will be used to make the Y-Axis rail supports, as they are 24 1/4" long and must have two 3/16" dia dowel pin holes in each end. The most important part is to make the dowel holes aligned perfectly with the holes on the opposite end. To do this, I plan on bolting the steel plate on the side of my angle plate, so that it hangs off the edge of the mill's table. Then on the bottom edge of the steel plate, I will fasten a perpendicular plate that will have two protruding pins for the rail supports to plug in to. This way, when drilling and reaming the other end the part will be precisely on location.
After the end holes a finished, I will make a pair of sacrificial end plates out of aluminum to align both rails parallel to each other, so that I can mill the long square tracks and drill the mounting holes for the Double-V track. These support rails will be machined from solid 2" dia. bar stock, not the hollow tubing I had chosen earlier in the project.

The other criteria for the Y-Axis slide block is that it must contain the limit switches for both Y & Z axis. In order to do this I will need to drill deep connecting holes for the wires, and mill out little pockets for each switch to be mounted in. Then somewhere on the top of the slide block, I will need to attach one end of a coiled multi-conductor cord like that used in a Microphone! The other end will be attached to one of the Y-Axis side plates, where it will junction with the wires from the X-Axis limit switches. From there, I may use a Molex Connector to plug the limit wires in to the BIG metal box!

Widgit

hey widgetmaster,
how much play do those v-groove bearings have? i guess im refering to axle play ,ive never even picked up one of those.but i too am likeing them alot..but was concerned about the play...trying to come up with a way ya could test em.for instance if the bearing was bolted into a plate and ya put an indicator on the side (checking axle play) how much does the thing move i would assume there would be "0" runout on the radial part of the bearing but was unsure of the axle play...normal ball bearing roller bearings have a good bit of "axle play" .so i was wondering how much these have...i have looked at cam followers not "v-groove" type ..they have "0" play in both dirrections from what i can tell (sry if i over explained that, i always feel its better to have too much info...rather than not enough)

Actually, the Bishop-Wisecarver brand V-Bearings have two sets of balls, and are designed to take side pressure. as for any play in the tracking, it is ZERO! That's because one set of bearings is fixed and the other opposing bearing is adjusted with a cam and a lock nut!
You could tighten the bearing so much it would not slide at all!

Because I have two upper and two lower bearings spaced around 4" apart on one double-v track, it is impossible for the 24" long slide to "DogTrack" as it moves. Add a pre-loaded ball screw and nut, and you get a perfect sliding system!

Widgit

thanks for the reply...
a while ago i was thinking about those bearings...didnt know they had two sets of bearings in each one...till a bit later...any way...i was thinking of turning out some v-groove steel "sleeves" on the cnc lathe to press fit over some skate bearings or maybe a better quality type bearing and see how the would run as v-groove rollers...still sounds like it could work especially if several were used ...but alass i still aint tried to make any of em...the factory ones are much better than i could make ...at least at the price...(i do have access to alot of machinery, so that wouldnt be a big cost...but time is worth alot as you know)

The skate bearings as the inner bearing with a sleeve has been tried by two different people that i know of and did not work well, the only way to make them work good enough (and i mean just barely good enough) is to make a wide outer casing wide enough to use two bearings on the inside, this reduces the side axle loads quite abit.

I use the v-bearings as shown above on my new CNC 4x4 Hybrid and they work really well. I would just pay a little more and get them, you can get them in us for 11 to 12 dollars each, well worth it IMO, rather than your time in trying to make skate bearings work. again this is depending on your location and how easy it is to get the V-Bearings.

Joe

This morning I started working on the Y-Axis V-Rail supports, they are 2" dia solid 6061 aluminum.
First thing I did was mill them to length, then a quick polish in the lathe with some ScotchBrite!

Next I will need to make up the fixture for drilling and reaming the holes in each end.

Widgit

In order to drill & ream the end holes, I need to make a long side plate for my heavy angle plate. The side plate will have a pattern of holes which will enable me to use it for other projects, but for this one it also needs to have a plate mounted perpendicular to the side plate. The bottom plate will have two dowel pins to align it with the ground steel side plate, and have two dowel pins which will match up with the holes in the aluminum rails.

After making the fixture parts, I rotated the mill's turret and mounted the heavy angle plate to the mill's table. to finish the fixture, I 1st need to drill, tap & ream holes in the end of the steel plate for the bottom plate to fasten to.

Now after I dial in the aluminum rail, set the DRO to zero, I can drill the 4 1/4-20 UNC threaded holes. Then drill & ream the two dowel pin holes which will align the rail with the Y-Axis side plates. THe Bottom plate's dowel pins will allow me to drill the opposite end so that the dowel pin holes are perfectly aligned with the opposite end. This is necessary to ensure the V-Groove tracks are perfectly parallel and co-plane with each other after assembly.

I wanted to do this 1st, so that I could sweep up the shop and remove all the steel chips. That way my scrap man doesn't complain that my chips are contaminated, and I get a better price per pound!

Widgit

Once the fixture was finished, the drilling & tapping of the four ends went really fast!
While I was cleaning up the shop, the UPS truck delivered the electronics box for this new router!
The box is MUCH BIGGER than I had expected, I looks like the whole router would fit inside it! It measures 24x24x12, made by Hoffman, and all welded steel too! for only $160 on eBay :)

Well, that's enough for today!

Widgit

just think widgetmaster...you could stack several of those mini routers in that box... :) those bearings are 11~12 bux? where can i find em that cheap?..i had a link to em one time...but dont remember where. they werent that brand i dont think..but near the same price...mabey 20 bux...(11.50 sounds much better to me :) ) yall bought the rails too? or made em? i hate to ask so many "?'s" but ive never messed with those things ...they look like just the thing for a router...

http://www.nationalprecision.com/bb10.htm
http://accuratebushing.thomasnet.com/Category/smith-trax-bearings
http://www.onfulfillment.com/modernlinear/
http://www.mcmaster.com/
http://www.bwc.com/products/dual-vee.html

http://www.cadcamcadcam.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=16

thanks... :)

Today I started working on the 2nd fixture required to make the Y-Axis rail support bars. To do this I started with a piece of aluminum angle I found in a scrap yard. First I scribed some roughing lines, and made a few cuts on the band saw. Then I milled the ends and edges square, using my small face mill Lastly, I milled the narrow side of the angel perpendicular to the other side using a fly-cutter. Now it's time to drill & ream holes.

On the wide side, I drilled three 1/2" dia holes with the same spacing as the t-slots on my mill's table. Then I drilled and reamed the same hole pattern on the narrow side as was done on the ends of the two rails.

Next I pressed in some 3/16" dia x 1" long dowel pins, and fastened one of the angle plates on each end of the two support rails using some 1/4-20 SHCS.

Now I have to wait for the long Double-V rails to arrive, so that I mill the tracks into the rail supports. The V-Rails will be fastened to the rail supports using several #6-32 SHCS. The exact holes spacing is unknown at this time, so I will wait for the parts to arrive!

Now that the mill is empty, I decided to square up the two Y-Axis side plates. They are 26.125" x 12" x .750" MIC-6
These are the longest plates so far, and to get my mill to travel the extra 2", I had to remove the locking knob from under the table, so the hand crank didn't hit it. Fortunately I had an M12 SHCS that I could use temporarily!

Well, I stated at 7:00 AM this morning, and have accomplished allot!

Widgit

Great series of log pictures, Widgit!

Lots to learn about building "larger than the mill" with the right fixtures and techniques.

May favorite thing that I missed until I started looking carefully is your "Giant Indicol of Doom". That thing made me chuckle!

It's going to be really exciting to see this mill in action. I like the big NEMA boxes like what you've got there. Maybe you'll want to build a table for the router that has the box integrated.

Knowing the Widgitmaster's proclivity to precision, I could see the table top being a 24" x 24" surface plate.

