2nd Build, 50"x110" Steel Base, Aluminum Gantry, possible 4th axis

[bob83]

I started my second build over the weekend.
It is a helical rack and pinion drive with contoured linear rails, using Gecko drives and 4x1232Oz motors

Here are some of the things I got so far:
-4 x nema 34 stepper motor 1232OZ. (I really wanted some Clearpath stepper killers but didn't want to foot the bill, next time) from actmotor201212 on ebay
-4 Gecko G203V's from carolbrent on ebay
-2.2kw water cooled spindle with matching VFD pump, hoses and spindle mount from "Smart Craftsman Industrial Parts" on Aliexpress
-100mm 4 Jaw 4th axis from Yunson CNC on Aliexpress
-From Sven-wei, Noulei on ebay I ordered:

5 x 1.25 modulus helical Gear Rack steel 1400mm
3 x Gear shaft, 96mm
It has 2x1400mm racks butted up together on the Y-axis, and just one 1400mm rack on the x axis

-From linearmotionbearing2008 on ebay. I ordered:

Qty 6 - Linear Rails TR20-1500mm (3 pairs)
Qty 2 - Linear Rails TR20-600mm (1 pair) (For the Z axis)
Qty 12 - Bearing pillow blocks TRH20B
1pc RM1605-600mm Overall length with nuts and end machined (For the Z axis)
1set BK/BF12 with locknut and circlip (For the Z axis)
1coupler for 6.35mm motor shaft (For the Z axis)
3 Cable drag chain wire carrier 25*57*R75 -800/1200/1500mm
It has 2 contoured rails butted together on each Y axis to get the fill 3000mm length, about 120"

For the base, I picked up from my local steel supplier:

20ft of 4"x12" Rectangular tubing 0.188" thick
20ft of 4"x10" Rectangular tubing 0.188" thick
50ft of 2"x2" Square tubing 0.120" thick

and since they had no aluminum I ordered some from onlinemetals.com for the gantry and Z axis, I didn't want to make the 4 hour round trip so I had them ship it.

4" x 8" x 0.25" 6061T6 ALUMINUM RECTANGLE TUBE - 60"
2" x 3" x 0.125" ALUMINUM ANGLE 6063T52 - 60"
0.75" x 8" Extruded 6061T6 Aluminum Rectangle Bar - 36"
0.75" x 6" Extruded 6061T6 Aluminum Rectangle Bar - 48"

from boltdepot.com I ordered

1 box of 100 Metric socket cap, Stainless steel A-2, 5mm x 0.8mm x 25mm
1 box of 100 Metric socket cap, Stainless steel A-2, 5mm x 0.8mm x 30mm
3 boxes of 100 Metric hex nuts, Stainless steel A-2, 5mm x 0.8mm
1 box of 100 Metric flat washers, Stainless steel A-2, 5mm
1 box of 100 Metric high collar lock washers, Stainless steel A-2, 5mm
1 box of 100 Metric socket cap, Stainless steel A-2, 5mm x 0.8mm x 35mm
I figured that would be enough to get the rails on, I like to stick with metric when I deal with the rails since they are in metric, and I think it is actually cheaper to buy metric... I dunno.

I had a friend help me plasma cut the Rectangular Steel to length on Tuesday, and I spend a couple hours on Saturday welding up the base, and a couple hours on Sunday drilling some holes in some aluminum plates. I have some Epoxy for leveling the Y axis coming hopefully within the next couple days. I really hope it gets here before the weekend so I can get the epoxy laid down. Here are some pics of what I got so far.






I will try to get the CAD drawing up tomorrow. It is on a different computer.

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[bob83]

So I actually made the legs 6 inches taller, and with the leveling feet on it they add about another 3 inches in height.

[fretman_2]

Wow...looks like a beast!

[1Jumper10]

Man thats going to be a big machine! Are you planning on adding any diagonal bracing to the legs? You'll probably want to. And are you using an aluminum tube for your gantry? As big and stout as the rest of your frame is, that seems a little light.
What kind of epoxy are you going to use to level your mounting surfaces?

Thanks for posting your list of sources at the beginning of the thread. I've been tempted several times to order off of AliExpress and Ebay but with so many suppliers and having no idea about their reputation I haven't pulled the trigger. Good luck with your beast! Keep us posted.

[Jeff0000]

I agree with above, 4*10 steel construction for the base, then aluminum gantry? Could have cut you steel costs down by 60% using smaller steel and still had the gantry be the weak link.

That base looks crazy so far. Going to be a monster.

