Build Thread- Little Brute

[FandZ]

Originally Posted by Xnaron YEs...but I decided to build a bigger table. I am building Joe's Hybrid 4x4. I built the stand on the weekend and I have everything else ordered and on the way.

Looks great man. Joe's hybrid is a tried true machine. As soon as I get into a house with a garage I'm going for a larger machine. If you have a build thread please link me. I'd love to follow your progress.

[Xnaron]

Originally Posted by FandZ Looks great man. Joe's hybrid is a tried true machine. As soon as I get into a house with a garage I'm going for a larger machine. If you have a build thread please link me. I'd love to follow your progress.

Thanks...I will be starting a mini build thread here soon. I'll send you the link when I do. I am dying to see more pictures of your machine!

[Xnaron]

Build thread is up http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showth...373#post572373

not too much detail but have some pics posted...

[Jack000]

hey Fandz, looking nice!

what's your budget, if you don't mind? I might be looking at a metal one for my #2

[slisgrinder]

How many threads per inch is this acme rod? Also is it a 2 start thread, because I ordered the 1/2"-10 2 start (5 threads per inch) anti-backslash nuts...

[FandZ]

Woa.. I just looked up the prices for the 2 starts on mcmaster carr. $51.00 per 36 inches. You may want to check with Joe and see if he can change your order to a 1/2"-10 ACME Single Start. That's a heck of a difference on the acme prices.

Thats a single start I believe that you are linking to. It's also the same part number as the single start on dumpster cnc's website.

Originally Posted by slisgrinder How many threads per inch is this acme rod? Also is it a 2 start thread, because I ordered the 1/2"-10 2 start (5 threads per inch) anti-backslash nuts...

[FandZ]

Whatever my budget was I'm over it lol... I haven't been keeping track but I'd say I have about $900 US in. Last weekend once I had my gantry up, I realized how little Y travel I was actually going to end up with due to the z axis and made some major changes. Still the same principles just moved around some things to give me a larger cutting area. Also there was some alignment issues on the rails due to the way I was extending it from the rails.



Electronics and odds and ends about 600
metal and bolts about 300

I'm on the BBq Now, I'll tray and post up the new sketchup file when I get back.

Originally Posted by Jack000 hey Fandz, looking nice! what's your budget, if you don't mind? I might be looking at a metal one for my #2

[FandZ]

Well as you can see in the pictures below It's pretty much a different beast all together. Right now I'm useing Aluminum rails for Y axis but that'll change once I'm done to steel. Travel is now 2 feet by 16 inches.

The best thing about this one is the rails square up nicely. On the last one I had a little bit of a vertical and horizontal difference that literally would lock my gantry up. With the aluminum angle I was useing, I just couldn't find an easy fix. So I used what I've learned and designed a new one, literally, on a Saturday morning. What you see on the table was done the Sunday before last. But now that my house guests are gone, I'm looking forward to pushing forward

My gantry is cut but I haven't gotten to drill the holes yet.

Only other update I have is I scored a pc for free to devote to running my cnc. It's a p4 2.8ghz. It'll work out perfectly for this application.

[slisgrinder]

looking good Fandz...About the Z axis, I had an idea about the method of travel. I stead of using the normal rail with leadscrew design, I was thinking about a scissor lift and how it lifts up that heavy load. Aswell as the hydraulics is mounted like this picture here... just an idea, would involve a lot of work, but maybe if that idea could be applied to the work surface itself meaning that the object being machined rises...

[FandZ]

Originally Posted by slisgrinder looking good Fandz...About the Z axis, I had an idea about the method of travel. I stead of using the normal rail with leadscrew design, I was thinking about a scissor lift and how it lifts up that heavy load. Aswell as the hydraulics is mounted like this picture here... just an idea, would involve a lot of work, but maybe if that idea could be applied to the work surface itself meaning that the object being machined rises...

The stock rising sounds interesting but useing any sort of scissor lift mechanism would be hard. They are great for handling vertical forces but bend and twist easily under horizontal loads.

Case in point, I was late a few years back to class while I was in college because of a flat tire. I had the car jacked up on scissor type jack. I literally pushed the car off of the jack instead of lowering with its screw to save time. Stupid I know. But that jack twisted and bent like you wouldn't believe.

Another Idea I had was having the entire X axis rail lower with the Z axis stationary. I don't remember why but when I sketched it up it proved to be unsuitable. But like anything, with enough money and motivation, solutions can be had.

[FandZ]

...

[FandZ]

Hello all, I thought I post up my latest sketchup files. This one includes what I hope to be my final Z axis design. Hopefully it'll be sturdy enough to CNC a better, more compact, Z axis once the machine is done. It's still a bit of a rough draft so don't expect perfection.

The steel tube will only be unsupported at a max of 6 inches. I don't know what kind of forces you would need to distort it at that length, but there is nothing that I could do that would. But I didn't try getting my car involved. :P So I'm pretty confident it'll do fine.

As you can tell it's tall, but in reality, all the support and alignment is happening at about half that distance. I was too lazy to put the bearings in the sketch and holes. Hopefully I'll have it together soon enough. I'm not happy about the height but it was either go up higher or go out further. The closer the Z is to the X the better so I went higher.

I'm debating to build the Z axis this weekend or test all my electronics. ANy suggestions here?

As far as build update goes, I got my gantry up and mounted on my Y axis. I did a few tests and could not detect any racking. I hung weight on one side and pushed on the opposite side rapidly to try and see if I would get any racking and there was none that I could detect. I also did a lot of quick jerks and stop and goes. Everything seemed perfect. Once I find my camera, I'll try and take some pictures.

Anyways, that's where I'm at. This has really been one hell of an experience so far. I know I'm closer to the end than the start but it does feel far off.