Cheers,

BW

This afternoon I worked on the Y-Axis side plates, 1st I clamped both plates to the mill's table, and cut the long sides to a width of 12". Next I repositioned the vise at 90°. Then I used long soft jaws to hold the plate perpendicular to the mill's axis, and cut both plates to length. With the same setup, I drilled & c-bored six holes for 1/4" SHCS along with the two 3/16" reamed dowel pin holes.

Now it's time to spray some blue ink all over the plates, so that I can accurately scribe lines with my height gage. Next I pushed the plates through the band saw, removing the bulk of excess material.

After looking at the plates, I decided not to make any more fixtures! Instead I put my big angle plate on the mill, and dialed it in. When placing the angle on the mill, I made sure it was as far back as possible, allowing room for the plates and my height gage. Now I prefer to do setups like this, its fun to go back to basics!

When I milled the straight cuts in the plate, I used a 1/2" dia endmill. So by placing a .500 pin in the fillet radius, I can set my height gage to zero knowing my mark is .500 down. Then I mover to the other end of the plates, and adjusted the jack screw until the scribe line was inline with the height gage's scribe. Then I double checked it, clamped everything tight and used my small face mill to finish the blended surface. Then I flipped the parts and repeated the process.

After the parts were deburred, and the ink was removed, I used my little V-Block and a punch to align the dowel pin at 90°, then tapped them in slightly. Then I used my Mill's table as a solid surface for hammering the pins to depth.

Wow, after 11-hours of working in the shop, my new router is starting to take shape!

Widgit

Looks like a pimped out Midi on steroids!

Coming along nicely.

Cheers,

Claudio

Fantastic work
That Electronics box is not worthy of this machine .

Thanks for the inspiration Eric.

Thanks Frank!


Now, I have a question to all regarding Stepper Motor Sizing!
The largest NEMA-34 stepper I have seen so far is 2550 Oz In.
Because of the massive weight of the Y-Z Axis gantry, I'm concerned about inertia causing the stepper to loose / jump steps!
What is the formula required to calculate the appropriate size motor for a machine like this?
All the sites I have looked at only :confused: confuse :confused: me even more!
As soon as all the parts are finished, and the motors are attached, I can get the total combined weight!

Widgit

I found this with Google:
http://www.controleng.ca/inertia-mass-calculator.htm
http://www.baldormotion.com/pdf/Linear%20Motor%20Sizing%20Sheet.pdf
http://www.monachos.gr/eng/calculators/motor_sizing.htm
http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/ph/p/id/223

I'm no expert but
2550 in OZ sounds like overkill

I made a machine 1ft square cutting area (for the most part inspired by your threads :) I only wish I could be 1/2 the craftsman ) , I'm using nema23 320in oz. 1/2-10 acme , Delrin nuts from you and I have not had any isuues with loosing steps .

Widgit, Mariss Friemaniss (Mr. Gecko!) has a great and simple write up on motor sizing in the Gecko FAQ:

http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/IHfVR4hubWNqIn31hXk9H7PfoE7icU8xwPpaNYH1XmfZURfrRB0i8S_X9lRodzsJW6Pq-1Gn0KW4CmUDbLnAUpitLCrCD2vOFw/Gecko%20FAQ.doc

Sorry for that long ugly link. It's in the files section of the Gecko board on Yahoo:

http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/geckodrive/

You want the question on whether to use a stepper or servo.

His basic rule of thumb is:

Multiply the weight you are moving by the speed to get watts. A 40lb plasma gantry times 1000 inches per minute = 40,000. Now divide that by the "magic number" 531 and you get 75 watts. Mariss says anything under 200 watts can be a stepper. Anything over must be a servo or it won't perform.

You can look at your step motor's rating to see how it fares. He also describes how to get to oz-in of torque.

One thing about the monster big steppers (over 1000 oz in)--they don't perform all that well. They're limited to pretty low rpms. I can't imagine your machine needs such a big stepper though.

For example, Tormach's design document says they use 640 oz in NEMA34 steppers on their mill. I'll bet your router takes even less, but you could do a lot worse than to just bolt on some 640's.

Cheers,

BW

Nice machine Frank!

Well Bob. I guess I should have asked this question prior to ordering them big stepper motors! Hopefully, I'll be able to exchange them!

I was really concerned about the massive weight that will become the Y-Z axis, but I'm willing to try some smaller steppers first!

Thanks for everything Bob!

Widgit

This afternoon I worked on the two rail supports for the Y-Axis. While spin-polishing them in the lathe, I noticed there was a little bounce to them. So I decided to setup the lathe to turn them from on end to the other.
To do this, I had to remove my 8-station turret from the cross slide, and put the Compound slide with the Alaoris tool holder on instead. Next I put a small pin with a 60° point in the 3-jaw chuck, and a ball bearing center in the tail stock. Now it's been a long time since I've use the tail stock, so it needed to be adjusted before I start turning the two shafts.

The way I set the tail stock is to mount the shaft between the two points, driving one end with clamp-on drive dog. Then I took a light cut on one end about 1/2" long and set my DRO to zero. Then I took another cut on the opposite end at the same zero. After measuring the two ends with a micrometer, i could see that the tail stock was out .006"

So I placed a magnetic base on the ways, and put the indicator on the turned diameter near the tail stock. Then I set the indicator to zero, and used a hex key to move the tail stock .003" Then I repeated the process of taking small cuts on each end until both diameters were within .0003"

After taking a cut nearly the full length, it was necessary to remove the shaft, and flip it end for end. Then I finished the area that was under the drive dog, and polished the shaft with Scotchbrite and oil!

Now both rail support shafts are perfectly straight, and true to the dowel pin holes in the ends. This will ensure the Y-Axis travels perfectly straight & parallel to the rest of the machine.

Widgit

Good News!
After sending an email to the people at HOMESHOPCNC (http://www.homeshopcnc.com/), they agreed to ship three 600 oz/in NEMA-34 stepper motors and refund the difference!
Good people to deal with!
Widgit

Another busy day in the shop!
Today I setup the mill to cut the long tracks on the Y-Axis rail supports.
First I decided to raise the assembly up off the table so I could get a micrometer under the rail, this was easy as I have several blocks nicely squared up for situations like this. After putting the T-nut and stud thru the end plates, I spent several hours just dialing everything in! It is necessary to do this, so the V-Tracks run parallel and perpendicular to the top plate. After everything was successfully dialed in, I took a nice 9/16" dia 2-flute end mill, and stoned a nice .015 radius on the points. This leaves a much better finish, and the fillet radius in the corner also looks better.
Then I dialed the center of the rails to the center of the spindle, and zeroed my DRO, now I can move from one rail to the other by selecting the tool # in my DRO.

Next I calculated the offsets, and set my depth. now I just watched as the table moved slowly from one end to the other. It was necessary for me to put my hand under the rails when the cutter was in the middle, just to absorb some of the vibrations. This worked out fine, and now the rails are finished!

Then I put the vise back, and started the setup for the side plates. The part-zero was way off location from where the mounting holes go for the two rails. So I had to slide the vise over, setup a stop, and extend the Ram just enough to reach the datum corner.

The mounting holes went in quickly, as did the dowel pin holes. However, the ball screws are not ready yet, so I don't know what diameters will be needed in the side plates. So I simply bored a .3000" dia hole on location. This will allow me to dial in the precision hole for later setups.

Everything that has pins in it went together really easily, and now this router is looking even better!

Widgit.

lookin good widgitmaster! last pic looks a lil like ...a dad and son sitting , telling stories of when he used to be a production router in a great machine shop! :) ive saw some people write "build in alot of adjustment" but looks like every thing you have pinned in location is working well together also..i was just wondering why so much travel on "Z" ? ,i too am wanting alot of "Z" travel ,but alot of people say to only build what ya need,since i dont "need" a machine at all , i was wondering are ya going to use 9 inches for any particular job?.. or just the old "build it bigger" approach ? sorta like having a 6 inch long #3 centerdrill ..but needing one that is 7 inches long..lol :)

Thanks :)
The way I figure it, a vise and a 4th axis will have plenty of room!