[bob83]

I was going to enclose the bottom, add a 2x2 from leg to leg, and put some shelving in for storage, and drop a brace in the four corners. It is super solid at the moment. I went and ordered some West Systems 105 Epoxy Resin with the 206 Slow hardener. Never done the Epoxy bit before. But it should be fun. I wanted to keep the gantry light. I was going to check the deflection on the gantry as soon as I get the epoxy set and rails on. I have a couple ideas on removing the deflection. Not too worried about it. If I was throwing a 10hp ATC on there, that would be a totally different story. I have had pretty good experience with Aliexpress and Ebay, but am a little worried about the VFD and spindle. I am going to have to tear the spindle down and check on it before I spin it up.

[bob83]

Going with a 2x2 and 3x3 frame mix would have been a little cheaper, but It was only a $120 difference in price. So I figured I would go the route with less hassle. I have welded up 2x2 frames before, and they are not bad. But man it was a lot easier squaring and leveling the base with just the couple huge pieces. I had no warping problems with the welding and got it done quick. And on the plus side, I think it will look cooler with larger steel tubes. :-) Down side... I still am trying to figure out the best way to bolt the rails on the 4x12 tube... My arm can't quite reach 6ft through the tube to hold the nut in place while I tighten the bolt. But once again, I am sure I will figure something out and it will be easier than anticipated! :-)
I agree, the gantry is the weak point now, but I have some ideas!

[pippin88]

Make sure you go thick on the epoxy. You need about 1/4" to allow proper self leveling.

And remember there is a big meniscus, so you need to pour a larger area than just the area the rails will sit.

[1Jumper10]

Reference bolting the rails to your 4x12; I saw it on another forum where a guy embedded a magnet in to the end of a long narrow board to hold the nut and used that to reach down the tube.

[bob83]

Thanks. for the heads up. Just heading out to go set up for the epoxy. I will try to make sure I have more than 1/4"inch this epoxy. I should probably double check my math....
And in reference to the magnet. Thats a good idea!! Maybe a magnet, duct tape, wrench and a long stick will do the trick! Well, and patience of course.

[Jeff0000]

Make sure you go thick on the epoxy. You need about 1/4" to allow proper self leveling.

And remember there is a big meniscus, so you need to pour a larger area than just the area the rails will sit.

How much larger ?

[1Jumper10]

About 1/2 inch away from each edge should get you far enough away from the meniscus.

Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk

[bob83]

Got the epoxy laid down, turned out pretty well, I am happy with it. I wasn't going to bolt the rails onto it until it has sat for a week. But as of this morning I couldn't scratch it with a fingernail. I built a trough that was about 1-3/4" wide, and I used packaging tape on anything I didn't want the epoxy to stick to, and it worked out really well. I think I used a good 40 clamps though. Here is a picture of the epoxy. The meniscus would probably only become a problem if you got within 1/4" of the edge, so the 1/2" was good advice. Thanks. I spent most of the weekend getting the Z axis all put together, and then realized that my 20mm linear rails have a lower profile than the 20mm round rails I used on my last build. I could be wrong, cause I sold that machine, but I had 1605 ballscrews and 20mm round rails, and the ballscrew mount was flush with the rail mount. But with the 20mm linear rails being a lot lower profile I have a 3/4" gap.... Oh well. Nothing some shiny aluminum wont fix. Not a big deal, just kinda wondered how I missed that when I was looking at everything.
here is the pic of the epoxy. I looks like there are bubbles, but I couldnt' feel them on the surface. though it looks like a lot of bubbles are on outside edge. I had the heat gun out, but was melting the packaging tape, so I was probably a little softer on the heat gun than I could have been.


And here is the pic of some of the Z axis.


I am hoping to get the Y axis rails mounted on Saturday. And hopefully get the gantry up on the machine. After that I will start on the rack and pinions, but that is probably an after Christmas activity.

[bob83]

Well, with not being home for 9 days around Christmas, I didn't get much done. I did have a couple hours to work on drilling enough holes in the aluminum gantry to drain both my batteries, and I still have a couple I couldn't reach by myself. I have a very helpful 5 year old working with me to get all the bolts installed for the Y axis. She is very good at turning the allen wrench while I careful shove a 4ft long stick with a wrench duct tapped to it, and a bolt and lock washer. We are almost done with one of the 10ft sides. it takes about 2-3 minutes a bolt, and I think I have about 60 more. I also added the plate under the gantry and added the angle brackets from that plate to the rectangular tube.
I need to get a couple different length bolts for the gantry, as you can see, I just put a bunch of washers on the bolt for now.

[bob83]

You would think after setting up 3 different machines it would be easier to get the ESS talking to the computer. I guess 3 hours is good for wiring up the 72V power supply, all 4 stepper motor drivers, the 5v and 24v power supply, getting the enclosure probably 75% done (albeit the easier 75%) and getting the ESS to talk to the computer and a motor to spin. I had to update my older version of Mach3 with a newer version to get the ESS plugin to work.

