New CNC router build in Melbourne

[chris123]

Hi Chris,

good hear that your parts are starting the arrive. The wait can be a little frustrating eh - especially from China....

The parts are from a guy i america
Delivery was expensive but parts were still cheaper then if I bought them here
He make CNC routers mostly out of wood, so I thought why not use the same metal parts e uses and replace the wood with metal to machine metal, time will tell

[cnc3678]

Have started drilling holes and welding the main steel base. As expected the welding has warped parts of the frame despite my best efforts to keep it square. However I've drilled slightly oversize holes for the bolts/t-nuts that will hold the 80/20 extrusion against the top side rail supports, hence should be able to compensate at that point.

Steel base is getting heavy - around 200kg so far!!

Cheers,

Richard

[cnc3678]

The welded frame is now finished and primed/painted in a matt black. Both aluminium 80/20 supports are bolted on and the top 25mm rails mounted as shown.

I've checked the rails for alignment with a dial gauge and initially found that I'm out by about 50 thou along the full length - damn .

So I've got some work to do to shim this out first.



Richard

[kiwichris]

Looking good.

Not so flash on the 50 thou though.. You couldn't make up a jig of some kind and mill it off the outside face of the alloy section then flip it could you? 8020 is probably pretty easy to mill, it's just 6061?

[mikie]

I would also look at driving the gantry from both sides for the x-axis.
History has shown me that you get racking with the single drive screw down the middle.

Where about are you in melbourne?
Keep up the posts

[cnc3678]

Hello all,

despite a few months passing, I have been tinkering away on this project. The gantry frame is now built and all the rails and X-Axis screw mounts drilled and tapped.

Next step is the central Y-Axis screw and the stepper motor mounts.

[gully]

Hey cnc3678

Nice solid looking build you have going there.
Are you planning to drive your Y axis with a single ball screw or a duel set up
Will be following along to see how it all turns out.

Gully

[cnc3678]

G'day Gully,

I'm using a single 25mm ball screw down the centre of the table. Because I used four rails on this axis, there is minimal chance of racking.

Richard

[gully]

Thanks Richard,
Thought you might be going that way with the double rail set up.
It will be a beast when you get it up and running.

Gully

[omnicnc]

Seems it is a nice cnc wood router, good work and go ahead.

[cnc3678]

I've completed mounting the z-axis frame and finished off the ball screw mounting for both x & y axis. Motors are mounted ready for wiring.

Have also mounted some e-chains I picked up off e-bay and completed building an enclosure for the electronics. Just need to finalise where to mount everything so that I keep the wiring nice and neat.

Some pics attached.

[kiwichris]

Looking good....