The gap under the Y-Axis slide to the table wil be 12" the travel of the Z-Axis will be 9"

Widgit

More progress!
Started in the shop at 8:30 AM, trammed the head and started fly-cutting the sides of the Y-Axis slide block! The block is 12 1/4 x 4 1/2 x 3 1/2 6061. The finish size is 12 x 4 x 3.187, The Fly-cutter makes fast removal of the material, as it took .05 x 4" at 30 IPM at 1280 RPM

After squaring up the long sides, I used an assortment of end mills and corner rounders to mill the contour on one side of the block. The contour serves many purposes, one is clearance for the Z-Axis ball nut, along with two mounting surfaces for the Z-Axis Double-V rails. The radius down the center is for the Z-Axis limit switch trip-pin, which I will make later.

After the contours were finished, I turned the vise and added long soft jaws. Then I took a light cut on the jaws to true them up, and added a stop to the back of the vise. With a 3/4" dia x 4" long 2-flute end mill, I milled the block to exactly 12.000"

Lastly, I roughed out the big notches in the back side of the block, that will be the mounting surfaces for the Y-Axis V-Roller bearings.

Now that all the hogging is done on the block, I'll finish up the various drilling, tapping and boring at a later date. For now, I'm tired and hungry ( did someone say PIZZA? )

Widgit

Today I started out by making the top & bottom bearing plates for the Y-Axis slide block, then I drilled, tapped & c-bored the 8-holes for the V-Bearings & cams.

Then I put the Rotary-table on the mill, and positioned the spindle to zero in the center. Then I placed the large slide block on its side so that I could mill a radius around the Ball-Nut mounting area. This serves two purposes, 1st to lighten up this large block, 2nd is to make the block look good!

This required a 4" long 3/4" dia 4-flute end mill, and it was barely long enough to span the part! Milling the radius and blending the fillet radius's took about an hour.

Next I removed the rotary table, and put my 12x9x6 angle plate on the table. After dialing it in, I bolted on the side plate and clamped the slide block on end.

The slide block gets reamed holes of dowel pins, along with four #10-24 UNC threaded holes on both ends. The top of the slide block gets a pocket where the limit switch for the Z-Axis is positioned next to the Z-Axis limit trip-pin. The pin is the full length of the block, and has a small spring embedded in each end, to keep the pin centralized. The back of the pin near the limit switch has a little dent milled into it for the limit switch to rest in, as the Z-Axis reaches it's limit, the pin will move 1/8" and trigger the limit switch! This allows me to use one switch for both directions of travel in the Z-Axis!

First I positioned the DRO to zero on both datums, then I used a center drill to spot all the hole locations. Then I drilled all locations using the smallest drill, the #25 drill which is for the #10 thread. Next I drilled and reamed the dowel pin holes, and countersunk the four threaded holes prior to tapping. To tap these hole, I used my tapping block & a small tap handle. The tapping block is very convenient for starting the tap square!

Now it's time for a little assembly! The V-Groove bearings & cams went in really easily, and with a short piece of V-Track it was easy to adjust the bearings.

The slide block matched up perfectly with the tracks I mounted a few days ago, and now the Y-Axis slide block works perfectly!

This router is going to be really strong, and should be a real work-horse!

Widgit.

looks like its coming along nicely! any thought on mounting a plate behind those rails ,simular to your other machines?(to help with the two side plates from rocking side to side) or are the two alum rail v-track mounts large enough to prevent the rocking?
when you cut a radius on the rotary table reminds me of a milling head i used to use at my previous employer ever use a "volstro" milling head? pretty neat but rather expensive it has a head that you can offset then set to your cutter radius and a hand crank to make the cutter "arc" clockwise ,or counter clockwise , really not alot diffrent than using a rotary table,except that on a rotary table you move the part..with the volstro head...you move the cutter around the part..handy if you have a really big part that would be akward to move around on a mill table...
you seem to get alot done about every day...so if ya get any "free time" make me one of those routers :) do you ever use the small mill in the background for engraving or any thing?

Now it's time for a little assembly! The V-Groove bearings & cams went in really easily, and with a short piece of V-Track it was easy to adjust the bearings.

The slide block matched up perfectly with the tracks I mounted a few days ago, and now the Y-Axis slide block works perfectly!

This router is going to be really strong, and should be a real work-horse!

Widgit.


Damn, I wish i had your skills, Excellent work.

Joe

Thanks Guys!
Actually I have used the Volstro heads in many shops too!
As for rigidity, the side plates are 3/4" thick x 5" wide solid aluminum.
With the two 2" dia solid aluminum rail supports pinned and screwed in place, there is no detectable flexing at this time.

Because its an aluminum machine, it will never have the rigidity of a cast iron mill like a Bridgeport. But its not going to be used as one either!

So far, I'm very pleased with this V-Bearing prototype router!
I think I'll call it the Super-V Router :)

Widgit

widgit ...your one of the few and the proud..who i have mentioned a volstro to..and they even know what it is! :) "super-v" sound good..looks good......is good....:)

Back in 1979 I worked in a Swiss owned German machine shop in N.J., where they had a multitude of unique accessories like the Volstro. One item that really impressed me was a specialized boring head the opened up, so a contoured template could be inserted. Then the boring head could actually bore a hex hole! The tool bits were rather uncommon, as they would hook upward in sharp corners! I have never seen another like it in my lifetime!

Most of those items were created Pre-CNC, as the same jobs can be done in much easier setups with a CNC machine. CNC has made a profound change in how things are made! But I still like the old-fashioned methods!

Widgit

prolly getting off topic a lil but..yeah... i used manual machines for several years before i got to use cnc equipment, the old radius attachments for a lathe,the volstro head,cnc to some extent has changed alot because you had to have some pretty neat tools to do alot of thing that cncs can do alot more easy, but on the other hand,there arent alot of machinest any more ,as it is so easy to "program" a cnc to machine something not alot of people have a clue how to run tools or what to do hare or there...back when ya had to "start out slow and increase speed a lil bit at a time to get the result you needed" you had to be easy on tools even if it is a drill or a tap..you had to learn from your mistakes...which sometimes meant after you broke the tap...you had to resharpen it and still use it...but on the other hand alot of "cnc machinest" can run circles around an old machinest and do things with one tool that are amazing...
technology can help ya sooo much or turn and bite ya on the behind :) sry bout this long ..off topic post :)

Easy day today! No shop time, just hours of CAD work!

I have been designing a nice method of incorporating the Y & Z axis limit switches within the Y-Axis slide block. All that will be visible is the ends of the trip-pins, and a black coiled wire!

The top of the Y-axis slide block has a large cavity, which will be covered by the top bearing plate. inside this cavity, there will be a bracket holding the Z-Axis limit switch, and a small 4-conductor barrier strip. The barrier strip will be fastened to the bottom side of the top plate.

The Z-Axis limit Pin will fit in the radius groove down the front of the slide block, and have 50% of the diameter removed except for a small portion on either end. the pin will have a shallow hole in each end, which will contain a little compression spring. The springs will keep the pin in the neutral position, and a small dent on the opposite side of the flat on the pin will be the resting position for the limit switch. When the pin moves up or down, the limit will send a signal to the breakout board.

The bottom of the slide block will also have a cavity, which will be matched by an opposing cavity in the bottom bearing plate. Inside the cavity, there will be a limit switch, and a partially exposed limit pin. The Y-Axis limit pin will have two small pins screwed into it, which will attach to tension springs. The springs will also keep the limit pin in the neutral position.

