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Hey FreeRider.... Any luck yet on the CAD files for your machine? Thanks.
So I've had a few request for the CAD drawings of this machine which I plan on releasing. I did all the design work with CamBam so I'll have to see if I have a DFX export or whatnot to upload something useful to anyone else that wants a similar machine.
There are a few parts of the machine that I redesigned on the fly, and a few minor changes I made during my machining operations but the basic outline should be helpful to anyone wishing to build something similar.
I will hopefully have a little spare time this week to cobble together a file for upload.
Hey FreeRider.... Any luck yet on the CAD files for your machine? Thanks.
Should be up later todayOriginally Posted by MillworkMike
! Thanks for the interest and sorry for the delay.
Seems like photobucket's filters thought my 3D female profile was to explicit to host so the image has been pulled down. If I carve a larger form as I plan on doing I will photochop a swimsuit on before posting.
My first try at a 3D milling operation. I just ran 75% of the finishing pass after a waterline roughing operation so I spent a few minutes with the sandpaper to take the tooling lines out (another finishing pass at 90* would have worked as well...but I was getting impatient). Not half bad for a 1/8 endmill...I'm betting I could do alot better with a more solid material (I was using pink foam) and with a nice ball mill. What I really plan on doing is using meshes generated from my laser scanner and then milling them, a 3D photocopier if you will
Just a suggesstion: For images, I've used Image Shack for years and still do on occasion. As far as I can tell, they don't filter your images with image recognition software, rather it's by keywords.
Image Shack LINK
It's better to sign up on there than to upload anonymously because it makes it easier to find your stuff.
http://paul-flores.com/
Here's the downloads to the 4 DXF files that include nearly every part for my machine. I'll give some file descriptions in the next post.
This entire machine is mainly built from 1.5"x1/4" bolts and 1/4" cross dowels. There are 3-4 different diameter holes in the drawings which can be changed to suit your needs.
-All thru holes for the 1/4" bolts are milled to 0.28".
-Cross dowel holes are milled to 0.40".
-Counter sunk holes/slots are milled to a diameter of 0.65".
On counter sunk holes that neared the edge are extended to avoid having only a small sliver of wood around the hole. Counter sinking depth will depend on the bolt heads you are using, or if you plan on using washers. The v-bearings have a different ID hence the mounting holes/counter sinking holes for the v-bearing hardware is larger. Due the large amount of hand drilling required to clear area for the cross dowel bolts I suggest you use a solid doweling jig to make the holes (the steel clamping jig I used makes all the holes dead square and keeps the wood from splitting during drilling).
CNCBaseAssembly:
This is the main structure that the gantry will sit on. There are 2 end plates (one for 2 skate bearings to act as a thrust bearing for the all thread rod) and the other to hold the stepper motor. Moving to the right in the drawing there is one dxf of the horizontal support which the 3/4 aluminum rails bolt onto (make 2 copies). The furthest to the right is the vertical support which bolts to the end plates to secure the whole base together.
CNCTableAsembly:
The horizontal and vertical lines on the base plate are to show the position of the supports on the under side of the table. Once again make 2 copies of both the side bearing supports and the end supports. I did not cut an access hole for the drive screw at this point as I was unsure of where it would line up. This can be marked, disassembled and drilled later to guarantee a perfect fit. The slotted holes on the right and left bearing supports allow for adjustment of the v-bearings. I put a cross dowel in the bottem of this slot (widened slightly with a file) and then used a bolt to apply force to the bolt holding the v-bearing.
CNCGantryAssembly:
Staring from the top left and working our way down we have the upper and lower gantry back supports to add rigidity. Next comes the carrage and HDPE nut holder which will ride along the 3/4" aluminum rails. Next is the main back support followed by the upper and lower rail blocks. The upper rail is non-adjustable and is bolted to the machine as level as possible with the table (the 0.28" holes should allow for enough play to get the gantry quite square with the table). The lower rail has slotted holes to allow for adjustment. You must use washers on the slotted holes or the hex head of the bolt will dig into the MDF hole. With the addition of the washers a 1.5" bolt may be to short, I used one size up for this part. The gantry uppers sit to the right of the drawing and are the stepper and bearing support. For the bearing support I milled one side to accept the bearing and then used a hand drill to make a lip on the other side to accept another bearing sandwhiching the MDF. If I were to make this again I would double up the MDF thickness on the gantry sides for support (laminate to half inch sheets as opposed to one 0.75 sheet). I would also increase the hight just slightly to allow more space between the stepper motor drive screw and upper gantry support brace.
CNCZassembly:
Staring again at the upper left we have the upper bearing support with the same handrill back bearing sandwich as we did on the gantry. Next on the left we have the z-rail support. I went WAY overkill here with the cross dowel holes. I would use about half as many bolt down locations for the aluminum rail. You will notice the cross dowel holes are stagger back and forth to allow me to use 1.5 inch bolts...I only wanted one bolt size on this machine. Moving right we have the support block which gives the bearing support block 4 bolt down locations. This block then bolts to the main z-rail to add some rigidity. On the far right we have a copied method from buildyourcnc to hold the router to the z-rail. The mount is 2 parts (cut doubles of the holder) its sized for a hitachi M12VC.
Hopefully this is enough information to work off. I hope anyone planning on building this machine uses these files as a guideline and improves the design to make it their own. If there are any parts that I left unclear let me know and I will do my best to elaborate.
Happy building!
Thanks FreeRider! :-]
I love the attention to detail on this machine. The recessed bolt heads and the built-in adjustability make it look truly professional.
Your more then welcome!
Thank you for the kind words! I find I am more happy with a design if I like the way it looks so I did my best on this machine to keep the joints clean and the lines simple and smooth.
Hi, really great design
just wondering if you can go into more depth about the way it moves? is it using acme? skate bearings. Sorry for my newbie questions
Thank you!
I machine is supported on v-bearings riding on 3/4" aluminum angle iron. The axis are moved with your standard all thread rod running thru HDPE blocks. The ends of the all thread rod are supported with standard skate bearings.
Although the cost of v-bearings is substantially more then skate bearing setups the ease of setup and smooth operation is well worth it for me.
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