Fixed Gantry - Trying again

[harryn]

Hi, I decided to abandon my prior approach to a fixed gantry system and am trying again. The main problem with the last attempt is that I failed to think through the real impact of the build on the space I had available to work with.

So - trying again, but with more "experience"

This time, I would like to attempt to build the following:

Total Size
- Can be reasonably loaded into the back of my minivan by two people
- Approx. dimensions 39 in x 24 in x 84 inch (max space available ) including the dust / noise enclosure
- No table - it just sits on the concrete floor when in use
- Can store on its smallest end with the 84 inch dimension vertically up

Uses Planned
- Able to work with mostly plywood sheets (possibly up to 5 x 10 ft), 2 x 4s, and 6x6s, and down to 2 x 2 ft sheets
- Ideally, use my existing bosch 1617 evs router
- Cutting plywood sheets to size, shaping board ends, making some decorative around the house items
- Teen projects for school and education
- Wood, plastics, foam, r/c parts
- I might attempt an electric guitar body at some point - mostly for fun, not for sale


Performance Expectations / hopes
- Over an 8 ft board length, I would be very happy with consistent +/- 32 inch results, and 1/16th might be acceptable (about +/ 1mm). +/- 1/8th is not ideal, but it is still far better than I do by hand now.

- For holes that are 6 inches in diameter, I would be happy with +/- 1/32 inch between the x and y dimension, and possible happy with lesser results.

Obviously, better results are always welcome, but I am trying to be realistic so that I can actually afford to build this thing.

Idea so far:

Y axis
- Fixed gantry for the Y axis
- Possibly a bearing based solution, but the semi - DIY ones so far were not up to my expectations
- I am fairly convinced that to make skate bearings work correctly, I would need to use the swiss style skate bearings rather than the abec 7 style bearings, and those are not inexpensive at all.
- Close to 6 ft long axis

X axis
- some method of moving the wood through the unit, similar to how a planer works.
- Will take in the wood and move it through the router about 8 - 10 ft, so it has to be robust
- Ideally, easy to store in a garage with an 8 ft ceiling and limited storage space

a) Link to a sears wood planer
Sears: Online department store featuring appliances, tools, fitness equipment and more

b) Not ideal, but I suppose it is possible to use a table that is removable and attach a pair of racks to it for insertion into the router. Then I could just attach the blank wood to the table and push it in to start.

c) Very Open to ideas on this

Frame / Enclosure
- I am considering to make the final version from Al honeycomb panels like these in a 1 3/4 in thick version for light weight and stiffness. I need to see how much they actually cost first of course.


Honeycomb Sandwich Panels | Honeycomb Sandwich Panels

Thanks for looking and for any suggestions.

Harry

[OCNC]

X axis
- some method of moving the wood through the unit, similar to how a planer works.
- Will take in the wood and move it through the router about 8 - 10 ft, so it has to be robust
- Ideally, easy to store in a garage with an 8 ft ceiling and limited storage space

For moving the material I think you would want something more along the lines of a wide belt sander mechanism rather than a planer mechanism. The difference is that the platen has a conveyor belt which could be driven with a stepper motor and the pressure rolls are free wheeling. The improvement over the planer drive should be obvious. Just remember that if you're trying to move an 8' 2x around there's a lot of inertia to deal with. I think that there's a reason we don't see machines configured like this.

Chris

[harryn]

Thanks - yes you are right - it is the highest risk part of the project.

The planers and sanders have another thing going for them as well - most of the material is close to one thickness across the sheet. This will be true often, but not always on my projects. For instance, a guitar body might start out one thickness, but will not stay that way for long.

It could be that I am forced to use a some kind of standard "moving carrier table" (such as a large flat sheet of something) with rack gear mounted to it to make this all work. That would be much less convenient, but at least is a backup plan.

[jsheerin]

I'd assume it would be 39 wide, 84 long and 24 high? If so that rules out working with full sheets of wood right there... If you want to maximize the size of sheet you can work, I'd go with a moving gantry instead of fixed. The purpose of a fixed gantry is usually increased rigidity, but for the type of work you're talking about that's not required. You could easily get accuracy better than 0.01" if you just do a standard machine built from 80/20 framing and use cnc router parts components or something similar. I'd go r&p on the two long axes and acme screw on the z.

From what you've said, the only reason I can see not to do this is budget, but you haven't specified your budget. Going with the moving table schemes you're talking about would vastly complicate things and potentially limit accuracy quite a bit. If you just want to do it to do it, I totally understand that, but it seems like there's a very well established solution to do your stated types of work.

[harryn]

Hi, thanks for your post and link.

If I had room for a conventional moving gantry or fixed gantry design for full size 4 x 8 ft sheets, life would be much easier - indeed. I simply do not have the room for such a unit, and I don't have a need for a smaller capacity unit. Budget is always a factor, and I have not set one, but realistically, it will be moderate.

Since this is really for occassional use (not professional use) and one of the goals is that 1 or 2 people can load it into the back of a dodge minivan, that limits size considerable, and forces a non - conventional approach.

Please consider to follow the link to the sears wood planer in the original post. The idea is that the 7 foot dimension is the width of the exterior of the unit, and that the parts pass through the unit, more or less similar to how a planer passes wood through it. The 4 ft wide sheets will go into the router, which gives roughly 3 ft for making it a bit oversize, and the mechanical aspects.

No doubt, there will be some performance tradeoffs. The real challenge will be how to manage the wood as it goes through. For a perfectly flat sheet of plywood, it does not seem too challenging. For something more complex - say a 2.5 D object like an electric guitar body, or an RC airplane wing, then life is more interesting.

