finaly started

[corrie]

Well this is what i started last night then worked for a few hours tonight.The machine is mdf total length is 46" and total width is 24" I think the total working footprint comes out to be 18"x30" ,not too big and not too small I guese. the bearings were purchased at princess auto they had a sale 99 cents each.I will change the aluminum angle to a 1/8th thickness ,remembering that this is only a test and all seems fine so far.Please look and give any opinions thanks.Candc.1@rogers.comnot sure if pics came through kinda new at sending them.

[trubleshtr]

Corrie, Welcome aboard....
The pics did not come through, can you try to re-post them again? make sure you are not using a image bigger than 700x700.

[corrie]

Thanks brother , but how do i do that exactly.lets say I reply to you where or what do i do to send a few pics

[trubleshtr]

bottom right, click on "post reply" in that area you will be able to attach a picture from your computer, i think it has to be jpeg or btmp or other common image types.

[corrie]

still cant figure out what im doing wrong .at the script prompt what do i put in there,it says http but i dont have web page.

[corrie]

lets see if this one comes out ok

[corrie]

ok one more

[trubleshtr]

Hey there you go, Nice work your machine is looking good. any thoughts on the controls end of things yet?

[yukonho]

Hey corrie. Your machine looks remarkably similar to my first machine.
A couple things I notice that could use some attention. The angles you have your bearings mounted on are very thin, and the bearings are very far from the support of the wood gantry sides. You will likely experience a great deal of flex here.
Also, your table looks like it is unsupported. Mine was too, and flexed like crazy. Consider at least running angle along the edges to give some support.
Looks good other than that. What are you going to use as a spindle?
co

[corrie]

Hey yukonho thanks for the input.yes the aluminum is thin and i will change that for sure ,its not even screwed to the gantry yet .i was doing a test to see how well it would glide,just a little tap with my finger and away it went.I think i,ll do what you said and put some kind of chanel around the table and also some square tubing under to strengthen it up.I still have to install the block for the threaded rod and drill the ends to accept the motor and the free bearing which I,ll test with a cordless drill.I,ll be using 1/4 or 3/8 ths rod ,but is there a tipical size hole you would need to bore out.

[broncosis]

Looks good Corrie I'm just starting
my first machine too

I have been thinking of a way to add a 3rd bearing to that
setup from the bottom of the gantry on a pivot with a
bolt to pull it up to the pipe to provide som sort of adjustment or even a spring
have you thought about this at all

[yukonho]

Depends on the motors you are going to use. Mine have a shoulder on the mounting surface which should be countersunk (doesn't really have to be). 1.5" diameter. It only needs to be countersunk 1/8th at the most. The other factor is what you are going to use to connect the motor to the leadscrew. I bought cool connectors from stepperworld (I think) that work great and were cheap. They are designed for 1/4" shaft, which the stepper is, and I ground my leadscrew down to 1/4" at the end so it would fit.
With my xylotex controller, (which I highly recommend) and Mach2 software, on 24V, I got 44"/min rapids using 1/4-20 threaded rod. I found that agonisingly slow, and I recommend going with something with a higher pitch. I chose the 3/8-12 Acme leadscrew which was only 15 bucks for 3 feet, and I now get 77" min rapids which is much easier to tolerate, especially on a bigger machine like yours.
I promise you that you will want it to be faster. Something to think about when getting your leadscrews.
co