Another First Router

[ger21]

your machine looks very much like a LionClaw LC50 and is similar to a Joes 2006........

I built mine first, and I like to think they used some of my ideas in their designs, like the torsion box table to support the pipes,

..........yet both those machines use single center screws.

Both those machines use a large piece of MDF under the table to try to keep the gantry from racking. I've never seem either in person, but i believe both can suffer from racking when the router is at the ends of the gantry.

[racedirector]

Originally Posted by ger21 I built mine first, and I like to think they used some of my ideas in their designs, like the torsion box table to support the pipes,

I did notice your thread date was before theirs and you had started a few years before that!

Originally Posted by ger21 Both those machines use a large piece of MDF under the table to try to keep the gantry from racking. I've never seem either in person, but i believe both can suffer from racking when the router is at the ends of the gantry.

I was wondering about what you had under the table connecting the gantry side, both of the other machines have a mini torsion box connecting the gantry sides underneath but I like the way you have done the twin screws. I first saw your machine in your Mach 2010 videos and liked the way it moved. Now I know more about it it should be a simple case of incorporating your idea into one of them, probably the LC50B because it looks very much like your machine. I am making a few adjustments to that machine as we speak by enclosing the pipe ends ala yours and Joes design so moving the screw and adding another shouldn't be that much of an issue. Not going to tell the wife I need another controller and motor until the very last minute though

Cheers
Bruce

[LouF]

Originally Posted by ger21 Yes. It's almost impossible to get a pic with both screws in it, and I can't get a pic of the two motors. This pic shows the bearing mounts for the two screws, on the left end. With a single center mounted screw, the machine would not be usable due to severe gantry racking.

Gerry, Nice looking machine..

Lou

[ger21]

Originally Posted by racedirector I was wondering about what you had under the table connecting the gantry side

Nothing but 2 threaded rods to pull the sides together.

See the 5th pic in post #70. There are two small " wings" at the bottom, and the nuts are mounted to those using a small piece of aluminum angle. The threaded rods go through the "wings".

Thanks, Lou.

[FannBlade]

Nice looking build ger21.
Plenty of style points. Looks like a factory build.

[ger21]

I thought I'd post some pics of something I'm working on, because it's coming out pretty cool.

I built a vacuum veneer frame press, and I'm working on the vacuum pump. It's a highly modified Joewoodworker venturi. 2 Venturi's, 2 MAC valves, 2 4" PVC reservoirs. All quick connect hose fittings.
Joewoodworker was out of Venturis, and while browsing Ebay to try and save some money, I had a change of plans and spent twice as much.

Eventually, the base for the table will have cabinets, and I wanted to do rippled water drawer fronts. So I figured I'd make an end panel as a test, and mount the pump to the end panel.

The panel is 3/4" MDF, sealed with epoxy after a "rough" finishing pass, followed by the finish pass. No sanding was done to this MDF panel.
I brushed on a coat of silver hammered paint as a sealer, waited 45 minutes, then sprayed blue hammered paint. 45 minutes more, and one more coat of blue.
If you don't recoat the Rustoleum hammered within an hour, you're supposed to wait 48 hours before painting again.
The blue paint really made it look good.

The panel is 20"x30", and the finish pass tool 4 hours. I used a 1/4" core box bit at 190ipm, and used the Tempest trajectory planner for Mach3, which runs my machine a LOT smoother, but a little slower.

I'm hoping to have it all assembled in a day or two, if I have everything I need.

[FannBlade]

Nice work! Looks like a piece of molded ceramic. No sanding....that's the ticket.

[louieatienza]

Nice...

[LouF]

Looks great..

Lou

[Drools]

That looks great. How did you do the water effect? Was it a dxf that you made a relief from?

[ger21]

The panel was done in Lightwave, an animation program. I start with a highly subdivided box, and apply procedural texture deformations to it. The nice thing about this method is that I get a realtime rendered preview of what the panel will look like. Lightwave isn't cheap, but you can probably do something similar using Blender, which is free.

I then brought the panel into Aspire, and added the bosses to mount the brackets to. I was going to make some pockets for button head mounting screws, but changed my mind. I'm going to mount it with 3M vxb tape, which will be much cleaner.

[RomanLini]

That's very cool! From the right angle you'd think it was water in the photo.