A 3/16" dia hole will be drilled the entire 12" length of the slide block, allowing a wire to reach the lower limit switch and the barrier strip in the upper cavity.

The Slide block will also have a 1/2" dia rubber bumper protruding 1/8" from each side, this will soften the impact should the block exceed it's limits at any feed rate. The bumper will be made from soft gum rubber which was purchased from McMaster-Carr.

This sure is a fun prototype!
Widgit

Little more progress today!

First I finished drilling and tapping the small holes inside the top cavity, then I put a vise back on the mill so I could drill the cross hole for the Y-Axis limit pin, and the spring clips.

Then I put the block back on the angle plate and finished the lower cavity for the Y-Axis limit switch assembly. Then I drilled as far as I could from both ends of the block using a standard jobber's length drill, then I had to re-position the angle plate so the part would fixture lower than the mill's table. This was necessary so that my 12" long #2 drill would fit in a collet, and still be able to get the part on location.

The 12" drill went a little more than 50% from each end, with a slight mis-match where the holes connected. After floating the drill bit in and out a few times m the burr went away, and now the 2-conductor wire goes right through the block!

All that's left to do on this block is bore the hole for the ball nut!

Widgit

Something different today, I decided to do a little lathe work and finish one end of two of the ball screws!

To do this I needed to bore a soft 5C collet to the exact outer diameter of the ball screws, and make a plug from Delrin for the other end of the spindle. The plug also has an exact bore, which will keep the long screw centered at high RPM. The reason for the 5C collet is that the diameter of the ball screw is an odd size, (.61753") and the ball nut will bind if the bearing diameters are not perfectly concentric with the nut! The nut can not be removed, as that would require a factory to re-assemble it! So I used some black electrical tape to keep the nut from spinning off.

Now these are case hardened and polished ball screws, so I needed to turn the 1st diameter to .375" to get under the case hardening. Then I turned the bearing diameters. Next I used a small groove tool to undercut the .375 dia as it will be threaded 3/8-24 UNF. With a split die, the threading went quickly.

These ends will be pre-loaded in a small 303-SS block, which will contain one standard ball bearing, and one needle thrust bearing with two hardened washers. The nut will snug up the bearings, and the block will be fastened to the router's aluminum plates with 4x 1/4-20 UNC SHCS.

The other end of the shaft will float in a bearing that's pressed into the aluminum end plates.

Now I need to calculate the overall length, and finish the other ends.

Widgit

Today I bored the bearing hole in the rear plate, now I need to transfer that location to the X-Axis slide block. To do this I had to partially assemble the X-Axis slide block with the outer rails and the front plate. Then I clamped the whole assembly to the mill table. Then I had to rotate the mill's turret, and extend the ram, so that I could dial in the existing bore, and drill & bore a hole in the Slide Block underneath it!

The reason I choose to transfer the ball nut location is that I do not have a large enough surface plate to accurately measure the assembly, and I suspected an accumulation of error would exist at this point. My suspicions were correct, as after the Slide Block was dialed in on the mill table, and the DRO was zeroed over the bore. I switched the DRO to incremental mode, and used my edge fined to get to the assumed coordinates of the bore. The X-Axis centerline was out .0009", and the Y-Axis was out by .0167". This is due to the centerline of the V-Tracks and bearings, was reversed engineered from the assembled block I purchased from McMaster-Carr!

After putting the mill back to normal position and tramming the head, I clamped the X-Axis slide block to the mill's table. Now I need to dial it in, and the datums are 24" apart! After rapid speeding the table back & forth a few time, the block is nicely dialed in, Then I set the spindle to zero over the temporary bore.

Next I drilled a hole about .050" smaller that the finish bore size, the full 4" depth of the block. Now it's time to bore the hole so the Ball nut will slip fit snuggly.

While the mill was boring the deep hole, I setup the lathe to finish both ends on the Z-Axis ball screw!

That's enough for one day!

I just caught up again. Good stuff, Widgit!

I'm not sure anyone but you could afford to make such a nice router. It will be fascinating to see it in action. It ought to really augment your shop's capabilities and productivity. I'll bet it'll be able to do quite a lot of interesting work such as cutting the side supports for the smaller routers.

Best,

BW

Thanks Bob!
I'm not sure how well it will make thick aluminum parts, but I do have many plans for wood & plastic stuff!

- - - - - - - - -

Today I decided it was time to put the rotary table back on the mill, in order to cut the pocket out of the X-Axis slide block so the ball nut would be recessed.

First I dialed the Ro-tab in and set the DRO to zero, then I used some 1-2-3 blocks to raise up the part so that my fat hands would be able to turn the crank! Then I strapped the part down snuggly, and dialed the bore true to the Ro-Tab. When I was happy with the concentricity, I tightened all the clamps and checked it again.

Now, with a new 1/2" 2-fluter end mill, I calculated my offset which is the target diameter - the end mill / 2. Then I set the tool end to zero, using a small .100" block. With an end mill, the bore was finished in 3-turns. and now it's time to drill the mounting holes!

After a little trig, I have the coordinates needed to match up with the ball nut. First I dialed one side of the part parallel to the mill's table, and locked the Ro-Tab. Now I can use a drill chuck to center-drill, drill, and countersink the six holes for a #10-24 UNC thread. Then i put a small point in the drill chuck, and dropped the table so my little tap handle would fit.

Lastly, I used a 45° end mill to put a nice chamfer on the round edges. The rest of the deburring was done with a file. After the slide block was finished, I cut the excess of the end of the x-axis ball screw, and finished the turning in the lathe.

Enough for now, it's time for lunch!

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that this router will also have the ability to mount either NEMA-23 or NEMA-34 motors!

Also, the preloaded thrust bearings will be in a separate block which will be mounted outside of the end plate. The block will be made from 303-SS, around 2" in diameter. The material is on order.

Widgit

widgit you going strong,cant wait to see that thing throwing chips gonna make a movie right? that will be one sweet router man..

widgit you going strong,cant wait to see that thing throwing chips gonna make a movie right? that will be one sweet router man..

Thanks ACE!
So far I have all the electronics except for the power supply! After several hours in Mouser.com I found some really nice 9-pin twist lock plugs for the motors! There will be a little box next to each motor, where they will plug in, then an aluminum tubing to another main box. Then from the main box, I have a large 26-pin twist lock plug that will have all the motor lines and limit switch lines . Then I will make a long patch cord from there to the monster electronics box!
All my resources are going into this project, and as Bob W. pointed out, it is expensive! I have had many people ask for large routers, but they expect them to have the price of an MDF machine! Well, with the rising cost of materials that will never happen!
Hopefully, all my efforts will produce a super strong machine, one that will be able to make those Turner's Cubes out of cast acrylic and even hard wood!

Widgit

Another busy day, and many parts are now finished!

Starting this morning around 8:30AM, I used the band saw to cut two pieces of 2" dia 303-SS around .900" long, along with one piece of 6061 the same size. The 303-SS will become the thrust bearing ens support block, and the 6061 will become a little filler piece to cover the X-Axis ball nut!

First, I needed to put my 3-jaw chuck on the lathe, the one with split jaws. THis is the perfect job for soft-jaws, as the parts must be concentric, and parallel as there are bores on both sides! After mounting some new soft jaws, used a piece of scrap to tighten the chuck while boring the nest for my parts. After the bore was finished, I put one of the stainless parts in and closed the chuck. Then i dialed it true with an indicator and a mag-base. Then I faced the part and chamfered the edge. Now I have one true end, so I can put it in the bored jaws and seat it on the bottom as I tighten the chuck. When using aluminum jaws, its a good idea to keep everything clean as chips will press into the soft aluminum very easily!

After I finished the bores for the bearings, I put my little 3-jaw chuck in the mill's vise, so that I could drill & c-bore four holes in the stainless parts, and 6-holes in the aluminum part.

