New DIY build - design suggestions/ideas welcome

[jplroger]

Thanks for the reply.
I dont mind taking over your x6 once your "v1" machine is done.
I want to make some nice plates as well ;-)

I'm already getting ideas for a v2 all round, but I think I just need to get this machine built and cutting to identify where improvements can really be made the most of before making any radically different new designs.

jpl - I have done some minor modifications (I changed to pokeys57CNC motion control for two reasons - firstly I wanted to use ethernet rather than USB, and secondly I wanted to use mach4), and I switched the motors/drivers to leadshine closed loop easyservo which probably wasn't really necessary. I also shielded and earthed the spindle (you need to do the latter, it's not safe otherwise and the chinese companies only leave it unearthed because they can't be bothered with the noise issues it can raise on USB if not using proper earthing strategies)... While doing that I converted all the earthing in the box over to a star point earth which is pretty easily done. Other than those changes and re-inforcing the somewhat bendy bed with this coolant/chip tray system I haven't done much of any import. By far the most productive "mod" was switching to fusion's built-in cam and using adaptive clearing for pretty much everything. I use either 2D or 3D adaptive to clear out all but the last 0.3mm which I then do finish passes on with more traditional strategies like contours etc. I do actually like using 2D adaptive for clearing the bottom of pockets to final depth too though, I find it works better than traditional pocketing.

I was actually more than a little surprised at how well it went on this little machine when I was using a 10mm roughing end mill at 10mm DoC 1800mm/s with adaptive strategy... That would be more than a little ambitious (and end in tears) with any other sort of traditional strategy on such a light weight machine.

[dharmic]

z-boi, given the amount of ****e I found hiding behind the bellows on my Omio when I took them off yesterday, I'm now of two minds when it comes to way covers. Yes, letting swarf in there is bad if the bearing or nut wipers can't get it out of the way. But covering it up and letting finer stuff collect behind it is also bad. At least without the covers you can get to it to lubricate and blow clean.

Carry on, it's all looking loverly.

[zeeflyboy]

jpl - given your location I think you'd be far better off buying a new one directly rather than paying a ridiculous amount of money to ship a used machine half way around the world!

Dharmic - I must say I'm not overly bothered by aluminium swarf getting on the rails/screws as its generally too big to make it under the seals... perhaps some of it is fine enough but aluminium is pretty soft anyway and unlikely to cause significant damage I would think other than gunking things up. Its the finer abrasive sort of dust that is more of a concern, but I think a lot of that can be solved by using a vac boot. There is something to be said for having the bellows off as it makes routinely cleaning them much easier, not to mention I found the lack of travel a real pain in the arse.


Did a little more work today, haven't finished these side plates yet but thought I'd show where I'm up to.... they still need milling on the underside but I haven't quite decided how I'm going to do that yet.

So first up I just whizzed out some inserts from 0.6mm matte finish carbon fibre. Normally I would cut submerged but given it was such a thin piece and an extremely quick job I just used the vac with hepa bag and hepa filter.

For cutting CF I only ever really used double sided tape. Works very well and the waterproof variety doesn't mind being submerged...






Out of interest I get asked occasionally what I use for cutting CF - my favourites are these diamond coated fishtail burrs from BZT




So given that these side plates were going to be awkward to hold down without using a larger piece of alu and leaving tabs in I thought I would try something I read about online. I have in the past used double sided tape to hold down parts but the tape either tends to be a ***** to remove the part and clean up the residue or too weak and all types I have tried have allowed too much movement in the part which then leads to vibration of the part during cutting.

I saw someone do this and thought I would give it a go since these parts aren't particularly critical! My only reservation was that it might all go horribly wrong while using coolant, but I dialled back the mist to a bare minimum and it seemed to work fine.

So the basic idea is that you lay down some strips of masking tape on to the part and then lay corresponding pieces down onto the bed.




You then put a little superglue on the top of the tape and while lining it all up, push the plate down firmly into place. I turned the tape on the plate over the top to make it easy to line up before then removing the excess once it was stuck down.






I was actually very surprised at how firmly the plate was held in place - no wiggle like you can get from double sided tape. Anyway, proof is in the pudding as they say and it worked exceptionally well.... sounded great when cutting and the chips didn't dance on the surface as they do when using normal tape, suggesting the part wasn't able to vibrate. One day I will need to make myself a nice vacuum setup but one project at a time!




