Solsylva Rack and Leadscrew Router build.

[revwarguy]

I saw the galvanized pipe, but figured the zinc would be harder to get rid of than the black paint.

I am nearly at the same point as you, Ed, but I am doing an aluminum gantry which takes me a bit more time to work than doing it in oak. Not that I don't appreciate the looks of oak - you're going to have a beautiful build. I am simply painting my table blue.

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Mach 3, Solsylva 2x4ft. Gecko 540, Xylotex 524's, 1/2 inch 5 start ACME's.

[Rees Guitars]

Thanks guys. I'm hoping to run it for the first time around the middle for next week. The long axis was a killer, but I don't think the other two will take very long at all.

Got those three bearings for the pinion axle yesterday. Neither Lowe's nor Home Depot carried them, so I had to go to a specialty bearing store. The rolled steel axle wasn't very smooth and was a little oversized, so I had to mount it in my drill press and sand along it's length a little.

I need a good non-sticky way to keep all this bare metal from rusting, any suggestions?

[CarveOne]

Originally Posted by Rees Guitars Thanks guys. I'm hoping to run it for the first time around the middle for next week. The long axis was a killer, but I don't think the other two will take very long at all. Got those three bearings for the pinion axle yesterday. Neither Lowe's nor Home Depot carried them, so I had to go to a specialty bearing store. The rolled steel axle wasn't very smooth and was a little oversized, so I had to mount it in my drill press and sand along it's length a little. I need a good non-sticky way to keep all this bare metal from rusting, any suggestions?

At woodworking stores you can find Boeshield http://www.boeshield.com/ and other products for coating metals. I just use carnuba wax paste from the auto parts stores on my cast iron and bare steel equipment that can't be painted.

CarveOne

[revwarguy]

For rust prevention on exposed metal, I love the Topcote product:

Amazon.com: Bostik 10220 Aerosol Top-Cote 5.5 oz: Home Improvement

Amazon.com: Bostik 10220 Aerosol Top-Cote 5.5 oz: Home Improvement

It is also carried at woodworking stores. It think it is some kind of liquid spray on wax, but I applied a single application to the top of my table saw 10 years ago, and still no rust. One can lasts a long time. Don't know if its better or worse for the wear than Carveone's carnuba, but it would be a few dollars more.

For surfaces that rub together, which would remove the wax, I've used an LPS product, LPS3:

http://www.lpslabs.com/product_pg/co...Corrosion.html

which is also used on aircraft.

[Rees Guitars]

Oooook, been busy since my last post. Fired up the machine for the first time last night, just jogging it. Today I taped on a sharpie and drew some roadrunners. The repeatability was excellent, even with the 1/8" of wobble the sharpie had. Soon maybe tomorrow, I'll mount a dremel on it, and when I'm comfortable with that, its router time.

The max speeds of the 3 axes are approximately:
X-700ipm
y-300ipm
z-300ipm

Any more and the steppers started resonating. Any idea why the X went so high and the y wont? I'll get some dampers on them

Here's a short vid of it drawing. More pics soon.

YouTube - Solsylva Rack and Pinion DIY CNC router

YouTube - Solsylva Rack and Pinion DIY CNC router

-Ed

[Rees Guitars]

Noticing how rough it sounds in the video, didn't sound quite that bad in real life. Still probably need to bring down the speed and dampen the steppers before I run it anymore. Is there anything else that could be causing the roughness?

Everything was real smooth rolling and solid before I put the motors on, so I don't think anything is binding up.

[Rees Guitars]

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[Rees Guitars]

Putting the machine through it's trials with some 1.5" blue foam. Almost ready to try some pine.

A Les Paul guitar top rough carve came out nice and took 8 minutes in the foam, could have ran it much much faster though.

[CarveOne]

Originally Posted by Rees Guitars Noticing how rough it sounds in the video, didn't sound quite that bad in real life. Still probably need to bring down the speed and dampen the steppers before I run it anymore. Is there anything else that could be causing the roughness? Everything was real smooth rolling and solid before I put the motors on, so I don't think anything is binding up.

It could be that your camera's audio amplifier is clipping (saturating) due to the high sound level of the router. If the camera is placed farther from the router and a little zoom is used to get the image you want the sound level may be lower by enough to prevent the clipping.

CarveOne