I've started a new machine build using primarily 80/20 3030 and hiwin 15mm linear slides. Some of the pictures below are from about 2 months ago at the start, up until last night I think. Progress has been slow but picked up a little bit lately.

The pictures below are of the gantry, I haven't even started the main table section, however I did just receive those in the mail yesterday. I hope to get working on that, but getting those 2 pieces together is going to be an undertaking as the gantry already weighs about 80 pounds I would guess, although i'm not an accurate scale so that's plus or minus 50% hehe.

I'll post more as the build progresses.

Ross

Hi Ross
I am also planning to make my CNC with 80/20. Your gantry design looks really interesting. Do you have any more pictures showing your progress since the other pictures you posted?

Mike M.

Well i've made some good progress, today I finally got the gantry attached to the X Axis, also got the legs on. So far my main concern (not sure how to explain this) of the gantry twisting, like when the router is all the way on one side, and it has a lot of force on it, that's a twisting force. Initial tests showed that I couldn't even budge it, so i'm quite happy, and I haven't even done any re-inforcement yet.

Not sure you can tell from the pictures, but much more re-inforcement will be done to the gantry connection area. There are hiwin 15mm rails on the underside of the X axis, the same ones that are visible on the gantry for the Y and Z axis.

Surprisingly it slides with ease, the main gantry that is. I made sure everything was within very tight tolerances the whole time, and I guess it paid off. I can just push the gantry and it slides along and it's still extremly rigid.

I plan on adding more cross members to the main table section as well, which should also increase strength of the table, and help avoid twisting as I discussed about near the middle of the table.

Also, you may go "the damn thing is on wheels!", but I put those one because I want to be able to move it out for maintenance reasons easily, I plan on anchoring my machine into the concrete wall you see to the left of it, I'm pretty sure it's solid :)

Ross

Hi Ross,

Looks pretty good so far :)

Bob

Ross, How large is your machine and how much did you spend on aluminum stuff?

The machine dimension specs are this:

X: 49"
Y: 25"
Z: 5-6" (Not sure how it will turn out with the depth of the table board I use, plus fastening system..)

X and Y are meant to be just above 2 foot by 4 foot working area.

So far in aluminum extrusions, plus plates/t-nuts/misc 8020 stuff is around $1300. That doesn't include the stock aluminum I bought and made custom plates though, I made a bunch of 3" by 9" connector plates, some other plates as well. I would price all those at $200-$300, so i guess around $1500. I got all my aluminum extrusions from automation4less.com. Also I got my linear rails from them as well, I did NOT include any of those prices in what I mentioned above though.

Ross

Read this link on how to prevent the twisting of the gantry. Post #51 is the Key illustration of the application.

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51485&highlight=racking&page=5

Hey, Check out the clear plastic CNC on the side. Nice looking and pretty heavy duty. Have you donumented this? :rainfro:

Looks like an example of build one to make one.

Nice looking projects.

i was looking at these a few days ago.. and was wondering if there were bearings in the guides or does it slide on delrin or something like that.. thanks

Wayne, Thanks for that link, very interesting design. Simple yet effective. I'm hoping I won't have to utilize that, but if there is any twisting action i'll surely use that method to fix it.

Mr.Chips, That's my old CNC machine, built originally from hobbycnc plans, if you notice that big piece of plexiglas is about the same shape as a standard hobbycnc plans. I also rebuilt the whole Z axis out of plexiglass, which was much different then the original. I'll try and post another picture of it later, and yes, I am using my old machine to help build the new machine :)

minisoft, Not sure if that's a question of a statement, you can see the linear slides in the pictures, they are Hiwin slides. www.automation4less.com has more details, they are ball bearing based. My blocks have 2 scrappers on them to clean the slides before it moves over them, hope they are effective but only time will tell ehhe.

Ross

Mr.Chips, That's my old CNC machine, built originally from hobbycnc plans, if you notice that big piece of plexiglas is about the same shape as a standard hobbycnc plans. I also rebuilt the whole Z axis out of plexiglass, which was much different then the original. I'll try and post another picture of it later, and yes, I am using my old machine to help build the new machine :)
Ross


That looks like bank teller type material. Have not seen anything like that in the DIY stores.

Looking forward to pictures.

Mr chips. sorry for not being clear.. i meant that i was looking at the linear guides the other day. but couldnt tell if they had actual bearings on the inside of the block or if it had the delrin or some other plastic slide. but i took a better look at the blocks and guides and found out they did have bearings.. so that was what i was asking .. if it had bearing..lol.. thanks for the reply..

