My First Router, Built in Steel

[Haydn]

Been having a look around the zone for a while now and decided many moons ago to give it a go. Well, after accumulating gear for a while my machine is nearly finished (thank god I hear her indoors scream!). The frame is all steel, no welds, every joint is steel epoxied, bolted and pinned, takes longer than welding but my frame is within the tolerances of my ball screws (approx 0.01mm/300mm) and isn't stressed at all.
I intend putting up some info on how I built it if anyone is interested. I only have to wire it up, fix a few cover plates on (y axis ballscrew mounts etc). Parts of the gantry and all of the z axis were made in aluminium. The z axis parts and motor mounts were made manually on the machine. I still have to make a mount for the spindle.
I designed the controller for my needs, based on Geckos and a Campbell breakout board. This is all done bar limit switch connections and my external e stop (ie on the router).

If anyone is interested i'll start putting info up and more pics.

Nearly smiling

[jmc]

thats a great looking machine....are you sure the decision to bolt the frame together rather than weld was for dimensional tolerences or did it have somthing to do with the effects of sparks on the hardwood floors

I know I am intrested in seeing more.
Jim

[Konstantin]

Congratulations.
It is a very nice looking machine.
I wish to know how you true the frame when assembling it?


Konstantin.

[Haydn]

Originally Posted by jmc thats a great looking machine....are you sure the decision to bolt the frame together rather than weld was for dimensional tolerences or did it have somthing to do with the effects of sparks on the hardwood floors I know I am intrested in seeing more. Jim

Jim,

You haven't seen my welding! Part of the reason for not welding is that the machine can be dismantled and transported elsewhere if need be. The tappered knock pins would need to be replaced though. (I hope to never move from my workshop!)

[Haydn]

Originally Posted by Konstantin Congratulations. It is a very nice looking machine. I wish to know how you true the frame when assembling it? Konstantin.

Hi Konstantin,

The bed of the machine was assembled on my bench as square as I could get it using precision squares. Steel box section is never very flat or square. I then transported the bed to an engineer friend who has an 8'x4' surface table. I covered the table with cling film and sprayed this with silicone mold release agent, a bead of steel epoxy was run over the whole of the bed side of the steel and the whole thing was then lowered carefully onto the surface table. When everything had set, I lifted it off checked it with the help of my engineer friend and presto, I had a surface flat to the tolerance of the surface table. The legs were then fitted and everything levelled with an engineers level (I put concrete pillars under the floor where the legs sit) and a long grade a straight edge to check for any twists.

[just_lkn]

Originally Posted by Haydn I intend putting up some info on how I built it if anyone is interested. If anyone is interested i'll start putting info up and more pics. Nearly smiling

You better get started.... Nice unit

[Oldmanandhistoy]

Hi Haydn,

Thanks for the PM I also would like as much detail as possible on the construction of your frame.
Very nice looking work btw.

Regards,

John

[Haydn]

Ok,
I will dig out the pics and take any more i may need and post some more info tomorrow.

[DayneInfo]

I deffinately want more information on this build. Really nice looking machine.

Dwayne

[aspenelm]

Nice machine. Looks like your router had an accident on the table surface. Just kidding. Please post info about your steel/epoxy joints. Did you use straight epoxy or mix with a filler?

[WayneHill]

Nice looking router there. Turn the camera around and let us look at the rest of your shop. The floors look great!

[tajord]

I'm now building my first cnc, it's the "Jgro", wasn't yet ready for a steel frame router but had it in mind for a final build, your build my friend is really a nice one and looks like it's gonna be my final build, thanks for the inspiration.

Jordan