So far, the most robust approach I have come up with is to mount the work on some kind of spoil board table that has 2 racks pre-mounted on it. While not ideal, it is perhaps the lowest risk. Of course, this spoil board mount table will need to be larger than the full size sheet then - which is slightly painful to store.

This problem is exactly what failed on my first project, but in that case, it was even worse, as I had the 7 ft dimension mounted vertically and some additional space constraints.

[CarveOne]

Sounds like you are describing something like a large format CarveWright style machine. It would slide into the minivan edge-ways, leaving room for carrying other items beside it. To cut a 4x8 sheet the machine's width would need to be at least 5' wide to allow for mechanical parts. Like a planer, it could have fold up or removable extension plates for the in-feed and out-feed sides. Instead of a planer head it would have a moving Z axis head.

That is the idea behind the CarveWright machine. I almost bought one for my first CNC machine when Sears started selling their version of it, and decided that it was just too small for my aspirations. They should have introduced a 25" cut width version instead of the 13". I would have bought one.

CarveOne

[OCNC]

After looking at the CarveWright machine I'm convinced that trying to do this in the size you're considering would be a waste of your time and resources. Attached is a concept image of what might be a better solution. It consists of two 36" x 84" panels that are hinged on one of their long edges down the middle of the machine. The Y-axis is removable from the the dual drive X-axis carriages. Not shown are several removable stiffeners that would fasten to the underside of the table panels. The machine would require some kind of simple levelers and a basic leveling procedure each time it's knocked down and setup. My preference would be to drive the X-axis with rotating nuts. Knocked down and folded this should easily fit into your transport space. The only draw back that I see at this point is that you can't quite fully machine a 4' x 8' sheet of material without having to shift the material.

[louieatienza]

Another idea would be to make the table frame such that the outer stretchers fold inward on itself, possibly 8020 with hinges. Then the middle stretchers could be one piece and installed afterwards, and the table surface installed last.

You could put the drive motor for the long axis INSIDE the gantry beam, and drive both sides of an r&p via jackshafts and pulleys. I'd make the gantry raised, with the linear rails and racks to the side or underneath. This would give you the maximum working width for the table size. Putting all the motor components on the gantry beam may complicate things a little, but it would be self-contained and all wires would come from a single place. The gantry would have to cantilever past the uprights a bit to get full cutting capacity across the table.

[harryn]

Thanks for the inputs. Yes C1, the carvwright style was the design I had in mind, but could not remember the name of it.

It has some interesting mechanical concepts behind it, as well as the software for beginning users. (like me)

OCNC and Louie - you might be right that the carvewright concept might not scale up to full size sheets. I am very hesitant to make a design that needs to be taken very far apart each time it is used, or I will never use it, and certainly my kids won't use it then.

I am starting to lean toward using a table made from 1 inch honeycomb panel with rack on the sides that passes through the machine. In theory, I could use a smaller table for smaller jobs, and a second larger table for when that is needed. It isn't ideal, but a thin oversize panel can be stored more easily than an oversize machine.

It's still an open question, but there is plenty to learn in the meantime.

Last night I started playing with some scrap 1 7/8 in thick panel pieces to begin learning about how to work with this stuff. It is amazing material - incredibly stiff and lightweight. It also rings like a bell if rapped, so not exactly a vibration dampener.

I think there is a version made from polyeric material that is more sound deadening - I need to look into that version and see what is possible.

Step 1 - wear work gloves. The edges are razor sharp, and the edges of all of those honeycombs are sharp edges.

Step 2 - I am learning about close outs and bonding edges and L shapes.

a) Channel Edged

I originally thought about encasing each edge in a 1/4 in thick Al channel, and bonding those edges together. That would require a nominal 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 x 1/4 in channel without fillets (plus a small gap filler)

As luck would have it, channel that size is quite non standard, so I instead thought about taking square tubing, and having one edge milled off to make a channel. That would work, but it looks like a costly approach, and the channels would weight more than the panel pieces - by a lot.

b) Wood Trimmed Edges

More or less - make the channel, by bonding wood strips onto the panel edges. It can work, and probably will be needed for some spots.

c) Wood Filled Edges

Basically, you cut out a depth of the honeycomb from the edge, and fill it with wood or similar. As it turns out, these panel cores are exactly the right thickness for the 2 in side of a 2 x 4, so that is a viable approach.

d) Epoxy filled edges

More or less that same idea as (c) but you use epoxy to fill in the edge instead, and drill holes into the epoxy for bonding.

I can see that this material is expensive to use, so I might still be forced back to proto building in plywood, and then slowly convert over to the honeycomb.

[ger21]

I just quickly browsed through this, but imo, the only chance of getting anything workable is to take the "giant" carvewright approach.

Use a 37"x70" sanding belt for the feedbelt. The overall dimensions could be somewhere around ~48-56"(Y) x ~32"(X). The Y might need to be a bit bigger.
It would look similar to a large drum sander.

The biggest obstacle would probably be feed belt tracking. But here's an idea. Use a spoilboard "sled" that used UHMW plastic guides to keep it aligned.
3D type parts might need "runnners" on the sides of the sled for the pressure rollers to hold the sled down, and you'd need some sort of clamping system.

While it would fit in a minivan, I wouldn't be surprised if it weighed at least 150-200lbs.

[JerryBurks]

......While it would fit in a minivan, I wouldn't be surprised if it weighed at least 150-200lbs....

You can find a used ambulance gurney (a.k.a stretcher) with folding caster legs on eBay. They can handle the weight and are designed for the legs to fold away when pushed into the car. Sounds silly but maybe possible. I believe you can find that under Mortuary/Funeral supplies

[harryn]

I started reading about home made drum sanders - interesting topic. The sled will be a must at some point for the 3 D stuff.

Ambulance gurney - will look into that as well.

Thanks for the ideas.

HarryN