First CNC Machine

[SteveT44]

New to this forum and the CNC world in general. I'm an accomplished woodworker with a pretty decent shop and have been wanting to go into small scale production of kits for a hobby I'm involved with. Towards this goal I've just ordered the profile rails and ballscrews (used) to build a 4x4' router. My intent is to build a gantry style machine equipped with a 2HP router. Materials will be 80/20 extrusions, aluminum channel and plate, and plywood. Looking forward to posting my progress and conversing with those "in the know" concerning machine building and operations.

Regards,

Steve T.
RCTankCombat.com

[SteveT44]

My CNC project begins to take shape. The table area is 48" x 60".

Steve T.

[SteveT44]

Today's progress on my gantry router. The top plywood piece is glued and nailed to the support beams. This completes the box beamed design and it turned out very rigid. The router is mounted between two foundation posts of my workshop. It's hinged so it can be folded up and stored out of the way while not in use. Next on the to do list is the front leg assembly.

Steve T.

[High Seas]

ohhh sweet - laminated ply and 80/20 some of my favorite materials. I envision several reconfigurations available - look out System2! Keep the pics comming. What is the plan for the gantry when the table is stowed? Remove and stow also? Loks great.
Jim

[SteveT44]

It's open behind the posts the table is mounted to. The gantry will stay mounted while the router is in the stowed position.

Steve

[joecnc2006]

Originally Posted by SteveT44 It's open behind the posts the table is mounted to. The gantry will stay mounted while the router is in the stowed position. Steve

Would it put undo pressure on the lenier bearing slides?

[SteveT44]

Originally Posted by joe2000che Would it put undo pressure on the lenier bearing slides?

That's a thought. I guess I could build some removable brackets that would rigidly mount the gantry to the side 80/20 pieces.

[joecnc2006]

Originally Posted by SteveT44 That's a thought. I guess I could build some removable brackets that would rigidly mount the gantry to the side 80/20 pieces.

Maybe make a premanant upright support the when you home the gantry it will rest with some rubber inserts on this and then you store it vertical the whole gantry will rest on its own support that is premantly mounted on the machine.

[SteveT44]

The front leg assembly is completed and mounted. This hinges downward when the table is lifted up to the stored position. I set the 3"x6" 80/20 y axis extrusion on blocks just to see what its going to look like. The nuDrive was an eBay find. It is a four axes bipolar 4amp per phase controller. Next I'll start mounting the linear rails and start fabrication on the gantry assembly.

[SteveT44]

Today's progress, the X axis rails are mounted. I couldn't find any 8-32 T-slot nuts for 15 series extrusions to mount the linear rails so I made my own. The T-nuts are 1/8"x3/4" steel with insert nuts hammered into them. I used the insert nuts to avoid having to thread all those holes. Turns out I had to run a tap through the nuts because they were distorted slightly from the hammering.

A couple of more pieces to make before I can bolt the gantry to the X axis slide assemblies.

[margni74]

Looks like its starting to come together. Im about to start gathering parts myself after several months of combing through the forums here.

i checked out your rctank page. where are you guys located? Looks like too much fun.

[margni74]

stupid questions:

How can you check that your extrusion is perfectly parallel?
Does it even matter (binding gantry for instance)?
What mechanism will you use for adjustment?