First design - some advice?

[orion63]

Hello:

After studying lost of designs and based on the generous contributions in this and other websites, I decided to try one of my own, mainly because of availability and prices of parts here in Perú. I was not able to find threaded rods larger than 100 cms, so this was my main constrain. Also, I wasn't able to find a fixed base router, so I'll have to use a plunge router.

I started to draw the design by hand, but it was too complex, so I decided to try Alibre. Never used CAD software before but online tutorials were very instructive and I was able to start designing very fast.

So this is what I ended up with:

- X and Y rails are stainless steel 20mm x 40mm x 1/16"
- Z rails are solid aluminum 3/4" x 3/4"
- Body of MDF or plywood
- Router base (in light blue) is acrylic 1/4"
- Angles are aluminum 1" x 1" x 1/8"
- Z range is 15 cms
- Y and X range close to 80 cms
- My 3 axis electronics kit from cncrouterparts is on the way!!

Still have to complete some minor details in the design, mainly screws and bolts.

I want to cut wood for furniture and boxes, but my main goal is cutting aluminum sheets in the 0.60 to 1.0 mm thick range. I believe 0.1 mm precision will be ok for my purposes, but I don't know what will come in the future; so I tried to make it very stiff, but I am not sure if I missed something. I will be very grateful if somebody can give me some advice on my design.

Also, my budget for software is limited and Alibre seems to be a good and inexpensive alternative. Does anybody have some experience with Alibre and CNC? I don’t think I will need to design very complex 3D parts. How well does Alibre work with Mach3? Any advice into inexpensive software for CNC will be appreciated.

Thanks

[ger21]

- Router base (in light blue) is acrylic 1/4"

way too flexible.

- Angles are aluminum 1" x 1" x 1/8"

A lot of people use it, but I pefer 1/4". you can twist the 1/8" angle in your hands pretty easily. With 1/4", you can't at all.



Dust on the rails may be an issue.

[orion63]

Hi, Gerry, thanks for your comments.

Ok, acrylic is out. I think I can find 4 or 5 mm aluminum.

I fear I will have to stay with 1/8" angle, is the thicker available.

As seen in the attachment, the rails are covered by the bed (not sure if it is the right word). I suppose that will help, but the horizontal surface will trap floating dust. I will have to watch it carefully and consider adding dust control.

Do you think the torsion boxes are ok, or maybe I am overengineering?

Thanks, again

[ger21]

You can never over-engineer.