One final question about Joes 2006.

[ShinedBrass]

O.K I too am now looking at building a Joes 2006, one of you might be able to save me a little bit of hassle though, from what I have seen so far all the materials are 3/4" or 19.05mm thick, is that correct?

And my only other question is I can see that there are aluminium parts on the plans but how do tell if the component you are looking at is HDPE or MDF?

Cheers in advance, when I have all the ingredients - then I cook.

[craigjh]

The majority of the mdf in the JOES2006 build is 1/2". Some 3/4" in the Z axis carriage and some HDPE involved in the bearing supports. Here in AUS, our mdf is 12 & 18mm (plus whatever humidity level you're building in.....) so you have no choice but to customise the build somewhat. Plus you need to work out if you're going to have the parts manufactured, or make each piece yourself.

You have access to sooooooo many informitive threads on this cnczone that you can find yourself going around in circles. Eventually you just need to commence you're own build and modify/adjust your plans a you go.

At least check out JOE'S original build thread on the 2006 to get a good idea of all the parts involved (lots of good photos too). Mind you, that thread is almost 1700 replies long, so don't expect to cover it all in 1 night!!!

[ShinedBrass]

The majority of the mdf in the JOES2006 build is 1/2". Some 3/4" in the Z axis carriage and some HDPE involved in the bearing supports. Here in AUS, our mdf is 12 & 18mm (plus whatever humidity level you're building in.....) so you have no choice but to customise the build somewhat. Plus you need to work out if you're going to have the parts manufactured, or make each piece yourself.

You have access to sooooooo many informitive threads on this cnczone that you can find yourself going around in circles. Eventually you just need to commence you're own build and modify/adjust your plans a you go.

At least check out JOE'S original build thread on the 2006 to get a good idea of all the parts involved (lots of good photos too). Mind you, that thread is almost 1700 replies long, so don't expect to cover it all in 1 night!!!

O.K so if you've built a joe's I presume you've a copy of plans which are metric, any chance of me laying my hands on them? here in NZ we are also metric measurements for MDF.

I was actually thinking last night there's not that much difference between 12mm and 1/2" being 12.7mm I might actually just get away with that one (possibly) but 18mm to 19.05 -> 1.05mm I'd call outside the comfort zone, I had considered getting 20mm and having it thinned to 19.05mm, it would probably however ruin the durability of the MDF and pretty much munt the finish unless I immediately painted it after cutting.

But if I can get hold of metric plans I could just have the whole thing CNC'd and be lazy and construct a giant 3D jigsaw

[gully]

Hi ShinedBrass,
Good luck with your Joes build.
Craig is right, You really need to look over a few Joes build threads to get your head around the build process and the accuracy required.
There is a lot of information such as parts lists, how to's etc. available for you to use.
It's well worth the time to go through them.
Joes 2006 R2 plans can be downloaded free from rapidlibrary.com and they are also posted in Joes original build thread if you dont already have a copy.
As far as I'm aware there are no metric plans available for the full size Joes.
Full size Joes metric CAD files = DIY CAD adjustment or redraw

I built my Joes version 20% smaller than the original off CAD drawings I made and have posted most of them in my build log.

Craig cut and built his excellent full size machine by hand, adjusting Joes drawings to suit metric MDF and would be well worth the read if hand building is an option for you.
They are a really great CNC machine to build and use,
Commiting to building a CNC is quite a large investment in both time and money, so dont rush in, spend some time here on this site, pick up the tips and tricks before you pick up your tools, it makes the building process easier and more fun.
Dont forget to run a build log so we can all follow along

Gully

[ShinedBrass]

Hi ShinedBrass,
Good luck with your Joes build.
Craig is right, You really need to look over a few Joes build threads to get your head around the build process and the accuracy required.
There is a lot of information such as parts lists, how to's etc. available for you to use.
It's well worth the time to go through them.
Joes 2006 R2 plans can be downloaded free from rapidlibrary.com and they are also posted in Joes original build thread if you dont already have a copy.
As far as I'm aware there are no metric plans available for the full size Joes.
Full size Joes metric CAD files = DIY CAD adjustment or redraw

I built my Joes version 20% smaller than the original off CAD drawings I made and have posted most of them in my build log.

Craig cut and built his excellent full size machine by hand, adjusting Joes drawings to suit metric MDF and would be well worth the read if hand building is an option for you.
They are a really great CNC machine to build and use,
Commiting to building a CNC is quite a large investment in both time and money, so dont rush in, spend some time here on this site, pick up the tips and tricks before you pick up your tools, it makes the building process easier and more fun.
Dont forget to run a build log so we can all follow along

Gully

Thanks for that I will have a look at that build information but I just realized there's one more question I note that the main bed on the Joe's the Nema motor is offset to one side on the large bed, is there any particular reason for that or would a perfectly centred motor work equally as well, I'm asking because I simply don't know.

Cheers for your response BTW, I am looking forward to getting started, I've got my CAD out and onece I know the answer to the above Im ready to rock

[gully]

Thanks for that I will have a look at that build information but I just realized there's one more question I note that the main bed on the Joe's the Nema motor is offset to one side on the large bed, is there any particular reason for that or would a perfectly centred motor work equally as well, I'm asking because I simply don't know.

Cheers for your response BTW, I am looking forward to getting started, I've got my CAD out and onece I know the answer to the above Im ready to rock

Hi shinedBrass,
It is ment to be offset. the shaft is actually correctly centred in the axis it drives, when you take into account the adjuster/tension box on the side of the moving axis. This offsets its position through the big torsion box

Gully

[ShinedBrass]

Thanks for that , lucky i didnt try and centre it lol.

[craigjh]

Hi ShinedBrass,

sorry for not getting back to you sooner, but looks like Gully has taken care of your questions anyway. I don't have metric plans. I used google sketchup to breakdown JOES plans into individual parts, printed each one out, then worked out which measurements I needed to customise to suit metric mdf and the running gear I wanted to use. (attached is a couple of sketchup screenshots).

My plans now consist of a folder full of individual printed-out parts with a mess of hand-written measurements and comments! Mind you, I have bugger-all CAD skills, so maybe if you're CAD-savy, you'll be able to utilise that somewhat.

You can customise a lot of it to end up with the cutting area you want (like Gully has done) as long as you get all the "critical" measurements right. Those "critical" measurements will become obvious once you read through a few build logs, look at some plans, and devise your own plan of attack.

Like Gully said, post your progress here so we can make some suggestions as you go (if required).