Before removing the plates I just checked the fit of the inserts in case anything needed tweaking but they were a perfect fit




CF plate isn't stuck down yet, just resting in place so it's not sitting perfectly flat for those with keen eyes:




So anyway, next up I need to mill the underside and then print the side seals...

[adam_m]

zeeflyboy,

I've been watching your progress on your new machine and I'm impressed by your skills and expertise in getting your parts made as well as your ingenuity in designing around obstacles; Thanks for posting so the rest of us can gather ideas and learn from your experience.

I'm curious what your machine table top is made of, can you elaborate a little?

I'm assuming you're using an aluminum base but what is the black material and also how are you capturing your coolant overflow?

Adam,

[zeeflyboy]

If nothing else I serve as a good example of how not to do things

The black material is Attwater SRBP (Synthetic Resin Bonded Paper, Phenolic, Tufnol Kite etc etc)... I'm quite a big fan of it, machines/drills/taps easily, holds threads well and is extremely stable with no stress related warping after machining along with next to nil water absorption. I get it from ebay in 12mm or 15mm sheets normally.

[qmarjov]

Hi zeeflyboy
did you calculate? How much did you pay for everything so far?
//Mario

[hacker7]

Zeeflyboy sooooooo did you get this AWESOME cnc done and do you have any video of it being used?????
Or maybe a nice walkaround of the machine????
What about sharing the fusion 360 files ?????
If not it's understandable.

[reddiamonduk]

Exactly that ^^^ I've just read all 14 pages of this and was excited to see the finished result, is it complete yet or did family life get in the way?

[zeeflyboy]

Sorry, qmarjov - I don't yet have numbers to share for cost. I will do a rough estimate nearer the end though.

Hacker7/reddiamonduk:

As you guys have noticed, not much has happened last month or two. What with christmas and some extra work commitments I haven't had time to do anything substantial on the project... The extra work related stuff should abate by mid february and that is when I expect to pick this project back up in earnest, though I may continue to do the odd little bits and bobs along the way.

The reason for this post is that I just got a cool new toy to play with and thought it was too cool not to share the results.

When I say "I", I actually bought this for the wife so she could start a little home business to allow her to turn her craft hobby into a little side income stream. Of course, I get to play with it so I'm just going to count it as one of my toys!

So what is the new toy? Why a 45w CO2 laser of course!




We've actually done quite a few little test projects over the last day or two (including some cool stuff like etching slate coasters) to test out the machine and get the wife acquainted with operating it. But today I thought I'd have a little play with the sort of thing I actually want to use it for myself:

I tweaked my Logo design and did a quick test in wood to see how it looks:






Decided it looked nice, so went hunting down some anodised aluminium to try etching.... only thing I had to hand were the thorlabs angle brackets. I popped it in and and had a guess at some numbers, came out beautifully! I had to remove the honeycomb tray as the brackets are a little thick to sit on top of that, so that is why the bracket is sat on some chopping boards. This job took about 4 minutes to run through.







I'm pretty ecstatic with the result there.... definitely opens up some new possibilities in terms of finishing items I make once I've got the anodising rig setup and working.

Aaaaanyway, back to real life work! Sad times.

[mactec54]

I'm pretty ecstatic with the result there.... definitely opens up some new possibilities in terms of finishing items I make once I've got the anodising rig setup and working.

Have a Great 2018, Looks like a good investment, who is the manufacturer of the machine

[madeinoz67]

Sorry, qmarjov - I don't yet have numbers to share for cost. I will do a rough estimate nearer the end though.

Hacker7/reddiamonduk:

As you guys have noticed, not much has happened last month or two. What with christmas and some extra work commitments I haven't had time to do anything substantial on the project... The extra work related stuff should abate by mid february and that is when I expect to pick this project back up in earnest, though I may continue to do the odd little bits and bobs along the way.

The reason for this post is that I just got a cool new toy to play with and thought it was too cool not to share the results.

When I say "I", I actually bought this for the wife so she could start a little home business to allow her to turn her craft hobby into a little side income stream. Of course, I get to play with it so I'm just going to count it as one of my toys!

So what is the new toy? Why a 45w CO2 laser of course!




