Mike's Pipe CNC

[Mountainbiker54]

After visiting Buildyourcnc.com, and going through his tutorial, and seeing his sneek peek I was hooked. I had to make my own! However buildyourcnc was taking to long to post more details on his new pipe design so I went ahead and started thinking up how it might work (going off his picture). I came up with this (click on pictures to see a bigger view):

I sent the plans over to buildyourcnc for thier oppion and he noticed a couple flaws he witnessed in his tinkering. For one the weight of the gantry would bend the pipe when it was in the middle. Also he observed that there is some racking on the x-axis with using one lead screw. I thought about the problems and altered my designes to this:

This addes in 2 lead screws for the x axis right above the slide mechanisim and rollers under the gantry to support it while in the middle. Patrick suggested I just use larger pipe on the x-axis rails, but I opted against doing that because I didn't the whole unit to get any bigger/heavyer then it needed to be.

Since my design was starting to shape up I decided to begin assebaling parts. I made my first slider today here are some pictures from it.





More pictures can be found here

After I was done with my slider I decided to test out my idea of tapping the pipe and using that as my leadscrew insted of using a counter sunk nut, I was quite pleased with the results. I think since it with though both sides of the pipe it helped reduce backlash I switched from forward to reverse on my drill as fast as posible to see if I could notice anything, but I couldn't. Below you can see a picture of me testing it with some OJ (I have a movie but I don't know how to show it here). I used a 5/16" - 18 threaded rod for this, mostly because I wouldn't have to buy another tap (its the same size as the screws holding on my bearings)


Let me know what you think, I'm open to any suggestions/questions. I hope to have more tomorrow, I'm going to hit up homedepot since I don't have any classes... Oh yeah I'm a 20 year old seinor in college majoring in Network Administration... And no I have no idea why thats my major if I enjoy DYI projects like this 8-)

Similar Threads:

• New Product- Mission of TubeTailor Cutting Machine – Cut Pipe Better with Pipe Cutting Machines
• gas pipe or hot/cold water pipe?
• ? for Mike
• emt conduit, galvanized pipe or black pipe?
• What about Mike?

[Regnar]

Its kinda hard to judge by the design on how large the machine is going to be but the only thing I might do is double up the x axis. You might see some twisting when you have a load on it. It might also help out with the sagging issue. And like patrick suggested I would use larger size pipe for atleast the x axis seeing it is supporting the whole gantry. You can pick up galvanized wire fence post for pretty cheap and the internet is full of accessories for them. Here is a great example. Take a look at #70 and #72 for possible motor mounts. Four #20 would eliminate 8 t sections from your design. http://www.simplifiedbuilding.com/index.php?cPath=1

One other thing to consider is maybe adding some 45 degree braces to the legs to help with the shaking.

I will say I like the concept and look foward to the rest of the build.

[joecnc2006]

Your going to find that with a larger machine like this you are going to end up with the Z-Axis flexing way to much, I bet you will be able to grab the cutting tool and move it by have from 1/4" to 1/2" play. Not to mention the side lateral flexing on the sides from the gantry. This design will work maybe up to a 24"x24". I just hate to see you be disappointed at the end just in case it does not work out for you.

[Degrom]

Its all about trying out new ideas and not giving up till you find the right way to do a thing... Good luck with your build. Keep us up to date please...

[joecnc2006]

Its all about trying out new ideas and not giving up till you find the right way to do a thing... Good luck with your build. Keep us up to date please...

yup, keep us informed.

[Mountainbiker54]

I have done a lot work on my CNC and it is almost done! So far I have the X-axis, and Y-axis almost completed. With the Z-axis almost done! I just ordered my motors from hobbycnc.com I got the 305oz-in and board combo kit, and hopefully they will be here by the end of the week. Unfortuanly I ran into a bit of a snag, I was planning on using 5/16" threaded rod to move the axies along however I found out that I would have to spend nearly $100 on couplers, so i had to change my design to go with 1/4" threader rod, oh well not much extra work there.

First pictures of it being assembled: (dont forget more can be viewed here, And click for larger pictures)



This is a quick jig I made to hold the pipes as I was drilling holes in them since holding them by hand gave me numerous cuts



These as some pictures of the X and Y axis compleated, I realize I skipped a few steps, I got so carried away working on it I forgot to take pictures.




Here is a close-up of the slide assembly, as you can see some of the bearings are not touching the pipe, this will lead to racking/sag, I need to adjust it some more to get it to line up right.



You can see here I added spacers above the bearings, as it truend out the pipe I have connecting the two sliders is a bit to short.



This is the bring of the Z-Axis I did a bit better of a job taking pictures of this but I still forgot a few steps.




More pictures to come, hopefully this will be up and running by the end of the week. So far I have seen no sag in the rails, I even balanced on the y-axis and slid across with not problems so it looks like there may not me much of and issue. Hopefully when the Z-axis and router goes on there still wont be any sag, we shall see.

[francismolloy]

Hi,
This looks like a great design, has it progressed any since then?
I would have a suggestion:
To prevent the sagging, the x-axis pipe rails need to be supported, however the fact that your gantry carrier completely encircles the pipe prevents you from being connect anything to the pipe for support. Why not take out the two rods from the outside of your carrier assembly to allow supports to be added to the rail, this shouldn't compromise the load carrying ability of the assembly, and the bottom two bearings don't have to be pulled tightly from both sides given the load they will experience.
I'm new at all this, so I may have confused some terminology, sorry.
Great work, please post updates.

[FandZ]

I think he had too many leaks and moved on. haha

But looking at his picture albums, it looks liek he moved on to an 80/20 build.

http://pictures.deadlycomputer.com/v...ects/cnc/cnc2/