This worked out really nicely, so I quickly removed the front plate from the Super-V router, and drilled the same hole pattern in the middle of the plate. That finishes up the X-Axis parts, except for some holes for grease fittings and oil ports!

After stopping for lunch around 2:00PM, I decided I would work on the Z-Axis limit switch trip-pin! It's made from 303-SS, .500" dia around 12.75 long.

In order for this pin to work, I have to mill 50% of the diameter away leaving .435" of the .500 dia on both ends! This is a bit tricky, but I have a plan! First I put a thin parallel in the vise, and put the stainless shaft on top of the pin. Then I used a pair of small blocks to push the pin against the back wall of the vise. Then with a 1/2" 4-flute end mill, I milled .250" deep between the blocks.

Using some space-blocks, one that's 1" long, and one thats 1.25" long, I can now move the shaft and mill another section. It took three sections to get the middle of the shaft to .250" thickness. It was convenient that the space block would square up the previously milled surface, so blending them in was really easy!

Now, with my V-Blocks and some clamps, I was able to finish the ends so the cutout has a nice square corner! This trip-pin will slide freely in the radius groove that I milled in the center of the Y-Axis slide block, the square corners will protrude around 1/8" from top and bottom. so that when the Z-Axis slide block reaches it's end of travel, it will move the pin and trigger the limit switch!

Widgit

The last few details were more time consuming, as I have been making the parts and internal wiring for the Z-Axis limit switch assembly.

The assembly consists of one micro limit switch, one long stainless pin, a 4-position barrier strip, and one mounting bracket made of Delrin.

The Delrin bracket holds the micro switch in position, so that it's little plunger sits at the bottom of a .250 radius machined into the stainless trip-pin. There are two #2-56 UNC screws holding the switch in the bracket, and two #4-40 UNC SHCS holding the bracket in the top cavity of the Y-Axis slide block. The cavity also contains a barrier strip which will be used by the other limit switch, located in the lower cavity. The two cavities are connected by the .221 Dia deep hole I drilled the other day.

The stainless trip-pin has a key slot milled on the back side, which is for the dog-point setscrew which is located in the slide block, at the bottom of the radial groove where the trip-pin slides. The setscrew keeps the trip-pin from rotating, and limits the amount of linear travel to .125" in either direction. There is a .19 dia blind hole on either end of the trip-pin, which holds a short compression spring. The two springs were cut and ground to the exact same length, as this ensures the trip-pin will stay in the neutral position during normal operation. The wiring of the limit switch is normally open, and will close if the trip-pin moves in either direction.

The cover plate will have a hole in the back, where a coiled black 4-conductor wire will attach to the barrier strip. The coiled wire is on back order from Mouser. The cover plate is pinned to the slide block, to ensure proper alignment of the end bearing for the Z-Axis ball screw.

Next, I will make all the small parts for the Y-Axis limit-switch assembly.

Widgit

Hi Widgit !
Forgive my Frenglishe .
Magnificent realization! What a professionalisme!

I am really very happy to have bought the midi on ebay, sure that this machine will bring me a lot of contentment.

Cheers

Thierry

Thanks Thierry!
Hope you have lots of fun with it!

WidgitMaster

This morning I finished the ends on the last ball screw, and made a bore in the y-axis motor side plate for the pressed in bearing. Then I bored the clearance hole on the opposite side plate, then drilled & tapped the holes of the the lead screw thrust bearing end block.

Now it's time to transfer the center of the side plate end bearing to the Y-Axis slide block. To do this I first clamped my big 12" log parallels near the end of the mill's table, so the extended off the front of the mill.
Then I dismantled the router, so the motor side plate and the two support rails & v-tracks with the y-axis slide block were one unit.

Then I placed the partial assembly on the parallels so the long support rails were hanging down, and the Slide block was sitting on the parallels. With a couple of clamps, I was able to clamp everything securely.

Next I rotated the mill's turret about 35°, and extended the ram. Then with an indicator, I zeroed the spindle over the bearing center and set the DRO to zero. Then I drilled a 1/4" pilot hole, and bored a .300" size temp hole.

After transferring the bearing center into the slide block, I removed the parallels, and trammed the head really close so that my bore for the ball nut was really true to the slide axis.

To tram the head, I used a 1-2-3 block and an indicator. The indicator extends far enough to reach the full width of the mill's table. That allows me to sweep a full 180° circle. Instead of letting the dial indicator bounce over the t-slots, I simply set zero on one corner of the 1-2-3 block, and slide the block to three separate places while adjusting the head until all three points are zero.

Now that the head is trammed, I removed the Slide Block from the rest of the router parts, and placed it on the mill's table along with some 1-2-3 blocks to raise it up for chip clearance.
After clamping it securely, I dialed in the precision bore and zeroed the DRO. Next I drilled a 1/4" dia pilot hole through the block, followed by a larger drill. The big drill was .050" dia smaller than the finished bore diameter.

Next, I placed my 2" boring head in the spindle, and used a long boring bar to rough and finish the bore. The first .030" was removed with a quill feed of .008"/rev, the remaining bore was done at .0015"/rev.

Now the the bore is finished, I have to put a counter-bore on one side of the slide block for the flange of the ball nut. I'll do that on the rotary-table tomorrow.

Widgit

This morning I made a quick inventory of the electronic components that have arrived so far. Because the box is so large, I have decided to include a complete PC motherboard with all it's components right inside this bib box! A friend is going to donate an old ATX computer, including its power supply, CD-ROM, Floppy drive, 1.2 GHz CPU, 1G RAM, and all the sheet metal. My plan is to extract only the sheet metal needed to hold the motherboard and its cards. Then all that is needed is an extension cable for the keyboard, mouse & monitor.

Now that my Super-V router is starting to take shape, I started thinking about building a base to raise the work area up to a normal height. After pricing all the aluminum tubing and a large top plate, it was obvious that I could simply order a pre-made steel table which is 36"W x 24"D x 24"H from McMaster-Carr for much less!

Now my idea is to put the BIG box under the steel table, and use some drawer slides so the box can slide out for service! According to my calculations, it looks like I may have to cut the two longer center supports and re-weld them a few inches lower. This is still the cheaper path :)

As for the motors, I now have three 600 oz/in and one 650 oz/in NEMA34 motors. The fourth motor is for a future 4th axis.

Widgit

Today I started making the three NEMA-34 motor mounts. After squaring up the stock with my fly-cutter, I used a 1/4" radius cutter to round up the edges. Then I drilled & tapped four 1/4-20 UNC threaded holes on one end of all three blocks. Then I drilled four .256" dia holes on the other end.
Next I drilled a 1/2" hole 1" deep in the center of the end with the tapped holes, and finished bored them to .5625" dia (clearance for the 1/2" motor shaft) Then I setup my Wohlhopter boring / facing head, and started cutting the shallow counter bore on the same end.
My Wohlhopter was used when I bought it on ebay, it was in really bad shape! The track on the side for the limit stops was badly chewed up, and the engagement buttons kept popping out in the middle of a face cut. So I stoned it for hours and got the stops to slide, then I pumped oil into it until it came out clear! It was so full of black carbon from a mold shop making EDM electrodes!

Now I have one end bored & faced to fit the motors, and rough drilled the opposite side which I'll finish tomorrow! Now I could have done this in the lathe, but the lathe was setup with another project!

Widgit

Simply beautiful work as always!

I'm not sure you know how much your posts are appreciated,

So from me, and all of us lurkers (I know there are a bunch of us!)

Many Many Thanks!

Your threads have a wealth of information and informative photos. I urge people that haven't seen your previous projects to search for them, and check them out!

I have learned a lot, and continue to do so from your very well explained & documented work.

I am greatly anticipating this machine coming to life, it looks great!



