next router

[dertsap]

ive hacked the keyboard , still need to connect the switches and create the panel , once ive got the machine finihed i'll be getting back to it , i've been collecting the switches that i will be using ,everything has been at a halt up till the last few days ,up till now i've been quite busy and struggling with the design , i only want to do this right the first time , though i was off to a rocky start

[dertsap]

time for an update ,ive been moving along slowly , far too many other things to do
ive welded some square tubing to angle and am using v groove wheels , this sucker slides really well , i was concerned about warpage but ive accomplished a flatness of about .003" so a lil shimming will fix that
i should have called this thread the evolution of a cnc table because i'm going to end up quite far off from where i started
chain is now out as i have scored some leadscrews that are 2"/revolution

if your wondering why bolts a sticking out from the slides ,its because i ran out of short bolts , they will be replaced

the company was throwing out a wack of 3/8 X 4ft square sheet of ally that i was all over upon seeing that , so i suppose that will be the bed

and ya my garage is a disater area

[paulC]

Looking real good. 2 inch pitch. Are you going to gear it down? What diameter would those be?
Paul

[dertsap]

they are 3/4" ten start teflon coated screws ,
i won t be gearing it down at this point of time ,not untill i determine the performance i'm going to have , the motors i ve got are high torque so that won t be an issue , i would like to have a good high rapid on this unit , i hate air cutting , so a fast rapid will save some time
i am aiming for a .001 resolution at this point of time ,which is the resolution i will have with my geckos and these screws

[tobyaxis]

Dertsap,

What size range cutters do you plan on using for this monster?? Sounds like she will take 1/2 end mills easily.

[dertsap]

ive been eyeballing a router that will accept a 1/2 shank
the one i currently have to put on it will accept up to 5/16"

[svenakela]

Lets get back to the hold-the-gantry-down issue. I suggest that you put an extra plate from the gantry down to the under side of the rail. Then you can add a ballbearing that keeps it down.

|# <-- ball bearing on top
|[] <-- your home made rail
|# <-- Another bearing


Regards,
Sven

[dertsap]

there are two v groove bearings on the top and two on the bottom , it s dead solid thats why i designed the rail with the square tubing tilted ,
seemed like a bit of a long shot but i am pretty happy with the way it turned out

[tobyaxis]

Originally Posted by dertsap ive been eyeballing a router that will accept a 1/2 shank the one i currently have to put on it will accept up to 5/16"

Hey that is good enough to do some 3 Axis Surfaces. Before you say anything, I know I'm Worped, LOL.

[paulC]

Really like the look of this. May steal (oops, I mean learn from) your design for a later machine.
Could you provide a picture of how the angle and square tube meet. It looks like you only tacked it every foot or so to avoid heat buckling. Is that right? How is the angle to be fixed to the bed?
Did you use the same vbearing configuration on the y axis?
Paul

[dertsap]

it is tacked roughly every foot , ,it was to avoid any warpage ,plus my buzz box doesn t get too far before it blows the breaker , the rail is bolted down to the frame
on the y axis the bearings ride directly on the angle iron , it feels pretty solid but i may bring the angle iron into work to cut proper 45 deg on it

the x slide are a fairly simple but effective assembly
i currently have it apart in order to cut the height of the gantry a few inches

[dertsap]

well finally back at er ,
it s finally starting to look like something ,got the motors connected today , running low voltage (24v) on all axis i have the x and y doing a solid 450ipm ,anything after this point is where the torque level starts to drop , i have had it at some pretty high motion before the motors failed but 450 is stable , i could bump the voltage for quicker rapids ,at 24v the motors and drivers stay relatively cool ,so i'll play it safe for a short while , the slides are very tight with lots of drag in order to seat everything ,so this is a major factor on the performance at this point soon enough i will back off the slides so they can move more freely,
i need to keep the z axis back at 200 ipm due to the short travel and i keep bottoming out at the higher rapids if i m not paying attention ,my next mod will be added z travel ,right now it roughly 5"
ive got lots of cleaning up to do and a few more add-ons but i thinks she's gonna be a pretty slick lil setup , i'll post some final pics soon ,
so far i'm quite pleased with the overall performance ,the x and y motors are the 770 oz and the z is 400 oz , i've held back on using the nema 42 1125 oz uni (1400 oz bipolar) motor for now though it will probably go into action on the x ,who knows plans change ,well , at least mine do