Well, here goes, my first CNC machine

[Patrick2by4]

Well, after lurking around for 4 months, it's time to take the plunge. I learned alot from reading Jeff's threads (HomeCNC), Eric (Balsaman) and many other other of you guys. I have to say that I am very impressed by this site and I'm trying to get some of my friends into this. One is already interested.

My machine is going to be made from both steel and plate aluminum (6061-t651). It will have a work area of approximately 30" x 65" and about 6" of height. I'm hoping to achieve about 120 ~180 ipm with my servos

One interesting feature which I plan to incorporate in the gantry is the ability to raise the height about 5 inchs if I ever want to do 10" columns on the 4th axis. It should take me about 20 minutes to raise the main beam with the ball screw.

Here is a quick sketch of the machine I'm planning to make

[Patrick2by4]

here is another view of the machine Hopefully, everything should work out

[Patrick2by4]

here are the parts for the gantry

[Patrick2by4]

I started cutting down the alum plating with a 80 tooth carbide blade. The triple chip grind on the blade did a beautiful job on the edges. Not much work will be needed to finish the edges.

The plating is 5/8 thick

[Patrick2by4]

Here is the main beam of the gantry, it's 3" x 5" Alum rectangular stock with 1/8" walls. I was planning to mount it to the gantry with alum blocks. The mitre saw did a nice job squaring up the stock.

[ynneb]

Good posting Pat. Keep this thread up to date with all your work. If you dont get lots of comments, be assured there will be many readers and people who will follow you.
I will be keeping an eye out on your progress. Make sure you ask lots of silly questions along the way. Its the silly questions that people are afraid to ask that hold them back.

Good job mate.

[trubleshtr]

Looking good.
You used a "special blade" specificlly for cutting all that aluminum on your saws right?????
I would hate to see someone use a woodworking blade on aluminum stock.....ouch!!!!!!!!!!

[Ken_Shea]

You used a "special blade" specificlly for cutting all that aluminum on your saws right?????
I would hate to see someone use a woodworking blade on aluminum stock.....ouch!!!!!!!!!!

I was thinking the same thing trubleshtr, but sometimes a man has to do what he has to do


Looking real good patrick2by.

[jimbo]

He said he used a triple chip grind blade which is a tooth profile for cutting aluminum (and laminates). I have used it and it cuts aluminum like butter.

[Ken_Shea]

Post deleted after re-reading jimbo's post.

[Patrick2by4]

That right jimbo, a regular bevel tooth carbide blade would get nicked and give a ragged cut in aluminum but a triple chip grind carbide blade is designed for harder materials. I use it all the time on my job (finish carpenter) for cutting plastic, corian, aluminum (but not steel), formica... it works beautifully.

I just got the delivery of my metric cap screws today. I hope to start assembling the gantry next week; I'm not looking forward to all that drilling and tapping. I plan to use a cordless drill with a clutch to speed things up.

I picked up the metric taps at www.e-taps.com
the metric socket head cap screws at www.fastener-express.com

[ynneb]

Hey Pat, I notice on your machine you are spending a bit more money than mvaughan, who is doing a new router at the same time as you. It would be great to compile two open source projects. Would you also be prepared to make your work open source. It would mean you just did the same posts as you are already doing, but wrote a bit about each and every step you took. I would do the final compiling of the project, but you would get all the credits.
We need a few projects, so we can offer machines plans to cater for different building budgets.

All the plans would be made free to download. No one would be profiting from your work.

How does that sound? Just think, you would be known around the world.