[bob83]

Sorry for not giving any updates for a long while. I did take a quick video the other day of the machine running some g-code I used on a previous machine. It was a Pterodactyl 3d puzzle I made for my son. It's just cutting nothing. The spindle and vfd is being a pain. But I got some good help from some people on the forum and have a couple new things to try and get it to work tonight.
I have all the nuts and bolts in, that took hours on hours, and I got the machine painted. All black. With Yellow accents. I the mounting brackets for the proximity sensors made, the wires all prepped, but not hooked up to the board yet. Firs I need to get it cutting before this weekend. My 9 year old spent a couple hours designing his pinewood derby car on my CAD machine.... He will be pretty bummed if he can't cut it in time for the derby.
I will try and get some pics this evening. I only get a chance to work on it when it's dark outside, so the picture lighting really sucks. oh well.

[fretman_2]

Looking good!!

[bob83]

Got the spindle running over the weekend, and first thing I did was drop a vise on the table so I could cut my son's pinewood derby car. Had to move the mdf board around some to get the vise clamped down. And I didn't have the dust collector on, and, after the cut I realized my z axis was moving about 5-10% less than it was supposed to. So I have to adjust that. But all in all, it turned out pretty well, and my 9 year old likes it. So that's all that matters. Yes, the table is a little messy, the 4th axis is just chilling in the background with all the wires for the proximity switches I haven't gotten on yet. And my son decided that you can't watch your pinewood derby car being cut without eating some peanut M&M's!
I slowed it down to something like 30ipm for like the first minute, and then upped it to 60ipm. And then when I was starting to feel more comfortable... and bored... I upped it to I think 120ipm cutting speed on the final passes.

All in all, it took 23 mins to cut. Not bad...After he is done painting it I will post it up again.

Next step is hooking up the dust collector, bolting down the mdf, leveling it, dropping on the spoil board, adding the t slot, and then staring at some proximity switches again trying to figure out how they work....

[keastab]

Going with a 2x2 and 3x3 frame mix would have been a little cheaper, but It was only a $120 difference in price. So I figured I would go the route with less hassle. I have welded up 2x2 frames before, and they are not bad. But man it was a lot easier squaring and leveling the base with just the couple huge pieces. I had no warping problems with the welding and got it done quick. And on the plus side, I think it will look cooler with larger steel tubes. :-) Down side... I still am trying to figure out the best way to bolt the rails on the 4x12 tube... My arm can't quite reach 6ft through the tube to hold the nut in place while I tighten the bolt. But once again, I am sure I will figure something out and it will be easier than anticipated! :-)
I agree, the gantry is the weak point now, but I have some ideas!

Dang I didn't see that you had already finished the setup.. Ignore this post

[bob83]

I know it has been a while, but I got a lot done within the last couple weeks.
I got all the limit switches hooked up, and working! I ending up ordered different limit switches. I will go back and write a full list of everything I ended up using in the next couple weeks, like an addendum to the first post.
I used these limit switches, and they work wonderfully. They have an 8mm detection distance. And are running on 24v, Normally Open. I was concerned about running them Normally Open, but I needed to if I wanted to have some of the connected to the same pins on the breakout board. I haven't had any problems with noise, random triggering, or anything. So that is a huge relief.
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-5...AMEBIDX%253AIT

It currently homes on the Y axis and X axis. The Y axis sensors are connected separately, so if the gantry became out of square it would square itself up when homing.
While setting up the homing on the Y axis, I set them up backwards on accident. so the motor on the right stopped, when the sensor on the left was trigger, which cause the gantry to smash into the proximity sensor. Luckily it didn't break the sensor. Was a little funny though.

I got the T-track down.


And the 4 vacuum pods working. Haven't cut with the vacuum pods yet. I hope to do that next weekend.


I sat down on Saturday all ready to cut something on the 4th axis, and realized something stupid...... I set up the t-track in the middle of the machine so the 4th axis would be able to attach to it. But, when I went to hook it up on Saturday I noticed that the width/distance between the bolt down slots on the tail stock and headstock of the 4th axis were different. You can kinda see it on the previous picture and the following. So I will have to adjust one or both of them to get it to work.


I also cut a sign for the old man, and some letters for a neice.


Oh, and here are the finished pinewood derby cars.


And here is some Videos:
It's a little scary manually controller the machine while watching it through a camera go 1200ipm.




I did have one of my new 203v Gecko Drives stop working. It would only spin in one direction. So I emailed Gecko, and they said: "It sounds like one of the MOSFETs inside the drive could have been damaged." It was the drive for the rotary axis, so, that will go in the mail this morning to get sent back to Gecko to get repaired. Bummer.