Keep the chips flyin'!
Thanks again,

Andy

Andy,
Thank you for the kind post :)

WidgitMaster

Today I made a fixture for the lathe, so that I can bore the ID and turn the OD!

The fixture was made from 3/4" thick MIC-6 plate left over from the side plates. First I drew a circle with a marker, and chopped some of the material off at the band saw. Then I mounted the 4-jaw chuck in the lathe, and centered the plate so I could turn the largest diameter.
Then I made a face cut .150" deep around 5" dia, staying away from the finished dia size. Then with a boring bar, I finished the diameter and blended the remaining area with the previous face cut.

Next I removed the plate from the chuck and drilled & tapped three 5/16-18 UNC threaded holes, which will be used to mount the plate on the cast iron adapter. Now that the plate is back on the lathe and securely mounted to the D1-4 cast iron adapter, I turned the OD till it cleaned up, and faced the plate true.

Now I need to make another plate, this one is only 1/2" thick MIC-6. First I milled the plate to 5" square, then drilled & reamed a .375 dia hole thru the plate. Then I drilled and c-bored four holes which will be used to fasten the motor mounts to the plate with 1/4-20 UNC screws.
Then I drilled & c-bored four more holes from the opposite side, as they will be used to fasten the plate to the lathe's new face plate.

Now that everything is bolted together, I need to make an alignment pin! The pin will press into the 5" square plate, and have a small 3/16" did pin protruding from one side to match up with a hole in the lathe's new face plate. The other side will have a .5625" dia pin 1/4" long to align the motor mount.
This is but one way to do the lathe work on the motor mounts, but it is a good example of fixtures and work holding techniques!
Enough for today!
Widgit

Widgit, great series of pix making the stepper mounting blocks. They are purdy, as usual.

A couple of questions that we may learn:

- Did you make the square fixture block atop the round block on the D-mount so that you can in the future use that round block with various other fixture blocks as the need arises? Or was it because this yields more precision to use 2 blocks? Else why not just bolt directly to the round block? Seems like there is room enough without the square block.

- Given that the whole thing is mounted on the lathe, what is the advantage of rounding your corners on the stepper block on the mill instead of the lathe? Better surface finish? Just felt like doing things that way?

- I sure would love a closeup picture or two of your HSS boring tool on the Wohlhaupter. You know my tool grinding fetish!

- I have some much less elegant mounting blocks for steppers that I bought on eBay. They are of similar construction, bored from solid aluminum blocks, just not nearly as pretty. One thing they do have is access from the side while the block and motor is mounted via another bore. It is intended to allow one to tighten the set screws on whatever form of coupling is used to connect the stepper to the driven shaft. Do you intend to add a side bore?

Cheers,

BW

Hey Bob,
Actually, the plate is there for a reason!
First off the motor mounts have 1/4-20 threads, and the plate fastens to the motor mount. Then four screws hold the plate to the faceplate. I wanted a simple fixture that will work on a quantity of items with the least destruction to the faceplate! When the motor mounts are finished, the face plate will only have four threaded holes and one center hole!

Also, I only had a box of 1/4-20 x 3/4 screws!

There is a lot of material to be removed from these motor mounts, as I already have a weight issue on the top of the machine! When the OD is turned, it will create a flange on either end of the motor mount, and when done I will mill a window through the diameter for access to the coupling's setscrews

The table arrived today :)

That's a real sweet table for the router!

A thought (sorry, I'll quit bothering you after this!):

Looks like there is room to put a swingarm attached to one of the table legs for a monitor and keyboard. You had said you were going to stick a dedicated PC in your electronics box. Might be nice to have a swingarm for the operating controls of Ye Olde Router Machine.

Cheers!

BW

No problem Bob, as for the swing arm, I had thought of that, but it's too soon to say for sure! I have so my work ahead of me, as the two horizontal support beams in the table need to be modified in order to get the BIG box to fit under the table! Then I need to figure out all the electrical plumbing for the motors & switches.

When I get the box mounted on the drawer slides, and all the electronics installed, then I'll get a better perspective of what to do with the monitor and keyboard! All the stuff I've been ordering is slowly piling up, and it looks like work from every direction :) So I need to stay focused on one task at a time, or it will melt my brain!

Widgit

Here is a concept drawing of the modifications to the new table, so the drawer will look like it was made to fit!

Widgit

More progress today!
First thing this morning I made the step pin so the middle diameter pressed into the 5x5 plate. Then I fastened one of the motor mounts to the plate using 1/4-20 x 3/4 SHCS, then the plate to the spindle.
Next I sharpened up a pair of 3/8" square cobalt tool bits, so that one was a left hand and the other was a right hand cut. Next I stoned a .03" radius on the points, and placed them in tool holders on the lathe's turret.
The part & fixture were so solid, I could actually plunge cut the 3/8" tool bit into the motor mount, and remove .20" from the dia in one pass at 300 RPM. After making one part, the DRO & stop were set to zero for each tool. This made the next two even easier!

Next, I setup a long 5/8" dia Armstrong (old fashioned) boring bar. The bar was made for 1/4" square bits, so I sharpened one up with a little hook to curl up the chips. This tool allowed me to remove .100" from the ID per pass at 480 RPM. As the diameter increased, the chips started coming out a little stringy! So far I have only roughed out the ID of one of the motor mounts, and will finish them tomorrow.
The OD finished at 3.500", and the ID will finish at 3.250". A 1/8" wall thickness is all thats needed to support the NEMA34 motors! The motor end flange is 1/2" thick, and the opposite flange is 3/8" thick.

Widgit

After studying my design for many days now, I have arrived at the conclusion that the X-Axis slide is not strong enough to support all the weight of the Y/Z-Axis components! This has troubled me as I have too much time & money invested to start a complete redesign!

My solution was easy but expensive! After looking closely at the offset of the side plates, I realized all the downward pressure was on the top rear bearing, and the upward pressure was on the front lower bearing! Because the manufacturer has rated the bearings for 55 lbs max, I decided to add more bearings!

So by putting three bearings on the top rear, and three bearings on the lower front, the total weight will be absorbed by three bearings instead of one! Another task will be to lighten some of the aluminum parts by milling out pockets it various places. This will retain the router's strength, and lighten the top section!

Widgit

thats 55 lbs per bearing so if all the weight was coming strait down on those bearings,at 55 lbs times 5 bearings....thats 275 lbs per axis side or 550 lbs total weight carried by the x axis, wow :) those are pretty neat lil bearings alighnment would be the only problem..but you look like you've taken care of that...
by the time you get all your cabling, motors, router(or motor and spindle), and everything else on that axis will it be any where near that much weight? that things gonna cut so well you may have to "park" the other mill ...huh widgit? when i first started reading the last post about the change, i thought you were going to say ...."well ive scrapped the whole idea"...i was hoping not!!

looking good widgit..

Actually, because of the offset the total weight is supported by all 20 bearings! I did this because of the inertia at high feed rates, and to absorb the forces created by the cutter! The 30,000 RPM MAKITA die grinder is not light either, also add the weight of the Z-Axis slide block! (which I started today)
Even tho I'm not a mechanical engineer, I do see how the weight is over 12" above the slide, so this magnifies the initial forces. I figured it's better to be safe than sorry after all the work thats been done so far!

Also, I finished the three motor mounts, and they turned out perfect!

Widgit

those bearings will catch some stress ,with the other stuff mounted that high ,but you have got pretty thick side plates and those two alum bars to stiffin it up a good bit,and every thing is supported well that pic of it all most together make ya want it to be cutting now i bet huh?i for one wanna come down and watch its first cutting ,ill bet its gonna be awsome
i was also noticing the handwheel laying there , and i was thinking,... your motors look like they only have one ended shafts.connected to the lead screws,and i was thinking of a way to mount the handwheel ,...you know the knee on yout mill to lift the table or better yet on a surface grinder on an automatic (hydrolic) you could do something like that to put the wheels on the end of the screw for manual use,or work locating

Thanks,
The hand wheel is just for turning the screws during the design / assembly process. They are not balanced and would only vibrate during high feed rates!

