FreeRiders JGRO With Enclosure


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  1. #1
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    Default FreeRiders JGRO With Enclosure

    Hello All!
    I decided to build a CNC machine about 4 months back to help build parts for my other hobbies (RC aircraft and robotics). Going off the suggestions from users on this forum I went with the JGRO design due to its simplicity.



    I have access to a fairly nice woodshop out at my folks house but live in an apartment in the city. Plan was to do all my cutting on the weekends and spend the week days assembling and drilling. After a few errors along the way I finally ended up with something resembling a CNC. Paranoid about the MDF warping out of wack I used a mixture of water and glue during the build to seal the parts (2 to 3 coats). Once I fully completed the machine I broke it all down again and gave it 2 good coats of poly-acrylic to make cleanup easy.

    The gas pipe I purchased was a little hit and miss. The larger Y rails were very smooth and sanded up very nice. The X and Z rails were a little more pitted with rust and I was only able to get them so smooth. In the end they seem to function just fine tho! The plastic bearing blocks I was lucky to get for free from a local plastic company...cant beat free! I am using 3/8-18 threaded rod for my screws...she's a little slow but works well enough for me right now.

    The one thing I wanted to avoid was parallel port breakout boards! As far as I am concerned that technology is dead. I would much rather use my laptop to drive this machine so I went ahead and build myself a USB driver board from the schematics at planetCNC. I bought a inexpensive probotix's 3 axis kit and used their drivers in combination with the USB breakout board. Everything works swimmingly well!



    Since I live in an apartment I had to find a way to silence this beast a little so I used 2x4 studs, some 1/8" hardboard and a bag of rockswool sound insulation and build a sound reducing enclosure. I dont have any hard numbers on dB attenuation but it significantly reduces the sound...so much so that my fan cooling the stepper drivers is louder. I sealed the door with closed cell foam and made a viewing window with double pane lexan glass. I've learned the more times you make sound change medians the better attenuation you have. I still have to go inside the box and seal all the seams but for a breakdown soundproof...errr...soundreducing enclosure I am very happy.



    There are loads of loose ends I need to complete (like an enclosure for the driver board and power supply and organizing the cables) but I figure that is something the CNC can now help me with. I also have plans on upgrading my el cheapo rotary tool to a hitachi M12VC due to the insanely quiet operation...first thing on the bill tho are some proper milling bits! Something tells me my 8 bits for 8 bucks isnt the best .



    I'm getting tired of typing but if I left anything unclear please ask away! I would like to thank all the users of this forum, over the last few months I have been using the search feature like it was going bad and answered every question I had! So thanks guys, hopefully now I can help contribute to yet another great forum of people.



    Curt

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    Nice work Curt. It is good to see that simple enclosures are useful for the sound attenuation. I think they are potentially a great safety feature as well.



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    Quote Originally Posted by harryn View Post
    Nice work Curt. It is good to see that simple enclosures are useful for the sound attenuation. I think they are potentially a great safety feature as well.
    Thanks! I agree with the safety aspect as well. The sound insulation I used is also fireproof so thats an added benefit that I never wish to test. One great thing is the dust containment, as of now the box has no air intake but I will be monitoring temperatures once the new router is added in (purchased last night ) to see if it heats up the box at all. Currently the little rotary tool doesn't kick out enough heat to change the temperature.



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