New Machine Build- First CNC, modded Solsylva plans, finally!

[louieatienza]

It's been almost a year in the making! I started gathering the parts for a CNC around this time last year without a clue as to what I was going to do. Honestly I still don't!

Anyways, after sitting on the stuff for about a month I foregone the "make-as-you-go" method and bought plans from David Steele. He was very helpful and I was off to a good start, when my boss started screwing me out of money. Around the same time I got engaged. Eventually I had to shelf this project because I had to leave my job.

Anyways, fast forward a few months, and I'm starting to save a little again (have a wedding to pay for) and had some free time to finally finish this beast! I ended up wandering a bit from the book, due to some material choices that were forced by what was "in-hand" at the time...

[louieatienza]

Here is the pic...

[louieatienza]

The main frame and gantry are made out of ipe, a South American hardwood (there are actually a few species marketed as ipe) mainly used as decking. It's extemely hard and stable, and heavy. It also chews up carbide saw blades. But it has a nice look, and is used on a lot of boardwalks.

Here is the X-axis/idler assembly. I actually had an idler bearing on hand, but the belt I had was too long. To take up the slack and not have to redesign the stepper plate, I added a shaft collar that just happened to fit over the idler. I made my X and Y stepper plates out of 3/16" aluminum.

[louieatienza]

The plans originally call for skate bearings for leadscrew supports. I had some 1/2" bearings on hand at the time so I thought it would be a good didea to upgrade the leadscrews from 5/16"-18. I ended up using 1/2"-8, 8 start precision ACME threaded rod, along with anti-backlash nuts from DumpsterCNC.

[louieatienza]

BTW, by the time I got to the bearing block I was broke, so scrounging for wht I had left in the basement I found a piece of 5/4 AZEK board, which is an expanded PVC foam board used for exterior trim. Drills well, and the bearing press-fit in necely.

OK here's some more work-arounds. Since my bearing block were really thick, and I didn't have bolts long enough for the stepper plates, I made a riser out of some scrap 1" phenolic laying around. I also used it for the leadnut support on the X-axis as well. To maintain alignment of the stepper plate I just cut up aluminum tubing and slipped them over the bolts.

[louieatienza]

Here's the Z-carriage. I pretty much stuck to the plans. But because I didn't realize at the time there were two pipe sizes, and the smaller went to the Z-axis, I reworked it with the larger pipe. This ended up biting me in the arse, as the stepper didn't fit between the pipes as per the original plan. My solution was to makw a new stepper plate and mount it on a 45 degree angle.

The toughest part was cutting the sides of the carriage out of aluminum. My only tools (aside from hand tools) were a table saw, router, drill press, cordless drill, chopsaw, belt sander, orbital sander, and angle grinder. I carefully cut the aluminum on the tablesaw and made the cutaway with the drill press and angle grinder, finishing it off with a file.

[louieatienza]

The back of the gantry, showing the leadscrew/nut assembly. Again, opting for the easy way out...

[louieatienza]

My computer setup... which is really my old desktop, a 1.6GHzP4, with 2GB of RAMBUS memory and an old GeForce card. I think a 250GB HDD. Runs Mach3. The Xylotex controller is on top, and it's pushing the 425 oz-in steppers.

[louieatienza]

A screenshot as I'm jogging one of the axes. Here I'm getting about 230ipm rapids. I have gotten it over 400 but it stalls at a couple spots. Maybe because one of the leadscrews are bent? Oh well, she's pretty stable at 230ipm. I wrote my first G-code commands ever, to draw a box. Pretty fun! Now if I can only figure out the cam software....

[louieatienza]

Some pics I found during assembly...

I'm really happy so far just jogging all the axes back and forth. It's a pretty cool feeling to know that I built myself a CNC. And the fact that I just used basic home-improvement tools made it even more fun! Now I have to learn how to use it.

If anyone has some sample G-code for me to try please let me know...

Also, are there any good open-source CAM programs available?

[louieatienza]

I have some cap nuts to replace the wing nuts on the Z carriage. Just have to get my angle grinder back!

Also was thinking of trying EMC... better than Mach3?

[CarveOne]

I have one of these that I made from red oak, and like you there are a lot of other modifications from the original plans. I too started with 1/2-10 ACME screws, but the 1 start variety. I used the Xylotex and 425 oz-in motor kit.

Recently I changed the screws to 5 start and redesigned the bearing mounts to a simpler scheme that is working very well. I'm getting consistent 260 ipm rapids now. See CarveOne's Solsylva 25x37 over in the build log forum.

Yours is the first of these that I've seen in a while. Mine took a little over a year also, due to a few breaks during the build.

I use Mach3 and EMC2, with the CamBam free beta for gcode generation.

CarveOne