Today I spent the morning finishing up several little details on various parts, then I worked th remainder of the day on the z-axis slide block! Now here is a twist in the plans!
While working on the Z-Axis slide, I was thinking how I want to use my Proxxon, my MIKITA die grinder, and my Milwaukee pistol drill. Then I figured I'd need to make three separate adapter's, when it occurred to me that all I need to do is make one long adapter, and three little adapters! So I have just finished designing a new Z-Axis slide block, and will order the material on Monday! For now, I will finish the little Z-Slide so I have something to put on the machine!


Yes, I'm anxious to get this puppy moving!

Widgit

More material arrived today, but I still need to wait for the heavy duty drawer slides to arrive! When I have them, I can add their thickness information to my CAD drawing, and get an accurate print to cut all the tubing and the table's frame!

This box has plenty of room, so it will also contain a full PC motherboard and all it's components!

This morning I went on a search for more stuff, things like hookup wire, large diameter shrink tubing, and some kind of monitor stand!

After browsing through the local recycle center, called ASTRO-TOO, I found everything I was looking for and more!

They had large spools of wire, so I cut off 25' lengths of the most common colors. He also had a nice heavy duty monitor stand, it weighs a ton, as it's made of 1/8" steel plates!

Now after buying all that stuff, he threw in a toasted PC & cabinet, which also had a hard drive, zip drive, floppy drive & CD-ROM. Now I may not use all that in my system, but it's good ebay food!

When I got back to my shop, I unscrewed the components from the PC cabinet, then I grabbed my 1/4" pneumatic die grinder. With a 3/8"dia carbide ball burr, I carefully ground off all the pop-rivet's which held the PC cabinet's sheet metal parts together. Now some of these will be used, and some will provide a template for cutting the back panel of the big box!

Also, last night I went to PriceWatch.com and found a combo package containing a motherboard, a 2000 GHz CPU w/fan, 1-Gig RAM, a 500W Power supply, and a wireless network card. When they arrive, I will carefully arrange all the components in the Big box, and decide how to mount them! This is going to be interesting, as the back of the Big box will look just like a PC!

Oh yeah, I had ordered 5 feet of wire track, half will be used on the back of the Y-Axis slide, and the other half will be used on the lower X-Axis slide. The ends will be anchored in black Delrin plastic, which is light weight and easy to work with.

My last stop was at Granger Industrial Supply, where I placed an order for a 60mm red mushroom Emergency Stop button & switch! That will be in tomorrow!

More waiting..... Man I hate that :rolleyes:

Widgit

think you meant a 2000mhz cpu...(sry.. every one knows what you meant im jest pokin fun...) :) your gonna have one sweet router when you get all this done...you could sell those as a unit...alot of work ,but you could do it..hey buy the way..have you done a tally of the price lately?...i know ya prolly hate to think of it..but price has bound to be getting up there by now,huh? keep up the good work ,man :)

LOL!
It's an AMD Athlon XP M2800+ Socket 754 Processor combo for $161.10

Actually, I don't dare look in the folder of receipts, but it is nearly an inch thick! :eek:

I have been going crazy trying to design the blocks that will be fastened to the wire track, as it's internal wire passages are going to be a real pain to put in! I'm trying to make it out of solid Delrin, so it is light and efficient! So far I have been reverse engineering the wire track, the sockets for the motors to plug into, and the connecting tubing.

There will be two wire tracks, one on top and one on the lower side under the Y-Axis motor. All the wires will be routed to one final point where they end in a 37-pin twist lock plug. Then a custom cable will connect the plug to the back of the big box!

My goal is to have everything self contained, so the only exposed wires will be the short leads coming out of the motors. And possibly the monitor and keyboard wires.

Everything is on hold, while I wait for stuff to arrive! But the more I fuss with whats here, the more ideas I get! This is definitely a cool project, although an expensive one!

A few years ago when I built my first router with all the electronics, I had purchased the MACH3 program, and BobCAD/BobART. So at least I don't have to buy them again! But I do have to learn BobCAD!

Widgit

A little more progress today. Last night I fussed with the placement of the components, to get a little idea of what I'm dealing with.

Then this morning I started working on the steel tubing for the router's table, first I made the four pieces that have a 45° on one end only. Then I milled the two pieces with no angle at all. Then I realized I had ordered the wrong length pieces for the bottom center tube. The one's I have are an inch too short! (brain fart :rolleyes: ) So I quickly ordered two more pieces!

Next, I made a careful layout on the table base, and checked everything three times! Then I used my Saws-All to cut the steel section out. and deburred everything with my 2" disk sander. Now I have to wait another five days to get the missing steel tubes! They should be here Monday evening.

Widgit

Ah, finally back in the shop :)

This evening I started with a large block of 6061, 12 3/4 x 5 x 4.
The 1st thing I did was spray some ink on it, and scribe a pair of lines where it needs to be saw cut! Then I pushed it through my little band saw for about 25 minutes, occasionally putting some wax on the moving blade!

Then I setup my vise on the mill, and used my large fly-cutter to skim cut one surface. Then I flipped the block, so the machined surface is down. Now with a pair of Starrett Hold-Downs, I now have it setup for finishing the opposite side parallel. Then I placed the two machined surfaces between the vise jaws, and carefully closed the vise ensuring the part is seated between the jaws. Now I can skim cut one more side perpendicular to the last two. With one more flip, the part is ready to finish the last side.

Next I placed my large 6x9x12 angle plate on the mill table, right up close to the vise. After placing a couple clamps on either side, I dialed the angle in. Now with a side plate bolted on to the angle plate, I can put the big block in the corner, and use my large clamps. With a few light cuts from the fly-cutter, both ends are square. The overall length will be done later.

Tomorrow, I will add some of the details to this block, as it will become the newly revised Z-Axis slide block!

Widgit

Today I worked a few more hours on the Z-Axis slide block, this part has some any setups and procedures, that I needed to be careful not do do something out of sequence! Otherwise, the part becomes difficult to hold!

First I milled a step in one end bringing the slender end of the part to finished length, then I added a .187R fillet on location and to depth. Next I milled the three 5/16" wide slots for the T-Slots, they are spaces 1.0" apart. Then I milled the three T-Slots, and deburred the part.

Next I milled the webs on the thick end for the V-Groove bearings & ball nut. Because the part is 12.5" long, I had to remove the vise and use the angle plate to drill & bore the precision hole for the ball nut. Then I had to remove the angle plate, and use the rotary table to mill the c-bore for the flange on the ball nut! This was a really tight fit, and I was ready to use a 4-jaw chuck in the lathe to do it! With a little patience, I had it dialed in and clamped tightly on the rotary table, milling the c-bore was an easy setup.

Now it's time to layout the 6.9° angle, and band saw off the bulk material! Again, it took around 25 minutes to push the 4" thick block through the saw.

Next, I calculated the block size needed for my 5" sine plate, so that I could hold the part in the vise and mill the band sawed surface nice and flat. To hold the part in my Kurt vise, I needed to flip the hard jaws, so the stick up an extra 1/4"

Now, with a big 2-flute end mill, I blended the milled surface with the sharp corner from a previous operation. Then I used my big fly-cutter to do the entire surface in one pass. To help me blend in the fly-cut surface, I used an indicator and a small surface gage. First I stoned the top of my vise, so the gage would slide smoothly. the indicator showed that I had a step of .003", so I raised the knee and took one final pass.

Now I need to mill the web on the opposite surface, and drill the holes of the V-Groove bearings. The difficult part will be machining another counter bore opposite of the one for the ball nut flange! That will be done tomorrow.

