Regnar's Build (Now with Video)

[Regnar]

Well it is finally time to get going with this project. I order plans awhile back and built the machine and just wasnt happy with what I ended up with. To much looseness and seemed like it always binding up. Well I destroyed it and came up with my own plans. I wont say that the plans that I bought were worthless but they did give me ideals of what I wanted to do and really didnt want to do.

So in the end I have stolen just about everything I like from other builds on the site. I might have thrown in a few of my own. I am doing the project with the kiss theme in mind. Everything is duplicated threwout the build.

I wont say the my woodworking skill are the best in the world so as we go along with the build and you see some mistakes well dont worry I just getting this machine to the point of where it can cut itself out.

Goals for the build are as follows
1. cutting area of 36x24 (I think I have this already)
2. cutting speed of 100-120 ipm and I dont really care that much about jogging speed.
3. Having the kiss theme going.
4. Budget is a goal but I have already lost track. I havent spent a whole lot I might be in the $700 range so far. That is including the Xylotex 3 axis kit. I can find some bargain out there.

So here we go

[Regnar]

So today was a productive day. I was able to build the table that everything is going to be attached to. Here a few photos of what is going on. The table 6" H 40" W 48" L. All I can say is that this sucker is heavy. It took almost full a sheet of 1/2 mdf. and half a sheet of 3/4 mdf. I glued everything and nailed it with 1 1/2 nails all around. I left a 1/4 inch hangover on the top and bottom sheets to allow proper aligment of the sides.

[Regnar]

Here is what else I was able to finish up today. I was able to attach the galvanized pipe to the 80/20. To do this I drill a hole straight down the center of the pipe. I picked the smallest phillips head screw driver I own and used that for a guide of how big the wholes will be. I then drilled just one of the sides larger to fit the screw. The white plastic tubing that is pictured is what I used to put the screws down the center. It worked very well. Once I lined the screw up with the hole I would take the screw driver and press it threw the hole and hold it there while I pulled the tubing off. This method holds it the the 80/20 like a charm. The holes at the top will not get in the way at all. More pictures.

[Regnar]

And this will be the last addition to the day. It seemed to go smoothly all day long. nothing really jumped out and bit me. The next few photo's are of the slides i guess you would call them. I haven't glued or screwed the together yet. But if you look and the side that has a few pieces of 3/4 plywood stacked all together that is the side that is going to compress down onto the pipes. I will be running 1/4 all thread threw the inside and threw the lower side to bring it up nice and tight. the bottom piece that is not going to move at all so it will hold the outside shape. I will be adding caps to the side to keep the everything square and not flex. I did a little test using some clamps and held it together so i could see how smooth it would roll. Well I got everything in and the 80/20 rolled smoothly. I was so happy went inside to get the camera and bam. The 80/20 rolled itself out of the slide because of the slope in the garage. Dented the end of the pipe up a little but no big deal.

Also here is my little helper. 10 months 95lbs and does a great job of picking up all the dust with his tail and tongue.

[Oldmanandhistoy]

Nice job so far and I especially like your helper, mine is no good at sweeping dust as she has no tail lol.

Will be watching with interest.

John

[Regnar]

Today was a good day as well. Everything just seems to fit nicely together. I took the 2 sides that cut out last weekend and used them as templates. I rough cut them with in a 1/4 inch and then used a flush trim router to make them fit nicely. Glued them together to form 2 1/4 inch sides. I also attached them to the table.

Next I made up a drilling jig to drill the holes. Into the sides. Drew it up in CADSTD printed to actual size and glued onto some scrap mdf. Drilled it out on the Drill press and bam I have a nice drilling jig that actually worked better than I could have imagined. I would drill out the one side to about half way flip it to the otherside and drill out the rest. I used spade bits so that I wouldnt make the holes any larger.

And I decided to dry fit one side to see the fit and finish. Im starting to get excited now. Sorry for the messy garage. I have no excuse other than I have way to many projects going on right now. Also if you guys see any future problems that I might run into that I havent noticed please comment. Like I said Im getting excited so mistakes are going to happen now because I am going to rush.

[Regnar]

Here is the drilling jig that I am so proud of.

[rustamd]

the only problem i see is that your are driving the gantry only from one side... Other than that looks good:-)

[Regnar]

Rustamd, I will be driving it from both sides. The side that you see with the acme rod in it is the side that I test fitted. I have the same belt that the Soylvia build uses and will try and run it with that first but if that doesnt work out which I kinda have a feeling it wont. I will get another stepper motor and slave the A axis to run it. Having acme rod on both sides makes it easier to square up in the end I believe. This is coming from a few sources. I believe Ger21 even said it in the "alternative to round pipe" thread. Thanks for the post

Also if you look the right side is about 4 to 5 inches lower. I have a dinner party to goto tonight so I had to stop. I couldnt convince her that I would only be another 5 minutes.

[rustamd]

yea, i like the idea of driving on both sides as well, except i'm going with rack and pinion set up on my build...

[Regnar]

Rack and pinion would be nice, really nice. I just dont know enough about it yet to make informed decisions on what I should get. Price vs Quality, Timing with a stepper motor and how much force is need to drive it. I wanted to get my feet wet and this is going pretty good. Seems like no one ever just builds one.

[rustamd]

Originally Posted by Regnar ...Seems like no one ever just builds one.

I'll guess i'll be the first one, i wanted to build something small(really small) from mdf first, but that just started full aluminum router that not exactly will be small or easily portable