We've actually done quite a few little test projects over the last day or two (including some cool stuff like etching slate coasters) to test out the machine and get the wife acquainted with operating it. But today I thought I'd have a little play with the sort of thing I actually want to use it for myself:

I tweaked my Logo design and did a quick test in wood to see how it looks:






Decided it looked nice, so went hunting down some anodised aluminium to try etching.... only thing I had to hand were the thorlabs angle brackets. I popped it in and and had a guess at some numbers, came out beautifully! I had to remove the honeycomb tray as the brackets are a little thick to sit on top of that, so that is why the bracket is sat on some chopping boards. This job took about 4 minutes to run through.







I'm pretty ecstatic with the result there.... definitely opens up some new possibilities in terms of finishing items I make once I've got the anodising rig setup and working.

Aaaaanyway, back to real life work! Sad times.

So glowforge are finally shipping !!!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[wizard]

Looks like you married right. That laser should be very very handy.

[zeeflyboy]

mactec - it's a Glowforge Pro

madeinoz - Yeah, finally being the right word! Have to say I'm pretty impressed so far, wasn't expecting a machine capable of such good results, I thought it would be just an ok machine but with the benefit of being easy to use for the wife. Pleasantly surprised!

wizard - I'd be lying if I didn't say I was rather happy at having an excuse to get a laser that made it sound like I was doing the wife a favour

[LeeWay]

Sounds like you are putting her to work.

[zeeflyboy]

So chaps, been a while...

Good news is the work stuff is all done with and I got the promotion so happy days - work on this project can soon resume!

While I've been away I've been thinking about designs though (hard to turn off the brain sometimes!) and I was keen to get my ideas for a better z-axis down on paper so to speak. Spent most of yesterday modelling and this is what came out... I'm actually thinking of scrapping my current design and going with this one instead right away as it is in my opinion much improved.

I would love to get some feedback, opinions etc while I'm still refining the design. It's pretty much mostly there, just a few details such as limit switches and grease points to sort out.

It reuses the ballscrew/nut and a few other components from the old design, but will require new rails/carriages.

Headline changes:

- 2:1 ratio belt drive (25mm HTD 5M) to isolate the Z-axis stepper from the hefty vibrations and also give it a better gearing advantage for the now pretty heavy Z-axis.

- Extended rails/front plate which now results in a permanently sealed/protected unit at all positions

- HGH25HA carriages (the size is more convenient) spaced much further apart in all directions for improved rigidity

- Rear mount HGR-T 25 rails for easier installation (increased size also will improve the rigidity of the Z-axis front plate when extended down).

- Ability to tram the entire axis while mounted with only the need to remove the bottom plate to do so.

- Marginally more compact with a reduction of 5mm in stick-out from the X-axis.


will share more details when it's completely finished, but as mentioned I'm keen for any input in the mean time.

[mactec54]

So chaps, been a while...

Good news is the work stuff is all done with and I got the promotion so happy days - work on this project can soon resume!

While I've been away I've been thinking about designs though (hard to turn off the brain sometimes!) and I was keen to get my ideas for a better z-axis down on paper so to speak. Spent most of yesterday modelling and this is what came out... I'm actually thinking of scrapping my current design and going with this one instead right away as it is in my opinion much improved.

I would love to get some feedback, opinions etc while I'm still refining the design. It's pretty much mostly there, just a few details such as limit switches and grease points to sort out.

It reuses the ballscrew/nut and a few other components from the old design, but will require new rails/carriages.

Headline changes:

- 2:1 ratio belt drive (25mm HTD 5M) to isolate the Z-axis stepper from the hefty vibrations and also give it a better gearing advantage for the now pretty heavy Z-axis.

- Extended rails/front plate which now results in a permanently sealed/protected unit at all positions

- HGH25HA carriages (the size is more convenient) spaced much further apart in all directions for improved rigidity

- Rear mount HGR-T 25 rails for easier installation (increased size also will improve the rigidity of the Z-axis front plate when extended down).

- Ability to tram the entire axis while mounted with only the need to remove the bottom plate to do so.

- Marginally more compact with a reduction of 5mm in stick-out from the X-axis.


will share more details when it's completely finished, but as mentioned I'm keen for any input in the mean time.