Mr chips. sorry for not being clear.. i meant that i was looking at the linear guides the other day. but couldnt tell if they had actual bearings on the inside of the block or if it had the delrin or some other plastic slide. but i took a better look at the blocks and guides and found out they did have bearings.. so that was what i was asking .. if it had bearing..lol.. thanks for the reply..

Think you mean this for "Ross" the builder.

yes .. klick0 aka rose.. sorry about that

Hi Ross,

The gantry looks pretty stout alright. Did you happen to run it through the 80/20 deflection calculator to see what it comes up with? Just by looking at it it looks like you could easily put a 3 HP+ router on the Z axis when it's ready and still be well within .001" deflection.
Looks like it's going to be a really great machine when completed.

Mike M.

i built one somthing like his a month or so ago and i have a 3.25 hp on mine.. i just did a pcb today and looks like a $50000 machine did it... mine is all 80/20 also.. just little different then his.. im building a new one right now. just because im bored..lol.

Mike, Nah, I don't even know where an 80/20 deflection calculator is... Also i'm still doing more reinforcements, so hopefully it will be even more rigid after that.

I've attached a pic of my old machine, you could see part of it in one of the other pictures. I plan to use the router it has, really my old machine can't really handle that, but I wanted a bigger router on it eheh.

Tonight I was working on the main Z axis plate, I was threading a hole and broke off the threader/die thing. I can't figure out how to back those things out, luckily it isn't necessarily a required hole, so i'll just cover it up, and hope I don't need to use it. Regardless, the plate is getting closer, and I should receive the last few parts I need by next week for that, I still need to make other parts for this, but things are moving along which is good :)

I did do some testing, I hooked up the Y axis, and tested my backlash. At first I thought I had about 2 hundredths of an inch in backlash, which I was devastated. I then realized that the clamp I had holding down my digital calipers was loose, and was moving back and forth, i tightened that down, and tested again. I came up with 1 thousandth of an inch or less, granted that's with no load, I did try to push on it back and forth and it didn't budge at all, so it's looking really freaking good. My old machine on the X axis had like 1/40th an inch of backlash... eheh, it was freaking horrible, so this machine is looking much better :) Can't wait to get the other axis on and tested. Granted the real test will be when it's hooked up to the computer, but these initial tests look very promising.

Ross

Mike, Nah, I don't even know where an 80/20 deflection calculator is... Ross

Hi,
Here's what I found on the http://8020.net site, their "deflection calculator" download. Have fun!

http://8020.net/Design-Tools-26.asp

Sincerely,
DIY-Guy "Becoming a bit more dangerous with each new piece of knowledge!"
P.S. I have not downloaded this yet and do not currently know how to use it, but I would like to know how. :)

The deflection calculator is really easy to use. You just pick which 80/20 product you are testing from their drop down list, enter the distance of the unsupported span, in inches or milimeters, depending on which product it is, enter a figure for the weight which will be on the product (this can be a known quantity or a guesstimate) and click on the "Calculate Deflection" button. The program will then give you the deflection according to several senerios: 1. the weight is evenly distributed along the span; 2. the weight is centered in the middle of the span; 3. the product is standing on edge; 4. the product is laying flat.
If you are still in the design phase of your machine you can use this program to jockey the parameters around and help you decide which products to use, e.g. 1530 or 1545, where you will need bracing, how many cross pieces you will need, etc. Very useful tool.
The only thing is, when you're done you have your answers, if you're gonna use 80/20 brand! Who knows if it is the same for T-Slots, or any of the others.

Mike M.

Ok, it's been a while since an update has occured, busy with work has slowed me down a bit but i've been trying to get the machine done. I am much further along now, the machine actually moves around on all axis, does so with great precision so far. The biggest challenge that was accomplished since last post is the electronics box, which isn't quite done, but I posted a picture, it's a task I dreaded and now most of the hard stuff is over with it, so i'm quite happy :)

The only thing left to do is the limit switches, which i'm about 20% done with i'd say. I could run the machine with something, but I'm patient enough to wait till I get the limit switches done before running it. Granted I don't have a tabletop on it yet, but that's not much effort, I have all the parts needed to throw that on.

Also with my new control board, I have some digital outputs that I could use to control whether or not the spindle is turned on, which would be nice. Really the main reason I want that is during an ESTOP it will turn it off, or I would assume it does. Also the machine is much larger, and i can't lean over to turn it on before hitting the Run button for the program, so it would help out for that as well. I have no intentions of doing RPM control though, as I just use a standard router anyway...

Ross

give us a update on your motor choices sizing where you purchased them.
what size of encoder you used etc?

some info on how you tuned your servos? for us newbies

Ross, If you get a minute please check your PM's. Thanks.