My steel frame small router (Madvac Inspiration)

[contactirfu]

here is the new frame

I have some questions, I am using a laser cut 8 mm thk mild steel plate - the profile is as shown in the attached pics, let me know if it looks structurally ok...

the motor for the gantry ball screw will also be mounted on this plate.

[CarveOne]

That looks very sturdy to me Irfan. If you see any end to end movement you can weld some bracing in an inverted "V" on each side and the ends to help provide anti-racking and also provide additional mid span support on the longer upper rails. The C-channel top rails probably does not need it.

The 8mm plate is a little thicker than our standard 5/16" plates. That should be more than thick enough for your motor mount.

CarveOne

[contactirfu]

Hi carveone thanks, - I have made it as a olt on frame - each member there is individually bolted and currently its very rigid, I will be using mechmate's motor plates and assy for the gear drive on the large axis for this one.

I am moving to steppers, but before that wanted to finish off the mechanicals and then order the spindle, steppers and VFD.

RGDS
Irfan

[epineh]

Hi Irfan, any reason for going to steppers rather than servo's ?, usually people go the other way

New frame looks nice and solid, gotta love steel for the frame !

Cheers.

Russell.

[contactirfu]

Russell - the servo's are not real servo's , these are PMDC motors with encoders - the problem is that for a router there are not suitable as I did not match them to the UHU drives, the sudden change in directions required in case of the wood router result in errors on the drives and this is why I want to move on to steppers which are much more forgiving and also low on costs.

but these servos will be used probably on a mill which one of my friend is building.

RGDS
Irfan

[stef_d]

Same question as i asked on a similar build thread:
How did you make sure that your x axis rails were properly aligned ? do you have any adjustement possible within your welded base ?

[epineh]

Hi Irfan, sorry but I thought I replied to your response to my question...my bad

I know what you mean about getting decent servo's, I have a few but they always seem to be the wrong size for what I am doing...I am doing a retrofit of a really old lathe that I want to add a third (Z) axis to have a milling machine as well, I will be playing with servo drives of different types, I will post details somewhere if it works out. One idea is to use a C40 generator/starter, they have a good commutator with small segments and lots of power, maybe a good servo for heavy applications, for those of us with small budgets, I will keep you posted.

Cheers.

Russell.