Widgit

Dang, you're just about ready to make some chips it looks like! I can't wait to see the "maiden voyage".

Widgit, you are truly in a class of your own. Thanks so much for letting us look over your shoulder. It's darned hard to keep up, but I constantly learn from the effort of trying.

Cheers,

BW

widgit that thing is looking awsome!! in those picture the spindle is spinning as your fly cutting,and the bar kinda sorta is,transparent..pretty cool :) .this maybe pre-mature..but have you kept everything up to date on the drawing,enough to build and sell those or at least,to sell the drawings..to make clones of the machine...i think alot of people wold like to have one of those...either by building off your drawings,or by you building and selling em...just a thought...also,..what travel did you end up with after the change of z axis ??...looks good man,looks good.. :)

Thanks Bob!
An you think your anxious to see it run !!! :eek:

I have not created individual prints for every part, but I have a folder with all my sketches and their changes. Most all information is in the main CAD file, it would take me a month to make a full set of prints!

The Z-Axis travel is unchanged, only the extension was added! The maximum travel of this Super-V Router is X=19, Y=19, Z=9

Widgit

Today I milled off the excess material on the Z-Axis slide block, leaving a 1/2" wide rib down the center of the front. To do this I need to make a tooling hole exactly in the center of the fillet radius above the T-Slots. This was done with a 1/8" center drill, on both sides of the slide block.

Next, I simply clamped the part to the mill's table, and dialed in the 6.9° angled surface I made yesterday. Then I dialed the center of the tooling hole and set my DRO to zero. Now with a .750 Dia end mill, I slowly milled back and forth until the cutter was close to the tooling hole. Then I set the travel stop on my power feed so the table stopped .2" from zero.
Next, I used the quill to plunge cut the fillet radius staying about .015" away from my finish point. Then I proceeded to mill the remaining material off. After one final pass on all surfaces, one side of the web is finished.

Then I flipped the part over, and repeated the process.!

The drawing shows a row of holes in the center web, I figured they would lighten up the block, and make it look really cool. But I plan on doing them at a later date!

Next I need to put in the other counter bore, the one inside the long 6.9° angle! This is a little challenging, but I think I have a few tricks stored in my tool boxes to pull this off!

First I need to center the bore in the middle of the rotary table, and clamp the block securely. In order to dial in the bore, I need to use my extra long indicator holder, which is made from a .375" dia stainless shaft. The other thing I needed was my little dental mirror to see the needle of the dial indicator!

Now that I's all dialed in and the DRO is zeroed, I will need to get a long end mill extension! Again, I had one in my tool box left over from another project! It is 7/8" dia on one end, 1 1/4" OD and has a .750 dia bore 2" deep with a setscrew to hold an end mill.

With the 7/8 collet in the spindle, and the long extension holding a long end mill, I was able to reach the bore and set the end of the end mill to zero. Now this counter bore is only clearance for the Z-Axis lead screw's thrust bearing block. So nothing is real critical!

After sever light cuts, I was able to make the counter bore about .015 bigger and deeper than the thrust block.

After that was done, I setup the vise with tall aluminum jaws, so I could hold the slide block and drill & tap the holes for the V-Bearings! After the bearings were mounted, I could see the Y-Axis slide block was .016" too wide, and the bearings did not align with the tracks. So I quickly re-cut the Y-Axis slide and assembled the entire unit!

I have to say, this is an incredible sliding machine, with no end play or backlash!

Next, my efforts will e to make the Table modifications, get them welded and painted so that I can mount the heavy duty drawer slides to the big box!

Widgit

An easy day today, as I was out of town for most of the morning!
When I arrived home there were several packages waiting at my door step, one of them contained the steel tubing for the table!

So after dinner, I made a quick layout with a scribe, band sawed the excess off, and milled the angles to the exact lengths!

Tomorrow, I will bring the parts to the welder so that I can get another section of this big project finished! The drawer slides have also arrived, and look incredible! With a little gray paint, the box and table will really make my new toy shine :)

Widgit

cool....hey widgit i was just wondering have you set a "date" for completion of the router to be making chips?...you seem to make alot of progress every day...either in drawing and alterations or making chips ,if you had a router mounted you could be making chips manually!..lol :) better not...but i would be itching to try it out, ya know...it looks soo close to being finished.....,from the pictures (great job with those by the way) it looks like there is little space between the table and the x axis side plates...about .100 ? shouldnt have any problem with chips getting in the way of the rollers....youve done a great job with "foward thinking" in the design... :) :)

Heh Wigit thats one kick AZZ setup you have going really nice I mean really damn nice. Heh question I do sandcasting on the side if i send you some aluminum blocks would you make me one of those setups I'll even pay for return shipping???? figured I'd ask..:cheers:

xXACEXx,
All I can say is cutting metal & using AutoCAD is a piece of cake; however, getting all the electronics working perfectly the 1st time is anyone's guess! Then of course I still need to learn how to use BobCAD/CAM & BobART to really make the project pay for itself! Not to mention my limited exposure to the MACH3 software!

After I built my first router, I got side tracked into building lots of Mini & Midi-Routers! So the 1'st router hardly got used! Jumping into it blindly is not going to happen!

There are several little details that still need to be finished before all the mechanical parts are complete, such as drilling holes in all three axis slide blocks for the ball-nut grease fittings! Also, the big Delrin blocks that will attach to the wire tracks still need to be worked up in CAD, and milled to suit the rest of the router. And of course, I still need to make all the cutouts in the big steel box for the computer, fans, switches, lights & other stuff. Oh yeah, the Monitor Swing Arm also needs to be modified!

It sounds like a tall order, but I'm not in a hurry - I'm retired :)

Widgit

Heh Wigit thats one kick AZZ setup you have going really nice I mean really damn nice. Heh question I do sandcasting on the side if i send you some aluminum blocks would you make me one of those setups I'll even pay for return shipping???? figured I'd ask..:cheers:

Thanks biotech1,
As for the sand casting, I'm not ready to make another one of these large machines, as you can see from all the pictures, it barely fit in my machines! Not to mention all that work for free???? Nah.....

Widgit

Late last night I was thinking about how I would be fastening the drawer slides to the table's new frame, that a screw going through a hollow tube would never tighten and cause problems in the future. So I decided to make a couple of steel plugs!

First I started with a bunch of rusty old bolts, band sawed the heads & threads off, and cleaned up the ends in the lathe. Then I drilled a hole straight through them.

Next I setup the mill to quickly drill two 5/8" dia holes on location through the steel tubing. Now when I get the assembly welded, the plugs will also be welded on both ends, so the hole in the tube will be solid steel!

Now I need to find a pickup-truck to help me haul it all to the welder!

For the last few days I have been trying to figure out the best, easiest, and lightest way to attach the wire track to the Y-Axis slide block. After several days in CAD, I came up with the basic design.
First I started with a 24x4x4 block of black Delrin, then I cut off a piece 7" long. After squaring it up with my fly-cutter, I scribed some layout lines and band sawed a chunk out of it. Then after several little setups, I had a basic idea of what I wanted. Then I placed in on the V-Router, to see what it looked like. Other than it being too heavy, is was exactly what I wanted.
After looking at it for a while, I realized I could put a center hole in the end opposite of the bore for the electrical socket. That I could use the 4-jaw chuck in my lathe to turn the center section round. As this would be the easiest way to remove lots of material, and lighten it up!
The block fastens to the back of the Y-Axis slide, and has a 3/8" dia hole which connects the upper cavity in the Slide block, to the bore for the motor socket.
The other end has a female end equivalent to the end of the wire track, so the track can snap in like it belongs there! The upper wire track will have three cables in it, one from the Z-axis motor, and two from the Y/Z limit switches.

The next block is just as crazy, and will have a shape similar to the side plate with it's angle. The CAD is almost finished for that block.

There would have been more pictur