Yes Tramming is a must have for any of these builds, I always include away to Tram the Z axes and the A or Y axes carriage, what ever axes one wants to call it,I have a new design that has been in testing for a few months now, I not sure how to seal it yet, have a 25mm rail model in testing and building a 15mm rail Z axes model to compare, have not streamlined the design as yet as far as stick out goes, the Linear Bearings are in machined pockets as well as the rails, all the linear parts I use are match Ground, this new model Z axes, does not represent this older design that I used to build, in any way

[zeeflyboy]

Cheers Nick!

So I fleshed out the design with all the details...

This is the pulley system. I added a manual knob on top as I do find it quite useful to sometimes be able to manually move up the Z-axis while setting up. I also added proper bearing support so the pulley system is properly supported.





Better view of the tensioner idler. I had thoughts of more complicated setups, but this is a simple design - simply an oversized centre bore that allows you to push the tensioner into the belt and then fasten down to clamp it in place.




Moving on, here you can see the seals and the (to be 3d printed) magnet holder on the HD16 ball screw mount






Got a little time to make a start on things too. So first up was modifying the large pulley... I decided to get rid of the ballscrew nut and just make the pulley into the retaining system.

First up I centred the pulley in the lathe and drilled a 10mm bore (the size of the ballscrew mounting shaft).



I then mounted it to a 10mm shaft with loctite to allow me to work on the other side where I needed to open the bore to 11mm to allow me to tap it to m12x1 to match the ballscrew.






Ideally of course the ballscrew shaft would extend all the way into the counter bearing, but I had already ordered my screws for the old design and I'm not re-ordering a c3 ballscrew! To solve that problem I made a small press-fit extension shaft:



end result:

[zeeflyboy]

I now just need to machine a slightly longer collar for the FK12 so that the pulley doesn't bind on the housing.

With that done, I moved on to the motor shaft extension.

First up, centred the smaller pulley (had to remove the top cap) and bored to 6mm.



For the shaft I centre drilled first as this is going to be quite long/thin so needs support at the far end from the live centre.




Turned down to 6mm





Flipped, re-centred and then did the work on the other end. It's critical that this is a really precise fit on the motor shaft and that it's concentric to the outside as any error will either cause the motor to bind or damage the bearings. To that end I used a 7.8mm drill followed by 8mm h7 reamer and then turned down the external diameter.






I did all this work and then ended up turning down the external dimension a hair too far, so now it's a loose fit in the bearing. Frustrating doesn't quite cover it! Will have to put this on the re-do list once I get back from holiday.

While all this was going on, the 3d printer was at work on the seals.



Who says 3d printers can't be accurate - this was spot on! (I did adjust by 0.8% for thermal expansion before printing)




The big bottom seal next (6hr print!)






Very nice fit - smooth and doesn't stick at all along the rails, but close enough that it should keep the nasty stuff out.

That's all for now. Hope to re-do the shaft extension and get the idler done when I'm back next week.

[mactec54]

Who says 3d printers can't be accurate - this was spot on! (I did adjust by 0.8% for thermal expansion before printing)

The big bottom seal next (6hr print!)






Very nice fit - smooth and doesn't stick at all along the rails, but close enough that it should keep the nasty stuff out.

That's all for now. Hope to re-do the shaft extension and get the idler done when I'm back next week.

The 3D printing looks very good, I may have to get one or build one

Your Timing Pulley mounts look good to, something a little different, I also almost never use the Bearing Preload nut either, I do it completely different and have no external thread at all, I thread the end of the Ballscrew with an internal thread

[zeeflyboy]

3D printers can certainly be useful! The internal thread sounds like an interesting way of doing it - will bear that in mind for future.

So I re-made the shaft extension (it worked this time, I won't bore you with pictures as the process was much the same) and also made the knurled knob that allows me to manually move the Z-axis up/down. My thoughts are this is also an easy place to install a brake if the Z-axis proves heavy enough to slide down on it's own.

So started off by turning the alu stock down to size



Knurled and parting






Meanwhile, 3D printed a drill jig to make drilling the retaining grub screw hole easier.






Pressed into place




To save damaging the collar (plus it's a pretty small thing to clamp) I then mounted a 6mm rod in the lathe and used that to mount the knob to do the top side operations:




Final part:






This is the assembly: