It's holliday and I have 3 weeks for free disposal. Until now, I have made dozens of different drawings, but now I'm finally satisfied with this quite simple design and is ready to start building.
The router will have 3 axis' and a work area of 1 meter by 1 meter. The frame will be made by 80x4 mm square steel pipe and I have bought a piece of 6 meter 200x10 mm 6082 flat alu bar for the gantry. I'll make most of the parts myself; spindle bearing blocks, delrin nuts and housing, X and Y carriages and what else of small parts that is needed to make it stick together. X and Y rails are ø32x2 mm precision steel pipe. The spindels are TR16x8 P4 and is going to be driven by four 305oz Hobby CNC steppers (two steppers on each side of X-axis).
I have puzzeled a really long time with the Z-axis, wanting it to be fairly close to the gantry, but everytime I made up a homemade design, it ended up being to far away. My best idea was V-groove steel rings mounted on bearings, but then I found a good offer on some 16mm linear bearings with supported round rails and it ended up so.
My first design idea was to make the router independent from the table, so that I could be put on top of any kind of work piece that would not fit in a conventionally build table router. Another idea is to connect two hinges between the table and two of the legs, making it possible to lift the router to an vertical possition. This will give some extra table workspace for other projects. Further more, it will be possible to transport it to a job site. It will be unlikely that I do it, but the ability remains.
I got to give Solsylva some credit for giving me the idea for the X-axis rail design
Here are some unfinished drawings, but this will give you an idea what I'm up to.
I'll post pictures of the work when I start building.
Made a few design changes today. This will properly be around the 15th time I do that, but I'm reaching my goal. Total number of constraints I have made in Inventor is by now #2234.
Copenhagen. Used to study on DTU, so all my building and tinkering im doing in the students workshop. A bit sad compared to a real workshop, but still better and more well equiped than most diy workshops
Not much has happened since last, but I got the support ends of my four ball screws turned down. I also made the fixed end for my Z-axis ball screw and the BK12 fixed bearing slides neadly on, so that's good.
When I tried to thread the shaft (M12x1) for the lock nut with a die, I wasn't able to do so. The die wouldn't bite into the material and I guess it's because it's too hard? Threading soft steel was no problem.
Some ideas:
I could try to anneal the metal where to thread, but this may ruin the straightness of the shaft and the tolerances for the fixed bearing.
I could make the thread by turning it, but right now I don't have the proper toolholder. Maybe I can borrow one next year.
Hi CNCDevil,
I saw your post Fixed Bearing w/ Belleville washers and I liked your idea for the fixed end blocks with Belleville washers for applying constant force preload. I have been working with your idea and I arrived with a little bit different solution but very similar to yours. Did you finished your fixed end blocks? ... and what are the results?
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Help needed! 
Posting Permissions
